One hundred and thirty three hours- Forty seconds of action

Описание: I want to share a little about the process to get these salmon spawning video sequences. Not so much the technique but the effort. First of all there is an element of luck for sure (more on this later). During this time of intentionally filming the spawning events happening in October on Vancouver Island I got six actual moments of egg release captured on camera. This is a pretty uncommon thing to film. Its easy to get all kinds of spawning behavior, but the actual few seconds of egg and milt release is another thing. (It took me several years trying before I first got it) So for these six spawns I spent sixteen days with my camera in the water. I have it on the end of a pole so I don't have to get in the water and I control it from a short distance away via a cable. Over these sixteen days I had my camera positioned to capture a spawn for a total of 133 hours. All for a total of six spawns that lasted for about a total time of 40 seconds. Yes I got bored, but actually only on the second last day. I had a comfortable little spot that I hid away in for fourteen of those days. I had some food, hot chocolate, music, and bears to keep me company. I can't wait to do it again next year hopefully in a different place. As for the luck part, I do believe there is a large element of that in wildlife filming. But you need to have the equipment, skill, and time to be there to get lucky. The first spawn of this time happened on the fourth day. But then I got two within a couple hour time period. In this clip you can see the female digging her redd, or nest. She continually checks it with her anal fin to see how much space there is between the larger rocks for her eggs to sink down through. This activity goes on for hours and often it gets dark before they spawn. I have watch hundreds of hours of this now in my career. Eventually she is ready and spawns. In this case she didn't completely empty of eggs and did it again right away which is not typical. I hope you enjoy watching this.

For my stock video clips of pink salmon spawning go here to my gallery.
https://www.eikojonesphotography.com/...