Photographing Whales

I am going for a whale watch on this weekend from Boston. This is my

first experience of whale watch. I have an A2 , 300/f4 lens (recently

acquired), 75-300, 28-80. I use Kodachrome 64 in general.

Any suggestions on film, tips would be very useful to me.

I was thinking of Kodachrome 200 to be safe. Can I push Kodachrome 64

to 125 ?

 

Thanks in advance.

I would. In fact, try Fuji Velvia pushed one stop too (Fuji colors are a little more saturated).

 

You're gonna find out that you'll be shooting contrary to the rule of thumb (shooting at a speed equal to or greater than the focal length of your lens... that is, at 300mm you need to shoot at 1/500th).

 

I photographed humpbacks while at Maui, Hawaii and was always compromising the speed (but shooting wide open), but I think for the most part I pulled it off. I have a few shots on my web site at:

 

http://members.aa.net/~jwn

 

Click on galleries... then the whale icon. Most were taken using Fuji Velvia (50iso) pushed to 100iso. Some were taken using Fuji Provia(?) rated at 100iso, pushed to 200iso.

 

Don't use filters, especially a polarizer... they rob too much light! Take care of salt spray though (wipe off lens often) and clean everything thoroughly when you get back to shore. Be sure to use lens hoods... the sun can be really bright out there.

 

Best of luck... have fun!

Here's my two cents worth. Depending on their activity, you may find the 300 to be too long, and you'll get the most out of the 75-300 zoom. I've gone several times to the Stellwegan Bank which is probably where you're headed. They will sometimes get so close, that you'll wish you had the 28-80 on when one unexpectedly pops up so close you can touch them. Also, try to anticipate the timing of their diving/surfacing pattern and keep an eye in the viewfinder for as long as you can or until you get seasick. Another thing to watch out for is that sneaky tilting horizon that can appear in your shots-it's easy to forget about this on a rocking boat in the heat of the moment. Definitely ditch the polarizer. I've used Provia-normally rated, and Ektachrome 200. Don't give up if you don't see much on the first trip-it can be a frustrating endeavor at times. Try again in the fall when they're pigging out in anticipation of their southward migration. Haved fun!

It has been some time since I was in Boston and went whale watching. The first time I went, we did not see a single whale (given second trip free). The second time, we did see a lot of whales, and my 200 was just too short to do any good. however, my parents went and had whales all aroudn their boat, and even had one come up right under them on the plank sticking out of the bow! The wide angle on their video cam was not enough to capture it all!

 

I would take all 3 lenses. You don't know what the weather will do when you are out there. Most likely you will use the 75-300, but if you don't ahve the others, you can't use them. Don't plan on using autofocus. I did not have my A2 at the time but the guys next to me could not get their autofocus to be accurate enough. Much faster to hand focus.

 

For film, I would take the 200 speed slide with you. You might want to consider kodak's new VS slide film -- I have not tried it yet. My trip I needed 400 speed film. I doubt the 64 will be enough since in addition to the contrast, you have to think about the rocking of the boat. Figure out how much you might shoot, double it, then add another handful to your bag. You will eat film like crazy out there.

 

Last couple of things. First, be prepared to take pictures of the sun setting. I really enjoy looking at the sunset shots I took -- How often does an American see the sun set on the Atlantic? Second, be prepared to put the camera down and simply enjoy these amazing animals. My rule of thumb was if I was not enjoying myself and being able to appreciate them, I would put the camera down.

 

HTH.

