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Had the pleasure of going Whale Watching out of Port Stephens at the weekend. This was harder than I thought it would be - very harsh lighting, a swell of something like 5mtrs throwing us around, and only moments to react to the whales' movements. That said, we had a ball, and I've at least managed to capture something of these huge mammals for myself


D200 + 80-200 f2.8 @ 80mm with 1.4x teleconverter - 1/400th @ f5 ISO400


D200 + 80-200 f2.8 @ 80mm with 1.4x teleconverter - 1/400th @ f5 ISO400


D200 + 80-200 f2.8 @ 200mm with 1.4x teleconverter - 1/400th @ f5.6 ISO400

Some tips for any that might be interested - make sure you have a nice fast shutter speed, and always be ready. If anything, pick a shutter spead you'd normally use and make it twice as fast. This was the most frustrating thing when looking through my pics afterwards - way too many were blurry!

Nice shots there

Nice shots, Leon.

I have only been whale watching once, in Kaikoura, and I can appreciate your comments regarding setting as high a shutter speed as possible - unfortunately, I was shooting at 200 mm with our (then) brand new, second hand 80-200, and clipped the whale's tail. However, I was amazed at the sharpness. Our guide told us when the whales were going to dive, and at that point, I let fly with the shutter, capturing about 25 or so in the seconds during the dive.

Wow, great shots, nice lens, by the way how much was your second hand 80-200?

the whale in the first picture appears to be in the wars given the scars/cuts on his back - looks like a 'run in' with a boat prop!

The last picture is a classic capture, well done....

excellent shots Leon....i shot mine at 1/640 and had a lot of [blurry] images as well...with the boat pitching as it was it was i should have shot at 1/1000 at least.
when the whales are coming back i think we'll go out again

Great shots Leon,

last one is probably my favourite. With the swell on the weekend, it would have been a challenge. I'm waiting for some nice and calm weather for me to go out. In the meantime, I'll watch them from terra-firma .

Which operator did you go with?

Thanks for sharing,

cheers,

André

Nice shots.

At least with digital you're not looking at a strip of 36 with only 3 keepers.
Thanks for including your exif data. I'm also going to do the same trip so that will give me a benchmark to work from.
I live just up the road near Maitland.

Cheers

trublubiker