Whale shark advice...

[Firediver32]

I just booked a trip to Utila in September.... I (like everybody else who goes there) am hoping to swim with a whale shark. Does anybody have any experience with this. I currently use a Canon S1 IS with a DC20 Housing, but no strobe. Will it be needed? My understanding is most of the time, you snorkle with them anyway.... I'd like to have a strobe by then, but i have to pay for the trip first so we'll see. Any adivce you have about this, or utila in general would be great.

 

[alcina]

Can't help with Utila but as we get whale sharks for several months every year I can offer some advice for the whale sharks

We only shoot available light here as strobes/flashes are not allowed. You can get some amazing shots while snorkelling with them (again, we only snorkel with them). Link to some Whale Shark shots

You'll want to shoot as wide as you can and most likely will need to concentrate on shooting only part of the shark at a time...trying to get the whole shark in can be frustrating if you don't have a wide enough lens as you have to back off so far and the particles in the water ruin the shot. Gudge set his camera on Av, I believe, and this seemed to work very well. (He's away right now, so I can't ask him at the moment.)

The biggest thing I would recommend is to practice with your rig and snorkeling. Snorkeling is something that looks easy, but once you add a camera and a big moving object you're trying to frame while maintaining the proper distance it gets tricky! And most divers aren't terribly good snorkellers - the better you are, the better your images will be

 

[AUTiger]

Alcina,

Is the 12mm end of a 12-24 wide enough to get shots without having to back off?

I'm a pretty good snorkeler and often go down 30-35 feet to get a shot. Do the whale sharks swim below the surface, too?

When my whale shark outing comes up this summer, I'll probably be shooting a D80 with an 8" dome and a Tokina 12-24.

I'm really looking forward to this opportunity.

David

 

[alcina]

Yup, that's the lens that Gudge used in the above shots. 12-24 or 10-22 etc all very good. The 15mm Nik lense was always the one of choice before digital cameras.

I think the 10 is actually too wide most of the time. At least here we have a 3m exclusion zone around the sharks so you'll need to temper that with your focal length.

Whale sharks can be anywhere in the water column. It is usual for ours to be right at the surface with the tips of their tails out or in the first 2m. Be sure to ask about exclusion zones and to respect the behaviour of the particular shark you are in with - they all have different tolerances for people free diving around them and intrusion into their space can mean they dive and disappear (or swim away really fast!).

 

[pakman]

If you pick up an Inon add-on wide angle lens/ dome for that Canon S1, that would be ideal. If I recall the S1 lens is the equivalent of a 38mm at it's widest?

I've only got 1 whale shark experience under my belt so only have limited advice... Stretch your muscles well and get ready to do some swimming!! Another key suggestion is don't swim directly at the whale sharks but try to imagine an interception point ahead of them (hopefully the boat/ guides will help out on this). It's better to get a head shot that a tail shot of whale shark! Depending on how shallow they are, try to get slightly below them so you can shoot upwards and get better lighting vs shooting down into the dark...

Also, maybe consider switching to movie mode as well.