Rajesh, I've been out close to a dozen times this spring in search of one of those rare cooperative whales - the ones that do interesting things in front of nice backgrounds in good light. Different places around the Juneau region of southeast Alaska on a variety of watercraft from a zodiac to a 90ft catamaran, in seach of a humpback close enough to shore that the spruce trees aren't thrown competely out of focus at a time when the light is good. Whales are tough subjects; a real f/8 and be there type of thing. Since this is your first trip, you'll learn things useful on future ones - but still, I'll add some tips...Different types and sizes of boats act differently when they're not moving on ocean seas. Whale watch are often catamarans, if yours is one of those, you won't have many of the stability problems as a single V-hull...just, I think, get as low on the vessel as possible - don't work from the upper obervation deck if there's a lower alternative - from high up at mid-distance and closer the background will limited to possibly uninteresting water. If you boat is a single V-hull type, they pitch alot side to side when stopped, and my preference is to stand on the centerline. I think its easier to deal with simple pitching than the constant rising and falling a few inches or a foot that is experianced by shooting from amidships at the rail. I go for the bow or stern, but anywhere along the centerline is fine if the view is clear.Whales are usually at a distance, and distances are hard to see on the water - its much easier to get farther away from a whale than closer to it, since within 300 feet the whalewatch vessel should be close to idle speed. Your new 300/4 should get some use, but perhaps the 75-300 might be a better choice much of the time if whales are being good tourist whales - if they are, you might get some use out of you 28-80 if your a quick lens changer. Whales will sometimes swim right up to boats from an unexpected direction, presumably to take a closer look.I always bring a incident meter to see how far from correct exposure the sea state is throwing off my meter, and usually dial in a -.5 EVGood luck with the weather, and with finding cooperative whales. Hans

I started going out on whale watches 2 weeks ago. I dug out my old Olympus 4T and slapped on a 3rd party 28-80mm zoom with a skylight filter. It's been awhile since I've done any sort of serious photography (for the past few years it's been with disposable cameras) so I needed to reaquaint myself with all of the basic fundamentals (f/stops and shutter speeds). I had some rolls of Kodak 100 color print film and Fuji 800 color print. I found on my 1st trip that the 28-80 zoom just wasn't good enough for getting up close. Last week I went out again on a Saturday afternoon. Of course, whales being the funny mammals that they are, were always popping out on the opposite side of the boat that I was stationed (on the pulpit of the bow). It gets a little "crowded" there with all the disposable camera people. At that time I had a 3rd party 80-250mm zoom. (At this point I was wishing for a straight 250mm tele lens so I wouldn't have to worry about holding the zoom at 250). The naturalist from the Whale Center of New England told me I should come back for the Sunday morning run after I said I would be back on Sunday afternoon. She suggested this because the captain in the morning goes to a different location on Stellwagen Bank. Boy am I glad I took her advice. I got to see 2 full breaches by a female humpback named Owl (by this time I had severals rolls of Fuju 200-24 color print film I bought on the boat because I didn't have enough initially). I missed shooting the 1st breach but I got the 2nd one in a series of 3 shots (using an autowinder). Plus she lingered on the surface for about 5 minutes rolling on her back and "lob tailing" several times as well as flapping her pectoral fins hard on the surface several times. I was shooting like crazy and of course since I only had 24 exposures I had to change film (which is sort of hairy because the boat is rolling with the waves and other people are jostling you trying to get shots) and hoped that I didn't drop the exposed roll in the water. Plus my autowinder seemed to be acting up because I could hear that the film wasn't always being advanced to the next frame so I had to manually forward it just to make sure and I had thought that I might have done several exposures on top of each other. Because of that great morning excursion, I decided to go out again in the afteroon, but since my batterys were low in my camera, I had to get to a Walgreen's type store which was a bit of a walk. I really didn't think I would make it back on time but they waited plus since it was my 3rd time out in 2 days, I got a group discount. The 2nd trip wasn't as eventful (the odds were against me but you never know) but here are the lessons I've learn (or re-learned):

 

ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS have plenty of batteries. Even if you check your camera before you leave, you just never know for sure how potent they are.

 

Try to use an autowinder so you don't have to waste time (or getting a great shot) advancing the the next exposure.

 

Get 36 exposure film so you don't have to (hopefully) change film so often or at least while a momentous event is occurring and get LOTS of it (especially if using an autowinder) because in the heat of the moment you may be so excited you lose track of how many shots you just did.

 

This past experience has reawakened my interest in photography and now I'm going to have my other 2 Olympus' fixed (the OM PC has a 'frozen' shutter speed ring and my OM-1n doesn't work with the autowinder).

 

I plan on taking at least 2 if not 3 cameras with me so I can just change lenses and keep shooting rather than trying to load a new roll into one camera.

You may need a wide angle (28 mm) as well.

If the whales come up close to the boat, you can get half submerged shots.

Have a look at this one:

http://www.photo.net/photo/942061

 

Good luck,

 

Fred