Macro set up to photograph the pigmy seahorse?

Hi everyone !

I was wondering what will be the best setup to photograph the pigmy seahorse? I have a Nikkor 105mm plus a woddy diopter but I am not shure if this will be enough to frame the full body of the pigmy seahore. Does anyne have any recomendations? Do I will need a teleconcenverter?

Thanks for your help

David

This should be fine. You may want to also take a screw on dioptre like the 4T, which can be useful.

This image was taken with a screw on dioptre and 105mm (uncropped):

That said very few pygmy seahorse images get published. Most magazine editors despise them - as they have been far to over exposed!

So you should not only try and get the full body shot - everyone strives for that - but also shoot other perspectives. I think slightly wider shots showing the pygmy in its setting are much rarer. People tend to snap these off - but never try that hard with them. Everyone has this shot too - but far fewer people have good ones! The standard 105mm would be great for that type of image.

Alex

That said very few pygmy seahorse images get published. Most magazine editors despise them - as they have been far to over exposed!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It may not sell often, but I believe that shot is splendid. It is very hard to get the 3/4 face of a freeswimming pygmy and get it sharp, in great composition. It's equally difficult to imply movement with that animal, but I think you've done it. I assume it's tack-sharp as well?

I like uw-photography as a technique for capturing nature interestingly, rather than as art.

Color, contrast, context and motion. Very nice man.

I definitely agree, I love the detail on the little fella. Only underwater can you see such amazing diversity of color, detail, behavior that doesn't try to get up and run the second you try to approach. Amazing job man! Your patience paid off.

Firstly, great shot Alex. I don’t care what publishers want or think, that is a great shot and I would love to be able to get something even vaguely resembling it.

My apologies for resurrecting and old thread but I too would like some advice on the matter. One of my reasons for up grading to a DSLR this year is to photograph pygmy seahorses on our trip to Indonesia in September.

I mostly dive in the UK and enjoy macro photography. For this reason I’ve bought and been playing with the Nikon 60mm macro. My thinking was based along the lines that I would want as little water between the object and the lens because of the poor visibility in the UK (less than a meter in Anglesey over the Easter weekend ) and the 60mm might be a little more forgiving for a novice. I had thought that this would probably suffice for macro in Indonesia. From a search of the wetpixel forums I am now thinking that I need the 105mm + diopter.

What are the limiting factors (total novice question)? Is it that one can’t get close enough with the 60mm because of the port or the surrounding fauna (coral etc.)? Is it that everything is scared when someone pokes a huge camera and housing at it?

Finally, how big ARE pygmy seahorses (bumble bee?, smaller?)??

Mark

Mark,

Type Pygmy Seahorse + finger into google images to see how big they are. But before you go wow - very small remember fingers look a third larger underwater - so they are not as hard as they look.

The 105mm would be hard work in the UK. But for pygmies it is pretty ideal - with a strong dioptre. But, as I said above there is more to shooting pygmies than going for ultimate magnification. I think there is a lack of good pygmy shots taken with less magnification- actually showing them in their environment.

Alex

Pygmy seahorses are the flamingo tongues of the 2000s.

Mark,

A good shot of a pygmy has been one of the most difficult things for me since upgrading to DLSR. I have to old 105 and a 4T, but with my current setup, I can't use auto focus when the diopter is installed.

I have just done my fourth trip where pygmys were on the menu, and have finally taken some shots I am proud of.

So as an also recent newbie, I can lend you some advice:

(in no particular order)

If there is current don't count on much of a chance. Remember you can always ask to go back to the dive site when the current might be less.

Check the surrounding area. Sometimes you'll find them on a fan thats just in the wrong spot to try a take a shot.

Start wide and work your way in. The buggers are hard to find when you're already at 1:1.

Have a good guide, and talk with them before the dive about how you will signal them when you have found it through the viewfinder.

Lastly, PLEASE be kind. Low strobe power, and not too many shots on one poor little guy.

Not sure where you're heading in Indo, but check around the fan. Sometimes there are others in better positions. I counted at least 8 on the one fan in front of Scuba Seraya in Bali.

GOOD LUCK!

I mostly dive in the UK and enjoy macro photography. For this reason I’ve bought and been playing with the Nikon 60mm macro.

I don't know what a similar system would be for others, maybe the MacroMate or Woody, or maybe even a dry diopter, but the 60 on a crop sensor with a wet diopter sure gives a nice rendering plus allows for some level of latitude in perspective. I haven't had any problem lighting with the 60, but you are quite on top of the animal. And it is true that most people have pygmy shots, but I like Alex's comment on that: there aren't really that many good ones. It's pretty hard to make a significantly interesting pygmy shot. So the cool thing is that on the upper end of quality pygmy shots there is still a lot of room.

Just so you know: pygmies act just like their larger brethren. they duck and turn and generally avoid letting you get the shot easily. If you don't have a good sense of humor they may even piss you off!

All good advice, here is a pygmy photograph taken with a 60 mm and without diopter,

I also recommend finding a place where you can hang out and observe for a long period of time. If you find pygmies in the right mood, during the day, in a place where you don't have to use a modeling light to see, you can observe them while they're feeding and jumping around the fan.

