While guiding an eco-tour off Vancouver Island, Iwan Lewylle snapped an amazing image of an orca spy-hopping with five strangers witnessing the priceless moment on shore in the background.
“This one was pretty good and really unexpected,” Lewylle of Nature Trek eco-tours told Glacier Media. “That was the first time ever I was able to take a shot like that.”
The image was snapped in Oak Bay, Victoria, with a telephoto lens on Sept. 13, and Lewylle shared it on Facebook with a callout in hopes to find the people in his photograph. It didn’t take long.
Joe Nelson reached out to Lewylle right away after recognizing he and his son in the photo.
“It was nice that the photographer got that photo of us because it’s something that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life,” Nelson told Glacier Media.
From Glacier Media:
Lewylle confirmed one of the women in the picture reached out to him after her cousin saw it. The woman contacted him through Facebook and said the other two women standing nearby are her friends.
Lewylle told Glacier Media last week he wanted to print the image and give it to his unintended photo subjects. He even offered to frame it.
“Most people are already happy with receiving the original it seems,” he said on Monday, adding he still plans to print the image for the five strangers.
One commenter on the Glacier Media YouTube post wrote:
“That picture, although totally spontaneous, couldn’t have come out better if it had been planned. Such a lovely memory to have frozen in time, forever. I’d make several copies. I’d Laminate a few, I’d frame a couple, I’d have it painted on a large canvas & hang it in my living room. Such an AWESOME photo!”