Whale Watching in May

Im taking a trip up to Boston in May with the science club on campus, and one of the parts of the tour, and honestly the only reason I signed up to go, is a whale watching trip. Based on my gear list, what should I bring, or go out and rent. I know it's a long shot, but my goal is to get a shot of a breeching whale.

I'd say rent the Canon 100-400 or something equivalent, although I've only encountered a whale once and I didn't have anything with the "reach".

But if you look at the bottom of this page in the "Similar Threads" section, you'll note that your thread title had "key words" that triggered a forum "mini search" that got good results, check them out!

I can't really say for sure which body you should take, but as for lenses looking at your list I'd say either take the Canon 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS or the Canon 70-200 f/4L lens.

I go whale watching every weekend weather permitting out of Gloucester, MA and I currently use the55-250mm IS lens (I turn the IS off). I don't think I'd go with the 100-400 because sometimes, well a lot of the times, the whales will come to within feet of the boat. If you had the 100-400 you won't be able to get any good shots in this situation. Keep in mind the most, if not all, whale watches will try to get as close to the whales as they can without putting the whale's safety into jeopardy and of course without breaking the law. They want you to get the best looks as possible.

Here are a few of my breaches taken with the 55-250.

This one was very close to the boat at 55mm.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Great pics and info, Zipline!
How often do you see breaches? I had a great whale watching trip out of Rye Harbor, NH with lots of whales but no breaching...would love to get back and see some more action. I found my 300/4 IS was adequate for most shots, and I had another body with a wide-normal zoom that didn't get much use.

Nice shots zipline.

In the Puget Sound area I have been whale watching several times. Most of the time I use the 500 f4 and sometime with an extender. Probably 90% of the time the 500 is not too long. For those other cases I use a second body with the 70-200 on it. I would also suggest renting the 100-400. Otherwise use a 1.4 extender on the 70-200 f4.

John Haig wrote in post #14147949
Great pics and info, Zipline!
How often do you see breaches? I had a great whale watching trip out of Rye Harbor, NH with lots of whales but no breaching...would love to get back and see some more action. I found my 300/4 IS was adequate for most shots, and I had another body with a wide-normal zoom that didn't get much use.

Sorry for the delay! There really isn't any way to say for sure how often breaches occur. In the 2009 season we only saw it a few times. In the 2010 season we saw a lot of it. Last season we only saw it a couple of times. I'm hoping this year we'll get to see more of it again!

From 2001-2008 I went out of Rye, NH and didn't see that much breaching at all. Out of Rye you primarily head out to Jeffreys Ledge which has more of a variety of whale species, mainly Fin and Minke. Neither of these species are really known for breaching, at least not like Humpbacks.

From 2009 through today I go out of Gloucester, MA where we head primarily to Stellwagen Bank which is more or less known as a Humpback Whale feeding ground. Almost every trip out to Stellwagen brings at least 1 or 2 Humpbacks, on good days many more! Basically the more Humpbacks you see, the more breaches you'll probably see!