Orca Whales - San Juan Islands - Recommend which one?

photomagic

Hi,

This is my first time posting to this area of the forum. I hope to start getting more involved here.

I have a question and I hope some one has an answer.

I am going to the San Juan Islands this summer (Friday Harbor) for 2.5 days and am debating on what whale watch tour company I should go with. The one company is a smaller boat with only 6 passengers (Maya's Westside Charters) and the other has one trip for 12 passengers and a sunset trip with 42 passengers on larger boats (San Juan Safari's). I like San Juan Safari's as its walking distance from where I am staying to where Maya's requires a vehicle to get there whether you pay them to pick you up or you rent a car, taxi, etc. Prices aren't that much of a difference. Both companies have the same times for trips, so thats not an issue.

Anyone have experience with either one of these companies? Would you automatically go with the smaller passenger one or does anyone have experience with a 42 passenger whale watch trip?

Also, what focal lengths do you recommend? I own the Canon DO IS 70-300mm. I have access to 70-200 L IS F2.8 lens and 2x teleconverter along with a 100-400 IS L lens, but not sure which ones I should take. I really only have room for two of those as I have some other smaller lenses I want to take to for my other 2 days of landscape, waterfall photography.

Thank you all.. I apologize for this one being full of questions. I feel a bit overwhelmed and just not sure what direction to go and I don't want to make the wrong choice. So I thought I would turn to the experts for some guidance.



Michele

dgrinjackson

I shot humpback whales off the california coast last year on a good sized boat with about 25 passengers.

The whales came as close as 15 yards to the boat. I had the 100-400 IS lense and found that to work perfectly.

I did find the number of passengers was limiting my ability to get in position for shots so I would probably go with a smaller group/boat. There were several occasions when the captain would just shut the engines off and drift when the whales were close by. Great for the whales, but several times I wasn't on the side of the boat they were on and was not able to work my way into the crowd that gathered on the right side to get the shots I wanted. I think a smaller craft or at least a smaller number of people would allow one to get in better positions. That group of 45 would scare me away if I was going to get shots....plus...did you say it was a evening cruise...might be an issue with lighting.

Make sure to bring some sort of plastic covering for the lense and camera and be sure to clean that salt water off soon after shooting...also, be sure to bring a lot of stuff to clean off the lense. I was constantly cleaning the lense.

photomagic

Thank you... I agree with you about the 42 people about getting the shots I want.

Both companies have a trip that goes out at 5:30pm that they call their sunset cruise. Returns between 830 and 9p.m., but that time of year in WA, the sun doesn't set till after 9:30p.m....

Thank you again so much for your input. I really appreciate it!

afmdmc

ok i'll jump in here. i've never done the tour boat thing my feeling is i'd go with the larger boat. first it's more than likley you won't get that closes to the orcas so i like the idea of being as high off the water as i can get is the way that i'd look at it. also orcas tend to move faster than the larger whales and some times much faster. but that dos'nt mean that you won't get that up closes shot but the rules say that they have to stay 200 yards away. the best shots that i ever got was from a kayak but that was just by chance. we were just in the right place at the right time. what ever you do go prepaired for any kind of weather even on a sunny day it can be cool.
And have fun. and the 100 - 400 would be what i'd use.

Dave

DonRicklin

THe whale shooting I have done has been mainly from a largish boat and they often get quite close. Haven't gotten orcas before, though. Humpback, fin and dolphin.

I use a 175-500 on my Dslr that has 1.4 conversion. NOt bad shooting on a monopod in semi overcast light.

Don