Ogden Point kelp photos.

[MarkH]

I'm glad I stayed away from the Inlet today, but the vis wasn't great at Ogden Pt either (around 15 feet). Good thing I had a wide angle lens to fake better visibility. It was frustrating to try and keep the tripod standing up in the surge though.

 

[Aqua Buoy]

I'm glad I stayed away from the Inlet today, but the vis wasn't great at Ogden Pt either (around 15 feet). Good thing I had a wide angle lens to fake better visibility. It was frustrating to try and keep the tripod standing up in the surge though.

Very nice photos... I like...

Looks kinda cold but it makes me want to go diving :bncry:

Thanks for sharing though

 

[deepdiverbc]

I noticed your slung pony. Have you always used a sling? Also do you only use it when solo diving?

Nice pics by the way. I know you take shots of yourself while solo diving but did you have help lining up these ones?

 

[MarkH]

I noticed your slung pony. Have you always used a sling? Also do you only use it when solo diving?

Nice pics by the way. I know you take shots of yourself while solo diving but did you have help lining up these ones?

I wouldn't usually use the bailout on a dive as shallow as the depths where most of those photos were taken, but about half of the dive was at 70 feet, so I brought it along. I started using it about a year ago. Yes, I was by myself yesterday and it was hard to get the tripod to stand up in the surge in the shallows, so I had to wrap a few strands of bull kelp around it to hold it up although it still swayed around a bit. When I dive with someone else, I still like to be self-sufficient so I still use the pony (and it would be too much trouble to keep installing and removing an octopus from my reg).

 

[deepdiverbc]

I must say I am impressed. You must set a timer and then swim into the filed of view. The main trick I expect is to get the exposure right the first time so you don't waste all your air redoing timed photos.

I don't know if my large Oly5050 and ikelite housing would balance very well on a tripod but its an interesting idea.

 

[ChillyWaters]

I don't know if my large Oly5050 and ikelite housing would balance very well on a tripod but its an interesting idea.

My Canon would float away --- I guess I should put some weight in that puppy.

- ChillyWaters

 

[MarkH]

I must say I am impressed. You must set a timer and then swim into the filed of view. The main trick I expect is to get the exposure right the first time so you don't waste all your air redoing timed photos.

I don't know if my large Oly5050 and ikelite housing would balance very well on a tripod but its an interesting idea.

Yes, I set the timer on the camera. It's an older (1979's or 1980's) Minolta SLR, so there's a knob you set so when you push the shutter release button, you have about 8 seconds to swim more or less to where you want to be. It's all manual exposure, so I preset it to what I think will be the conditions (depth, amount of light). The kelp ones above were f11 and 1/125 sec with 400 speed film, but it's print film so it's not really picky. The tripod weighs around 5 pounds so there's no chance of the camera floating away. The hardest part is finding a flat sandy area to set it up (or somewhere you're not going to wreck any life). I probably do waste quite a bit of air trying to swim over frantically in front of the camera before the shutter goes off.