California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) Occupy the Red MB Morro Bay, CA Buoy, as usual, as we head out to open sea in our search for whales! Morro Rock and the smaller adjacent Pillar Rock can be seen in the background here.  Subsea Tours Dos Osos Blue and Humpback Whale Watching Photomorrobay Tour Saturday 10 July 2010, 6AM - 9AM. Nine Photomorrobay members or docents ventured out (a few miles west of Morro Rock) in search of Whales. We saw two Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding with shallow dives, and followed them for about an hour, resulting in a number of nice tail fluke shots. Our much-sought Blue Whales were not to be seen on this trip (we had seen one exactly one week ago on 03 July 2010). The call tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/photomorrobay/message/1940 said Join Owner Kevin Winfield, Captain David Butler, naturalist interpreter Rouvaishyana, and me, Mike Baird (I'll be offering photo tips) on this unique early-morning photo opportunity.  Ref. www.subseatours.com (you may need to use the “www”) Subsea Tours 805-772-9463 (WIND). Photo by "Mike" Michael L. Baird, mike [at} mikebaird d o t com, flickr.bairdphotos.com; Shooting a Canon EOS 1D Mark III 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera, Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens with circular polarizer (to great effect), handheld. To use this photo, see access, attribution, and commenting recommendations at www.flickr.com/people/mikebaird/#credit - Please add comments/notes/tags to add to or correct information, identification, etc. Please, no comments or invites with badges, images, multiple invites, award levels, flashing icons, or award/post rules. Critique invited. Tech note: Due to low light and the desire to keep shutter speeds near 1/1000 of faster, or at least > 1/mm, I was generally shooting wide open, with ISO mostly at 1600 or at least 1250 (which required substantial noise filtering in Lightroom).