{"id":6023,"date":"2008-07-21T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-21T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/the-blue-whales-are-here\/"},"modified":"2008-07-21T05:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-21T05:15:00","slug":"the-blue-whales-are-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/the-blue-whales-are-here","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Whales Are Here!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As you can see in the pictures, I was there too. Along with about 20 other news photographers and media personnel.  We were fortunate enough to have great weather and six whales to watch.<\/p>\n

Blue whales range in size from 80-100 feet long, Although I was only able to see about 30 feet of the whale, I trust that these mammals would blow my mind if I saw the full length in or out of the water. I could just imagine running into one while swimming or kayaking. Right after losing all oxygen from gasping, I would probably realize just how miniature I was in comparison to this beast. With that said, I was happy to be on the boat and not swimming around just waiting to be taken for a miniature shrimp,devoured and then blown out of the whale’s blowhole. I was on a comfortable whale watching boat, eating muffins and drinking some freshly squeezed orange juice while waiting for someone to yell, “There she blows!” At which time, I would toss the muffin and reach for my Canon camera for some excellent images.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


The Queen Mary in all its elegance.<\/p>\n


Aboard the Christopher R, heading to the deep sea.<\/p>\n


Diana Lejins searching for a good shot.<\/p>\n


This bird was just really sleek, so I wanted to show all of you. You agree, right?<\/p>\n


Like I said, the media’s best were there. Cameras for days!<\/p>\n


The lbpost.com’s Managing Editor and writer Ryan ZumMallen searches for words to describe the blue whales, or maybe just questions to stump the skipper with.<\/p>\n


A blue whale in the waters of Long Beach. This is the money shot!<\/p>\n


I really wanted to see its tail. That was my trip’s goal. “I really want to get some tail on this trip,” was my over-used quote.<\/p>\n


It’s like a geyser, but it’s a whale… and it’s in the ocean… so I guess it’s not really like a geyser… but still good though, right?<\/p>\n


Our water vessel was really quick.<\/p>\n


Oh the dolphins, they made my afternoon joyous.<\/p>\n


I honestly think they wanted me to swim with them. I wouldn’t do it, for fear of the whale.<\/p>\n


Here I am contemplating my next whale shot and resting me sea legs.
Photo: Jon Phelps<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


This shot is my favorite. These common dolphins were racing our boat.<\/p>\n

Go on a whale watching tour and you too can take some pictures like this…  write me and let me know how it went.<\/p>\n

Just take my advice: don’t eat too many muffins and don’t jump in with the whales.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}