Moon Jellyfish

These guys were about 1 inch long and suspended in the water column at a local jetty dive site.

Delicate - beautiful!

How'd you shoot that? Night? Fast shutter? Lens? Camera?

Really nice!

Thanks! I'm particularly fond of them! Both shots were taken during the day about 10 feet from the surface, though it was very overcast. The vis was the best I've ever seen it at this dive site (an outstanding 25 feet).

The equipment used was Fuji S2 in Sea and Sea housing, custom flat port with Nikon 60mm lens, dual YS-90DX strobes.

Settings were ISO100 1/128th @ f32 for the first shot and ISO100 1/128th @ f26 for the 2nd shot. Both shots were on TTL with flash compensation set to +1.

Post processing included RAW conversion, bumping the contrast, and backscatter removal.

Absolutely stunning shots. How did you place the strobes? The outline of the Jellies are very well defined and the highlights are just in the right places.

Cheers

David

Amazing photos! I've tried for years to photograph those small jellyfish with no success.

Very nicely done.

Diverhead, I commend you on these stunning photographs. Knowing first hand how difficult they are to take makes them that much more amazing. Great lighting and dead-on focus on them too! If you shot them in AF, did you have any problems with the camera finding focus? With my Oly5050 I have to shoot them in MF otherwise it's near impossible to get the shot.

Out of curiosity, were there any other life forms living amongst the jellies that you could see? On the second shot there seems to be something on the upper righthand corner of the outside membrane of the jelly. It's neat to see small fish and crustaceans reveal themselves in my photographs when I never realized they were even there when I originally took the photograph.

Laz: Thanks man! Although I reserve the right to "act" like it was 100% skill that achieved the results, it was more luck than skill. I didn't have much of a problem with the AF mostly because there was nothing behind the subject to distract the metering. Once the Nikon 60mm goes past the point of focus, its a long way to let it focus all the way out and then back in again. Momentarily releasing the half-pressed shutter release and then pressing again will make the AF do a "u-turn".

I didn't see anything else living among them. I'm assuming they were juvenile jellies making their way out to the open ocean from the shoreline. It never ceases to amaze me when I take a photo of a single subject and find dozens of other animals living with the subject when I review the shot later!

Here is a tighter crop of the top right corner of the jelly. I think it might be damage to the membrane or maybe some sort of parasite?

CheungyDiver: The strobes were aimed slightly inward from straight forward from the sides of the housing (tight to the sides of the housing handles). I usually shoot macro with my strobes folded up top and position them depending on the type of lighting I want to achieve, but thought I'd give it a try on the sides for this dive. It apparently worked out! Assuming a 90 degree angle of light, the inner edge of each strobe crossed right at the subject. The same principal technique for shooting WA.

Thanks for all the info... always more to learn.

Again, both are stunning!!

Hi,

Great shots! They're always difficult to light...and always seem to have loads of backscatter. As your previous posts have been from the north-eastern Pacific, thought I'd have a look to see what it is. Looks to be a hydroid medusa from the Polyorchidae family. These are a stage in the life of athecate hydroids, though which one isn't stated. You'll find it (again, I think)in Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates, by Wrobel and Mills.

Just what everyone needs to know to get through life!

Marli

Damn teachers.

Have to get a little education in there somewhere.

Most excellent. Really lit well.