My final whale postings. All together we spent less than 45 minutes photographing the whales. It was a most exiting experience and I was fortunate to get the many shots I did. I had been on a birding/whaling tour boat only once before, that was last year at Bird Island off Cape Breton, NS. Based on last years experience, I decided to stay on the main deck at the back of the boat and not fight for a spot on the top deck nor at the front of the boat. This allowed me to get low-level shots and also, since there were only three of us at the back, there was ample room to move from side to side.

Presently I'm posting three images. One "as shot" and two with the backgrounds modified. All images were shot at 70 - 80 mm; hence, we were fairly close to the whale.

The top image, #399, is "as shot" with some cropping, sharpening etc in Photoshop Elements.


The whale from #399 cloned onto image #407.


The whale from #399 cloned onto image #420.

I like the "as shot" (top) image OK, but I prefer the more interesting (in my view) backgrounds of the second and third.