What a morning. We typically start our morning out on the bow of the ship before sunrise in search of any aquatic megafauna that we can find. So how did we do you ask. Well; we happened to come upon a large pod of false killer whales. My friend Carlos has only witnessed them five times in the last 21 years. Plus these were cooperative and didn’t flee thankfully as we tried to peacefully approach for some fantastic views. What is so amazing too is that they actually have a bent ‘elbow’ like shape in their pectoral fins. A big field mark in identifying them, if they breach the waters.
After leaving the false killer whales we began transversing the waters to our destination Isla San Marcos. This would be the site of our beach side bar-b-que and my only attempt at a star trail. When we arrived at the island the sun was at high noon and the light was awful. There didn’t seem to be a picture anywhere you could point your lens. Not to mention the lizards were just not having any part of sticking it out in the harsh mid-day sun. Thankfully we had a nesting pair of ospreys to camp out for. Since it is early nesting season we avoided the best we could to approach the nest in anyway. What we did do is camp out on the shore line working any flybys that we could. Some may have just panned out 
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The night was a fun one. This is my second time working the star trails. Nikon caps their continuous shutter releases at 100 in the D300, which is a major pain in the kiester. So I purchased the MC-36 to try and remedy the situation. Unfortunately what I thought would finally solve the problem doesn’t. It still forces the internal setting to sit at no less then a second, causing a second gap. So while the broad picture is awesome, the 100-200% crop isn’t too pleasing. Something I’m hoping that can be remedied. Either way It’s a ton of fun. If this internet would get its darn act together I would be able to push these out to you sooner. Shot 38gb the other day….38 gb! (and possibly more today, yikes!) *more to come soon (tomorrow)*
This is a Phenomena called the green flash. it happens to occur as the sun rises (and sets I believe) over the horizon with nothing blocking its path. It happens for a split second and I had to let the shutter rip to get what I wanted.
This is a Breach of a false killer whale. I wanted to share with you that distinctive field mark that you can clearly see here.
A sperm whale fluke with water cascading as it dives deep into the ocean.
One of many brown footed boobies that were flying incredibly close to the boat for a close up.
A bottlenose dolphin breaching alongside the zodiac as they fly outward to try and get some underwater footage.
Although I really enjoy this image of stampeding sea lions it also upsets me. If you look at the female on the upper left side she has a dark ring around her neck. Garbage that has wrapped around her neck and will lead to her death if left untreated. Thankfully Lindblad helps to get donations to help save these mammals. Hope she is one of them. Please take your fishing lines, trash, and nets back with you or dispose of them properly. Thank you.
Whad’ya think?
Two guys that I requested not try and get out of my shot. That is venus in the background between them. I boosted the contrast and raised my black point to get the darker vignetting you see.
mm..mmm..mmmm… is all I can say. The sun was perfectly kissing these veggies as they were being grilled on a skillet out on the beach. It was incredible! Incredibly tasty too. 
The result of 107 one minute frames stitched together. I missed Polaris by a fraction of an inch. Had limited time, but I’m liking the result more and more especially over just using ‘bulb’ on the camera.
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