Reefmaster RC - Cayos Cochinos - Post Trip/Pre Pix Development

[terrydarc]

Posted some questions a couple weeks ago about the bunniest of newbie divers, new camera and all... Well, we shall see! Between trying to dive right and find nice fish and coral to take snaps of, it was a trip literally and figuratively.

We took everyone's suggestions and treated the little Reefmaster RC like I said I would - only unloaded it after it was rinsed first in the boat's rinse tank, then in the sink at the resort, wiped dry and finally left to dry until morning. My other regret it was too late to buy a strobe before we took off for the 10 days diving in Bay Islands in Honduras. That is one thing that will change. Never took pix deeper than 30 feet, I don't think. Way too dark.

Only other variation was that I didn't use the moisture munchers (silica gel packs) cuz I never saw a drop of water on the camera or fogging on anything. Dunno why cuz it was pretty friggin' humid! And hot. The only real problem was not taking enough film and not knowing how isolated the resort was. No place to beg, borrow, steal or buy film either. Sigh.... Well, it made me a lot more choosy in taking my 10th picture of a royal damsel fish (my favorite!) nor trying for a moray under a coral head, etc.

Took the 9 rolls of film to the camera shop today and told them to push the red and yellow end of the spectrum. I will try to upload some pix early next week. This site hosts pictures someplace right? Otherwise I gotta go find somehwhere to host this stuff. Even if the RC pictures turn out to be a total bust, you'll get a trip report and some topside pix taken with my Olympus mini-zoom rangefinder. Whew! Heck of a trip and it was beeeyoootiful! Yow! I am stoked on diving!
Terry

 

[The Chairman]

REALLY helps on backscatter! But I gotta tell you, light is absorbed at a tremendous rate. I try to stay within 10 feet of all my subjects... even with that hellacious strobe! :tease:

 

[TexasMike]

Terry, Scubasource does do photo hosting, but you will have to check with LadyDiver on where/how.

Alternatively, you can create albums on yahoo or msn (msn is where we've got the Swamp Diver site for now).

 

[scubabunny]

Can't wait to see them Terry! Hope your trip was fabulous! Guess that nasty Hurricane (or Tropical Storm) didn't spoil anything?

 

[lildiver]

Hi Terry,
I would really love hear more about your trip to the Bay Islands. I'm taking a trip to Roatan in Dec. So, I can't wait to see your pics and hear more

~lildiver

 

[terrydarc]

Lildiver,
You can check out the trip report in the Central/South American forum. Comments are invited, but the CA branch seems to be undervisited. Or maybe my report was more boring that I thought. :bonk:

We had a great, if quiet in the evenings time. Excellent diving and just Chris and I at the Plantation Beach Resort. While we were there, the Agressor IV and Anthony's Keys boats came over for dives. Some other idiots came from Roatan in too small a boat (a Mediteranean/European group that will go nameless, but had great bikinis!). :1st:

The pix are developed and it's a really, really mixed bag. I wish I could generalize from the pictures what to do next time. Get a strobe, I guess and practice aiming the Reefmaster on dry land with a mask, using both the macro and not. :fury:

Comments on the Cayos trip in the CA branch would be appreciated. I tried moving them to New To Scuba, but were bounced back for some reason or other - more of an area report than a newbie experience in someone else's (misguided IMO) opinion. Ah, well...
Terry