Fabrice Guerin captured this stunning image of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surrounded by herring (Clupeidae sp.) recently near Andenes, Norway. Fabrice and his group were enduring very low water and air temperatures in order to capture images of orcas (Orcinus orca). Fabrice describes how he captued the amazing image:

“The weather was cloudy and it was raining too. Orcas push fish towards the coast as this makes them easier to catch. Our boat captain stopped near a school of herring. When I was in water, I saw that it was not deep, so it presented an opportunity to photograph with the light being reflected off the sand. I waited for 20 minutes in front of shoal of herring hoping to see an orca. Suddenly a humpback whale appeared. I was very surprised!

It was an amazing cold encounter, and the first time I have photographed a whale under the cold freezing water.”

Fabrice was using a Canon 5D Mark III camera with a Canon 16-35mm f4 lens, housed in an Aquatica housing. Settings were focal length: 16mm,1/160@f4, ISO2500