I finally got my Subal D80 housing in the water, after it sat out my Red Sea workshop on the shelf at home. Luckily the generous trans-atlantic baggage allowances meant it was no problem to take it to Florida and then on to the Bahamas for Wetpixel's 2007 shark trip.
Alas, that is where our luck ran out as. Those pesky Oceanic Whitetips remained illusive, despite three full days of searching and another three days on the boat travelling there and back. By this point we were low on bait, which meant it was hard to attract other sharks. So we spent a few evenings searching for dolphins, which were most uncooperative! But before it sounds too bleak, we were lucky that the Shear Water crew know a thing or two about attracting sharks and we had extended encounters with tigers, lemons, duskies (which I hadn't seen before) and reef sharks. We also had a fantastic bunch on board and I had such a great time. I can't wait to go back on the Shear Water on one of next year's Wetpixel trips. And I hope that the luck changes for the second half of the trip, which is out at the moment.
I did most of my photography with my D2X, although we had such reliable encounters with the sharks we did see that I did sneak the D80 in for a couple of dives. It is a very nice little camera and I was very happy with the image quality. I shot it with the 10-17mm, 12-24mm and 28-70mm. Here are a few of the shots:
Reef shark at surface. I was impressed with how the D80 handled the sunrays.
Reef shark over reef. The colours look a bit rich on this one. Sorry - I processed these on my laptop.
Mating hamlets. The low light focus ability was enough to get this pair.
Nassau grouper and sponges.
A pig in the sea.
Alex
