Fiji Dive Pics!!!

[npaden]

Well, just got back from our trip to New Zealand and Fiji and just got my dive pics all sorted out and prettied up as much as possible and slapped together a web page for anyone who is interested.

I put a link on my homepage at www.padens.homestead.com under the hyperlink "Fiji Vacation Pics".

This was my first saltwater diving (just got certified back in May specifically in preparation for this trip) and also the camera setup was new as well. All pics were taken with an Olympus 5050Z with an Olympus housing with a wide angle lens and Ikelite DS125 strobe. The faults with the pictures were not the fault of the equipment by any means but rather the skill of the one taking the pictures! Underwater photography is definitely a challenge as I took over 400 pics to get the ones you see on the page.

Fiji was AWESOME!!! Everyone there is so friendly and relaxed! We really enjoyed our stay at http://www.coconutgrovefiji.com and we did our diving with http://www.aquaventure.org We booked our airfare through http://www.discoverwholesaletravel.com We were very happy with everything about our stay except having to come home when our vacation was over!

The final package was actually pretty reasonable, not a whole lot more than a package trip to the Caribbean. If you are really interested shoot me an email and I will give you all the details.

Anyway, don't be to critical of my first attempt at scuba diving and underwater photography. Hopefully there are a few pictures on there that you can enjoy. It really was amazing.

As I get my other pics together I will add them to the website in some form or fashion. Still have about 250 snorkeling pics to go through and about 400 pics of the scenery in Fiji and New Zealand!

FWIW, Nathan

 

[ssra30]

Hi, you have some pretty good shots, considered it was your first time out with your camera.
I think you had some problems with aiming your strobe in some pictures. Your blue ribbon eel pictures did not look like they had much help from the flash at all. Since you have Ikelite DS 125, use the modeling light to check your aim. Sometimes I use the modeling in the picture just to make sure that the strobe is pointing at the right thing then if the light create too much hotspot in the picture then I turn it off and retake the picture.
Do you have the regular arm for the strobe or the deluxe arm. The deluxe ball and socket arm from Ikelite is much easier to position and much more flexible so I would highly recommend it especially for macro shots.
Get closer to your subject. Even with the DS 125, you still needs to be quite close, 2-3 feet ideally.
Pictures from my trip to Sipadan was taken after I have been playing with my setup for about 40 dives prior to the trip so I had a bit more practice and lots of bad pictures to learn from.

 

[Hooked4Life]

Nathan, Last weekend was my first time to take the c5050 underwater. I am shooting internal flash for now, and I can only imagine the first time underwater with that setup would be indimidating. Most of the pics turned out nicely of Fiji. I would agree that you need to get a little closer to the subjects.

About Fiji, what were the water temps? I was suprised to see you guys wearing hoods?

 

[npaden]

It really was an amazing trip. If you ever get the chance it is definitely worth the trip! The soft corals were amazing, supposedly among the top 3 or 4 spots in the world, many of the corals that we saw literally covering the reef are still considered impossible to keep in even the most advanced reef aquariums. (My real hobby)

The place where we were diving is called the Rainbow Reef in the Somosomo Straits which is where there is a narrow neck between 2 islands. The currents get pretty strong there which is a big reason for why the soft corals do so well. Definitely your dive plan needs to be with the current when it is running, you only have 1 shot at most pictures because you are floating by so fast. You can swim hard against the current to stay in place but it burns up air way fast.

Safety stops on the dives when the current was running consisted of looking for any bare rock between 15 and 25 feet deep that could support you against the current. (which was hard sometimes because all the rock was covered by corals) Some of the most spectacular views were at the safety stops but the current was to strong at some of the stops that I wasn't able to even swim in place and take pictures and it's pretty hard to take pics while you are holding onto a rock for dear life!

The water temp was 79 degrees as it is winter there right now. I probably didn't need the 3mm suit I was wearing but I don't have a dive skin yet so I wore it. The funny thing was that the guides were completely geared up for cold water diving with hoods and everything and they still were getting cold! The air temp was between 80 and 85 and at times at the surface I would see them shivering because they were cold!

Oh well, suffice it to say that the pictures just can't do justice to the real thing but it is definitely better than nothing! The majority of the pics that I trashed were even farther away than the ones that I kept. Hard to resist the urge to take pictures trying to give the entire scope of what you see rather than just a very small area. Of course once you get back and realize that you were just wasting time and air taking those pics it may be a little easier not to take them next time! I think aiming a strobe is even more difficult using a wide angle lens so the first add on I will buy is definetly going to be a strobe as the WAL and strobe I was using were borrowed.

Thanks again for the comments.

Nathan

 

[AliKat]

Those are some nice pics. I have a 4040 that I only have had in the water once. I made the mistake of taking the strobe in first time. Next few times is going to be internal flash only.

Fiji is one of my dream dive trips. Considering it is only a 6 hour flight direct from Honolulu, I guess I have no excuses. When I do go, I'm planning a side trip to Tonga and maybe the Cook Islands.

 

[npaden]

Well, I've been through my snorkeling pics and of course most of them turned out better. These were taken with the Olympus 5050Z and the PT-015 housing only.

http://www.padens.homestead.com/Vacation.html

FWIW, Nathan