Mike Saunders

I have seen them thanks - they are fantastic it looks like strobe was used as there is too much light on the sharks face to really be from above strobes it is!

my thoughts are: if no strobes i can use program or similar to get fast shutter speed with available light- also much easier bobbing about near the surface without a big rig downside is that it might be a dark day - slower shutter speeds - and underneath of sharks could be very dark i can’t work out from the images if flash has. been used

i’m going on a blue shark day trip snorkelling only with blue sharks in july curious what you all advise about using strobes. it would be much simpler using natural light but would some fill in make the pictures much better? the attached images from the tour company website

great- thanks for all the advice

what size SD cards do you tend to take on a trip and how many? Furthermore, is there any merit in buying the expensive (faster) ones for still UW photography? A 32Gb card should store 1200 or so 25mb .raw images from my camera which is possibly a whole trip but I am reluctant to leave it all on one I was thinking of taking one card per day and backing up to a portable HDD in the evening (sorry if this specific topic has been covered before) Mike S

thanks

lewis88 - is there any special trick to getting the d3 to work ttl with pop up on a sony? what camera settings do you use? rear curtain synch? manual aperture and shutter speed?

backscatter say their control module (another 400 quid) would let the atom work with their fancy ttl system but that makes the package quite a lot more than two ts-d3 duos

cap on duty in Tenerife

this grumpy chap’s expression summed up the dive perfectly…

to be honest it was impossible shore night dive with swell and my mask misting up. could barely see let alone focus. turned strobes off and carried in with ring light only. makes one hell of a torch for night dives but really the surge was too much to get decent photos 😐 a calmer longer dive and more time would help

I'm using Sony alpha 6000 series in a housing using the pop up flash to trigger using fiberoptic cables - (made using the excellent article on this forum) I did indeed mention the wrong backscatter strobe - I meant the atom! 🤦‍♂️ I can see that the sea and sea ys d3 is available for around £500 in the uk and the atom is about £600 I was planning on using manual settings but are either of these units capable of delivering reliable TTL using my existing pop up flash triggered system? I'm keen to start doing wideangle as well as macro

exported to JPEG and the worm thing copped from original

perhaps I could put this another way sea and sea ysd3 or backscatter hf1 hybrid?

i fear my 2 x solis ys01 are ok for macro but a bit weedy for wide angle what’s the logical upgrade - looking like sea and sea DS3 to me- is this reasonable?

i’ve finally got diving with it - one dive in at iso 400 and f16 it’s very much a macro light for small and very close things for more than 6 inches the light falls off. for up close it is brilliant- i’m using f16 and aperture priority. you can see the lizard fish is well lit at the front but a bit blue at the back I think it would also work ok as a focus light for macro using strobes. planning to find out tomorrow on a night dive.

Qualifying question: If you started diving after the age of 50, this survey is for you

just out of curiosity - is diving with orcas safe? -or do you look too much like a seal?

Depressing instagram post https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU9X8SegftG/?igsh=b3ljNDV4cXV6c3Zs

only very slightly jealous watching this from my outpatient clinic this morning....

your CV to date is making me feel pretty pedestrian.....

South Ari atol in Maldives is organised snorkelling trips not diving Can also get crowded -about 6 boats when we were there 2024

I’ve found some slightly thicker garden irrigation pipe which can squeeze over the end of the L-shaped plug to make a complete cover Looks robust but time will tell

swimming over sharks towing a dummy seal behind you is not something I would rush into...

attached image is ISO200. shutter 1/250 f16 and pretty much as close at the outfit allows