Ouch!

So what do these two images have in common. Well... Paint for one thing. I had my trusty EF 24-105 f/4 IS L glass mounted to my 40D on a whale watching tour we took while in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. The whales were pretty active as they were ending their stay in the Hawaiian waters. They were making their last preparations for their migration up to the Alaskan coast.

The hump back whales come down to the warm central Pacific waters to have their offspring an allow them to exercise and earn their stripes for the northern migration. The young whales will bend, blow, and breach around the waters stretching their muscles. Every action they take is in training for their big move. All under the watchful eye of mom whale.

There are rules in the Hawaiian Islands regarding approaching the migrating whales. Generally a vessel can not come within 100 yards of the whales. This is the rule for the captains, not necessarily for the whales though. I was up on the port side of the catamaran leaning up against the cabin corner which would be on the right side of the image above. I chose this location as it was the most protected from spray when the boat would his a wave. People on the trampoline and on the starboard side were definitely getting wet. We had seen a number of breaches and blows in the distance when a large spray came across the boat. The spray was a bit different than when the boat would his a wave, there was a strange noise associated with it. We were just figuring out the noise we witnessed was a whale blow very close to the boat when it happened. The boat lurched and then lunged in an unusual way, not at all like taking a wave the wrong way. We were flung sidewise while some fell onto the trampoline and others against the lifelines (guess thats why they call them that). Fortunately I was leaning against the cabin and was not only able to keep my footing but I was able to protect the camera from the spray. When the boat lunged I let my camera ride down the R-Strap while I held onto what ever I could grab. The camera banged around a little and the lens hood got that white marring but boy did I have a story.

Yes, that is what it was, a story. Hope it was a good one! What actually happened was while the camera was hanging on the R-Strap and I was maneuvering on the boat, the lens hood banged into a corner of the boat. Hence the white scar of paint on the hood. The rest of the story was all fabrication.

The lesson here regardless of how cool of a story you can come up with is this. My plastic hood took the hit and not the lens or camera. No harm, no foul. Not even to the whales.

Take care... Doug