9 days, 20 hours of sunlight per day, 4 fishing trips, 1 kayaking trip, 1 bear watching charter, and plenty of Gin & Tonics provided me with a plethora of photographs that I'm now sifting through (3000 shutter clicks).  Over the next few posts I'll highlight some of my favorite images, and tell a story or two about the amazing places and animals of Kodiak.  

In this entry I'm going to focus on whales... This image was taken of a Fin whale, in (of all places) Whale Pass.  It was our second day of charter fishing in Kodiak, and I was hopeful that we'd see more whales than we had the day prior.  I was not disappointed!  Right after we set anchor to fish for halibut, we heard, and then saw this animal. 

Fin Whale in Whale PassA Fin whale coming up for air in whale pass, Kodiak, Alaska.

For those of you who've tried, you'll probably agree that photographing whales is not easy.  There are many difficulties involved - including spotting the whales early enough to train your camera on the right location and focus quickly, and then having a steady enough hand combined with the right shutter speed so that you don't end up with blurry images.  A good rule of thumb to follow is to have your shutter speed at least equivalent to the focal length of your lens.  For this image, I had a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second, as I was using a 500mm lens.  

For my other whale photos from this trip (including humpbacks) visit the Whales Gallery.