Few random pics (sharks, eels, small stuff)

[cozcharlie]

Below is a link to some pictures in Lightroom for anyone that is bored and wants to skim through. Nothing too special, just a couple of shark photos I forgot to post in December, some aglajas (Leech, Black, Cuban) and other stuff. There is a picture of 3 black aglajas in what looks like some sort of a 3-way. The various species of aglajas were all over the place on the small wrecks dive just north of town. If I had been walking on bottom instead of swimming would have been impossible not to step on them.

The two photos of small shark that looks like it is under a ledge is actually an old tire--couldn't get that great of an angle on the shark but just the idea of a shark in a tire was interesting to me. Also included a few new jellyfish photos for those that like them.

[https://adobe.ly/2KcO13n]

Seems like the Scubaboard compression algorithm that reduces file resolution for my pictures still isn't working very well--takes way too long to upload a photo. I could try to resave everything in a much lower resolution but I don't want to fool having duplicates of everything. The system that automatically scaled down upload photo resolution to save space worked fine all year, just something changed around the start of the year where things that would take 10 seconds to upload now take 5 minutes. Shark below is first file I tried before I gave up.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

Great photo. Did you use a strobe?

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

great photos. thanks for making me even more anxious for next week.

 

[Compressor]

Like the photos very much. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[cozcharlie]

Great photo. Did you use a strobe?

Probably all of this batch used strobes. Sony RX100 VII, Nauticam Housing, Dual S&S YSD3 strobes, Nauticam CMC1 or CMC2 macro lenses where appropriate.

Btw, I went back north looking for eagle rays. Only saw 2 at very end of the dive. Angle and distance were such that I didn't expect good photos--used ISO 400 without strobes just to see how colors/clarity would turn out. Didn't look good despite having decent amount of sunlight that day. It is the water that always comes out odd looking before and after trying various lightroom adjustments. Maybe it just me, but it always seems like the water north of town is a little cloudier than south of town. Not certain what is up with that, may be more freshwater coming out from the island relative to the southern sites where the current is coming from the open ocean more or less. Viz has gotten quite a bit better btw, probably around 80 feet up north where it was 50 a couple of weeks ago. People that dove 30 minutes after us in more or less the same location evidently saw 10 eagle rays. Definitely still hit or miss.

 

[arew+4]

Nice pictures, what sort of rig are using? Are the jellies and the one fish portrait UV illuminated?

 

[Guitarcrazy]

I have a TG-5 and the Olympus housing. I have been using it for the last 2 years, and have had some decent shots. I bought a Sea and Sea strobe and took it to Coz last February, but unfortunately it flooded on the first dive. I was able to revive it and am hoping to use it on our trip in 3 weeks. I am pretty clueless about the strobe operation though, so I guess a lot of trial and error is in store.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

On another note, my wife and I dove the northern side a few years ago and saw lots of eagle rays. The current was ripping though. My wife inadvertantly went down to 110' following a ray while in a down current. Her computer was beeping but she didn't know what that meant. Luckily I was close enough to grab her and get us going back up.

 

[cozcharlie]

Nice pictures, what sort of rig are using? Are the jellies and the one fish portrait UV illuminated?

No special UV with jellies or fish portrait. Jellies are lit from the side in very shallow water while snorkeling (6 inches to 2 feet). I noticed they looked like they were emitting some sort of light a couple of weeks ago, so I started fooling around with having strobe arms out in front of camera with strobes pointed inward with jelly in between them. I really don't known much about jellies other than they sometimes make neat photo subjects. @ggunn had mentioned a neat exhibit in Monterrey Aquarium with jellies in a post a couple of weeks ago.

Is this the fish portrait you were talking about? (EDIT: Picture didn't post, could see on my screen but didn't post, was kind of fluorescent blue/green facing slightly away from camera with eye in lower left quadrant, tail mid/upper right ) It looked almost fluorescent to naked eye so I just took a picture of it. Pretty much as shot, though I increased exposure a bit. Think it is a fairly common species (I didn't try to ID it, but it looked familiar), but I am not used to those colors. Maybe it was mating or something.

 

[arew+4]

This guy made me think maybe you were doing UV.

Weird, showed the picture fine in preview then disappeared in post...