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[MaxBottomtime]

Frank Lukowski and Charlie Bartleson joined us today for two dives on the Westside. We began our day with the best visibility we've ever seen on the Redondo Barge. It was easily thirty-five to forty feet. I shot video on the first dive while Merry and Frank flashed strobes constantly. Several small lingcod patrolled the sand, and we even had a couple of jelly sightings.
Our next stop was the crane off Haggerty's. Thwe water was green and full of particulates here. The large kelp forest was gone, leaving barren sand around the barge. Several garibaldi nests had eggs that were nearly fully developed. Charlie shot video on this dive, and got a mating pair of garibaldis. One of the moray eels was in his usual perch, but wouldn't come out, even for the squid we brought with us.

Here's a few of Merry shots.

[youtubehq]SIeD89WUr7U[/youtubehq]

 

[FrankPro1]

Woah. You both came back with some great captures.
Phil, superb wide angle on the Crane. Really like the shot of Merry peering through the wreck and of course the one of me That lens is extremely versatile. From the hermit to the über wide capture of #9, all excellent!
Merry, Great wide angle shot of all three of us. What f/stop, iso and exposure time did u use? Was it shot purely ambient?

 

[Merry]

Hi Frank,
We certainly had fun with you and Charlie today! Although my strobes happened to fire for that shot, they were not close enough to illuminate anything.
Camera settings were: f/2.5, 1/40th, ISO 200. (FYI, ISO 200 was too grainy for the little snail - normally I use ISO 100 for macro).

 

[FrankPro1]

ISO 200 was too grainy for the little snail - normally I use ISO 100 for macro).

I usually shoot in ISO 80 all the time. I need to remember to change my ISO for those wider shots, sometimes opening up the aperture and dropping the shutter speed isn't enough.

What species of snail is that in your 2nd shot?

 

[bperc]

Very nice pictures, AGAIN. I especially like #9. Atomic looking. Thanks

 

[Merry]

What species of snail is that in your 2nd shot?[/QUOTE]


No idea. It was tiny (see amphipod next to it), and it has a bit of growth. It was under a flake of rusting deck, and it rapidly crawled back underneath before I could get a 3rd shot of it. It was fast!

 

[LLKZ16]

Great shots!

What was the vis? it looked unbelievable.

Also, how deep is the barge, just wondering.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We had about forty feet vis at the barge, thre best I've ever seen. It was a chunky fifteen at the crane. The barge is in 82 feet about a mile off Vet's.