Alaska Whales

[RichieT]

Hi

This is my first attempt at posting some pictures here. These were taken on a whale watching trip on a very overcast day. I used a Nikon D300 with a Sigma 70-200 2.8 on a Velbon monopod.

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[Kazooie]

Dang, I was really hoping for pictures of obese people. :x

But seriously, nice job. The last one would be my pick of the bunch.

 

[Tailgunner]

Nice, what kinda set up did you use?

 

[RichieT]

Nice, what kinda set up did you use?

I used the D300, Sigma 70 - 200 2.8 with 2X teleconverter. I used aperture priority at 5.6, iso 800, with an average speed around 1/1500 sec. The action was fast but I should have slowed down, taken a deep breath, and adjusted my settings a little better. Could have lowered iso, increased aperture to F8 or 11 and still have enough speed to freeze the action.

 

[Tailgunner]

Nice, what kinda set up did you use?

I used the D300, Sigma 70 - 200 2.8 with 2X teleconverter. I used aperture priority at 5.6, iso 800, with an average speed around 1/1500 sec. The action was fast but I should have slowed down, taken a deep breath, and adjusted my settings a little better. Could have lowered iso, increased aperture to F8 or 11 and still have enough speed to freeze the action.

So what does that convert out to, 400mm plus the D300/DX crop factor?


Also, how do you like the Sigma 70-200mm 2.8?

 

[RichieT]

So what does that convert out to, 400mm plus the D300/DX crop factor?


Also, how do you like the Sigma 70-200mm 2.8?

It works out to 600mm with the crop factor and a minimum F5.6. This is the older, non-stabilized version of the lens. It's also the one Sigma lens I had problems with. It was badly front-focused, too much to adjust in-camera. Sigma has a facility on Long Island, not too far from me. I dropped off my lens and camera in the morning, went fishing, came back in the afternoon and it was re-calibrated. The lens is tack sharp with a fast auto-focus. It was my go to lens for indoor sports and twilight soccer games.

 

[CoBilly]

You lucky bastard! We went on a whale watching tour in AK a little while ago and the only highlights we got were a momma & baby at the same time and a couple of tail shots

 

[RichieT]

You lucky bastard! We went on a whale watching tour in AK a little while ago and the only highlights we got were a momma & baby at the same time and a couple of tail shots

Yeah, we lucked out on this. It was a mother and baby also, but the mother was teaching the calf to jump so we had about a 25 min show. The rest of the trip was mostly tail shots or one shot hit or miss. Here are some of the baby jumping.