Whale Watching in Victoria BC

[LuvtheBeach10]

There is a tour available called Ocean Wildlife & Orca Exploration Cruise when we make this stop. The tour is from 7:15pm - 10:15pm so I am worried about being able to see the whales when it gets dark. We will be there mid July if that makes a difference. Has anyone done this on an evening stop?

[Kamloops50]

There is a tour available called Ocean Wildlife & Orca Exploration Cruise when we make this stop. The tour is from 7:15pm - 10:15pm so I am worried about being able to see the whales when it gets dark. We will be there mid July if that makes a difference. Has anyone done this on an evening stop?

 

Keep in mind that sunset in Victoria is about 10:30PM in July.

The cruise boats has to be docked before sunset.

[LuvtheBeach10]

Great! Thank you very much. We wanted to do a whale watching tour but have already booked other excursions for Juneau and Skagway. I haven't heard anyone else talking about this tour, everyone else seems to be going to the gardens so I was wondering if this was a good choice or not.

[Budget Queen]

Is this independent or cruise contracted? If it's a ship tour, your time on the water may not be the 3 hours? this is very important for whale watching in Victoria. The sightings are not 100% and go down with every fewer minute. :)

[mapleleaves]

the sunrise sunset times are available on line. Select your specific travel date:

http://www.sunrisesunset.com/calendar.asp

 

There are a few vendors that provide whale watching tours from Victoria. Look over the options boat or zodiac, length of tour, cost, etc

Edited April 30, 2015 by mapleleaves

[Kamloops50]

If the strait gets stormy . The tour might be cancelled. Your more likely to see seals ,otters and killer whales.

[LuvtheBeach10]

Is this independent or cruise contracted? If it's a ship tour, your time on the water may not be the 3 hours? this is very important for whale watching in Victoria. The sightings are not 100% and go down with every fewer minute. :)

 

This is one through Princess. How do you tell how much time is in the water? It just says that the wildlife is not guaranteed but the tour guide has a 90% success rate in seeing the whales. It mentions Orca's, Humpback....etc

[Budget Queen]

This is one through Princess. How do you tell how much time is in the water? It just says that the wildlife is not guaranteed but the tour guide has a 90% success rate in seeing the whales. It mentions Orca's, Humpback....etc

 

I don't agree you have 90% chance, more like 75% at best. with the ship tour, they have to get you off the ship, collect tickets, load you on a bus, take you to the inner harbor, help the slower people on the boat etc etc. These tours never have enough time, compared to the regular tours. I was in Victoria 3 weeks in a row last year, 1 trip had orca sightings with complaints they only had 15 minutes of viewing. (I specifically got this information from returning ship tours)

[peety3]

We did the tour in Victoria on Orca Enterprises booked through Princess last July (26th, I believe). The ship got in around 7pm, and we were underway around 7:30 I think. We got back to the dock around 10:00pm. We had good light to start, but it DEFINITELY got dark by the time we headed back to the ship. I'm a serious-hobbyist photographer, and really had to push the limits of our gear to get anything semi-worthwhile as the light went away. I was probably pushing ISO 3200 on an f/4 lens to get a shutter speed of 1/640th by the end of the night, and that shot needed some major noise reduction to make it semi-salvageable. Some of my final shots as we got back to the ships were at ISO 3200 on an f/2.8 lens at 1/160th, so three stops darker if you're a photo geek.

 

It was a good tour, but the boat holds 50 people tightly and rocks a lot, given the two deck nature. At least one person got sick on the return to port. I'd do it again in June, but would question doing it in August or later.

[LuvtheBeach10]

We did the tour in Victoria on Orca Enterprises booked through Princess last July (26th, I believe). The ship got in around 7pm, and we were underway around 7:30 I think. We got back to the dock around 10:00pm. We had good light to start, but it DEFINITELY got dark by the time we headed back to the ship. I'm a serious-hobbyist photographer, and really had to push the limits of our gear to get anything semi-worthwhile as the light went away. I was probably pushing ISO 3200 on an f/4 lens to get a shutter speed of 1/640th by the end of the night, and that shot needed some major noise reduction to make it semi-salvageable. Some of my final shots as we got back to the ships were at ISO 3200 on an f/2.8 lens at 1/160th, so three stops darker if you're a photo geek.

 

It was a good tour, but the boat holds 50 people tightly and rocks a lot, given the two deck nature. At least one person got sick on the return to port. I'd do it again in June, but would question doing it in August or later.

 

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

[Budget Queen]

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

 

Find out about your camera NOW. It is too late trying to figure out what you are doing and the options when you are traveling. Read your guide book, then PRACTICE. Plenty of information online. I find one of the biggest ways to separate the ok and the great photos, is to know some basic composition. Makes a world of difference. Too many people don't compose well, put the "focus" in the center, don't consider the "direction" of view", knowledge of "thirds" etc etc.

