Introduction
This year's "Marine mammals, grizzly bears and eagles" photography workshop at Telegraph Cove was my most ambitious workshop to date. More people, a lot more financial risk and with participants driving and flying from a variety of places it was a logistical headache.

However, with all risky ventures the potential rewards (which I measure as happy, repeat customers and great photographs) can be huge and this workshop proved to be a great success.

How did this potential nightmare begin? In 2006 I thought that my wife Audrey could do with a well earned holiday and suggested that she go on a multi-day kayaking adventure off Vancouver Island. She did the research, planned a trip and in August 2006 she flew to Campbell River to start her adventure. A few days later, Erin and I left Canmore in our minivan, drove to Vancouver Island and met Audrey in Campbell River. Audrey told us that we had to go and have a look at Telegraph Cove. The following day we drove to Telegraph Cove and after an evening of whale watching on the Stubbs Island I was hooked.

The next day I spoke to Mary Borrowman, who together with her husband Jim, own and run Stubbs Island Whale Watching and Orcella Expeditions.The result of our chat was that I booked five days of whale watching with Mary and Jim, and they sub-contracted a day of bear watching with Tide Rip Grizzly Tours and the rest is history!

The Workshop
The ferries and flights were all on time and with the help of Guy Lundstrom and Fred Melnyk we quickly took everyone from Comox airport up to Telegraph Cove. We stayed in either cosy cabins or in a room in one of the board walk rental properties.

Before our first dinner Jim and Mary introduced themselves and presented us all with Orcella Expedition windproof jackets and thermos flasks! The food throughout the week was simply excellent and I'm sure that we all gained weight! Mary and Jim were wonderful hosts and wanted to ensure that our stay was as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.

Following Mary and Jim's introduction, I explained the format for the week and made some photographic recommendations concerning autofocus, vibration reduction/image stabilisation etc. My assistant for the week was Jim Slobodian who works at The Camera Store in Calgary. Jim uses Canon equipment but is very familiar with Nikon cameras and was a great help throughout the week. Jim and I pointed out that we were there to help everyone get great shots and our photography was secondary to the participants.

On the first day of whale photography we met Jackie Hildering who is the head naturalist at Stubbs Island Whale Watching. Jackie joined us every day and her enthusiasm, energy and knowledge were infectious and added a lot of enjoyment and interest to the week.

The whale photography was conducted from the M.V. Gikumi, a beautiful wooden boat that comfortable and well equipped. There is a spacious covered stern where we could photograph and remain sheltered from the sun and occassional rain. We were on the Gikumi from 8 to 11 hours a day. Jim Borrowman is just as enthusiastic and knowledgeable as Jackie. When we departed Telegraph Cove in the mornings Jim and I would look at the where the best light was, talk about where the whales where and make rough plans. Throughout the day we adapted our plans depending on weather, whales, light and what the group wanted to photograph.

Happy photographers on board the Gikumi

Leaving a group of whales in the hope of finding more interesting whales or better light was sometimes a tough decision to make but every decision to move paid off.

In the evenings Jim Slobodian and I had planned on giving lectures and slideshows but we only managed to do two. The lack of lectures was due in part to the promise I made to copy images from memory cards to DVD's. With 12 participants shooting an average of 8GB each/day this meant a lot of burning!  Fortunately some members of the group had their own laptops or standalone storage devices which removed some of the burden. However, I have decided not to provide that service in the future so that I can spend more time teaching and doing constructive critiques.

What we photographed
We were hoping to photograph the following marine mammals during the week; resident (fish eating) Orcas, Humpback whales, Minke Whales, Dall's porpoises, Pacific white-sided dolphins, Steller sea lions and Harbour seals.

We had a great start on the first day when we saw several groups of resident Orcas come together to form a 'super pod' of over 100 whales. Jackie informed us that Orcas are highly social and are composed of matrilineal family groups.

The whale photography just seemed to get better each day! We followed a transient group of Orcas that were leaping out of the water. Photographed a rare fur seal. Saw lots of Humpback whales, up to 12 were seen on one day in the area, we even had the audacity to describe some Humpbacks as 'boring' (those that didn't fluke) and would move to Humpbacks that were more exciting. We also saw Humpbacks lunge feeding. Steller sea lions were very photogenic, especially at sunset when we couldn't find fluking Humpbacks.

The piece d' resistance came on the last day when we spotted a group of Orcas that neither Jim or Jackie could immediately identify. It soon transpired that they were a group of approximately 80 Offshore Orcas. This was a very rare sighting in Johnston Strait. Jim has a research permit and was able to get the Gikumi close to the Orcas to take identification photographs of the whale's dorsal fins and saddle patches. The group also took a lot of identification photographs in case Jim missed one of these rare animals. We followed the group for several hours until it was time to return to Telegraph Cove for another delicious dinner.

The sixth day was spent at Knight Inlet with Tide Rip Grizzly Tours. Unfortunately we were not as lucky with the bears as we were with the whales. We saw a total of five grizzlies but three of the bears were only seen fleetingly and not by everyone. The two bears that we photographed for longer were pretty far away and only those of us with long lenses got good photographs. This isn't typical for bear photography in the Knight Inlet and I would try my luck there again. Fortunately though, a bald eagle flew into the water just ahead of us and proceeded to haul out a fish and have lunch right in front of us. It was very close and most people got great photographs of the action.

Conclusion
This workshop went incredibly well and was worth a few sleepless nights during the planning. We all got on well, had fun and lots of incredible photographs were taken. A testimony to how well the trip went is the number of people that have booked next year's workshop in the Galapagos Islands.

Below are some of the photographs that were taken along with feedback from participants that have kindly sent me their comments.

Richard Berry - October 2007

Robert G. Brown "Another great trip. You raised the bar on this one."

Dana Naldrett