Photography Thread Revival

[Guitarcrazy]

I am happy if I get 1 out of 100 as "keepers". At least half of the pictures are 'meh'. Not terrible, but not anything interesting enough to keep. And then maybe 1 out of 1000 is interesting enough that I want to print it, and then I am disappointed because the TG typically doesn't give me enough data to print at a size I am happy with. The Canon has a larger sensor and more MPs, so hopefully I will be able to print more with it. It is able to do full manual, and I am looking forward to that.

As for blackwater dives, I also want to try that. I was in Coz in late October diving with Challenge Divers. Great dive op, but they don't offer blackwater dives. I was told that Aldora does? Anyway, I hope to try that sometime soon.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

My favorites from 2022...so far.

 

[Jonnyola87]

I second the above. I want to try some blackwater shots. I'm guessing it's a matter of narrowing the light so that it only strikes the subject. I'm planning on building a snoot for my strobes soon, maybe that'll help.

 

[Jonnyola87]

My favorites from 2022...so far.
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These are outstanding! What's your setup? Love the random Ringo shot.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

Max, your photos are on another level. I thought the photo of Ringo should have been followed by an octopus......

On your Nudi shots, are you taking them with a black glass on the bottom, or another manner?

 

[Barmaglot]

How do you do the blackwater pics? They're stunning! I've never done a blackwater dive and I'm so curious. Do you just find something, highlight it with a flashlight and then shoot? You can't just be shooting at nothing ...

I have a flashlight attached by a lanyard to my left shoulder D-ring; during the dive, I swim around with the camera rig in my right hand, and flashlight in the left, scanning the water around me with the beam. The camera is set up with two strobes, one on each side of the lens, pointing forward and inward, plus a focus light on top, pointing forward and down. When the beam highlights something interesting, I get closer, bring the camera in front so that the subject is illuminated by the focus light, drop the search flashlight so that it dangles on its lanyard, and use both hands to get the subject in the frame and in focus, which is more difficult than it sounds. My lens of choice for this is Canon EF-S 60mm macro on a Metabones IV adapter. Some subjects ignore the light, some are scared by it - in that case, switching to red mode on the focus light sometimes helps, although it makes framing even harder - and others are attracted to lights, in which case it helps to turn off the focus light and use the modeling lights on strobes for focusing; this way you don't end up frantically backpedaling away from a critter that's trying to bump into your focus light.

Some more blackwater pics.

Filefish eating a jellyfish

Swimming crab

Squid

Radiolarian colony

Jellyfish

Salp chain

Juvenile black pomfret

Some kind of filefish, I think

Juvenile trevally

I just found out though that a work project getting rescheduled will cause me to miss a dedicated blackwater liveaboard trip this January which I signed up for way back in May

 

[MaxBottomtime]

These are outstanding! What's your setup? Love the random Ringo shot.

Nikon D850, Subal housing, Ikelite DS161 strobes. I went to Ringo's birthday celebration for the past two years, but this year I had my camera.

Max, your photos are on another level. I thought the photo of Ringo should have been followed by an octopus......

On your Nudi shots, are you taking them with a black glass on the bottom, or another manner?

I use a scrying mirror, a polished black obsidian disc.

 

[Barmaglot]

I second the above. I want to try some blackwater shots. I'm guessing it's a matter of narrowing the light so that it only strikes the subject. I'm planning on building a snoot for my strobes soon, maybe that'll help.

It has nothing to do with snoots - blackwater dives are done at night, in open water, away from reefs. Artificial illumination is only a part of what makes blackwater dives possible; the primary attraction are all the critters that migrate upward in the water column during night time, then return into depths inaccessible to divers before morning. A lot of stuff you see are pelagic juvenile forms of animals that go benthic when they mature - shrimp, crabs, anemones, bottom dwelling fish like flounders, etc. Other things, like various jellyfish and salps, are mostly transparent and invisible in daylight. Nocturnal predators like various squid are also a frequent sight. Some of the test spots for blackwater diving are over very deep water, like Hawaii and Philippines.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I tried blackwater diving in Anilao last June with varying results. When we got home, I bought an underwater fishing light so we can make blackwater dives at home once our boat gets back from the shop.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

Amazing shots Max and Barmaglot. Seeing your photos makes me want to take my camera on a blackwater dive, and let it sink to the bottom. I don't think I'll ever be able to capture images as beautiful as those. Does give me something to aspire to though. Thanks.