Raja W I D E

Hello,

As some of you know, I recently returned from a trip to Raja Ampat Indonesia (seems like quite the busy place these days!). My primary goal was close focus wide angle and capturing the carnival of colors on the reefs. I actually did not even bring a macro kit at all. I pretty much spent the whole time with 10.5 and 15mm lenses.

Here are a couple teasers below. You can see a Gallery at Flickr. Or, you can watch the Slideshow at Flickr. Also, we ran into some cool (2 meter) Octopus Mating.

Feedback is most appreciated!

Thanks!

Those first 3 are just wonderfull...

Great work.

Very nice captures

Todd

Fantastic colours..

Booty 'Hoss' just booty

Dive safe

DeanB

I vote for 1, 2 and 6. Nice lighting and overall exposure. I'll have to check out your gallery when I get a chance.

All nice-love the 3rd.

WOW Justin! what a nice lighting on those! Love all of them but the 3 firsts are wonderfull. Love the blue diagonal in the #2 and the circle composition in #3. Really, really impressive...it has to be a nice tryp....maybe someday

Looks great Justin - really enjoyed them!

Excellent work on the exposure and lighting.

Verry nice, clear images.

Verry good even lighting on the CFWA-images, I know how PITA that can be.

What strobes are you using?

Thanks for the compliments on lighting guys, I feel as though it is one of the most difficult aspect for me to get right so I really appreciate the thoughts.

What strobes are you using?

-- 1 YS90 & 1 YS120 spread super duper wide

One more thing I wanted to add to this is something I forgot to mention. On our way to Batbitim Island where we were staying and diving, we had the opportunity to travel with Conservation International. We stopped at villages along the way as they are discussing with the people there about protecting the region.

The children along the way (even though they live on the water) really had no experience with what it looks like underwater. We realized it would be cool to show them some imagery and start to educate them about the beauty right underneath them.

Shawn (shawnh) had some of his cool Bali underwater footage and we pulled out my laptop and put on the DVD and had Anderw Miners translate for us and show them the fish swimming on the reefs. They saw the creatures and were *so* excited. They had seen these fish as they caught them but really don't have masks or anything to know what it actually looks like wild under the water.

We decided that next time we would bring along some masks as well as a larger screen and leave them with a really strong impression of what they have and why they should protect it. It was a very exciting and amazing experience seeing how passionate they were.

Thanks!

You boyz are the real dogs gonads..

Educational trips thrown in for good will.

I'm feeling the magic

Dive safe

DeanB