Swim with whales

I recently spent an entire season photographing humpback whales in French Polynesia. While I left with some of the most incredible underwater moments of my life, my time there was filled with highs and lows. I found that most people joining us for an opportunity to see the whales had completely unrealistic expectations or weren’t prepared for the experience at all. So, let’s talk about exactly what to expect and how to have the best chances for special moments diving with humpback whales.

Swimming with Whales, Tonga. Decided to go for hubby's 70th birthday! It has been a dream of his for a long time to 'eyeball' a whale & you can do this at Tonga.

Jack Morris and Lauren Bullen have been living what most people on Instagram would call "life goals" since they met in Fiji last year. Not only do they spend their days documenting their world travels with flawless photos, they get paid up to $9000 USD for each one they post.

Swimming with Humpback Whales

On our last evening we got to swim for more than an hour with this super calm mom and baby humpback just before sunset. I’ve come every year to swim with the whales and it’s still hard to leave in moments like this :) The whales dictate the interaction - as in never charging in towards them directly. I know it’s sort of hard because in photos it’s so hard to tell just how far away we are. I love adventure travel all over the world. Follow along my journey on Instagram to see where I go next!

Ashlyn ☆ (@byashlynb) • Instagram photos and videos

"The Biggest Fish" - freediver @littleseapanda swims with the biggest species of fish in the sea, the whale shark. I'm in Palawan, a fairly…