Camera Labs

more whales... one of the great things about photographing from a small boat is that you can really play with the available light with boat positioning.. a few good examples of that below I think... It's also one of the things that excites me the most about going back next year... having learned what I did this year and applying it next year from the start.

We named this guy Cover... he seemed to be more than willing to stay close to us for about 3 hours giving us some extrodinary tail shots elevating himself way out of the water... It's easy to identify him by the 1 black streak on the left side of the tail and the 2 on the right. The reason for naming him that was we figured he would give somebody a cover shot.



some of these guys liked skimming the surface upside down...



blow hole closeup...



I think this may well end up being on of my favorites with a little work done to it...







this was very frustrating.. love the light on this one but I couldnt get focus for the first few seconds... the tail was initially 2 times as high out of the water as it is in this shot... noticed the light right away but couldnt get the early shot...



good ID shot of Cover

































another one I really like..











We all found that the hardest thing to catch was a whale spout/blow... It's gonna be one of the things I'm going after next year... we were trying to catch the setting sun just right so we would get the shimmer off the spout... I never caught it though...











next up some more sealions.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
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Some more Sealions, Oyster Catchers, and a few Cormorants... Decided to work on Sealion closeups to try and capture some of their personality... took a little time to work our way this close but it worked out well by doing so as for the most part they carried on with their normal behavior...

























































A few more oyster catchers...











and some cormorants...



one more batch of whales to come

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
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Well it certainly appears your trip/adventure was worth it wolf.
Some excellant catches here.
Whales (Humpbacks)haven't returned here yet.
A few Minke's around but I think they may well winter here.
Lobster gear is coming out this week and then they'll be safe in the bay.
Looking fwd to the rest,hopefully they will be on another page as this one takes a while to load.

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Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-55mm,Pentax 50-200mm,Sigma 17-70mm,Sigma 70-300mm, Sigma 50-500mm

thanks kpr.. only one more set to post for now.. then gonna wait to see if any of the ones I havent posted are gonna sell... if not I'll post a few more as time goes by...

Gonna need some gear tips from you as some of the new stuff I bought didnt hold up too well on the water during the 5 days .. why doesnt that surprise me... only thing that didnt disappoint was the trusted old pelican cases... my cloths choice for this year sucked but no one in the prairies carries the hard core coastal gear out here that you mentioned before and I want to try it on before I buy... frustrating as heck cause I figured worst case I could check out some Helly Hansen gear and buy it out there before the trip but no one carried it on the island...

doing enough of these trips now where I dont want to wear what the operator supplies for gear cause it aint that comfy and putting on a bulky old live vest over top all the other stuff drives me crazy when you're on the water all day long.

I was talking to the lady I went with last year out your way and they are expecting the humpbacks earlier this year... some have already been seen in american waters just south of the bay of fundy according to her... last year they didnt get to Newfoundland until the second week of July.. this year they think it will be 2 or 3 weeks earlier... which I think would mean a week or 2 from now for you ... I'll be out there for the Right Whales and some shore birds in July maybe... Still need to make up my mind between that or bears catching salmon on the west coast in early september....

Promised myself I would stick around the prairies this summer for photography as it may well be my last summer here.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
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I see the fella taking video of the crabs had on the blue Helly Hansen rainsuit I linked you.
Good gear there
I'm dialup right now but will find you a link to Mustang's self deploying life vests, self or water activated with CO2 cartridges...more good gear.
Two of the best names in the marine industry IMO.


Life vests...most marine shops will carry these.
I believe even Canadian Tire does as well.
No price on that page but I believe around $175-$200cdn

http://www.mustangsurvival.com/products/category.php?t=1

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Pentax 18-55mm,Pentax 50-200mm,Sigma 17-70mm,Sigma 70-300mm, Sigma 50-500mm

He had a Helly Hansen jacket which was also a floatation device... wasn't cheap... around $400 but that would be the ideal thing I think... He also mentioned that in a real down pour over an extended time that water some times gets through just a bit... still sounds like an awesome jacket though...

