2010.04.19 21:00:18

Administrator

The whale watching season 2010 is about to begin so i thought i show you my TOP 5 pictures of the season 2009.

Some may not look as spectacular as other pictures i show here in this blog, but for me its not always about a jumping whale, its about things that i haven't seen before or just very rare photo opportunities that you might see only once a season ( or once in a lifetime for that matter =)

So here we go, my personal TOP 5 of the season 2009:

#5 A guy is truly amazed by a whale close by

This is by no means a spectacular picture of a whale but every time i look at this i have to laugh because this guy is showing some true emotions as he is seeing a whale close to his boat.

Here are some more pictures i took during that encounter.

It clearly shows how amazing it can be to encounter whales in their natural environment
while they are putting on a great show for you.

#4 Back lit breach close to shore

This picture shows a breaching whale close to the shores of Sydney. I have taken hundreds if not thousands of breaching pictures over the last two years but this one here is special.

If a whale is breaching there is obviously not much i can do about the lighting, the backdrop etc etc.. So even if the whale puts on a fantastic show some shots may look a little bit "boring" because there is nothing else going on in the picture. In this case the sun was going down behind the whale so all the spray being thrown around is nicely lit up resulting in a beautiful breaching shot.

You can have a look at the other images i took of this breach here.

Note how much the tail actually bends as the whale hits the water again. Amazing!

 

#3 Breaching Whale with people in the background

Pictures of breaches are good. Pictures of breaches and people are even better. If they do the right thing at the moment of me taking the picture: perfect!

Having people in the same shot with the whales is always a nice bonus as it gives you a sense of how big those animals actually are. Usually there is just water around the whale, so no real indication of size. This guy here is obviously stunned by what he is seeing, a truly jaw-dropping experience!

 

#2 A breach in front of Totally Wild

As i said with picture #3 people and whales are always good. if i can manage to get one of our own boats in the background even better! this on here was pretty much at the end of last season. The newspapers picked it up and it went on a couple of news websites around the world.

Here is a shot of a whale breaching in front of our big boat, Ocean Dreaming II.

It would also deserve a spot in the Top 5! 

 

#1 A golden whale diving in to the black sea

This one is probably my favourite whale picture of all time ( so far ).

Actually taken during the 2008 season. All the other ones are good pictures of whales and dolphins etc. this one is pure art to me. A golden whale diving i to the black sea..If i had to print one of my pictures to put it on the wall, it would be this one!

2009.12.02 00:01:57

Administrator

Sorry guys i havent written in such a long time!

We had heaps of amazing trips in the last couple of weeks and months ( almost 2 months since the last entry ) so there will be plenty of amazing pictures in this post.

Calf breaching non stop:

a couple of weeks ago we were watching a mother and a calf just of Manly when the calf decided to practise a bit of jumping next to our two whale watching vessels. Its always a nice opportunity to get some shots for our whale watching flyers and posters with the whale jumping and one of our boats in the background.

It basicaly is a once in a life time moment, because everything has to be perfect: the boats have to be lined up just right and obviously the whale has to jump at the right time. Not to mention that i have to take a picture as well =) Everything worked out just fine so we actually made it to the newspapers as well the next morning. Always nice to be in the newspapers, something i can send back to my family in Germany and they can be proud of.

Flying Fish:

this season we had quite a few encounters with flying fish. Basically they are fish who can fly for a little while. launching themselves out of the water, souring for hundreds of meters sometimes. They would jump out of the water to get away from possible danger. Dolphins chasing them, bigger fish or even our boat.

Extremely hard to get a shot of those guys because they are tiny ( well, compared to a jumping whale at least ) and pretty unexpected. But of course i sure do have a couple of pictures:

 

Bryde´s Whale:

this season seems to be the season of first encounters: The first time we had Killer Whales, the first time i have seen Flying Fish and the first time we have seen a Bryde´s Whale. 

sure enough it was breaching once or twice for us and sure enough i got a picture of it. It was quite far away so its not the best shot, but still quite special. 

2009.10.20 10:30:18

Administrator

Every once in a while im outgunned when it comes to camera equipment.

There are people who actually have faster cameras (nikon d3 - 11fps) and longer lenses (nikkor 600mm) compared to my weapon of choice the canon 1d mk iii (10 fps with a 100-400mm lens).

Now the question is: does size really matter? The answer? Not that easy! I do sometimes wish to have a little bit more range than my 400mm to get some really nice close up shots, but in 95% im perfectly fine. I do prefer the flexibility i get down to 100mm just in case the whales come a little bit closer (not to forget my backup camera if the whales mug the boat, which is way to close for 100mm). Another factor is my personal flexibility to move around on the boat, sometimes whales do very unpredictable things and i need to run around quite a bit. Almost impossible with a very heavy, very long lens with a monopod attached to it.

I did have a look at the pictures that have been taken with the camera in the above shot and i must say they are not better than mine and he didnt get all the action, so we can conclude that size does matter as long as you know how to use it =)

Here are just a couple of shots that have been taken over the last couple of weeks. a Single picture in the sightings section does not always pay enough tribute to the quality of a trip with so much stuff going on: