Wednesday, February 1, 2012

One whale of a story





THIS is the reason I want to invest in the Sigma 300-800mm f5.6 lens. Even though Parker's idea was a good one, I think taking photos of whales will get me in a lot less trouble than bikinis will! LOL

These were all taken from the lanai (patio) of our condo using the Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm and mounted on a monopod. The shots are cropped about 30 percent. I had the Nikon D300 set on Continuous High for the frame count and stuck an EN-EL4 battery in the grip which gave me a continuous 8 frames per second. This series is 14 shots in just under two seconds. Because the blog will only allow us so many photos per post I have broken up this post into two separate posts and the photos are every other shot out of the series so make sure to see the second post below.

Out of the almost 4000 shots I took about 1000 of them were taken trying to get a series like this. It's not as easy as you would think. You have to really be paying attention to the movement and be ready to shift the camera at a split second all the while keeping your eye on the viewfinder and a finger on the shutter release. I felt like I needed to be wearing a gillie suit and laying in the tall grass somewhere! LOL

7 comments:

  1. I see your point. When one gets a subject such as this in front of their lens all the mm's one can afford would be an advantage. The D300 is certainly fast enough to handle the 800mm lens but I would think only with a sturdy tripod!

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  2. The D300 is definitely fast enough. When Cheryl was working on the computer or in the kitchen she could always tell when I saw a whale, the D300 sounded like a machine gun going off.

    I see lots of new gear in my future, as long as business keeps up!

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  3. Wow! This is an amazing capture...great job Ron. This would be neat to watch in real life as well! =)

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  4. You need a Sigma 300-800mm lens if you keep finding awesome stuff like this to photograph!

    Very very nice! Definitely trumps my "Green Flash" picture! LOL

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  5. Thanks Paul!

    I'm not sure these are as impressive as your green flash though. During the winter the whales are everywhere around Maui and you have lots of chances to photograph them if you want to spend the time watching. The green flash doesn't happen that often and you certainly don't catch it on film very often.

    I would love to photo the green flash. One of these days....

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