Whale-Watching Layouts

Whales are among the largest creatures on earth, and also some of the smartest. These beautiful creatures are endangered and seeing them is an amazing experience. If you are lucky enough to go whale watching and get some pictures, you will definitely want to include them in your scrapbook.

Whale photos

Generally when you are whale watching, there are many opportunities to see the hump of the whale, but few occasions when you see the whale's tale or a breech. The trick is to be ready for the tale or breech so you don't miss the photo opportunity.  A fast camera will help, but any camera will do. To get the whale's tale, use a nice wide angle and keep the camera focused on the location where you think the whale is. When the whale comes up, use the repeating photo feature to get photos of the entire progression. You can then use them all or just keep the best tale photo.

A breeching whale is trickier to photograph because she is typically only in the air for seconds. Keep the camera focused and pointed towards the location where you think the whale is and keep your finger on the button.  Don't worry about zooming in or cropping the photo; you can always do that later.

If you have the opportunity to swim with whales, then you need a decent underwater camera. Since you will probably be swimming on the surface, you don't need a special scuba camera, just one that is designed for underwater photos.  Since the whale is large and visibility in the water is limited, you will want to use the widest setting on the camera. If you see the whale, just start taking pictures. They swim really fast so once they are gone, they are gone. Hopefully you will get a photo of the whole whale, but even a close-up of a fin or the bumps on her nose will be a special photo.

Whale-Watching Layouts

Once you have all these great whale photos, it can be quite a challenge to group them on layouts. If you have a really good picture of a whale, you might want to print it really large to emphasize the huge size of the creature like I did in this layout.

Whales are intelligent creatures that interact with each other and their environment. Interactions between mother and baby whale can be especially interesting to observe. If you have the opportunity to observe something like this you may want to tell the story on your layout. This can be done through a series of photos combined with journaling as I did on this layout.

Another idea is to group your photos by body part such as an entire layout of tale pictures and another layout of humps or breeches.

There are many choices for choosing papers and products for your whale-watching layouts. You may choose to use whale-themed products, or you may want to use products associated with your whale-watching location. Since my whale-watching adventures were in a tropical location, I chose to use tropical-themed papers and embellishments.  Likewise, if you went whale watching in New England, South Africa, or Alaska, you might want to use products associated with those locations.

I hope you enjoy your whale-watching adventures and come home with lots of great photos to scrap. Please check out my Scrapjazz gallery for product details on the layouts shown here.