Whale Watching photography

Tim N · Feb 21, 2011

We're about a week away from heading to Maui for vacation and I'm finally going to get to go whale watching out there. I have a few questions for settings and getting good pictures in general while out there. I have the following equipment:

Nikon D70 and D3000 camera body
70-300mm 4.5-5.6 AF Nikon, a 2x teleconverter for that lens,
18-55mm AF-S DX VR 3.5-5.6, a
55-200mm AF-S DX VR 4.0-5.6, and a
35mm AF-S DX f1.8G.
28-90mm D Nikon lens from my older Nikon N65.

With this equipment, and without buying a $1000+ lens for the 2.8 speed, will I be able to get some good shots? I'm thinking of using the 300mm on the D70 since it is capable of the auto focus and the 18-55mm on the D3000. Any suggestions and help with this subject would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

tirediron · Feb 21, 2011

I would go with the 70-300 on the D70 and the 55-200 on the D3000. I don't think you'll have much use for the 18-55. As nice as the extra reach would be, I don't think you'll want to use the TC since even in the bright sun of Hawaii, an f9 lens will likely be too slow. Remember that you're going to need shutter-speed. You'll be hand-holding relatively long glass from a moving platform. I would suggest shutter-priority with a MINIMUM shutter-speed of 1/500, and preferably 1/1000 or greater.

Tim N · Feb 22, 2011

They did say that the boat has to stay about 100 yards from the whales (unless they come closer to the boat themselves). So I will have that distance at least between the subject and the lens. Hoping I can get some good shots with what I have and hoping for good weather too. Would it be a good idea to use continuous shots or continuous focus as well?

GooniesNeverSayDie11 · Feb 22, 2011

If possible, get a 1.4x kenko pro300 TC. you can use it on the 70-300 if you have a monopod or tripod, or on the 55-200 since it has VC.

Rifleman1776 · Feb 22, 2011

We were there two years ago and tried taking whale pics. We got several decent dolphin pics but the whale shots were less than we hoped for. There is no answer to your question. You might see whales miles from your boat one second and almost in the boat the next. We had one so close it splashed us. When they break surface they are visible for only a fraction of a second. There is no preparation time. It is a matter of luck and much-much time spent on the water. Days and weeks. Whether or not you come back with prize winning pics you will have a good time.

ShSimpson · Feb 22, 2011

I went on a couple of the whale watching tours off of Lahaina on Maui last February. They were relatively clam days but the boat movement is still dramatic. The suggestion to use TV mode is valid and the boats are required to stay 100 meters back from the whales as mentioned. You will get some porpoises that come closer to the boat and are easier to shoot. One sees the posters and advertising showing the whales breaching the water when in fact they don't do this very much at all. You can get some cool shots of the tail coming out of the water depending on the sun position. I was shooting with a 300 and found that it was still too short in many cases.

rlemert · Feb 22, 2011

We took a whalel-watch trip last July in Australia. I was useless for any photos (8-10 foot seas and I apparently don't get along with each other too well), but the wife and kid both made some attempts. The best the kid could do (using a simple P&S) was to catch the tail as the whale completed his dive. The wife gave up and just kept panning the seas with her "bloggie" digitial video recorder - she did manage to catch a complete breech, but from a distance. It isn't easy to predict where they will come up, and when they do breech you don't have a lot of time to find them, focus, zoom, and snap.

On the other hand, it can be done. The boat's official photographer had some very nice shots, including one with the whale parallel to the water, belly to us, just about to fall back into the water. He, however, does this every day. He's probably learned to recognize where they're going to be and has his settings already dialed in. Don't ask me what he did, though, as I was in no shape to ask him.

If you can get them to 'spyglass' - i.e. poke their heads out of the water so they can see what that strange floating object is - you'll have a better chance of getting some spectacular shots. They'll probably be fairly close to your boat, and they'll stay in place a lot longer. The pictures may not be as spectacular as catching a breech, but ten foot, eyeball-to-eyeball with such a magnificent creature makes any picture pretty darn exciting.

Ginu · Feb 22, 2011

I went on a whale watching tour last summer in Tofino, BC and used a D90 with 18-200 lens which worked great for most parts but still felt a little short at times. I got some fabulous shots too, not much different from the professional photographer on the boat shooting a D300s with a 70-200 2.8 VR lens.

A 300 lens without VR will give you some issues even if the sun is shining...even though the water might be on the calm side, it would be quite a dramatic move at the end of the 300 lens.
I would suggest to stick to the 55-200 for most part but have the 70-300 ready, just in case.

Another major factor in whale watching is luck, since you never know where the whales come next.

mishele · Feb 22, 2011

I've been there in March!! The whales are awesome!! My suggestion to you is to be on a sturdy boat(big boat) and go in the morning. I got really sick trying to look through the viewfinder....lol Good luck and post pictures!!!!

Tim N · Feb 22, 2011

Thanks for all the replies. We were planning on going with the Pacific Whale Foundation on their larger pontoon type boat. We took them when we were there before on a snorkeling trip since it wasn't whale season and that boat what really sturdy. So hoping for some good results. I'll definitely heed the advice to use the VR more than the 300mm lens. Really hoping for a 'mugging' as they put it. That would be the best result. I will definitely put pictures up when I get back along with others. I'm sure I'll take like 1000 photos like before. Not only that, I have 2 cameras this time. We'll see what I end up with.

Ginu · Feb 22, 2011

Sounds like a lot of fun, good luck.
If the water is calm try the 70-300, you got nothing to lose, the beauty of DSLR's.

Tim N · Mar 16, 2011

Thanks for all the advice. After an eventful trip to Maui, here are some of the results. We spent the last night sleeping in a car at the Ritz-Carlton because of the tsunami warnings, but made it out the next day as planned. Made for a long trip home. The whale watching was great. We took two trips out of Lahaina Harbor with Pacific Whale Foundation and ended up getting some good action on the second trip out. The first trip was crowded and the sunny skies turned to clouds when we hit the water. Used primarily 1/1000-1/2000 in shutter priority mode with ISO 400 when sunny. Enjoy!

Fluke Dive

Male Breach

Calf Breach

Fin Slap

Head Slap

Will try to post up a few more when I get more time to look through. Attempted to edit them a little, but haven't been very successful.

Village Idiot · Mar 16, 2011

Whale whale whale whale, what do we have here?

rlemert · Mar 16, 2011

Nice!

(Me, jealous? No, I'm just getting ready for St. Patrick's Day - yeah, that's it.)

mishele · Mar 19, 2011

Very cool shots. I didn't go on any whale watching trips this time around. I did get to see some from land. Kauai doesn't have the same show the whale put on over in Maui. But I did get to have a tsunami warning like you. I stayed part of my trip in the mountains and got to sleep in my comfy bed that night. All the roads on the island were closed til about 8am. Glad to hear you had a great trip!!