Cuba Trip Pictures

[wetman]

Heres where the white balance seems to matter: my favourite pictures of anything typically involve natural lighting. I'm not a fan of flashes at all if i can help it. The one thing i love about the 5050 is that it takes excellent pictures in low light. So, if you're using a flash for the macro or close up shots, i dont think white balance is an issue at all because you're bringing your white back to true white with the lights that you're using to illuminate the subject. I love that feeling in a picture of truly being there and remembering an area exactly as i saw it - the white balance really seemed to help on the one dive that i did to restore some balance and get rid of that pure blue washed look since i wasnt taking RAW shots and editing them later. So i guess it really wouldnt be totally necessary all the time but for those shots, it would seem to restore things temporarily. Obviously you'd need enough ambient light for that but those are some of the kinds of pics i love. As well, if you're going for the true blue of the area you saw, i would think it would be necessary there as well - a lot of my pictures in the factory setting seem to have an unnatural cyan tinge to them, so i've photoshopped them back to the way i remember them.

But like i mentioned before, those were my first sets of pictures ever so I'll be experimenting much more and finding millions of new things no doubt. I can't wait to get down again. I love that 5050 though for its ability to be close to an SLR in features so that it gives you enough room to grow.

steve

 

[Hoppy]

Hi,

Thankx for brightening up my afternoon !

Somewhere I'd love to go to, maybe next year

The viz looked fantastic was it like that normally ? Or is that exceptional.

Care to give us more about the trip in general ? Who did you dive with ? Were they good bad indifferent?

Hotels etc etc.

Would be appreciated by someone who is a bit further away from that you lucky lot !

Cheers

Hoppy ;-0 I cant go this year

 

[wetman]

Well, the trip was absolutely excellent. We stayed in Varadero but most of our days we travelled to the Bay of Pigs which was a two hour trip south from there. This was actually quite interesting as we got to see many sites that people just staying in the land of resorts don't get to see. The first thing that sticks out is the absolute poverty of the general population. Its quite humbling knowing the way we live in our country and comparing it to the way others live in other countries in some cases.

The place we ended up staying didn't impress me food or service wise but apparently the group that went down last year was pleased so that shouldn't be generalized. Having just come back from cozument a few months ago though, we were spoiled so i think i expected a bit more.

We did 9 dives for the week and had to cancel one more because the water was too rough to get over the reef safely. The creatures there are quite nice, but nothing is too large (the grouper in the set of picture was the largest fish we saw at about 4ish feet). Apparently there is a great shark dive about 5 hours from varadero but that will have to wait til next time.

From what i've heard, I wouldn't go down there on a dive vacation without some local representation. Luckily, the dive shop in our home town is run by a Cuban and he still has lots of family and friends down there so there were no issues getting anything we needed and did things on our own group's schedule which was great.

The vis was excellent 70-100 feet i'd say. The vis in the cenote was crystal except fro some floating leaf fragments in the top 20ish feet or so - that cow skull was at the bottom at 135 feet and it doesn't even look like its in water.

Next time we go, even if we can't go with the guy who ran it this time, we're going to arrange for one of his friends to arrange the dive schedule and dive plus anything else necessary for the week. Its really the best way to do it. If you're interested, i can put you in touch with him.

steve

 

[hcs3]

it is a intermediate gastropod (snail) (as opposed to a primitive or advanced gastropods), from the family Ovulidae, commonly called shuttle shells.

the particular one you photographed is called Cyphoma gibbosum. it is only located on one of two corals ~ Gorgonia flabellum or G. ventalina.

oh ya, nice pics!

HTH

henry

 

[wetman]

You know, i just finished looking into this when i saw your post there. I've seen this listed as a flamingo tongue, a nudibranch, a flamingo tongue cowrie and a flamingo tongue nudibranch and i think a few others on the web. This name (Cyphoma gibbosum) seems to be the only truly great way to identify it! So from now on, i'm calling it a CyphGib

steve

 

[drbill]

The flamingo tongue is a shelled snail, not a nudibranch. Nudibranchs and their relatives either lack shells altogether or have small internal shells.

Although I've never had the pleasure of diving with this species, my understanding is that the shell is solid whitish in color and that the color and spots we see are part of the snail's mantle, a thin layer of tissue which is part of the animal's body.

If someone is willing to pay the good doctor's way to Cuba, I'll be happy to check them out personally!

:doctor: Dr. Bill