Tarpon portrait, Bonaire!

Tarpon are cool. Caught this guy at night at the town pier (last night):

In contrast, I shot this two years ago when Rogier Williams took me over to dive the east side. (I mean, here's a contrasting image of the same subject. )

Awesome pic, Eric. The fish looks metallic and glassy. Almost holographic.

I agree - tarpon are an awesome photo subject and your portrait looks great Eric. They are so tough - I'd love to find a "friendly one" sometimes like this guy.

Cheers

James

Hi Eric, nice shot indeed!

Did you find the tarpon or did (s)he find you. Night diving at Bari Reef last January the local tarpon visited me, coming up from behind. Given their size and armor-like scales it was pretty spooky, especially as I was diving solo. Good that the dive staff had warned us of this friendly giant.

Have fun in Bonaire, wish I was there ...

Bart

A difficult fish to get a good shot of, they are so reflexive, like shooting into a mirror, but you nailed it, nice pic.

Thanks for upping one of my images Eric :-)

Here are some more views for my friends at lac Cai..

Regarding exposure: I used two INON D-2000 strobes in STTL mode for this shot (thanks, Ryan, for lending me the entire Seatool / Canon 400d setup while my Seacam/1D is in the shop). Ryan advised me to set the camera to -1EV flash exposure comp (to save battery life), and the strobes to +1. It is working very well, on most subjects. In this case, one strobe was set to +1EV, and the other to 0EV. I almost never shoot with my strobes to the same power setting because the results are often too flat for my tastes.

Did you find the tarpon or did (s)he find you. Night diving at Bari Reef last January the local tarpon visited me, coming up from behind.

(S)he found us! The thing was hunting using our lights for the entire hour-long dive. There was an audible (and visceral) WHUMP sound each time the thing hit a small fish. I like watching it turn sideways just before the strike...

By the same convention, can you set the camera at -2EV and the strobes to +2?

The fish has a very neat natural cross-processed colors look. Now get a dive buddy's reflection in the scales .

Thanks for upping one of my images Eric :-)

Rogier - I took both of the images I uploaded. I wouldn't upload one of yours without permission or credit!

By the same convention, can you set the camera at -2EV and the strobes to +2?

 

The fish has a very neat natural cross-processed colors look. Now get a dive buddy's reflection in the scales .

Matt -- I don't think that worked, for some reason. I'm not convinced the -2/+2 combo worked well, but I'm not sure why (I'm sure I tried it already). I'll give it a try in the water today.

Rogier - I took both of the images I uploaded. I wouldn't upload one of yours without permission or credit!

Matt -- I don't think that worked, for some reason. I'm not convinced the -2/+2 combo worked well, but I'm not sure why (I'm sure I tried it already). I'll give it a try in the water today.

Ah sorry Eric, I was just honored that you mentioned me :-)

I just read your post again, and realized that mis read your post

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Eric,

can you explain more on the battery saving by using the -1 and +1 setting: I dont get it. The camera only gives a tiny amount of current to trigger the flash. With lighting, the netto result would be the same.

Thanks

gerard