We were in small boat by ourselves with a driver and the resort manager (our guide had an eye issue that day so he took us out). They were very careful to keep a safe distance from the whales. The other boats from other lodges might not have been being so careful, or it could be the whales changed course on them.
I read later that the rule is 100m away and moving in parallel with the whales. All but the last 3-4 shots are fully zoomed and highly cropped with 300mm lens (and I think it’s the equivalent of ~430mm due to ¾ sensor) so it looks like we are closer than we were. For example, here is the un-cropped version of the “too close to a boat†shot:
The key advantage to 18megapixel camera is how much cropping you can do and still have good resolution. Each shot is captured in RAW format and is 30mb.
When the whales started coming up behind us like this, the boat driver opened up both engines and decided we were done for the day.
That was a really challenging series to shoot. I took over 500 shots that day, with 300 shots between the first and last of those shots. There were a few taken at the beach and of snorkeling in between our two whale encounters that day, but most were just me struggling to manually focus telephoto lens on transiently visible whales in coming up in different spots in a speeding boat on rough seas. I took about 100 high speed shots before I even got one keeper. I missed one breaching sequence while I was deleting pictures to make space on card. The lodge manager had a much better vantage point standing at front of boat, didn’t get any good ones (I think because he didn’t manually focus). It has also taken a couple of days of tweaking exposure, contrast, white balance in Adobe Photoshop lightroom to get them looking good.
The elegance of the powerful “whale’s tail” as it quietly glides into and becomes a part of the ocean is breath-taking. Water color so vivid and beautiful. Gram
We were in small boat by ourselves with a driver and the resort manager (our guide had an eye issue that day so he took us out). They were very careful to keep a safe distance from the whales. The other boats from other lodges might not have been being so careful, or it could be the whales changed course on them.
I read later that the rule is 100m away and moving in parallel with the whales. All but the last 3-4 shots are fully zoomed and highly cropped with 300mm lens (and I think it’s the equivalent of ~430mm due to ¾ sensor) so it looks like we are closer than we were. For example, here is the un-cropped version of the “too close to a boat†shot:
http://priorfamily.smugmug.com/Costa-Rica-Vacation-1/Costa-Rica-Whales/13449523_TcUUM#987907003_zPBqA
and here is the cropped version.
http://priorfamily.smugmug.com/Costa-Rica-Vacation-1/Costa-Rica-Whales/13449523_TcUUM#978999136_uX7YE-A-LB
The key advantage to 18megapixel camera is how much cropping you can do and still have good resolution. Each shot is captured in RAW format and is 30mb.
This shot is not cropped: http://priorfamily.smugmug.com/Costa-Rica-Vacation-1/Costa-Rica-Whales/13449523_TcUUM#979080776_3goiE
When the whales started coming up behind us like this, the boat driver opened up both engines and decided we were done for the day.
That was a really challenging series to shoot. I took over 500 shots that day, with 300 shots between the first and last of those shots. There were a few taken at the beach and of snorkeling in between our two whale encounters that day, but most were just me struggling to manually focus telephoto lens on transiently visible whales in coming up in different spots in a speeding boat on rough seas. I took about 100 high speed shots before I even got one keeper. I missed one breaching sequence while I was deleting pictures to make space on card. The lodge manager had a much better vantage point standing at front of boat, didn’t get any good ones (I think because he didn’t manually focus). It has also taken a couple of days of tweaking exposure, contrast, white balance in Adobe Photoshop lightroom to get them looking good.
You don’t want this to happen…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3JEgTY1jP0
I would need a “bigger boat” Capt Ahab.
The elegance of the powerful “whale’s tail” as it quietly glides into and becomes a part of the ocean is breath-taking. Water color so vivid and beautiful. Gram