July Cozumel Pictures

[Detonate]

Here is the first crop of pictures taken from my latest trip to Cozumel.

All pictures were taken with a Nikon D70 in an Ikelite Housing, with the 18-70mm Kit Lens with a Dome port. Lighting was dual Ikelite DS125's both with Manual Controllers.

The was my first attempt, both with a DSLR, and with manual strobes. It's very different for sure.

f5.6 1/200

f6.3 1/500

f7.3 1/400

f10 1/500

f10 1/500

f10 1/500

 

[chippy]

Those kit lenses seem nice and sharp.

That puffer doesn't look too pleased though :11:

 

[justleesa]

Wow! Your first attempts are great!

 

[Detonate]

Yeah, I didn't even think about the Puffer shot until after I posted it.

The DM really wasn't harrasing the fish. It was harrasing me! It kept swimming at me bashing it's little head into my Dome until it blew up.

At that point the DM craddled it and pushed it back below the current because it was floating upwards.

Guess I should have added that disclaimer on the shot....

 

[Detonate]

Wow! Your first attempts are great!

Thanks! But before you boost my ego too high, keep in mind this is just 6 pictures out of 6 gigs worth I took over the past week.

The lighting and sharpness of this just jumped out at me through the file browser. Hopefully I'll find at least a couple more keepers in the lot.

 

[justleesa]

Don't even ask me about what I throw away!

 

[Dee]

Very nice! Great detail.

 

[alcina]

Lovely shots!

On to my little speech for a moment - and I am not bashing you per se, you have merely provided an excellent example for me to get he't up with...

...that little puffer was probably trying to tell you to get the h*ll away from him/his area/his food source/his mate when he was bashing into your dome. Last ditch was to puff himself up and "scare" you off with his ferocious weaponry. By not heeding his communications, you did harrass him...he doesn't see things like you do.

We all need to be aware of our impact on the environments we visit and act responsibly. Just because it can't hurt us doesn't mean we get to ignore the warnings...don't think had it been a tiger shark dropping its fins and circling in and bumping the port that you would have been quite as blase about the whole matter.

It's their home, we're just visiting and should be respectful guests.

 

[Detonate]

I mean this in the most polite way, honestly...
We could go back and forth on this all night, but let's just leave it at you weren't there, so you really shouldn't speak as though you were.

The whole "incident" of seeing the puffer, composing the shot, him bashing, him puffing, me laughing and flooding my mask, clearning my mask, and taking the photo as the DM pushed the fish down below the current occured in less than 15 seconds.

It's one thing to say for instance "Maybe the fish puffed because you were...." and quite another to say "You did harrass..." which specifically implicates me as an offender, which is kinda insulting to be quite honest.

Besides. It's already been pointed out to me that the Puffer Fish Dome Puffing is a known issue with Ikelite D70 housings, as illistrated here:

 

[alcina]

Regardless of what happened on that particular dive, I think Detonate's photo stands as a good illustration for all divers (not just photographers) to not believe that we know what is going on under the sea. Sea creatures probably don't perceive things etc in the same way we do. And I hope many people see it and read this thread and become more aware.

I also hope that people read and understand that I don't believe the photographer was being nasty to the fish, the dm was being mean. My resulting posts aren't meant as bashings, debate starters or insults.

I simply want people to be more aware of what is going on around them and to realise that even passive interaction sometimes isn't. I took this fabulous photo as an opportunity to do this and I used the pronoun "you" deliberately so each reader would be included. Anything we can do to improve our diving skills, to advance our knowledge/understanding and to encourage others to do the same can only be good for the creatures we so enjoy. Sometimes we forget our responsibility to educate or to do the right thing coz it's only "this one time"...

I do apologise if any, especially Detonate, took my previous post as insulting or nasty. It was not my intention.

Skipping the preaching...the photo itself is beautifully done and is of a calibre that I suspect many of us aspire to - so are the others in the group. Can't wait to see more.