I have lurked here for a long time and have admired many of your photos. I recently returned from a trip to Roatan and have posted some underwater photos at this website:
http://www.pbase.com/dave_clausen/roatan_2006_underwater
I am just a snorkeler without any fancy equipment, so please excuse my lack of professionalism. One thing I have been wondering about is how does snorkeling compare with scuba when it comes to difficulty of taking photos? It seems to me snorkeling has one distinct advantage: because of shallow depth, you can use available light in many cases and thus you may not have to deal with using a strobe. However, snorkeling has a few big disadvantages:
1) You cant control your buoyancy like you do in scuba, since you are constantly going between the surface and the bottom. Surge also affects you a lot in shallow water. Because of these two problems, the only way I can get decent pictures is to dive down and hold onto a rock with one hand while snapping the picture with the other. While I am always careful not to grab onto a piece of coral, this does raise ethical issues with some people if they are of the no touch at all mindset.
2) When you dive down, most of the fish swim away, and then you run out of breath and have to surface. As a snorkeler, you cant wait for the fish to come back, as several diving photo guidebooks recommend.
3) Because in snorkeling you are going up and down the water column so much in shallow water where the light level changes greatly, it doesnt appear practical to me to do any white balance adjustment.
I would appreciate any feedback about these points and about my photos. Also, could anyone explain to me how to imbed one or two of my photos in this message? I could try to experiment myself, but I fear the dreaded red x would appear. I would like to copy them from pbase, as the files are available in smaller sizes there than they are on my computer.
http://www.pbase.com/dave_clausen/roatan_2006_underwater
I am just a snorkeler without any fancy equipment, so please excuse my lack of professionalism. One thing I have been wondering about is how does snorkeling compare with scuba when it comes to difficulty of taking photos? It seems to me snorkeling has one distinct advantage: because of shallow depth, you can use available light in many cases and thus you may not have to deal with using a strobe. However, snorkeling has a few big disadvantages:
1) You cant control your buoyancy like you do in scuba, since you are constantly going between the surface and the bottom. Surge also affects you a lot in shallow water. Because of these two problems, the only way I can get decent pictures is to dive down and hold onto a rock with one hand while snapping the picture with the other. While I am always careful not to grab onto a piece of coral, this does raise ethical issues with some people if they are of the no touch at all mindset.
2) When you dive down, most of the fish swim away, and then you run out of breath and have to surface. As a snorkeler, you cant wait for the fish to come back, as several diving photo guidebooks recommend.
3) Because in snorkeling you are going up and down the water column so much in shallow water where the light level changes greatly, it doesnt appear practical to me to do any white balance adjustment.
I would appreciate any feedback about these points and about my photos. Also, could anyone explain to me how to imbed one or two of my photos in this message? I could try to experiment myself, but I fear the dreaded red x would appear. I would like to copy them from pbase, as the files are available in smaller sizes there than they are on my computer.
) 
