“Being seasick, sunburnt, dusty, flooded and sometimes scared are all part of it, but getting the shot means any hardship is quickly forgotten” – wildlife photographer Chris Fallows on his spectacular pictures of whales

I am lucky to photograph iconic species on both land and sea, but I spent over 30 years working with great whites in particular as well as other marine species.

I first got an interest as a young boy watching my dad take photographs, as he was a keen amateur wildlife photographer.

My lucky break came in 1996. I was very fortunate to discover and document the breaching great whites of South Africa and this fortuitous discovery created a niche for me to then pursue photography as a career.

Initially my work was heavily action-oriented but over time I began to see the art in nature and today this is what I have refined my style towards.

My intention is always to create work that evokes a strong sense of artistry. With this in mind every every single trip I go on has a high degree of planning.

I go with an image in mind and first choose a location that may offer a chance to create a certain look and feel to my work.

As such, backgrounds are very important to me and I choose them carefully; when combined with moody elements like clouds, dust, exhaled breath or a ruffled sea state, it takes the image to a different level.

Finally, I need huge amounts of time for my subject to perform in the canvas I have selected and this is always the tricky part as all my subjects are completely wild.

On both land and ocean I like to shoot from very low, creating a sense of engagement that enhances the stature of my subjects.

Added to this I often shoot with a very shallow depth of field to create a soft feel and mood around my subject matter to create a certain mood and sense of being.

While I would consider myself adequately technically proficient, my greatest strength is my knowledge of my subjects which has taken a lifetime to develop.

This knowledge allows me on occasion to get very close to these magnificent creatures I work with having earned their trust.

I am also very lucky to have an incredible partner in my wife Monique, who not only shares my passion but is also an excellent set of eyes watching my back.

When I have a choice I prefer to use shorter and often wide-angle lenses to bring in the greater canvas.

For 90% of my work at sea, I shoot with a Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM lens. It is super-sharp, fast and light enough that I can work with it on seas that are sometimes rough.

I also occasionally shoot with a Canon RF 400mm F2.8L IS USM when conditions allow, to create the lovely soft bokeh in my work which is especially pleasing when one shoots through long swells.

It can be intimidating to be caught in a big, angry sea off the Cape of Storms, and likewise, when we are in the bush, it is more often than not just my wife and I living out of our tent, needing to be completely self-sufficient in remote areas.

Being seasick, sunburnt, dusty, flooded and sometimes scared are all part of it, but on the flip side, these red letter days are so incredible that any hardship is quickly forgotten.

I would also say that, when you look back at many of the most memorable moments or images, it is sometimes the hardship that you reflect on most fondly.

Yes, over my life, I have experienced what very few people have, and this has all been thanks to the incredible animals that I have been so privileged to work with.

It is now my turn to give something back through the sale of my fine-art work. All of the profits that are accrued are used to buy land to create wildlife corridors and protect habitat, with the idea of making these landscapes more climate-change resilient and offering a chance for them to be re-wilded.

In this endeavor, we have just completed the purchase of a 10,700 hectare property in southern Namibia, and we currently have an offer on a second farm that will allow us to connect two significant conservation areas.

We also like to contribute to other meaningful projects, either through our images giving a ‘why’ to other conservation efforts, such as our current exhibition at Dubai International Airport.

This exhibition highlights that this major aviation hub is a signatory to the Buckingham Palace Declaration that has pledged to stop the trafficking of endangered species.

Another way of contributing is by using our images to gain a better understanding of what certain species are doing.

One good example of this is our work with Mdu Seakamela from South Africa’s Forests and Fisheries branch, to whom we donate our images.

They are then uploaded onto HappyWhale, a world whale database, and from the distinctive whale tail patterns, we are able to then see the place these whales are shifting to. 

Incredibly, on 30 December 2025, we photographed 299 completely different humpback whales in a day, which is a world document for the most important quantity precisely recorded.

It’s an incredible instance of how pictures and residents may contribute to furthering our information of a species.

It’s largely excellent news, with some species like humpbacks doing rather well typically, though remoted populations like Arabian Humpback whales, the place lower than 100 stay, are struggling on account of localised threats in that area.

Other iconic species like blue whales and sperm whales are recovering, though not at fairly the identical price as humpbacks.

While only some nations nonetheless sadly see match to kill what we’ve got learnt are clever, social and sentient creatures, new threats have manifested themselves – comparable to entanglement in discarded fishing gear and ship strikes, each of that are rising.