Years ago my friend and fellow-sculptor Onco Tattje inspired me to portraying water. Apparently an idle task unless you include life forms that were shaped by it. Like dolphins and whales.
So I moved into the water suited as close as I could get to their exterior, with monofin, waterwing and dorsal fin. At the same time I tried to mentally move in their fashion and checked out my touch in the water.
I hope the photos below will warm you up to the season to come and help you to move into the spirit of dolphin.
To pass through the water with minimal hindrance a dolphin can shape her body to the water resistance, for instance by making herself longer and thinner at high speeds. On the above photo you can see another adaptation: the skin of the dolphin is exceptionally water-repellent. Therefore the water does not ‘stick’ to her body, slowing her down. Although she just surfaces, only a paper thin layer of water is left on her back. See how the draining water 'heaps' at her side.
Dusty has sustained a slight injury on her dorsal fin. Precisely around that area it is still wet. This is how accurate the water repellence works: at the tiniest deviation it looses its perfection.
Pretty, the way the dorsal is 'set' like a jewel in the sparkle of the water line.
The wake behind her dorsal fin shows a powerful change of direction. Notice how she leans into the bend with her dorsal.
Here she fades under water, like she turns into it, a charming ornament wavelet at the base of her dorsal. The larger wave is caused by the swimmer.
Again a curious image of the various skins of water that slide in when she submerges. When we do something similar, you hear a splash and you see a lot of white water. Nevertheless we are able to imagine how it is to glide through the water like a dolphin. In practice this can be quite a bummer, but of my imagination I'm my own boss.
To me this is beauty. The colours of the water that go from blue to green, the sets of microwaves that articulate their bigger brothers, the sunlight brightening the water and the dorsal monumentally pushing an unbroken layer of water.
Dusty lets herself be cuddled by a friend. You can see from here it's a woman as they, as soon as they surface, put their diving mask on the forehead. Perhaps because they think it makes them look ugly. Not to me.
Dolphins are by no means softies. We are built to carry our own weight. They are in an environment where every litre weighs a kilo. The power is bursting from a picture like this, be it in elegance, though.
Peek-a-boo! Of course Dusty sussed out I was photographing her. She dislikes me doing this in the water as then she does not have my full attention.
During this photo session she blew a big air bubble several times. The opinions on this rather differ. Some swimmers see irritation or frustration in this, others see an expression of joy or concern. My experience tends to the latter. With this she does seem to particularly express emotion.
This is a detail, cropped from a larger photo. It is the side of her belly. The streamline of a dolphin is so absolute that the water flows by uninterrupted. Here it clearly doesn't and this could very well indicate her belly is a bit swollen. And that would support my pregnancy theory.
Above she surfaces with a droplet flag from her dorsal.
The advantage of photographing is that you can freeze a moment to study Dusty's relationship with the water up close. From the behaviour of water you can read that of Dusty and vice versa. This way you come closer to how it feels to be a dolphin yourself.