Pacific white-sided dolphins appeared at our local beach on a recent morning! This is a very rare occurrence, as we are quite far from the more oceanic habitats that they seem to prefer. In this case however they appeared to be quite actively hunting, perhaps for some rare delicacy that could bring them this far into our coves enclosed from the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Fish? Shrimp? Octopus? Whatever it was, they were hunting for hours that day, under the cover of light rain and overcast skies. Their loops and lunges brought them to the surface with speed and agility for dozens of passes at whatever they fancied. Several professional members of the ORCA Network came to behold, document and identify the pod.
Once in a while, their cute faces would break the surface, allowing for a split-second shot for any camera that happened to be ready. Fortunately, my Olympus (now OM System) OM-1 was ready in the Pro Capture (SH2) mode, which on a half-press of the shutter button will buffer a running burst of captures that can be saved on any moment’s notice. Simply fully press the shutter, and whatever you saw a moment ago is yours! Other cameras offer this too of course, but the quality, number, and rate of captures that the stacked sensor of the OM-1 can achieve is impressive. The autofocus during this process is evidently also quite effective.
Here is one of my favorite images from that day, which now also lives on iNaturalist.org as a rare, interesting and valuable addition to our public understanding of where these special animals are seen:
Central to the quality and closeness of this photograph was the M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F4.0 IS PRO lens:
I also own the M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II OM lens, which is ultra light for its far reach. I take that one with me on trail runs! The image quality and ‘speed’ of the 300mm F4.0 IS PRO lens however is unmatched, as you can see by my ’lucky’ results above.
