Need Manta and Shark Pic Help!!

I'm taking the spot of someone who couldn't make a trip leaving tomorrow on the Solmar V for a week trip to the Socorros Islands.

Lots of big animals; sharks, mantas, dolphins and more!

I have a Fuji/Ike F810 system and have borrowed a couple of D180 Inon strobes and have all the Inon add-on lenses; macro, WA-100 and WA 165 dome lens.

I have limited big animal experience shooting with my MMII system in Fiji, Palau and Truk. I shot a lot of CFWA with that system though. I've shot a lot of macro with my current system.

I could use some basics and start-up camera and strobe set up, and techniques. URL pointers too.

Thanks!!

Jack

I'm envious. I've been there twice and you will have a great time.

http://homepage.mac.com/daveburroughs/PhotoAlbum28.html

Put your widest lens on and leave it on. You will be shooting primarily available light. The strobes will just be for fill. Lighting and water vis is usually good so your AF should work okay. Remember with digital if you want more depth of focus you can increase your ISO to allow you to shoot at a smaller F stop.

Shoot Manual or Aperture priority.

TTL won't work, but with the amount of available light, shooting your strobes full power will probably work fine.

I like to bring a small lap top so you can review your work each day. This leads to more improvement.

Hi Jack, for those sillhouete shots of sharks and manta rays I recommend using the wide angle, turning off the strobes and using a high shutter speed, something around 1/500 (I don't know if the Fuji 810 does this...). Also, when shooting WA, mount your strobes as far from the lens as possible to avoid backscatter, I think there will be a lot of plankton there.