For professional photographer Joel Coleman, the sight of a southern right whale frolicking on Freshwater Beach was too much to bear from dry land.

“I live up on the headland and a friend called me and said ‘stick your head out the window, there’s a whale out there’,” Mr Coleman said.

media_camera One of the amazing images of the whale captured by Joel Coleman at Freshwater.

“I grabbed the big lens and we headed to the cliff to take some photos.

“We’d been up there for 10 minutes when we realised it was sticking around for a while. We realised it would probably be gone by the time we arrived but I had to try.”

Mr Coleman said he put his underwater photography kit together “as fast as humanly possible” and they swam out.

media_camera Coleman says the whale ignored him as he swam around its tail. Picture: Joel Coleman

He said approaching the whale in about five metres of water was intimidating.

“I tentatively edged a little closer and I could see the whale was comfortable, so I set to work,” he said.

“The visibility was better than usual for winter in Sydney, there was no wind, no swell, the sun was shining — it was unbelievably perfect conditions.”

media_camera The whale glides through the crystal water off Freshwater. Picture: Joel Coleman

It’s not the first time Mr Coleman has swum with a whale but he said this experience was different.

“Normally it's a very fleeting experience — you get about three hurried shots and then the whale is on its way but we had about an hour with this whale.”

media_camera Clear waters and sunlight made for perfect conditions to capture the images. Picture: Joel Coleman

media_camera Manly photographer Joel Coleman landed the shoot of a lifetime on Sunday.

While Australian guidelines state a person not approach a whale closer than 100m, Mr Coleman said the whale’s playful temperament justified the close contact.

“The whale was so comfortable,” he said.

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“When I swam around the tail and back, it didn’t even pay any attention to me but when I was in front of its face, it would slightly wobble its head, so I’d move back a bit.

“The whale was definitely in control the whole time.”

Surfer Peter Silvia was also watching and said the whale approach just as he was getting out of the water.

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Mr Silvia said the whale was playfully interacting with surfers and he did not feel it was ever cornered or unable to leave.

“In the eyes of maritime services, it’s illegal to approach a whale but you could see from the beach that surfers would paddle away from it and it would follow them,” he said.

“It was clear the whale wanted to interact.”

media_camera Surfers near a Southern Right Whale at Freshwater Beach on the weekend. Picture: Channel 9

Some of the surfers have been criticsedii for being too close to the whale on Sunday, placing themselves at risk of serious injury.

But many of those in the water said they had tried to paddle away, but the whale continued to follow the.

Mr Silvia said he’d not seen anything like it before.

“The whale came about 100m in to shore,” Mr Silvia said.

“I was tempted to put my wetsuit back on and get out there.”

media_camera Surfers paddling away from the whale at Freshwater Beach. Picture: Channel 9

Photos of a whale at the nearby Dee Why Beach have been shared on Instagram, including Darian Woods of Surf 2 Summit Photography who said he followed the helicopters as they tracked the whale.

“I saw the helicopters in Dee Why so I went to the rock pool and you could see it cruising around by the surfers,” Mr Woods said.

“The surfers were paddling around — trying not to disturb it but the whale obviously liked the attention.”

Visit Joel Coleman’s website or visit his blog see more of his work.