Wetpixel Bahamas Trip

Great photos Mary Lou and Alex, thanks for posting and keep them coming.

So far all we've seen are reef sharks and tigers, how about thos bulls? We had two spots w/ good bull shark action.

Here's one from the famous bull shark spot. Viz was low, but the sharks were close:

And here's one from the End of the Map spot - clearer water, but not as close:

And how about this for a fat bull shark!?!?!?!?

Cheers

James

Eric wasn't the only one shooting video. Here is some of mine. Shot with my Nikon Coolpix S3.

 

Tiger Movie

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<LOL> I wish I had a photo of Alex's "broom cam" -- his video clip is especially impressive if you see what he used to shoot it!

Ask and ye shall receive:

Cheers

James

Ha ha! Nice one. Here is another movie with the broom-cam. This time of Mini-T on some bait:

Another movie

Alex

I am finally ready to join the fun and have added a new Wetpixel Shark Trip gallery to my website.

One of the first things that we did on the trip was to discuss with Jim our shark diving experience. It was immediately clear to me that I was probably the least experienced shark diver on board (most people had done this trip and Guadaloupe before) and those that haddn't had done a lot of reef shark dives. This was great as it meant that my portfolio had the most to benefit during the week.

The Shear Water shark trip is rather like pygmy seahorses. Most divers have never experienced them for themselves - but most photographers seem to have, and photos are everywhere. And like pygmies the technical issues of shooting big animals are pretty limiting meaning that most people's shots from the trip look pretty similar. My photographic intention for the trip was to try and produce some decent shots of subjects I really hadn't shot before (I saw 5 new to me species of shark on this trip) but more importantly to produce some images that were different from the many I had seen and admired over the last few years.

I like clean simple and strong compositions - so where ever possible i would always try and isolate subjects against open water. I also wanted to generate a lot of movement in the shots, which worked most of the time (blurry shots became known as the British technique on the boat). I think movement can really add to the drama in shark images. I also made several dives with filters, and shot quite a few monochrome images.

It was fantastic fun on board and there were many running jokes, going on. And finally I can't say enough about how great Jim and the crew on the Shearwater were. Not only in making all the diving safe and fun. But also for making a foreigner like me feel so welcome on the boat.

Alex

below are a few of my favourites (with settings):

Tiger Shark at surface. I like the movement and reflections here. D2X + 10.5mm. 1/3rd sec @ F20.

Tiger and cobias. A simple widlife portrait. D2X + 12-24mm. 1/100th @ F10.

Reef shark over sand. OK, I have done this shot before but not with a shark! D2X + 12-24mm. 1/125th @ F11

Reef shark movement. D2X + 17-35mm. 1/15th @ F10.

Lemon shark and photographer (James). D2X + 12-24mm. Magic filter. 1/60th @ F8

Great work ALex. I think you attained your goal of some different looking shots. Well done.

Todd

Here's a photo of the Mustardino taking a telephoto pic of the grunts, taking using the Magic Filter:

He loved it when I got in the way and scared away his subjects...:-)

Cheers

James

Very nice gallery Alex....it brings back a lot of memories from my trip last year....I especially like the motion blur shots...appropriate for sharks!

Your images tell the story of the trip well....well done

Karl

#38 Alex. Beautiful. Sense of motion. The blurred remoras (?) effect really is cool,that one grabbed me.

Rand

stunning work Alex, you've got some beautiful images there

Steve

Alex -- I really like the motion shots! They have much more "feeling" than most shark shots.

Really nice hammerhead shots, too (I failed to get any decent ones, dammit!).

And the B&W of Jimmy (or is that Grey?) with the crate is a great "mood" piece!

Alex:

Awesome gallery. I especially liked the motion shots and the black and whites. Also, the macro shots at the end of the gallery -- are those from the Bahamas or from West Palm before or after the trip? The background on a couple of the seahorses look like they were at the Blue Heron Blvd bridge.

Again, great work as always!

Doug

Great shots everyone!!

Alex, what you got in that blue cup??? Booze i hope...

Agreed, great shots from everyone! Alex, I especially like your hammer silhouette shot.

Great shots Alex. I'm with Linda. I really like the hammerhead silhouette shot.

Great shots guys! Alex, your reef shark in movement is outstanding! I also hope to do this trip in the (near) future. So, who is going next year?

Luiz

All right, time to unleash some more photos from the trip. I've been pondering which ones to post for some time now.

Here's my favorite full-body tiger shark photo. This shot was taken using the Aquatica housing and 24mm F1.4L lens. This lens is pretty good on FF:

This was the very friendly player shark that appears scraping itself on Eric's video housing.

Here she is bouncing off my dome:

And here's Laz givin' here a little luvin'

Now, on to the reef sharks. At the shark rodeo location I finally decided to experiment w/ shutter dragging and shot at slow speeds for the entire dive. It's HARD to get good shots this way. In any case, here's my favorite from that dive.

1/13th of a second.

Here's my favorite reef shark over the reef photo - the one that Bruce (and Sarah too) think is my best:

And here's a whole "squadron" of reef sharks:

Cheers

James

James...

More great photos! I also really like the reef shot with the eel. Perfect timing.

Agree, the Eel is a bonus to the shot and makes it very appealing.

Nice job on the shot of Laz with the Tiger as well. I'd love to have a shot like that of me. WTG James. I'll bet Laz was thrilled with it. That's really cool.

Rand

James

Stunning....You can add me to the Bruce and Sarah list.

I noticed on one of your earlier posts that you used the 24-70L on some pics. Just curious...what is your impression of that one underwater ? I use it topside a lot and, as you know, it is a very nice lens for that.

Thanks.