On my first whale watching trip off the Gold Coast, Qld, Australia, I merrily snapped loads of pictures of whales, or so I thought!
We had a great morning, it was near perfect whale watching conditions. Calm water, a little wind, clear blue skies and a pod of 3 whales that were very interested in us. They seemed really interested in try to entertaining us - or was it the other way around?
So back to the whale photos - I'll give you the background.
I have a quite respectable compact digital camera - a 7.2 Megapixel Sony Cyber-shot to be exact.
It has plenty of great features and I use quite a few. I normally carry the booklet with me that describes how to set it up to do all these great things.
Except this day, I didn't have it with me. The one day I wanted to take pictures of whales!
The most annoying thing is, I have done this before. I went on a trip to see the Hector's Dolphins in Christchurch, NZ and had the exact same problem.
My camera takes great still shots on the settings I normally use. I can do super close-ups, I can do beach photos, buildings, trees, flowers, views and great people shots!
Try to capture photos of whales or other animals that are moving. Not a chance.
You know the shots where they are in and out of water and you have to catch them in a nanosecond.
I focus, I press, I wait.
Almost without fail the dolphin or in this case the whale has gone back below the water! And then I hear it and the screen goes black with the word ...processing.... on it.
After about 15 minutes of getting virtually no photos with whales in, I finally worked out how to adjust one of the settings. I then started getting shots. Not the action shots I really wanted, though.
When I got home, I checked the manual! I could have used the burst functions to take action shots!
So here are my tips on how to take pictures of whales with the camera you have. I am assuming you are not rushing out to spend a fortune on a new camera just to take pictures of whales!
Know your camera and test out the settings you might use, before you go on the whale watching cruise. Bring the manual with you just in case. Make sure the batteries are charged Empty the memory stick, better still take a couple of memory sticks Put the strap on the camera - you are on boat and you don't want to lose it and your memories overboard If you have a filter use that to protect your lens against the inevitable spray that will find its way right to your lens - boat spray and whale spray!
These tips are just as valid for video too. Get used to the settings and test it out before you go.
Remember you can always erase your tests, but you cannot recapture those great whale photos after the whale has gone.
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