A few Manatees

Here's a couple shots from this past Sunday at Crystal River, 3 Sisters Springs, the second time in one week. We went out with Birds Underwater which is a great tour group. The water was pretty clear only a few particles. My daughter got some good shots too.

My Daughter Natalya with her 4mp camera, she's getting a Canon G9 and housing very soon.

Love them all! I think that reflections looking up are amazing all the time! Where were you diving at?

I guess I should have mentioned that we were at Crystal River, 3 Sisters Springs.

Thanks....

Mark

How nice and moving! Thanks for sharing The manatees must be one of the most human-friendly mammals in the world (next to the dog?)

Can you give us some more technical details about your shots. Type of lense?

Cheers

Al

Al

Thanks for the compliments. I shot this with a Canon 5D MK II with a Canon 15mm fisheye in an Aquatica Housing, with the 9.5 Glass Mega Dome and 2 Sea & Sea YS-250's. This was pretty early in the morning so the springs were not getting any direct sun light. I had the ISO set to 400 and the exposures were around F 5.6 at 100-125the shutter. I figured distance and the fisheye would help cover any depth of field issues. A few were shot with out strobes and a few with. I had 8 & 12 inch arms that I had spread out half way with the strobes feathered out even more so that I was only using the edge of the light (the first time I had tons of backscatter) I still had a little bit this time.

You are not permitted to dive down to the Manatee's and it's hard to get down with a thick wet suite and no weights and I did not want all my shots looking like they were shot from the surface. All of my images were shot at arms length away pushing the camera/housing as deep as I could possibly get it then pull the trigger (like shooting from the hip, no view finder), check the LCD for composition re-adjust and shoot again until I got the right composition right.

I hope this helps, I'm going back in a couple weeks and I have a few more ideas that I want to try, I just ran out of time and then a large tour group silted up the area that I was working in.

Mark

Nice shots! Congrats.

Nice shots Mark! I really want to get down that way to see these awesome critters.

Al

Thanks for the compliments. I shot this with a Canon 5D MK II with a Canon 15mm fisheye in an Aquatica Housing, with the 9.5 Glass Mega Dome and 2 Sea & Sea YS-250's. This was pretty early in the morning so the springs were not getting any direct sun light. I had the ISO set to 400 and the exposures were around F 5.6 at 100-125the shutter. I figured distance and the fisheye would help cover any depth of field issues. A few were shot with out strobes and a few with. I had 8 & 12 inch arms that I had spread out half way with the strobes feathered out even more so that I was only using the edge of the light (the first time I had tons of backscatter) I still had a little bit this time.

 

You are not permitted to dive down to the Manatee's and it's hard to get down with a thick wet suite and no weights and I did not want all my shots looking like they were shot from the surface. All of my images were shot at arms length away pushing the camera/housing as deep as I could possibly get it then pull the trigger (like shooting from the hip, no view finder), check the LCD for composition re-adjust and shoot again until I got the right composition right.

 

I hope this helps, I'm going back in a couple weeks and I have a few more ideas that I want to try, I just ran out of time and then a large tour group silted up the area that I was working in.

 

Mark

Thanks Mark for these details!

I guess the Birds Underwater people know what they are doing, and take you out early enough?

Al

Great shots Mark!