Introducing the real life characters of Dolphin Tale 2

The star of the show and the dolphin who stole my heart and many others too. Winter is the inspirational dolphin who against all odds lost her tale and learnt to swim without one. With the help of her prosthetic tale that she used for physiotherapy she is hopefully going to live a long and happy life. Winter has an amazing presence about her and spends a lot of time watching everyone around her. She reacted really well to Alison and whenever Alison waved at her, she moved her flipper in response. This is one of my favourite photos from when she was just watching us.

Hope is a playful energetic dolphin who absolutely loves getting squirted with a water pistol! Hope was rescued as a young calf who was found trying to feed from her dead mother. She was too young to rehabilitate and release and she has become firm friends with Winter. She was a nightmare to photograph as she had so much energy she hardly stayed still!

Nicholas is a male dolphin who was rescued with very bad sunburn. He still has really bad scarring to his back. He absolutely loved jumping out of the water and showing off all of his tricks. Nicholas plays the part of Mandy in the film who was rescued, rehabilitated and released.

Rufus is my favourite character from the Dolphin Tale movies. He adds great comic value to the films and his protection of Mavis in Dolphin Tale 2 is so cute. Rufus is played by two different pelicans.

I have no idea which sea turtle they used to play Mavis so I thought I would share with you a few pictures that I took of the sea turtles at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

All of these photos were taken by me at clearwater marine aquarium in August 2014.