Swimming with a Killer Whale

Fancy diving beneath the waves to clean the teeth of a killer whale?

How about riding on his back as it leaps through the water, like a bucking bronc?

Nor me neither!

Although, in the 60s I swam with one whilst taking photographs of its trainer, Doug Cartridge, working with the animal at Windsor Safari Park.

It was a memorable shoot.

Here are some of the pictures I took using a Nikon F with a 135 lens for the surface pictures and a Nikonos fitted with a specially designed 21mm lens housing for the underwater ones. The film was Kodak Tri-X rated at 800ASA for the u/w photographs and 400 for the ones on the surface. It was a fairly overcast day, so the surface images were captured at 1/250th second at f8 and the sub aqua ones at 1/60 and f4.