Great view, shame about the photo

Gavin Matheson was just too close to the action in his boat to snap the dolphins' display. Photo / Denis O'Callahan

The mystery boatie featured in yesterday's amazing dolphin photo has been found, but says he missed the perfect shot because he was just too close to the action.

Gavin Matheson

Gavin Matheson, a keen photographer from Mathesons Bay, was taking some landscape pictures of the Omaha Spit north of Auckland when he saw dolphins playing in the Whangateau Harbour channel last week.

He said a pod of 10 had come into shore about an hour earlier but had gone back out again. When he saw the dolphins return, he jumped in his dinghy to see if he could get a good shot.

What happened next was "pretty amazing", he said.

"It's nice when you see them so close to the shore like that, nice and close to the rocks.

"There was a mother and a little pup jumping out of the water too, which is quite cool. So she was obviously teaching it to jump."

Mr Matheson was "gutted" he missed the perfect photo, but said the one taken by local man Denis O'Callahan was "a real beaut".

"I saw what was going on so thought I would put the big lens on and get a decent shot, but I just found myself right in amongst them and the lens was way too big."

Laura Boren, from the Department of Conservation, said the bottlenose dolphins seen in the picture are incredibly social animals, and the behaviour they were displaying was quite normal.