Bryant Austin and Sperm Whale Composite One Photographer Bryant Austin stands with a composite of Enigma, on display in Tokyo. The 20-foot long photo is the first life-size image of a sperm whale Austin produced.

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Humpback Mother and Calf, Ha'apai Islands Bryant Austin photographed this pair of whales during an early field season with humpback whales near the Kingdom of Tonga (2005).

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Sperm Whale Composite One Life-size image of Enigma, Scar's cousin. The full-size photo is 5 feet tall, 20 feet long, and is the first full-size portrait composite of a whale. Crafting the composite took more than 300 hours (2009).

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Sperm Whale Portrait A close-up of Enigma's eye, captured in Dominica in 2009. This male sperm whale is Scar's cousin.

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Humpback Mother and Calf II, Ha'apai Islands Photograph taken during an early field season near the Kingdom of Tonga (2005). "My vision was to reproduce this photograph to life-size dimensions. However, it was created at a very early stage in my work and I had much to learn about just what it would take to make such a photograph possible." -- Bryant Austin

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Sperm Whale Composite Two Life-size image of a sperm whale named Scar, measuring 10 feet tall and 36 feet long (2011). The photo is a 60-gigabyte file; to create the composite, Bryant Austin had to build a computer capable of processing it. Even with 240 gigs of RAM and four hard drives, it still took 20 minutes to save the file. Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Mozart and His Mother Mozart and his mother, a five-image composite that could not be brought to life-size dimensions. The first time Bryant Austin saw Mozart, he was hitching a ride by resting on his mom's dorsal fin. (2006)

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Humpback Whale Calf I Mozart, pictured above in the waters near Tonga, is the first whale Bryant Austin shot a life-size portrait of. (2006)

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Sperm whale Composite Portrait One (detail) A close-up look at one of the image files used to create Scar's composite.

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Humpback Whale Mother Resting For 20 minutes, this humpback whale rested in a vertical head-down position, slowly spinning on her vertical axis while her calf swam around her.

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Austin and Ella Bryant Austin in the water with Ella, a minke whale, near the Great Barrier Reef. Of all the whales Austin encountered, Ella was the most inquisitive, spending up to six hours in the water with Austin for several days.

Photograph by John Rumney; Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos

Minke Whale Composite One A composite of Ella. The life-size version is 6 feet tall, 30 feet long, and comprises 15 photos shot over five days. Minkes are the most hunted whales in the world.

Bryant Austin/studio: cosmos