Putting the new toys to work

Finally got my act together and made a couple of trips to Monterey the last couple of weeks to practice with my new gear and prepare for the California Beach Dive Photo Competition last Saturday. Well, I got lucky and found a subject with about 200 psi left in my tank on my last dive. This shot, one of my last of the day, got best of macro.

Here's a couple that the judges didn't like as much

Here's a few that I liked but didn't submit.

Here's one that's way off the mark but found a shrimp that I didn't see until I looked at the photos. There was quite a bit of water movement and lots of shots were way off the mark.

These are jpegs straight from the camera. I only resize a applied a little sharpening to compensate

Great stuff, Herb. Lovely colours from the 5D. Boy, that is a nice camera.

My favourite is the green background Nudi. I think that this is a lovely shot, and I prefer it to the judges favourite (although the octopus is nice too).

Alex

Congrats Herb well done.

I think the judges got it right. The nudi shot with the green background is is very nice but I think you get difficulty points for the octo.

Thanks. I aways appriciate feedback. I was not that surprised that the Hermissenda pics did not place. These nudis were everywhere! It's likely that almost everyone summitted a shot of one. I tried to make it unique and shot that at ISO 1600. There's not much light down there. The octo has lots of details and looks better in a large display.

Hi Herb - I am very impressed - good job!

Is your technique to find a good background, then wait for the critters to come out? I really like those red bryozoans - beautiful.

Glad to see you're liking the 5D - like Alex says, it's a GREAT camera. Were you using the straight 100mm for these, or the 100mm + 1.4x? If so, how was the AF? Did you MF?

Cheers

James

Hi Herb - I am very impressed - good job!

 

Is your technique to find a good background, then wait for the critters to come out? I really like those red bryozoans - beautiful.

 

Glad to see you're liking the 5D - like Alex says, it's a GREAT camera.  Were you using the straight 100mm for these, or the 100mm + 1.4x?  If so, how was the AF?  Did you MF?

 

Cheers

James

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Thanks James. I and a significant fraction of the other competitors chose Wharf II as our divesite for the red bryozoans and critters that live in it. It's otherwise not a very nice place to dive. It's under a pier with dirty water and fishermen trying to hook us. The bryozoans cover a large fraction of the surfaces, so I spend most of my time looking there.

I only used the 100mm for the shots, no teleconverter. I also used Woody's diopter on some of them. All shot were 100% autofocus. The autofocus of the 5D and 100mm lens is fantastic. As I mentioned in the fist post, there was quite a bit of water movement. There was never much time to focus. The winning octo shot was taken with the mod light off. I was done and on my way back to the beach when I spotted it. I didn't risk taking the time to turn the light back on.

The octopus shot is beautiful. Very well done.

the composition, color, make that octo shot a real beauty

Love the octopus. How were the diving conditions and visibility for the contest?

Love the octopus. How  were the diving conditions and visibility for the contest?

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The conditions were OK. I've seen better and much worst. The vis was pretty good but there was a lot of surge.

nice shots Herb..

so watcha win?

nice shots Herb..

 

so watcha win?

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Thanks. 7 days in Manado.