joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Awesome shooting ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

By now you have been on your whale watch. I hope it went well. One correction to your post. Your picture shows mother 'flame' and baby 'Spark.' You probably saw Smudge the same day but Smudge is not the mother of Spark. Here is Flame and her 2021 baby, which we call Bolt. Maybe you were on my tour or with our company. We use boats low to the water and that looks like the angle you were shooting from. Come back sometime. There are more whales around every year.
...Cam

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amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

First, don't eat breakfast. The last whale watching trip (Monterey Calif.) I was on was very rough. Many of the folks on the tour spent most of it turning green tossing their cookies, rather than watching for whales. The boat was pitching so much I had my back against the cabin and my feet propped against the rail. I didn't get any shots, but not for lack of trying!

Whales have always been one of my "unicorns". I see other folks get great shots. And I've often seen whales myself, when not trying to take photos. But when it comes to photographing whales, for me something always goes wrong.

We were hiking down the narrow pathway to the lighthouse on Point Reyes and stopped for a moment just to look around... At that very instant a gray whale fully breached right behind the lighthouse! Or so I was told, since I had my back to it at the moment! Would have made a great shot and probably happens once a year!

And on another whale watch tour (smoother waters), a whale came right toward us and dove directly under our boat, then spy-hopped right next to us. While we tried to keep our distance, the whale wasn't obeying the rules! I suppose he or she was as curious about us as we were about her or him. I, of course, was on the wrong side of the boat and had too long a lens on my camera anyway!

So I'm not going to presume to tell you how to shoot whales! I'm obviously the last person you should ask!

jliane Loc: Washington state

If either of you has a tendency toward motion sickness, continuously watching for the whales will exacerbate it. Look at the horizon to reset yourself

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Probably too late to help. Keep the camera at a fairly wide angle while waiting. You never know where a whale will pop up. In looking at all my old whale photos, the best ones are when the whales are close by. Sometimes they pop up right next to the boat. I remember one was almost in touching distance. Close enough to smell whale breath. Not pleasant.

As the whales get farther away, the images are less impressive. Even with lots of focal length being used. The exception might be when they spout. Images of whales far away with only the blow hole out of the water don't make interesting pictures.

I seldom need a lot of focal length. But it is important to start fairly wide, so you don't spend time searching. Look for barnacles. They are easy to see and make for interesting pictures. Get those tail fluke shots.

And be ready for a whale to come up out of water in a breach. You don't have much time to react. You don't have time to search for it if the focal length is set too long. It is quicker to find the whale at a lower FL and to then zoom in as needed than to search at the longer FL. Use the auto settings since the whales often don't give you much warning. I prefer a slightly higher ISO since I want fast shutter speeds, and I don't want motion blur.

Be ready for dolphins too. They are amazing. And watch for otters and sea lions. And birds too.

On one trip, a Humpback did a big dump near the boat. A very large, pink in color, mess from all the shrimp. Hordes of seagulls arrived in moments to dine on the remains.

I find that having a camera with a quick shutter is very important. Slow, and you may miss. Burst mode is good.

And always have a plastic bag ready to protect the camera from waves. This is mostly needed when the boat is moving.

The boat will rock a lot. You need to plant yourself firmly so you can stay ready.

And dress warmly. It can be very cold and windy out in the ocean. Even in mid summer.

Dat Quach Loc: California

Thanks Cam for the correction and awesome photo. It was in May 2019 and I thought my memory has faded a little since but it turned out to be the same mother. The whale watching tour company was Gastineau Guiding, their staff are knowledgeable and professional. Here are naturalist Kristin and captain Kelly.

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Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Not sure what the zoom range is on the Sony.
I found the 100-400mm on a 7D was about perfect on the crop sensor.
Kept the shutter at about 1/250 and 1/800 sec and f6.3 and f8.
All came out very well unless I screwed up.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Gastineau Guiding is the company I work for too. I’ve spent many hours on the water with Captain Kelly. You were OK to call her Smudge. That is not a name we use in Alaska but my wife has reminded me that sometimes she is called that in Hawai'i
…Cam.

Old Coot

If your trip is out of So Cal ports, prepare to be dissapointed. I have done 3 or 4 trips myself and yet to see a whale. You will see lots of Dolphins and Seals. The Dolphins tend to swim alongside the boats often in schools of fifty or more. They are speedy in and out of the water so use a fast shutter speed and try to pan the action.
Good luck and enjoy

Jesu S

If you are like these guys, you’ll need an ultra wide angle lens.

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dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I love your comment. Thank you. I did go whale watching this morning and had a great time for my first time. It was not as I had seen though or heard from other people. We motored about off the coast just North of Santa Barbara in the Santa Barbara Channel. Waves were terrible and trying to take photos of flying birds was almost impossible with the birds going up and down while the boat was going down and up. Normally I get seasick but not this time due to taking pills last night and this morning. I don't want to ruin my post to be submitted in a few minutes but we did run into 4 humpback whales.

Dennis

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Glad you enjoyed it. I have gone out in the Santa Barbara Channel several times. And I have seen Blue Whales and lots of Humpbacks as well as great numbers of dolphins.

The whales go where the food is and can travel some distance to find it. I have seen Blue Whales even in Monterey Bay when the food was there. Once it's gone, they are on their way. And whales do communicate vast distances and they know from that communication where to go.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

My trip was similar to yours. I did eat breakfast but also took two seasick pills the night before and one an hour before. The water was very rough and I did worry but I never got sick nor thought about it after we left the harbor. Every one of us needed to hang on to something when walking or even standing. It was almost impossible to take photos of anything. Then when we got into the area of the humpbacks it quieted down a lot. I think most people did not get good photos. Only 23 out of 100 showed up which gave the rest of us a lot of room on the deck to move around. Only me and a woman who had a Canon 5DIV and a huge long lens, I am guessing at least out to 500mm zoom seemed to have good cameras. My wife and most everyone else used phones. Of course I did not see any photos but mine but my wife said she got no good photos. Lots of sun glare early morning etc. We got no photo opportunities where the whales came up, breached etc. Mostly we saw backs as they were going back down under.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

With all due respect I have heard all sorts of methods to not get sick and not one of them has proven itself to me over maybe 70 years of going out to sea occasionally. I have heard, looking at the horizon, eat, don't eat, eat crackers, have a full stomach, have an empty stomach, and so on. The ONLY thing that works for me is to take some sort of seasick pills, Dramamine types, the night before and then right before going out. That seems to work for me. I also wear wrist bracelets that have a plastic button type thing that is supposed to press on something in the wrist. Whether those work or not I have no idea but when I take the pills and wear the bracelets I generally don't get sick.

I do appreciate your comment,

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

All noted and I appreciate it,

Dennis