Dolphin Photos: Not Fish Jumping Out of Water

 

It May Look Like a Fish But, That's a Mammal Jumping

 

 Today, we visited the Motobu Wellness Village known locally as Genkimura.

People get to learn about sea animals by participating in the Dolphin Program.

Visitors are always coming to my website looking for fish jumping out of water.

So, I figured this would be easy shooting, watching the dolphins.

These characters move and jump so fast, it's good practice for photographers.

But, it isn't too easy.

Maybe, if you hang around long enough, you can break the code.

Hand signals, speech or, remote controls; I'm not sure how they get them jumping.

The next time I want to look for fish jumping out of water, I'll go somewhere else.

If you want to know more about why dolphins are mammals instead of fish go here.

Other Exciting News from Today's Camera Travels

One of our tasks, was to find this purple flower and, we gotterdun.

There were lots of photos taken and, one of the plants is hanging out behind my office.

It's just going to take me awhile before presenting this gem.

The scientists named the plant Clitoria ternatea.  Groan.

How do they manage to come up with names, like that, for these things ?

More on this subject later.....

Jumping Over Mt Katsuu: How We Gotterdun

She Really Didn't Jump That High

The pretty girl didn't have to jump over 400 meters in the air to compose this photo.

I took it while waiting for the Katsuyama Shikuwasa Flower Festival Festival to Kick off.

Most girls would look at you like you were crazy if you asked them to try this.

Say something like, "Nene, how about a picture of you jumping over that mountain?"

Well, she did seem to act like she was confronting a lunatic, at first.

But, thanks to the Zuckerberganator, the gal recognized RyukyuMike from Facebook.

So, she took a minute of her time to listen to my plan.

 We borrowed two folding chairs from the set-up in front of the stage.

They were strategically placed so she just had to jump-up a tad while I shot the photos.

That's how we gotterdun.

How It's Done: Catching Jumping Fish With Your Digital Camera

Capturing fish jumping out of the water is just like capturing any wildlife in action.

It's done by watching, waiting, studying their habits and learning their patterns of behavior.

Not much different than trying to catch some rambunctious children at play. It's easier than shooting kids, for me, actually because most animals are predictable!

These guys, I learned from watching, patiently, jump in pairs a few seconds apart. So, when one jumped, I'd start zooming-in near the area he jumped from.

It wouldn't be a split second later, one of his sidekicks would jump from almost exactly the same spot.

Then, I'd fire away with my camera in the Burst Mode.

There's a few more tricks you need to know if you want to do like I do and shoot in the Manual Mode. You can stumble around in my GALLERY and find the camera specs I used shooting the fish but they won't be taken at the readings my light meter told me to use. See, the water's pretty dark. But when the fish jump and the sun hits them, the available light changes drastically.

There's an Ebook forthcoming. I can feel it. It's just on the back burner, for now.

STAND BY FOR MORE