Photographing Humpback Whales advice

[hickybank]

I am going on holiday in May, taking in Canadian Rockies & Alaska,I cannot miss the chance of going Whale watching,

I am wondering what might be the best setting for photographing this magnificent beasts, I live in England so chances are this will be my one & only visit to this area.

I have a Canon 550D with a Tamron 18-270mm lens.

Any advice greatly appreciated,

Thanks

terry

[OsmosisStudios]

Continuous AF, burst mode shooting, use a single point AF and spot or centre-weighted metering.

270mm is still gonna be a bit short, even on a crop sensor camera. I was in Alaska in 09 and shooting with 300mm and it was still too short. I would have liked 400 or 500.

[hickybank]

Thanks for that, I did think the lens would be a bit short but I will have to put up with that, also don't particularly want to fit a X converter due to the loss of light, but I have made a note of the settings & will have a play about before we go.
Cheers
Terry

[Jim Bryant]

Afraid that there are laws in place protecting whales and just how close you can get to them.
If, this a boat tour, most captains know the distance they are allowed to be (or not).
You might want a longer lens.