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Tail breach of a Humpback whale Unsharp, but you have to forgive me for that, it was a windy day with heavy waves. In fact, about 1/3 of the passengers on the boat were sea sick. Brazil,Geotagged,Humpback whale,Megaptera novaeangliae,Praia de Forte,whale Click/tap to enlarge

Tail breach of a Humpback whale

Unsharp, but you have to forgive me for that, it was a windy day with heavy waves. In fact, about 1/3 of the passengers on the boat were sea sick.

    comments (3)

  1. View bpeters's profile
    bpeters
    Mountain Gorilla
    View Mountain Gorilla class
    The unsharpness is likely not from the motion of the boat or photographer, but from the fact that the camera exhibited a slight front focus. With 1/2000 shutter time on 300mm at f/11 aperture, it is pretty much impossible to have any motion blur, regardless of how the boat waves around. Maybe the camera locked on to a wrong AF point or the 'continues focus' mode was not active :)

    Your story is recognizable. I have been on a whalewatching expedition myself on a boat in heavy waves. About half of the passengers were sea sick as well. Here is a shot I made on the boat:
    Whale showing tail fin This picture was shot on a whale watching expedition in Andenes, Norway. The boat was approximately 2,5 hours from the shore when this whale was spotted Andenes,Europe,Geotagged,Norway,Sperm Whale,whale
     Posted 13 years ago
    1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
      Ferdy Christant
      Lion
      View Lion class
      I agree. The light was excellent and as a result the shutter speed as well. This was simply a matter of a wrong focal point, indeed on the front. The wrong focus though definitely was a result of a heavily swinging boat combined with me balancing myself and a very heavy lenze :) Posted 13 years ago
      1. View bpeters's profile
        bpeters
        Mountain Gorilla
        View Mountain Gorilla class
        In these circumstances it is good to have some practice with manually setting the AF points (perhaps using only the center point), enabling 'continuous focus' (Canon calls it AI SERVO) and shoot as many photo's as you possibly can when the moment happens. I believe the Nikon D7000 can shoot continuously at 6 photo's per second. This greatly increases the chance that there is at least one tack-sharp photo :) To exemplify this, my photo above was one of the few sharp photos from a questionable collection of a few hundred tries :) Posted 13 years ago, modified 13 years ago

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The Humpback whale

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual and is the only species in the genus "Megaptera". Adults range in length from 14–17 m and weigh up to 40 metric tons. The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and tubercles on its head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers.

Info 29 1
Similar species: Even-toed Ungulates
Species identified by Ferdy Christant
View Ferdy Christant's profile

By Ferdy Christant

All rights reserved
Uploaded Jan 21, 2012. Captured Sep 11, 2011 16:06.
country flag of Brazil Explore Brazil 1,464 712 0
  • NIKON D7000
  • f/11.0
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO1600
  • 300mm
Captured in the winter. More winter photos.