Mercury photographer Sylvia Liber has been chasing whales for 17 years but has never had an experience like she found yesterday at Shellharbour, where she came across a mother and baby whale frolicking close to the shore.
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She spotted them from the Barrack Point headland and watched the whales breaching and playing just off Shellharbour beach.
"I was coming around the headland and I saw a big splash. I walked right down to the rocks and it [the whale] was just putting on a show," Liber said.
"In the last 17 years it's the first time I've actually captured a whale that close.
"I have come up close before but it was too close - the lens was too long to actually capture the whale.
"But this time, I couldn't believe it. They just started playing up. They must have heard the whale call."