 

This weekend, spend the days, trying out your camera, always having it with you. Try different angles, lighting, get an eye for the differences. Easy to delete. :)

[Italy52]

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

 

When I bought my Nikon D5100 a training DVD came with it. I must have taken hundreds of shots before I felt comfortable with my camera. I have seen training DVDs for cameras so I know they are available --- you should check on line, in a bookstore or Costco.

 

I definitely agree with Budget Queen --- get to know your camera and its capabilities BEFORE you go to Alaska. I know that if I didn't experiment with my camera before our cruise I would have missed capturing some great wildlife and glacier calving moments. I would really hate to see you miss a great shot because you were looking for a button to push. :)

[martincath]

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

I have the perfect solution for you (well, next-best to going and learning your camera right now before your cruise!) - the 'photo-safari' whales & mendenhall trip run by Gastineau Guiding in Juneau.

 

They sell through all the cruiselines - we booked ours through Princess at $149pp - and offer IMO the best local boats to whalewatch from (14 people, so not quite as small as the Harv & Marv type six-packs perhaps, but designed for photography with an open accessible bow, huge fully-opening windows, fast, stable and very new). In addition to the bus driver and boat captain you are accompanied the whole trip by a guide who is a professional photographer; their main focus is ensuring that everyone knows the best settings on their camera for snapping whales, the glacier, and the rainforest you have a short walk through and pointing out interesting photo ops (like teeny flowers to practise macro shots on, avenues of trees for playing with depth of field, that sort of thing).

 

My wife has had a dSLR for years, has taken several classes before, and uses her camera a lot - she learned some stuff. I'm a more casual holiday snapper with a big-zoom P&S that I'm comfortable using the various shooting modes of but never bother adjusting anything else - I learned more. There was one pro with us who asked some really specific Qs about (I think) colour balance for glacier shots and was happy with the advice he got.

 

She first explained exactly how to find the relevant settings on Canon, Nikon, Pentax & possibly one more major camera brand - down to where the knob or button was, what it was called or what the little symbol looked like - then what values to change those settings to in each environment. For almost everyone on the bus that was enough, but most relevant to you was how the couple of older ladies with P&S cameras right out of the box who were self-professed clueless idiots (their words not mine!) were treated...

 

While one of them got the basics OK, the other just couldn't grasp what was happening - the guide asked her for her camera, adjusted the settings and handed it back saying 'just point and click' then did the same again for the other three situations we were in.

 

I could not praise that whole experience enough - it was basically identical in pricing to the independent whale watches and was a huge improvement over the 'pack a billion people in a huge catamaran' Allen Marine tours that make up most of the other cruiseline offerings. The photo guide really pushed it over the top for me - no hesitation in recommending it to anyone, especially those who want some help maximizing their chance of getting a decent photo.

[peety3]

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

I think the ideal progression goes like this:

 

Green-box (full auto)

Scene presets (landscape, portrait, night portrait, sports, etc.)

P (Program)

Av/Tv (Aperture or Shutter Priority)

[iMHO, the masochistic go for M (Manual)...I think the wedding photographers who want a particular look go for this, and I definitely use M for studio lighting, but I really don't think amateurs need to deal with M for much of anything except 1-3 specific lessons along the way.]

 

So...go for the scene presets when you get a chance. I'd use sports for whales.

 

I also second the mention above about "Photo Safari" whales & mendenhall by Gastineau Guiding. We did it in 2010, tried a different excursion in 2012, and went running back to Gastineau in 2014 (and will definitely do them again in August if we cruise again this summer). The photo safari excursions are on a 14-person boat, whereas their non-photo-safari but otherwise identical excursions are on a 20-person boat (both of which are far more stable than the rock-a-billy boats that H&M use). We didn't need much (any?) photo instruction, but benefited greatly from being in the environment for photographers (all of their boats have huge windows that hinge up/into the boat, so you don't have to shoot around/through windows for the whales).

[Mititei]

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

 

The T5 is a great camera and you can get good results on the automatic setting. The others allow you to focus on manipulating one setting and letting the camera calculate the others. For instance if you are shooting a moving subject use the shutter priority to fix a higher speed that will freeze the subject. It will calculate the best aperture for the pic.

 

Here is a link that you might find useful.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/bh-guide-understanding-camera-shootingexposure-modes?cm_mmc=EML-_-Newsletter_Newsletter-_-150505-_-Body_Explora_Understanding-Camera-Exposure

[peety3]

Also for the sake of mention, green-box is full-auto: the camera decides everything, including when the flash will fire, and some things that it insists on controlling will not be available (and possibly not visible) in the menus. P (Program) is nearly full-auto: the camera decides a lot, except the (mostly menu-based) things that you choose to set manually, and it uses a very simple "algorithm" for whether the flash is used: if the flash is up, it gets used every time; if the flash is down, it gets used none of the time. Therefore, P can be a very useful mode for folks who want automation but need to keep control of the flash (i.e. in places where flash isn't allowed, or times when the subject is quite backlit and you want the flash to fill in their face but it's so bright that the camera wouldn't otherwise think to pop up the flash).