Branching in Bahia de Banderas

[opisthobranch]

I had the great privilege of spending last week diving with Alicia Hermosillo in Bahia de Banderas (Puerto Vallarta). We ended up seeing 64 species of opisthobranchs in 6 days of diving. 90% of these I'd never have seen without Ali who knows more about the nudibranchs in this area than anyone alive. We also saw quite a few frogfish and lots of other interesting macro subjects. Overall a great week. Have a look.

Puerto Vallarta Images

Clinton

 

[hdtran]

Gorgeous photos!

Hy

 

[opisthobranch]

Thanks! Nice to meet you the other day.

Clinton

 

[hdtran]

Thanks! Nice to meet you the other day.

Clinton

Very nice to meet you on the boat at Majahuitas, and again, gorgeous photos! It is definitely not the equipment, but the photographer!

Hy

 

[mb diver]

Love the photos! and I completely agree that diving with Alicia is such a fantastic experience. She shows you a whole new perspective of diving...it is so easy to overlook these tiny beauties, but once you dive with Ali, you become a "nudibranch junkie". I hope to dive with her again in September! I love diving Banderas Bay, There is so much to apprecitate- everything from giant Mantas to the tiniest brilliant beauty of the nudis.

 

[Chocoholic]

Great pics, thanks for sharing. What type of camera do you use?
I am researching a new camera and trying to decide.

 

[Chocoholic]

I love nudis, they are little works of art, they remind me of gorgeous murano glass.

 

[opisthobranch]

Great pics, thanks for sharing. What type of camera do you use?
I am researching a new camera and trying to decide.

Thanks!

I'm shooting a Nikon D200 in a Subal Housing. I have 2 Sea and Sea YS 350 strobes which are powerful (and positively buoyant which evens out the rig as a whole). For Macro I'm using the Nikkor 105mm AF-S VR Micro lens and for wide angle the Tokina 10-17 fisheye lens.

The 105 on a D200 is a bit of a pain to shoot. Autofocus is really quick to fail to focus on anything. Needs a lot of light. The Fisheye Fix light I bought for a focus light isn't nearly powerful enough to allow accurate autofocus so I often use my HID canister light for that. Not exactly elegant but it works. If it isn't too surgy and the subject isn't moving too fast I usually manually focus by getting the focus close and moving the camera in and out until I get the focus I want. I suspect newer cameras are better at autofocus but the 105 will always be a bit cantankerous I suspect. Thinking about buying a MacroMate diopter to shoot really small things but that will definitely be a manual focus situation.

Love the 10-17 for wide. Reasonably sharp and being a fisheye it's sharp in the corners too. Very flexible going from 100 degrees all the way out to full 180.

I bought it all about 4 years ago so the camera is a bit obsolete now. The D300 is the replacement and looks nice enough. Re-vamped autofocus and better low-light performance. It's been around for a bit too so I wouldn't be surprised to see a D400 in the next 6-9 months. The strobes aren't made anymore either and have been replaced by the YS 250 Pro which look great but aren't as buoyant. Love the Subal housing. Pricey though.

Clinton

 

[TSandM]

What an incredible trip! The photographs are stunning (love the flame-tipped fireworm) but what impresses me even more was that you have species information on almost all of them. I know I'd be jumping up and down in the water to see so many different slugs, but I wouldn't have a clue what most of them were.

This is my favorite:

What an irony that some of the most beautiful things in the water are slugs!

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Clinton,

Just got back to Vallarta today, Ali tells me water is now 84 F at the surface and 80 F at depth (full summer temps now and no thermocline in sight anymore), bluer water too.

Allison and Kevin were diving with her last year for the fourth of July weekend and the water had already changed, same as this time.

I bet it is a bit cooler up in Monterey right now !