12-24DX Manta Shot

Hi Gang,

Just got back from another great trip with the S2/Aquatica setup. I shot mostly Wideangle this trip. I also had a Substrobe 300 which proved to be a real champ - it has an extremely wide angle of coverage!

I had my fingers crossed for Mantas and we had them coming:

And going:

Check that out - the viz. at the Flower Gardens is so good that you can see the boat easily 100' away.

Full gallery from the trip is at:

http://www.reefpix.org/modules.php?set_alb...=view_album.php

Cheers

James

Substrobe 300 ?

Check that out - the viz. at the Flower Gardens is so good that you can see the boat easily 100' away.

Great shot James! However I thought you are more likely to encounter mantas when plankton is rich and therefor visibility is quite poor. Lucky you!

The force is strong with this one. Great work, James.

That 12-24 sure is wide. I am very jealous of both the lens and the photos you are taling with it.

Alex

Hello,

Great shots James.

You have some other really cool shots in your latest albums.

I particulary like the silhouet of the divers on the anchor line.

The vis was awesome.

Vlad

James, wooohooo...........great shots

That's definitely a different manta from the one we saw

Hope he's still around in another 3 weeks

Karl

Well done.

Must resist DSLR, must resist DSLR.

James,

Great shots. I like the one with the two morays. I've heard it's rare to find two different species sharing the same hole.

Mantas right under the boat! I don't know, thats pretty lucky. I think I see a rope attaching it to the bottom!

John

Thanks for the good words y'all.

The funniest thing for me is that Sarah got the best Manta shot by far. I was low on air and had to go up so I passed her the housing. That's when the second Manta showed up (larger and darker underside). It decided to do a backflip right in front of her so she got the "perfect shot" of the underside looking up... :-) She made sure I knew it too:

Now that I am shooting for others to use, I carry a backup of everything. So I have 3 strobes and 3 sync cords as well as backup media, etc. The only thing I don't have yet is a backup camera body. That's why I got the SS300 (got it on ebay).

Cheers

James

So is this East Bank, with our new super dooper hammer-drilled-epoxy-set mooring. The manta certainly looks familiar (It circled and watched us placing the mooring). Nice viz too...

How can you live without a backup body...

We saw the mantas at East Bank #2

We later dove East Bank #4 which is the research site that they don't take recreational divers to. It is an excellent site! We had a repeat siting of the larger ray there as well. I had the 70-180 on of course...

Cheers

James

East Bank #4 is where divers go to die... I'd like to see the site some time, but as you say it will not be on a recreational trip.

Why? What's up with East Bank #4?

Why? What's up with East Bank #4?

While the vessels that run out there, MV Spree and Fling, were operated by Rinn Diving, they had a pretty bad season one year with divers dying (often couch potato types that suffered what we in the medical research world call a MACE (Major Adverse Cardiac Event)) or getting bent. Most of these events happened off mooring site #4, though that is probably just coincidence. The Flowergardens can turn very nasty quite quickly, and #4 is (I believe) close to a significant drop off that goes well beyond recreational depths.

Frank, the captain of the Spree then and now, doesn't like this site for that reason, and only takes the research trips on to it nowadays.

BTW: James, I only just spotted the diver on the downline in the second manta shot, now that I am at home and using the really nice monitor. Sweeeeeet....

The close downline has one diver high up. The rear downlines have SEVEN divers on them...:-)

The boat is 110' long and I was in 70' of water.

Aside - Mooring #4 is on the East side of East Bank and the reef drops off to VERY deep over there.

Cheers

James

Indeed, now that I look more closely I can see them too, but the one on the close downline is in Snell's window and shows up a bit better for me.

BTW James: Spree and Fling are both just less than 100 feet LOA (as is Seasearcher, though I don't know exactly how long it is, just that it is less than 100 feet by a small margin).

If they were any bigger they would not be allowed to tie up to the mooring balls, which would rather defeat the purpose of both the moorings and the boats.

In my business we call supply/crew boats that size "one tens." It's a class, not the actual length.

So you got me Craig.

Cheers

James