Wrong Lens at the Moment of Impact…

Stuff

I am currently leading the 2015 Bear Catching Salmon Bear Boat IPT. I will be back very soon.

This image was created by Denise Ippolito on our Inside Passage cruse with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 98mm) and the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/7.1.

Humpback Whale/Moment of impact. Image courtesy of and copyright 2015 Denise Ippolito/A Creative Adventure

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Wrong Lens at the Moment of Impact…

After our two-day weather delay due to high winds on the Inside Passage we sailed south from Juneau, AK and photographed the fog-enshrouded hills and mountains that lined the passage. Thick forests of pine, hemlock, and spruce covered the slopes right down to the waterline.

Several Humpback whales were spotted far off the bow. As we approached slowly we counted about eight whales. Most were relatively distant as the captain cut the engine so I went with the 500II/1.4X III/7D II combo in an effort to photograph the tails as the behemoths dove. How’d that work ? Not great. I was always a bit too slow at raising the lens and framing the subject.

Out of nowhere a whale surfaced well less than a football field’s length off the starboard bow. It was swimming right at the boat. Denise called out, “Do they ever hit the boat?” The crew all answered. “Nope.” Was about to point out that the whale, with its amazing echo-location abilities, would surely dive and pass underneath our boat. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it struck the boat head-on with a tremendous thud. Everyone but Denise was stunned and stood slack-jawed.

With 1120mm of effective reach I was effectively dead in the water. Denise, however–having previously removed the 2X TC from her 70-200 f/2.8L IS–reacted instantly and made two frames right at the moment of impact. Even having zoomed out to 70mm she had no chance to include the whale’s entire tail but today’s featured image proved to be very powerful.

Thanks to Denise for allowing me to use her image in today’s post.

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