sablefish
Registered
Not all of them, but sure: how about a marine biologist that just started taking pictures while diving? Or a lifelong snorkeler that wanted to go deeper. Or someone that just watched a David Attenborough documentary. This is not esoteric information. Forget phylum; algae and coral are not even the same kingdom!
If one thinks that all contact with the reef is bad, then that really ends the discussion. However, as I read through discussions about reef hooks and spearfishing on this same board, Some people have a different tolerance for reef contact, or see themselves as a part of an ecosystem, and not just a dispassionate observer. I'm just suggesting moving past this simple knee-jerk reaction and asking why a photographer might choose to plant a fin down.
Even if the diver had perfect buoyancy, a strobe could be enough trauma to force a fish to abandon a guarded eggmass. would a new diver know that? maybe, maybe not. but i don't see wildlife warning inserts with any camera or housing i've bought.
I think that Ikelite could have chosen a better picture, but then again from a photographic standpoint, I can see why they picked it. The composition works well with the fin travelling outside of the frame as it leads the eye into the photograph. It's not a bad photograph; without context, it just shows potentially poor technique. Then again, he could be hand holding a 1/5sec shutter speed with rear curtain strobe sync, and in that situation, fin on a rock is probably less invasive than setting up a tripod underwater, which would show good substrate choice as well as good camera technique.
