Underwater cludding... 35 or so fishy pics
Discussion
Just returned from a "business" trip to the Marshall Islands, where I was testing the waters, as it were, for a new product, a live-aboard dive boat based at Rongelap Atoll.
I took my D70 and a brand new Sea & Sea housing, plus new strobes etc. Having worked previously with an F801s and the ability to use TTL underwater, I got a little frustrated with the lack of TTL capabilities of the D70 underwater (don't ask, you can't do it!). So having to go all manual was a pain in the arris, but I got there in the end...
Here is a little pictostory of my trip....
The plane we flew from Majuro to Rongelap
Rongelap "airport"
The church amongst the palm trees
Life's a beach
Life's still a beach
The Oleanda, wot I was living on for a week
Oleanda from the beach
The dive tenders from below
Fantatsic visibility on the northern wall of West Pass
Gin clear water on southern wall of West Pass
A diver inspecting a coral head
School of fariy basslets trundling across the reef
Feather stars and soft corals on the wall at West Pass
Fish and corals on a reef
Pristine hard corals on the top of the reef
And again, with divers
And again again, with just one diver
An archway covered in beautiful pink stylaster coral
Fire coral - don't touch!
A spotted eagle rays bumbles past
Grey reef shark cruising the reef wall
Close up and personal
Lots of grey reef sharks cruising West Pass
Dinner time!
A school of jacks cruising the pass
Jacks
Great expression on the face of the two jacks looking at the camera!
A chewed and beaten up old giant puffer fish
A cleaner wrasse hoovering a red snapper
A jawfish
A moray eeel
Close up detail of a feather star
Close up detail of a clam
Christmas tree worms
A clownfish
My favourite picky of the trip! A quartet of cheeky chappies out for a swim
>> Edited by diddyman on Friday 17th June 15:01
I took my D70 and a brand new Sea & Sea housing, plus new strobes etc. Having worked previously with an F801s and the ability to use TTL underwater, I got a little frustrated with the lack of TTL capabilities of the D70 underwater (don't ask, you can't do it!). So having to go all manual was a pain in the arris, but I got there in the end...
Here is a little pictostory of my trip....
The plane we flew from Majuro to Rongelap
Rongelap "airport"
The church amongst the palm trees
Life's a beach
Life's still a beach
The Oleanda, wot I was living on for a week
Oleanda from the beach
The dive tenders from below
Fantatsic visibility on the northern wall of West Pass
Gin clear water on southern wall of West Pass
A diver inspecting a coral head
School of fariy basslets trundling across the reef
Feather stars and soft corals on the wall at West Pass
Fish and corals on a reef
Pristine hard corals on the top of the reef
And again, with divers
And again again, with just one diver
An archway covered in beautiful pink stylaster coral
Fire coral - don't touch!
A spotted eagle rays bumbles past
Grey reef shark cruising the reef wall
Close up and personal
Lots of grey reef sharks cruising West Pass
Dinner time!
A school of jacks cruising the pass
Jacks
Great expression on the face of the two jacks looking at the camera!
A chewed and beaten up old giant puffer fish
A cleaner wrasse hoovering a red snapper
A jawfish
A moray eeel
Close up detail of a feather star
Close up detail of a clam
Christmas tree worms
A clownfish
My favourite picky of the trip! A quartet of cheeky chappies out for a swim
>> Edited by diddyman on Friday 17th June 15:01
Marki said:
The underwater shot`s with the shark`s are stunning mate the clarity of the pic`s are impressive , what the hell kind of vis was it looks huge
We had some awesome viz on some dives, especially on the outer walls of the atoll. At least 200ft in some cases. Viz in the passes was a little "less", perhaps 150ft. When you consider that the walls start in zero ft of water and 200 yards off shore it is 10,000ft deep, there are NO rivers nor nuffink like that, and in general we had pretty calm weather, it's not surprising the water is so clear. Was speaking to one of my punters who recently returned from Bikini Atoll (same archipelago) and they had 300ft of viz on some dives. Fook me, that's a lot!
trevorw said:
All looks very nice Jim, looks like you had a good time on your Business trip.
Great pictures, Like the "Life's a beach" one that Moray eel is bloody ugly though, scary too!
Moray's are fine if you treat them with respect Trevor. This one was in his hole and I was nice and polite to him!
Wow, some amazing images. Looks like you got mighty close to Mr Moray there.
Personal favourites are;
"Life's a beach" - I know this is a "typical" image but you've executed it beautifully
"Northern wall of West pass" - I like the way the divers are hanging in the void here
"Hard coral on top of the reef" - Love the underside of the surface here
Top work, it's difficult enough photographing above water never mind having to cope with the added difficulties of diving too.
Chris
Personal favourites are;
"Life's a beach" - I know this is a "typical" image but you've executed it beautifully
"Northern wall of West pass" - I like the way the divers are hanging in the void here
"Hard coral on top of the reef" - Love the underside of the surface here
Top work, it's difficult enough photographing above water never mind having to cope with the added difficulties of diving too.
Chris
CVP said:
Wow, some amazing images. Looks like you got mighty close to Mr Moray there.
Personal favourites are;
"Life's a beach" - I know this is a "typical" image but you've executed it beautifully
"Northern wall of West pass" - I like the way the divers are hanging in the void here
"Hard coral on top of the reef" - Love the underside of the surface here
Top work, it's difficult enough photographing above water never mind having to cope with the added difficulties of diving too.
Chris
Thanks Chris... Actually, I was not THAT close to the moray. Maybe a couple of feet. I used a 105mm macros lens, which on the D70 turns into about a 180mm lens, so I had to hold back a bit. I think I need to get a 60mm macro lens now, as the 105 is now VERY limited in it's uses!
_dobbo_ said:
The life's a beach one is stunning, as are many of the underwater ones. on full manual mode I imagine getting exposure right underwater is a nightmare!
Yes, totally manual underwater is a nightmare. Having had the same system for over 10 years, and being able to use TTL, I knew pretty much 100% whether I shot would come out on 35mm slides. In the good old days it was shutter speed 1/60th, aperture, ohh, about f8 for wide angle, f11 for medium format and f22 for marco. Strobe on TTL, yup, that'll do!
Now, it is a totally new learning curve, as I have the strobes to adjust (2 of them) and aperture and shutter speed. And if it is incorrectly exposed, should I adjust the strobes, the aperture, the shutter speed? Nightmare! Thank gawd I had the ability to run over 36 exposures, or half of these shots would not be there!
Ex-biker said:
Amazing.
Underwater stuff is absolutely stunning.
Thank you kindly!
you got any of them there JOBS going 
406 said:
V6GTO said:
Great images ...
...but I can feel a Scuba thread in the making. I've got PADI Advanced Open water + Dry Suit + Deep + Nitrox qualifications. Who else dives and what level are you?
Martin.
Rescue Diver and Medic First Aid here
Me alomst the same. NAUI Rescue Diver & IANTD Advanced Nitrox (or something like that), but in me yoof I was a NAUI MSDT. No need anymore, as I only dive for my pleasure nowadays, fernah fernah...
>> Edited by diddyman on Monday 20th June 09:03
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