Visit gallery: Salmon Run
Location and dates
One of the best locations to watch and photograph spawning salmon in the Greater Victoria area is at the Golstream Provincial Park, which is located 17 km from the downtown Victoria along the Highway 1. (Visit official site for more info).
The salmon enter the stream from October to December. We visited the park on November 14 this year. It was too early to see the bald eagles that converge on the estuary to feed on the dead fish later in the season. However, it was probably the best time to photograph the fish – they were still mostly in good shape, and the creek is not filled with their corpses. One could still get a full sense of the cycle of birth and death, though.
Lighting conditions
The creek is surrounded by tall trees, so it is becoming dark very fast during this time of year. In our experience, by 3:00 pm it is too dark to take handheld shots of the moving fish, birds, etc. with the ISO setting below 1000.
Typical weather during this time of year is cloudy with light rain, which results in low-contrast light without sharp shadows.
Subjects for photography
- Salmon and birds. The fish are moving fast! They are thrashing in the shallow water of the creek, inviting all observers to snap pictures of their agony. To freeze their motion, shutter speeds of 1/250 sec and shorter are necessary. Consequently, this calls for low f-numbers (fast lenses) and/or high ISO settings.
- Scenery. One can use a tripod, low ISO setting (to reduce noise), large depth of field, and long exposures (more than 1.5 sec) to blur the motion of the water running over the rocks and still bodies of the dead salmon. A polarizing filter can cut through surface reflections to reveal autumn-colord leaves and rocks at the bottom of the stream. Note: Avoid seagulls in the frame. They create ghostly shapes during long exposures.
- People. In addition to predators and scavangers of the animal kingdom, the annual salmon run attracts thouthands of tourists, who can be intrestings photo subjects. People are, generarally, moving subjects, so shutter speeds of 1/125 sec and shorter are necessary.
A particularly nice feature of the Goldstream Park is a variety of vantage points for photographing the fish and the birds from different angles – low and close from the bank of te stream and from the brigdes and boardwalks over the creek.