All posts tagged: whale watching

Humpback Whale Watching on Okinawa

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Here’s my latest collaboration video with Skylum Software. I take to the waters off the coast of Motobu, Okinawa to try and photograph humpback whales. Please like, share and comment on the video as it will help others find it and allow us to keep on making videos! Skylum Software just released a new update to Luminar this week so it is now faster with a few new editing options also. A big thank you to Okinawa Island Crew for letting me shoot photos and video on the boat. I much prefer whale watching from Motobu rather than Naha as the whales are located much closer to the port. The gear used in the video was the Pentax 645Z camera with the 300mm f4 lens. The tripod was a carbon fibre LEO by 3 Legged Thing, and the bag is the Whistler by Lowepro.

Humpback Whale Flukes

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The Churaumi Research Center is able to identify and track individual whales by photographing their flukes. The data has allowed them to map their movement along the migration route, and note that the same individuals return year after year to Okinawa. Some of the researchers are able to identify the individuals on sight and have given them names including Snoopy and Z. The whale watching season is coming to a close in Okinawa, but they’ll be back again next year.  

Humpback Whale Watching

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Out today with the Churashima Research Center taking pics from their research boat. A much happier occasion than photographing the carcass of a whale that had died and then washed up on the beach. We were in the waters of the coast of Motobu not far from Sesoko Island. We saw around 20 whales in total, but it was the first mother and calf pair that were the star performers. The whales slapped the surface with their long pectoral fins, and perform breaches before crashing back down onto the surface of the water.  Pics shot with the Pentax 645Z and a 300m lens. Used a monopod to take the strain off my arms.  Shot at ISO 400 so that I could use shutter speeds between 1/2000 and 1/4000 of a second.

Whale Watching in Okinawa – Silkroad Magazine

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In March, during the annual migration of humpbacks past Okinawa, I had an article in Dragonair’s Silkroad magazine on whale watching. Only some of the photos are mine as I didn’t have any great whale breaching images for the client, but text and some pics will do this time. The new home / office  looks out from Motobu towards Sesoko Island so hopefully next March I’ll be able to do some whale watching from the garden.

Whale Watching on Okinawa

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It’s whale watching season in Okinawa. I’m doing some research and taking pics for a future article. Choppy seas, dark skies, and subjects that don’t respond to direction (Excuse me, if you would be so kind as to breach in front of the boat.) make getting decent shots a bit of a lottery. I have one keeper from the first trip, and hopefully I’ll get some more interesting pics over the next few weeks.