My brother and I took out surf skis to visit and hopefully have some encounters with some humpback whales. We were fortunate that a mother and calf were in the area and a big catamaran had stopped for some whale watching. The mother and calf swam by us on a couple occasions. The picture below was taken by my brother and I have my camera held over the side and under water with the intent of catching the mother and calf. You can see the back of the mother beyond me in the picture and the catamaran further away.

I snapped the pictures below just after this shot was taken and the very first image is full frame (no cropping) and illustrates how the very wide angle lens can capture a large field of view while making the subject appear quite distant:

A cropped image:

About a half hour later, the mother and calf surfaced very close to my brother and both swam right underneath him. They left him and swam by me. Had they been as close to me as they had been with my brother, I could have got some very clear shots with little water between us. As it was, I got some decent shots but not close enough for a cigar. The pics below have been cropped and you can see the rudder of my surf ski. The surf ski I was on is not very stable or ideal as a platform for shooting pictures. I had to twist towards the back to get the shots which didn't make it easy either.