Underwater Photography

[BigV]

A couple more:

This is a Lined Butterflyfish. We took a ziplog baggie of frozen peas out with us on one trip (and were scolded for our efforts by "some old lady" according to one of my diving partners). This made us very popular among the piscine porkers in the cove. This fellow's boldness was rewarded with a number of whole peas. He literally ate from my hand--then dashed away. Again and again his skittishness was barely mastered by his hunger.

[dar512]

Very cool, V. Peas? I would have never guessed.

[BigV]

Here are a couple of glamor shots of a Moorish Idol.

[BigV]

pic01 -- A pair of Ornate Butterflyfish. I have read that they mate for life. This pair seemed to dance and fly together in formation. They're lovely.

pic02 -- A Bullethead Parrotfish. The colors of this fish are dazzling. The picture really doesn't do it justice. And their feeding behavior is wild too--they bite off chunks of live coral and grind it to powder with bony plates in their throat, absorb the organic material and expel the rest, including the newly made sand. You can hear them chomping and grinding away. It's a pretty big fish too, probably 18 inches long.

[HungLikeJesus]

I always hold my breath when opening this thread.

[BigV]

Ok, we can all breathe now. Well, at least I will, since this is a talk post, not a show post.

First, thanks for the compliments. I definitely am an amateur, but a persistent one. I am very glad I took a digital camera so I could indulge myself on the pictures. I was limited by my endurance only, not by memory capacity, or battery capacity or any other technical aspect. I took several hundred pictures underwater and in the water on this trip. It is inconceivable that I could have anything like that experience with a film camera.

Also, as a snorkeler, I had a very limited ability to stalk my subjects. When scuba diving, many times I would find an interesting place to watch and then just wait underwater, breathing calmly, not moving, letting the wildlife relax and be less alarmed by my alien presence. This is just ... not possible snorkeling. Perhaps on the surface, as I would drift along watching the life swim past below me. I did plenty of that and I have many pictures of the dorsal and caudal fins (backs and butts, that is) moving away from me . It was interesting to watch, but they don't make really nice fish pictures.

One of the things that I read before I went about composition that really stuck with me was "Try to have a conversation with the fish". I did have a couple brief "conversations", where we were face to face. I have to tell you, it was hard. I can hold my breath pretty well, and I'm very comfortable in the water. The conditions were optimal. But even with these prime circumstances, I scare the fish. Zip! Gone.

Some of my best shots were gotten by making a surface dive well away from my intended target, perhaps 15 to 20 feet. Then once I was at depth, say 10 feet, I could change my attitude to a horizontal one. This made seeing the viewfinder much easier. Think about it. When you're walking around, taking pictures, you're standing up (usually), eyes forward, looking at the viewfinder, with the camera pointing forward. For me, to get pictures of the *bottom*, I have to first get the camera there, and then be able to see the viewfinder. Honestly, some of the quickshots were taken upside down, since the easiest way to reach the bottom was headfirst. There! was the picture, so I snapped it. It was somewhat uncomfortable and my framing was erratic to say the least.

Which brings me to another point. I do take some care in the framing and composition of my photos, but underwater, this got a little raggedy. There were a *couple* that turned out great, full frame. The stationary subjects were easiest to capture this way, but the fish, they were difficult. So I learned that I could depend on the equipment, in this case the plentiful pixels, and frame and compose by artful cropping. Here my desk. Where I can breathe at my leisure. Much easier, but there is less information in the image. Most of the time, meh.

As I crop and reframe these pictures, they're sometimes enlarged. This has turned out to be something of a disappointment. I have noticed considerable chromatic aberrations, like fringing in areas of high contrast and high magnification. An example of this can be seen in the third puffer picture. Look in the lower right hand corner. There's a dark fish against a light sand background. The colors of the fish can be highly variable, but in this case, the picture is not accurate. I see a definite blue/purple aura to the top of the fish, and a yellowish fringe can be seen along the lower edge of the fish. The fish is just black, though. Those colors are not on the fish, they're just an artifact of the camera/lens/housing/water.

Now that I think about it, this shot, while showing off the puffer, is a good candidate for cropping. I could just clip out that offending tail, and still have an nice composition. Ah well. I used the image for a somewhat different purpose when I posted it.

I spent a lot of time and energy (all voluntarily, willingly, happily) watching and looking and thinking what would make a nice picture. I didn't capture all the shots I saw, but I did enjoy all my time in the water. It really is beautiful.

[BigV]

How about a couple more?

pic01 -- Black urchin on sponge covered rock.

pic02 -- Juvenile Yellowtail Coris, also known as Psychedelic Wrasse. Its juvenile coloration is nothing like the adult coloration.

[BigV]

I love these guys, they're Pencil Urchins. They're brilliant brick red. Usually bright colors mean stay away, but I don't see the same "I will pierce you" attitude here. They look like sea urchins that have been brought to market by a kid's plush toy maker. "Yeah, let's make a little urchin for the little urchins! Ha ha ha!" Downright kid safe. Of course, they're probably poisonous. I like how you can get the white leather upholstery as an option on the second one.

[glatt]

I like the pencil urchins.

[BigV]

Thanks! Me too.