In the Field

Cirque du Dolphin. Johnston's Strait region of northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 22, 2011.

I don't know how many of you have seen a Cirque du Soleil performance, but when these 4 Pacific White-sided Dolphins (with the salmon as supporting cast) gave me this, I figured they must have been practising for the Cirque...

I captured this shot during my aquatic mammals photo tour in late summer of 2011. Since aquatic mammals spend at least 90% of their time below the surface, they are just a tad challenging to shoot from above the water. The solution? Get 'em while they're jumping or breaching (but WAY EASIER said then done).

We stumbled upon this team/school/pod/alliance/party (pick your favourite collective noun!) of dolphins while they were feeding on salmon. The salmon were literally leaping out of the water to get away from the dolphins, but as this image shows, that was a pretty fruitless activity. I tried for about 20 minutes to catch multiple animals "in flight" with a 70-200mm zoom but simply couldn't move quickly enough to get them in the frame (there was NO predictability to where they leapt up). So, I decided to "change gears" and put a wide angle lens on a higher resolution camera, with the thought that with wider angle of view would make it easier to at least get the leaping dolphins in the frame. And, I went to the higher-resolution camera with the thought I'd likely have to crop (potentially a LOT) to make the jumping dolphins "fill" a frame. Turns out my thinking paid off - this is only one of several frames I captured that included multiple flying dolphins (and I DID have to crop a lot - this frame represents ONLY about 2000 pixels of the 5000 or so pixels across the width of the frame.

While this image is really little more than a lucky grab and differs quite a bit from my usual posts (and is quite lacking in image quality), it was a whole lot of fun to capture. And, I suppose it would be great for a field guide - hard to imagine seeing more different angles of a Pacific white-sided dolphin in a single frame!

I posted this image on a nature photography website (right here on the Nature Photographer's Online Magazine) before posting it here. While there is a pretty huge uniqueness factor to this shot (and a great natural pattern), I suspected that this image wouldn't go over too well, mainly because of the relative low overall technical image quality (flat lighting, not the sharpest image on the planet, etc.). To my surprise, the image went over very, very well, and some even called it "One of my favs from your work." While this image is a LONG ways from being one of my own favourites, the positive response really points out how important having unique content is to the perception of an image's success. Over the years I've heard some photographers talk about the critical importance of "...getting the shot" - regardless of image quality. I suppose it's a derivative of the old concept of "f8 and be THERE!". No one will ever convince me that image quality is irrelevant to the success of an image, but the strong positive response to this image does make me pause and think a little...

Behind the Camera

Cirque du Dolphin. Johnston's Strait region of northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 22, 2011.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) 14-bit format; ISO 110

Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 zoom @ 50mm (75mm EFL) - handheld.

1//1000s @ f3.5; No compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Cirque du Dolphin. Johnston's Strait region of northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 22, 2011.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening and levels adjustment using Phase One's Capture One Pro 6. Two exposure variants - one at -0.4 stops (for bulk of image, including foreground and background) and one at +0.4 stops (for the dolphins and salmon).

Further digital corrections on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS5 and Light Craft's LightZone. Photoshop adjustments including compositing (layering and masking) the two exposure variants, selective curves adjustment (using simple layer masks), selective exposure adjustment (again using simple layer masks), selective colour saturation and desaturation, and final sharpening for web output. Final contrast/tone tweaking performed with LightZone using the tonemapper/re-light tool and the zonemapper tool.

Conservation

Cirque du Dolphin. Johnston's Strait region of northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 22, 2011.

Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to Pacific Wild*

Species Status in Canada**: Not listed as Endangered, Threatened, or of "Special Concern"

Nicknamed the "Lag", the Pacific White-sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) is known for its exuberance and is one of the liveliest dolphins in the northern Pacific. They commonly leap clear of the water, perform flips and somersaults, and will often approach and ride the bow waves of ships.

Lags will often form schools of 1,000 or more individuals. Their social lives are dynamic, with groups frequently joining together and breaking apart. Even though both sharks and killer whales commonly feed on them, they frequently have long life spans and some have lived for 40 or more years in the wild!

*Pacific Wild is a non-profit conservation organization that is committed to:

1. Defending wildlife and their habitat on Canada's Pacific coast by developing and implementing solution-based conservation strategies. Pacific Wild supports innovative research, public education, community outreach and awareness to achieve the goal of lasting environmental protection in the lands and waters of the Great Bear Rainforest.

2. Working with a diverse array of communities, First Nations, groups and individuals to ensure that biodiversity protection is at the forefront of land and marine use decisions.

3. Mobilizing a concerned global citizenry to achieve large-scale wildlife protection.

Natural Art Images supports the efforts of Pacific Wild and encourages you to do the same.

**as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada