After decades as an underwater wildlife cameraman Darren Rice changed his angle of approach to shoot humpback whales from the sky with a remote-controlled drone off the stunning island of Foa in Tonga’s Ha’apai region.
Rice, 47, captured remarkable scenes of the majestic creatures in their natural state from a distance as he controlled the drone, fitted with a GoPro camera, from a boat driven by his wife Nina.
In a remarkable series of footage Rice filmed a mother with newborn calves and a group of males chasing a female in part of a dramatic mating ritual.