Senanus Reef/Christmas Pt.

[MarkH]

-Went out with Hyperlimits and the Hang-Time Technical Dive Club on the dive boat "Hang Time" to Senanus and Christmas Point in Saanich Inlet today. Vis was better than great at Senanus and it seemed nice and bright all the way down. I was using the most sensitive film I could find (ASA 1600), a reasonably wide aperature (f5.6) and a crazy-low shutter speed (1/30 sec), but it was still TOO BLOODY DARK! Most of the pictures where I didn't use a strobe were way too underexposed and grainy. I've pretty much given up on trying to take natural light photos down deep in B.C. From now on I'll have to blast my way through life with a strobe. Anyways, the following are from Senanus. There are plenty of healthy cloud sponges, but lots of dead and bashed-up ones too. It may be from new divers in unfamiliar rental gear kicking their way through them or maybe it's the fleet of crab/prawn boats that like to drop their traps here.

 

[MarkH]

And one more:

 

[MarkH]

At Christmas Pt, there was a 30 ft-thick layer of soup on the surface, but it cleared up nicely down deep. It was much darker though. They must have put loudspeakers down at the bottom of the wall because when you peek over the edge, you can hear them calling you deeper. My computer yelled louder and told me to leave.

 

[SeanQ]

Outstanding vis! Too bad there isn't more life on the rocks to photograph. Nice shots as always.

 

[MarkH]

For me the Inlet is only good for great viz (sometimes), dramatic topography (easy to get deep) and sponges. You're right, there isn't much else on the rocks. Our eyes adjust so well to low light that it's hard to notice how dark it really is, but the camera doesn't lie. Judging by the film/camera settings I've used in the tropics compared to here, I've realized that there is seriously around 10 times more light at that depth in the tropics (on average). Here are a few grainy video frame grabs from the dive at Christmas Pt. (starring: Hyperlimits)

 

[MarkH]

It doesn't help that my crappy scanner likes to put vertical "stripes" through most of the pictures.

 

[Hyper-limits]

There is some nice pictures here Mark. I can't believe how dark the one from Xmas PT turn out. Again it didn't help with the 30ft layer at the surface. The loud speaker was also calling deeper. But that will be for a other time with right gear and gas.

Cheers

Al

 

[SeanQ]

But that will be for a other time with right gear and gas.

Is the subject in these photos of the Hyperlimitus nitroxous or the Hyperlimitus airous variety?

 

[Hyper-limits]

I think it will have to be the Hyperlimitus Trimixus variety.

 

[ChillyWaters]

Our eyes adjust so well to low light that it's hard to notice how dark it really is, but the camera doesn't lie.

We went to Willis the other day and I tried taking some pics. I often shoot on auto so I don't have to mess with things and just enjoy my dive. Anyways, for one of my shots it set a shutter speed of 0.8s. Oddly enough, it wasn't even "that" blurry. I guess I'm getting fairly good at staying still in the water.

Next time I'm going to play more, manually setting my shutter speed. I can try to correct a dark shot, but I can't correct a blurry one. I'll have to upgrade to a strobe one day -- but it's not in my budget now, and I kinda like the natural shots.

- ChillyWaters