Orca Spyhop
by Katie Jones
This is a young, endangered Southern Resident killer whale (orca). She totally surprised us, spyhopping next to the boat, scaring us all. I do wish I had a little more room at the bottom of the image, but when the animals are the surface for only micro-seconds, I guess you have to take what you can get. Cheeky whales... ;) Any feedback appreciated!
~Camera and Settings~
Body: Pentax K7
Lens: Pentax DA 55-300mm
150mm, f/9.0, ISO 400, 1/1250 sec.
Lightened shadows and warmed the image up a bit as all the blue made it feel very cold. Is it still too blue? Is it maybe a little under-exposed?
Comments
5 commentsfor my taste there is enough room or space on the top. The splash is also very nice and I like, even when it was not planned, that the tip of the nose seems to hold the shoreline at the background. The blueish mood is something that I like as well, since it emphasizes the cool mood of the image.
Max
I like this one a lot. And, as someone who has spent a lot of time photographing Killer Whales, I fully understand the challenges in "perfectly framing" a spy-hop - they're rare, short-lived events that are almost completely random in terms of where (and when) they occur. So...yes, perhaps a BIT tight on the bottom, but totally understandable! The water streaming off the pecs adds to this image and you certainly nailed exposure. Very nicely done.
In terms of the warming: I think for the overall scene it's just fine (and the "scene" doesn't appear too blue to me), but at least on my monitor the white on the orca seems a bit too "orangish" (or warm). If you're comfortable with making selective changes in your image-editing, I'd experiment with leaving the warming as applied except that I'd pull it back somewhat on the white portions of the subject.
Cheers...
Brad
Agree about being tight at the botton, but you can always add some canvas here.
Jagdeep Rajput