Back from Cocos Island

Well, I'm back from my first big trip with the D200 and Sea&Sea housing for the same.

I'll have some video (OMG, did I just say that )to share later.

The system did me proud, and I am pretty happy with what I got. We had almost universally overcast skies and low, low light, such that most of the underwater shots were taken at ISO 400 or 500, f4 to 5 and 1/60th of a second to get some decent blues.

All shot with a D200, underwater shots with the camera housed in a Sea&Sea DX200 housing with single Ikelite 200 substrobe. Lens underwater in almost all shots was the 12-24mm DX zoom behind a 9" dome port with no extensions. The exception is the urchin macro, shot with the 60mm macro lens.

Cocos Gallery.

Before the trip we spent 3 days rafting down a river called the Pacuare, on the Carribean side of the country. If you're interested, some shots from that trip can be found at the end of this link.

Hope you like them

Hi Craig,

Thanks for sharing - I rafted teh Pacuare when I was there in 1999 and had a blast. Thanks for the memories.

I like your schooling jack images. Before I clicked on the thumbnail I was thinking "that's interesting, looks like a giant kelp plant." Then holy moly, that's all jacks!!!

Cheers

James

Schooling hammerheads and the topside pictures were interesting - thanks for sharing. Other shots were great too. Glad your D200 went well. And here was I expecting shots from Cocos (Keeling Islands) off Australia's west coast - silly me

Great shots! Thanks for posting so quickly! Looks like you stayed awake on the crossing back! ;-)

Sorry I missed you guys. Darn work did not allow me to join the offer at the last minute.

Rand has some great shots form what he has shown me.

Glad you guys had a great trip!

Todd

Great stuff, Craig. I like the black and white hammerheads - I think that could make a very nice large print. Moody and intriguing.

Alex

Sounds like you had a great trip. Was there gal named Christi from Cozumel on the trip? We can't wait we are going in next month w/Undersea Hunter. My wife has even come to terms with me going down in the sub. More details!

Was there gal named Christi from Cozumel on the trip? 

 

 

... More details!

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Yep, Christi was a part of our group, and did her 2000th dive while we were down there. I'll write a more detailed trip report later, once I get in control of work related stuff again. We saw both of the Undersea Hunter boats while we were there, they looked like they may have been a tad more susceptible to pitching/rolling on the ocean crossing than Okeanos, but otherwise looked clean and nice.

The island visits are very worthwhile, but that trail up towards Wafer Bay from Chatham is brutal, particularly when it has been rainining almost constantly for three weeks.

Great shots!  Thanks for posting so quickly!

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Thanks (and thanks to everyone else for the compliments).

I'm really growing to love Aperture. I ingested my CF card after each dive, ran through and made selects while deleting the rest, and made some minor adjustments/crops as I went along. I had all my files organised within 1 hr of finishing each dive, and was able to export the JPGs for the gallery in less than 3 minutes when I got home. So I didn't need to stay awake for the stills, but I did stay up quite late one night editing the video .

Hi Craig,

Great set of images. That sepia tone pic is really cool. Looks like a giant mask or it could almost pass for a hoard of birds if it weren't for the distinct fish profiles in the lower area. Solo shot of the Hammerhead is awesome. One I failed to get though not for lack of trying. Interesting vision for the urchin. I really like that. It was a great week. Nice to meet you and Wendy.

Rand

great stuff craig!

Very well Craig! and very good website! My girlfriend Luisa did the same trip several years ago (Cocos Aggressor+Pacuare raft+some jungle) but..... I DIDN´T!!! I will have to go sometime!!

Did you have to use some kind of diopter with the 12-24?

Did you have to use some kind of diopter with the 12-24?

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No, I used no diopter and no extension. The port is pretty big though (9"). There is a wee bit of softness in the corners wide open, but from 5.6 or onwards that was well controlled.

You definitely need to do this trip