Just off the beach at Shellharbour. Pictures: SYLVIA LIBER
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.
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."