Ed's "Photos of Note" (my favorites)

Since the June 4, 2008 selection of Sea Worthy by Google's Blogger as a "Blog of Note", more than 15,000 people from 137 countries have stopped by to take a look. Many people have sent messages of praise and encouragement. It's been amazing.

To every comment writer, I say thank you again for your kind words. And thanks too for introducing me to your fascinating blogs, I'm having a ball vicariously traipsing around the world.

Most of the comments praise the blog's photos and marvel at the beauty of the wildlife to be seen aboard an SF Bay Whale Watching trip.

The praise must be shared with Ed Estes, the fantastic photographer who took many of the images throughout the blog. Scroll through the blog entries and you'll see lots of Ed's images - look at the credits at each entry's end.

Many times when I've been unable to go out on the boat Ed has been the one to juggle the heavy long lens and balance through the swells to capture the perfect whale flukes, the Farallon Islands, a feeding Great White Shark, bow-riding Pacific White-sided Dolphins, and birds, lots and lots of birds.

Ed's bird images always astonish the rest of us because it's so hard to get his clarity and focus.

We know there is a lot of luck involved in capturing bird images -it's not everyday that an albatross or Brown Boobie comes into view. Sure enough though, Ed will get the shot.

Seeing his beautiful images is the next best thing to having been aboard for me (even takes the sting away from missing the big shot).

Choosing among my favorite of Ed's images was really hard with so many great possibilities - so look at the blog archives for more.

Next time I'll get back to blogging about what is currently going on out at sea on SF Bay Whale Watching trips.




Here's one more sincere "thank you" to all those Blogger viewers who stopped by - maybe through Ed's images you'll see through his eyes and vicariously enjoy the ride. Better yet, come see for yourself. Join us!

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

"Blog of Note" - Thanks Blogger!

This was supposed to be a blog about the fantastic sightings lately of groups of Humpback Whales seen passing through the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary. On the way to that blog something special happened - Google’s Blogger Team selected Sea Worthy as its’ “Blog of Note” for June 4, 2008. By the end of the day 4,529 people from 101 countries had viewed the blog! It was a good day.

I found out because my email was full of messages that comments to the blog were coming in. It was great fun reading kind remarks from people all over the world and then having a look at their blogs too.

To each of you who took the time to comment and congratulate, I sincerely thank you. If you weren’t so scattered all over the map I’d schedule a special SF Bay Whale Watching trip for all of you!

Verne Bryant, owner of SF Bay Whale Watching always says that it is a privilege to see the whales. He also says that the people who come aboard our trips are always interesting, and spending time with them is especially rewarding.

I’ll add that the combination of the whales and birds, etc, the natural beauty of the marine sanctuary, and these interesting people toting cameras makes for blog-heaven.

The photos here are some of my favorites from past trips: Humpback Whales - acrobatic, agile giants; California and Steller Sea Lions - each face so different and expressive.

Brown Pelicans - prehistoric-looking plunge divers, formation fliers with wings 6.5 feet across; Risso's Dolphins - cross-hatched with scars from tussles with squid.

Lucky for you that I didn’t include hundreds of pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge (cables/railings/rivets/south view/north view/from atop a tower/from underneath/with fog/without fog...I've got 'em all!)

Thank you to Blogger for providing this free platform and for the recognition. The power of the internet always intrigues me but never so much as last Wednesday when the world came to look at our whales.



Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.