Going whale watching!

[kaitlyn2004]

I'm going whale watching out of Victoria tomorrow with Prince of Whales. I opted to go with their Zodiac... couple of questions for those who know:

(I'll be shooting with my T1i w/ 70-200mm F4 IS)

- It looks like you put on these big suits/flotation suits.... are they going to make photographing difficult?
- They zip around.. more splashing... going to bring a garbage bag to just "hide" my stuff in.. will that be alright or should I be concerned?
- No extender - so i have my 70-200 F4 on my 1.6x crop... is it enough?


This is my first time ever whale watching so I am hoping to learn a lot for a much better photographic experience next time! :)

[Steve of Cornubia]

I once spent a very frustrating couple of hours trying to get some pics of whales near Hervey Bay, QLD. The problem was the camera, of course :rolleyes:

It was an Olympus SP-570UZ, which suffered extreme shutter lag. Pre-focussing helped a lot, but the damn whales refused to pop up out of the bit of ocean I pre-focussed on. Hence, AF gave me more of a chance, but then the shutter lag usually gave me a pic of empty ocean or the tip of a whale's nose.

The routine descended into, "Beep (focused)....wait for it....wait for it (while whale submerges)...and..... 'click'!"

Though I got a handful of OK pics, I gave my limited repertoire of cusses a good workout that day. :evil:

Oh, and I would be dubious about taking a half-decent DSLR on a small whalewatching boat unless you have some protection. You and your camera may get very wet and saltwater doesn't do lenses and electronic any favours. Make sure you at least have a filter on your lens as dried saltwater can be very difficult to remove without leaving scratches.

Don't ask how I know this.