A whale of a Tale... Bill Langton
On February 16th, 2005, I found myself in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico enjoying a beautiful day along the Pacific Coast. The temps were in the 80's, the sun was shining, and the margaritas were cold. I wandered down to the marina hoping to hire a boat to head out onto the Bay of Banderas for some whale photography. You see, February is prime season for interacting with the majestic Humpback whale. I found a gentlemen who said, for a whopping $40 US, he would personally take me out to look for whales. We agreed to meet at 1pm and head out on his boat. I gathered my gear, a Canon EOS 20D with EF 100-400L IS, and headed back to meet up with the Captain.
We hopped onto his 35 foot sport fishing cruiser and headed out...and out...and out. We cruised full throttle straight towards the open sea for over an hour without so much as a minnow sighting. I had the 20D set at ISO 400 to give me fast shutter speeds with an aperture of what else, F8. I had it set to continuous shooting mode and focus set to the center point for quick AF. With the 20D's instant on feature, I could comfortably let the camera go into "sleep mode" with no fear of losing a shot. We bounced along in the chop, still looking... Finally, I spotted a distant spout. We turned and headed that direction looking for the whale. As we got closer to the area, we slowed and scanned the horizon. All of a sudden, not more than 150 feet away, a 35 foot Humpback breached on our port side. I swung the 20D up and fired off a quick 4 frames. Talk about "F8 and Be There"
You ought to hear the noise when these guys hit the water - what a "belly flop." This magnificent creature treated us to a total of eight (8) breaches over the next ten minutes. He was apparently showing off for a "lady friend" who was also in the area.
Finally, he gave us a quick wave goodbye and took off. We ended up leisurely cruising back to port, playing with some dolphins, watching a gentle sea turtle and drinking some ice cold beer. Ah...what an afternoon.
All in all, my $40 was money well spent. I got much more than I expected and was treated to one of nature's spectacular shows. Remember - F8 and BE There!
Comment
For all of us that love this planet and realize what a great honor it is to witness and photograph it's natural wonders, I don't think there is anything as thrilling as coming into contact with wild creatures. Certainly being prepared in the face of opportunity (usually called luck) is a large part of what Bill has accomplished. However there is so much more. The composition is sound. The horizon is where it should be and it's very close to level. With film there would have been serious issues with exposure but here detail is held even in the shadow and shine of the black reflected light. Shutter speed is perfect to capture the movement of water and motion of the whale. I'm sure the AI Servo mode was selected to enable the predictive auto focus. The image is a THRILL to see. .. It makes me want to f-8 and be there! .....Thanks Bill.
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