Hello OM'ers,
I had the chance to go whale watching last May in Iceland, and I'll
pass on this observation, with no guarantees that it will work for
anyone else. The boat we were on was able to approach a surfacing whale
several times, and the whale would rest exposed at the surface long
enough (at least half a minute) to easily get it into good focus. When
it was going to dive, it would swim forward and arch its body in the
water once, then once more to a greater extent, and then on the third
arching it would point its head downward, really arch its body, and head
below. It was always on this third and final arching that its
horizontal flukes ("tail") would come out of the water--and not before.
It also got pretty easy to predict when (but not where) it would
resurface--it would stay submerged, if I remember right, about 2 minutes
and 45 seconds.
Whether this is how all species of whales behave, I have no idea.
The individual we watched was very consistent, however.
I wish I had had my Tamron 60-300mm zoom on my OM4T then--I think I
would have had the time to get the whale in the viewfinder and focus and
then pull the shot tighter with a longer focal length. Next trip,
perhaps.
Best of luck.
Dean
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