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
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well.. this set basically ends the trip

one day we got up and the ocean was perfectly calm... the sky blended in to the ocean and it proved to be my most challenging day as far as photography goes.. in the end I think I got some cool minimalistic shots.. a style which I have always loved...



















the island in the backround is home to the sealion colony we were shooting...



























unfortunately one of the last whales we seen was one which had been hit by a boat.. this hit was particularly bad... this is how we first seen it... this was also at the time we were chasing several breaches we had seen...



we decided to get closer for some close-ups...



it was then that we noticed that the gash was really deep and the blubber was still exposed...



we decided we needed to hang with it for an ID shot so we could pass on the pics to the proper people...



several times as we stopped this whale would circle the boat really close so we decided to move on.. that is when it started following us along with another whale... seriously.... at one point we slowed down and it really did come too close for comfort... even it made a harsh turn..



this was definately not normal behavior.. whales are curious a lot of times and will hang around and check things out but to follow and consistantly get really close just made no sense... eventually we made a 90 degree turn and it stopped.. turned our way slightly.. then turned around and left the way it came... It did seem to be feeding and swimming normally and it was swimming with another whale at the end so hopefully it recovers fully.

A pic of yours truely taken by Heron... if you look closely you can make out 7 whales in the backround... there were several a lot closer I was watching at the time...



and finally our home for about 50 hours over 5 days... again taken by Heron... this was taken on our last day so it was packed with all of our gear... we had also removed the right hand side row of seats for the 4 days there to give us more room to move around so it wasnt as cramped as it looks in this pic for the previous days...



and that was the trip I gotta say I have taken a lot of these trips in the past few years and this one blows the others away... cant wait to get back next year for round 2

I'll post a few more pics in the future I'm sure but its time to get out for some prairie photography... well as soon as the weather cooperates

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
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VERY well done!

My favs are probably 12 & 14 of the last set "mouth at surface" & "Tail flip/splash" with the sky/sea same color.
Very cool effect.
That one with the prop mark probably isn't that bad off but having a likin to boats will probably have a few more before it is done.
Bad habit some of them have.

"He had a Helly Hansen jacket which was also a floatation device.... does that make sense kpr? wasn't cheap...
He also mentioned that in a real down pour over an extended time that water some times gets through just a bit... "

Makes perfect sense,it's called a floater jacket.
Problem is they are really only good for that purpose.
Getting one of the vests I linked would in the long run save you cash as you can gear up as you please under it.
I have yet to find a rainsuit that keeps you dry.
Some work better than others but I never found one that is absolutely water~PROOF~.
A Goretex suit and Helly Hansen artic polar fleece underwear could be used back on land all year round without the vest

A W E S O M E pics/post/thread wolf.

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Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-55mm,Pentax 50-200mm,Sigma 17-70mm,Sigma 70-300mm, Sigma 50-500mm

Hi Wolfsong

Amazing set of photos! Well Done

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Very nice set, Wolf. Seems like you had a fantastic time. Very cool to see the baleen, ID shots of the tail flukes, etc. You got some really nice sealion shots as well. Some of the close-ups of the sealions are great just for their expressions. Also really like the plover pics and the oystercatchers. Great job. Glad you had a good time.

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thanks all... Jax.. for me one of the most interesting things was the baleen as well... I had no idea it covered the entire inside of the upper jaw.. I had always assumed it was just a lining of the jaw much like a row of teeth.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
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Fantastic shots Wolf, thanks for sharing them.

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thanks KL...

several ppl have asked how many whales we seen.. impossible to say really but there were several times when I would do a 360 degree turn and without stopping to look for whales, just counting what came into my line of sight, I counted around 24 or 25.. now considering there are more underwater at any given time than on the surface heron estimated that on several days we had between 50-60 whales in our area... on day 2 we seen a breach way out.. the one I caught... and when we got out to it we had gone about 7km out from the tip of reef island where we had been watching whales that day and the day before... looking farther out from there we seen just as many blows in the distance as we had seen from the reef island area. Lets just say there were a lot of whales there throughout our stay. We never had to look farther than the area around reef island which is where we planned on going at the start and at the start of every day we sighted whales without having to "search" for them at all really.

Heron was experimanting with shooting video for the first time while we were out... he had several sweeping scans of the area which give a great example of humpback numbers in our area.. along with a couple of other really cool pieces... if he ever edits some of the clips and puts them up I will link them here if its ok with him.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
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Excellent captures Wolf.

good news on the whale that was hit by a prop... officials say that although the wound is severe they feel it will survive as it is starting to heal.. they figure it was hit about 3 to 4 weeks before we seen it. It is also a whale that has never been logged/ID'd before according to BC officials.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr