Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins

Aloha All:

I don't think I've ever posted any of my pics here before so thought I would share a couple shots of some curious spinner dolphins I was fortunate enough to spend time with today - It was raining and they were swimming over a black sand beach so lighting was a challenge. All of these are done freediving!

Thanks for any critiques -

Bryce

Great photos Bryce !!!

I love the ones with the baby dolphin

Thanks for sharing

David

Wow, one of them is playing with a leaf. Cool shots.

Great shots, I especially like the vertical threesome.

Thanks guys. Jeff - I actually brought the leaf out from the beach. They love leaves! Yesterday, I swam down and dropped it in the water column and then three of them came after it furiously and making tons of noise - they then swim with it for a few seconds, do a few laps and then drop it off again for someone else to pick up (myself included) - this went on for over 5 minutes till one decided he was just going to keep it.

Aloha

Bryce

Reminds me of when as a teen I snuck into a marine park called Marineland in Palos Verdes, California in the evening. I went into the penguin area and was playing with the penguins which was rather one sided, as all they wante dto do was nibble on my hands to see what it was like...

The dolphins were a crackup, the adult would come over right away and deliver floating balls.....after I threw it, they returned it one of 3 ways....pushing it on the surface, flipping it to me on the surface, or holding it down underwater deep but directly below me and letting it go to race up and pop out of the water.

After some play the mothers decided it was ok to bring the babies over, first I woiuld scratch the bellies of the mothers, then the babies would come a little more reservedly to get some belly scratching.....I did that for about 90 minutes before I had to make my way back home on my road racing bike about 35 miles back.

Great photos.

Really cool stuff. Nice work.

Cute creatures, very good images.

I really like these spinner shots. You captured their daily activities well!

Best, Carol

damn i am jealous!

those shots are fantastic, spinners here and in palau just scatter as soon as you enter the water (on freediving not scuba)

I really like that first one

Great images!

I'm curious what camera settings you used. Specifically for camera settings did you use M, A, or S? Also what shutter speed did you go with?

Thanks.

Thanks for all your comments - Dave - I used shutter priority as I figured that was the most important in order to freeze them, being so fast moving throughout the water - these images were all shot between 1/80 and 1/125, depending on the light. It was overcast with random showers/random sunshine, so as the clouds moved, I changed the shutter speed. Here's a couple more:

I've shot spinners more than a hundred times in the past six years and this day was one of the best for sure!

Absolutely beautiful...thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks, I was thinking that shutter priority might be best. I'm surprised you got such sharp images at those speeds. I was thinking 1/250th.

Byrce, well done there, what a great experience to nail them like like...

When we open our shop, we want to have images like that framed and will chat to you to see if we can do some kind of deal.

Hey Dave - I had a hard time with 1/250th with the overcast skies and black sand - even with a higher ISO. They were so curious that they really slowed down right in front of me so I could use the slower shutter - I took nearly 400 images in 3 hours, attempting every exposure possible so that I wouldn't blow the experience.

Wags - I have tons more shots, lots with the babies - if you're interested. What kind of shop you guys opening? In Exmouth?

I am jealous too!!! great experience and pics! did you use any kind of strobe?

Wags - I have tons more shots, lots with the babies - if you're interested. What kind of shop you guys opening? In Exmouth?

A fish and chips shop

No, not sure yet, but it will be to do with the marine world and scuba I suppose. The areas is zoned Restaurant or Dive Shop or Information center..hey maybe a Wetpixel Bar

Still orgaining the current lease contracts etc but we have 1000 feet of area to play around with.

Having Wetpixel member pics framed would be cool to sell.

Hey Wags -

I tried pulling off the hoya/cc filter swap (your idea) but seem to be a mm off. The cc filter in the Hoya ring (with a bit of tape to make it snug) sticks out just a hair - but enough to keep the flip arm from moving up and down easily. It'll go one way, but then just gets stuck - with no ring in, it works fine - but then I loose the cc filter.

I'm wondering if the rings may be different? The Hoya's I got came with rings that didn't screw off to get out the filter, but the springy coil thing that goes in and locks it down - Are your's that kind? I did a black water night dive the other night and would have desperatly loved to have the diopter on the flip arm for some of the creatures......

Still can't get completely happy with the Phenom. Maybe we're all asking for too much?

Bryce

The springy coil thing Yep I have the same Bryce.

My Hoya ring sits flush right to the end of the camera. Maybe the tape is causing it not to go right in or something like that.

Have another go as the flip macro works so well giving you allot more room for tighter shots and instant macro.