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Watching for Whales and Seeing More

 

When a whale-watching trip turned out to be part of our Alaska itinerary, I was excited—it seemed to me I was the last person on earth not to have gone on one—and I was determined to come home with a stunning picture. Hah. The best is above. If you look at the little red circle, you can see it. And here's the next best.

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So, the first thing I learned about whale-watching is that if you try to spot them looking through a viewfinder...you likely won't. It's not easy to turn to where someone has pointed out the whale, and at 30x telephoto actually get it into the picture before its gone. And hand-held small cameras with that much zoom, on a moving boat, tend to miss the next shot, too.

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Once I stopped trying for the picture and started looking for the eyeful instead, it got better. And, for the next time, I found some useful articles on how to photograph whales!

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And besides, when you're cruising in the deep waters near Juneau, Alaska, the whales are not even the best part of the show. That honor goes to the steller sea lions. They are near-endangered, they are the largest of all the eared seals, and they are as cute as all get-out. They look a bit like huge newborn hamsters.

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They flopped and jumped around by the dozens, especially on this shelf of rock. It's not all they do; they dive for fish, going as deep as 400 meters. As we left their rock colony, we spotted more: A group of them were using a navigation buoy as a base, rocking it back and forth.

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Aside from the sea lions and the whales, the most common wildlife on view was more whale-watching boats. I counted over a dozen, large and small, circling the area.

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But to be honest, whales, seals, boats and even dinner at Orcas Island lodge before returning took second place to the real star of the show: Alaska.

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The best part of every trip is realizing that it has upset your expectations

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Sometimes the whales are much more cooperative than what your experience was.  So go out and give it a  try again!

In fact at times, I think they're watching us rather than the other way around.  Take this gray whale, for example....

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Twitter: @DrFumblefinger

"We do not take a trip, a trip takes us".  John Steinbeck, from Travels with Charlie

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