I *hate* looking at pygmies when a guide is there trying to get it to face you. I will probably never do that again. It's better to have a guide show you where one is and work it on your own -- preferably at a spot with open dive deck so you can go in alone and take your time.

Thanks everyone for he information and advice. Having seen Peter's picture and the general comments about capturing pygmies in their environment, I think I'll stick with the 60mm. I was worried about the depth of field that I'd get with the 105mm as well as the additional expense. At the end of the day if I don't get a good photo I can always have another go on another holiday (I hope).

I hate the sound of dive guides harassing a creature just so that I can get a photo. I think I'd prefer to swim away and have a chat with the guide after the dive. I'm sure that the guides are only trying to keep the guests happy, and what makes me happy is looking and not touching .

Expatdiver raises an interesting point. Are we harming creatures with powerful strobes? We use strobes because there isn't much light and I assume that fish eyes work in a similar way to ours. Having a bright light shone in my eyes when the iris is wide open is painful. If this were repeated would it do any damage (I'm guessing that it would but have no evidence)? On the whole I try and take a few shots of a subject but if I'm not getting the photo that I want after 3-4 shots I move on. This is as much because I want to enjoy the rest of the dive and not leave my buddy hanging around as it is to leave the creature I've been stressing out a chance to recover. Obviously this is not a suitable approach for all you pros and semi-pros.

Peter, love the photo. I also like your avatar picture thing of a mola-mola. We are flying into Bali the first week in September and spending a few days before joining an 11 day Komodo Dancer trip to Komodo (surprise!). What are our chances of seeing mola-mola. I ask because your location says New Forest and Bali so I'm guessing you are out there quite a lot of the time. Would we be better booking an additional days diving on Bali dedicated to trying to see mola-mola? And no, I don’t want to take mola-mola with the 60mm .

Mark

Hi Mark,

I've only seen two pygmeys so I'm no expert - but I found that they just kept "going about their business" while I photographed them. I was surprised! I probably only took 15 frames though so that was a factor I'm sure. I didn't bump the fan either...

Cheers

James

Mark,

September is a good time to see Mola, you need to be with the right people, this isn't sales talk, I should be out in Bali during September/October, hopefully diving, waiting for the thumbs up from the dive doctor. i will be out there with a couple of diving parties from the UK.

Send me a pm with your e-mail and I'll give you some more info. Ideally you need to be at the Mola station around full or new moon, sometimes the water can be a bit iffy, so sometimes it is better to dive either side of these times. Its the descending currents you need to look out for!

The avatar was taken out in free water, not at a cleaning station, and lucky, lucky a mola swam by, never seen at this location before.

Be pleased to help, you should allow two or three days diving for East Bali, just to make sure, all the best Peter

I tried taking shots of pgymy seahorses so many times, unfortunately never with great results. I tried them all, 60mm, 105mm, 70-180mm+5T, 60mm with 2x teleconverter.

60mm is by far the easiest due to focusing but you have to get very close. One thing I was trying to do is to get a seafan with all the polyps extended. It is going to be almost impossible to get a shot of pgymy seahorse with polyps extended unless you are very very lucky and find a pygmy seahorse rihgt on the periphery of the seafan.

I quite like the 70-180mm as I can settle in one place and use the zoom without moving too much. Also it is easier to locate the pgymy at 70mm end then zoom in but AF is incredibly slow and difficult in comparison to 60mm.

60mm with 2x teleconverter is actually quite good. AF is still relatively fast, good working distance so not to disturb the seafan polyps. That is what I probably used the most until I got the new 105mm VR.

After a long winded post, personally I still think the 105 is the best on good eyes day and helpful diveguide who helps to shine light on the pgymy until I can find it in my VF. If I am on my own, I think 70-180 is a tad easier, as far as actually locating the pgymy.

I am not sure how ideal a location is in Komodo for pgymy. I saw pgymy at 2 places there. One, the current was so strong I could barely stay in one place long enough to even compose a picture. The 2nd spot was at Carnibal Rock. The diveguide took us down to 40m to see yellow pgymy. At 40m in 20C water (freezing for me), I did not last very long.

good luck with the pygmy's!

I just got back from bali the other day, and we found some pygmy's on our own.

I know this isn't a "show off your photos" thread, but I thought I post since I just took the photos a few days ago...

here is the pygmy seahorse that lives on the Libery wreck:

That is heavily cropped, with the 60mm lens... he is *really* small, I had trouble seeing it on the sea fan, and I have very good eyesight.

Like someone else said, its hard to get them to face you, they want to turn away.

because of where this sea fan was, and slight currents in the area, I think the shot would have been much harder with my 105mm lens, but who knows.

this one was taken by my wife with her Fuji F10 in padang bai. There were 3 on the sea fan, but I only saw one. This one was much larger than the one in Tulamben.

I think a 105mm lens would work well here. I had the 10.5mm on my camera during this dive, so I couldn't take its photo

but this was my first trip with a dSLR, so I'm quite inexperienced in these matters.

btw, in Tulamben I did see that little guy move around the sea fan a couple times, he hopped really quickly... it was cool that Alex captured the pygmy sea horse "in flight".

Scott

ps - we got lucky and got close to a nice big Mola Mola also, out of season!

September is definitely the best month for the molas....