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.
Photographing Whales
in Nature
Posted
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.