Macaron's Realm

Staff · Issue 111, Nov/Dec 2019 · pp. 63–66

Products mentioned: Panasonic GF1, INON X-2, Lumix G Vario 7-14mm, Canon EOS550D, Sea&Sea RDX550D, Sigma 15mm fisheye, iPhone 6

A macaron is a small circular meringue biscuit, of French origin. The Bottlenose dolphin we made friends with off the west coast of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean, in all likelihood was known by another name. Seeing as he had a healed wound on his underside, about the same size as a macaron, I’m happy enough to name him that for now. Myself, partner Laura Storm and three other underwater photographers hadn’t made the lengthy journey from the UK to Réunion in search of dolphins. Eighteen months previous, we had started our planning to find and photograph Humpback whales. Réunion had the reputation as an area with an abundance of Humpbacks, in the right season. The downside to long-term plans is that a lot can change in eighteen months. And it had. The first setback happened six months before our trip, when changes to regulations involving cetacean encounters came into force. Essential mea…