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This picture was taken near telegraph Cove, a small harbour in the north-east of Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. From middle of June to September hundreds of killer whales congregate in the calm waters of Johnstone Strait in front of this smal village and it is very easy to spot them. Organized tours by boat, about 3 hours long, bring people to watch them. The tours are very well organized and very respectful of the wildlife. Don't think about tens of boats disturbing the animals with their engines on, making noise and pollution. For informations see http://www.stubbs-island.com/
The tour is a must. In addition to killer whales, several other dolphin-like marine mammals can be seen, as well as many bald eagles which nest all around on the trees. It is not rare to spot grizzly bears wandering on the shoreline of the islands, looking for fish. The group which had the tour in the morning, the same day we had our tour, saw two of them.
Killer whales are beautiful. The personnel on the boat is very experienced and explain their habitudes and characteristics. A microphone is also sent into the water to capture the whale's sounds.
The whale in the picture is a male, which has longer dorsal fin. We were there just at the beginning of the season, and killer whale were arriving, and their number increasing day by day.

Let me say that watching wildlife in its habitat is an incredible and beautiful experience. It the zoo it is certainly possible to see animals very close, but they are somehow fake animals. In their natural habitat we might spot them from far away, or just for a few seconds, but they are real animals. We, humans, are the intruders in that case.

The picture was taken with a Nikon F70, and a 70-300 Nikkor Zoom, using an Ektachrome 100 VS color slide film. The file was then scanned from the slide.