New Years Nudi

Hey gang,

This shot was taken on the south end of Santa Cruz Island New Years Day. I like the composition and the sharp focus. Would appreciate any comments.

Taken with Fuji S2, Alum. Ike housing, single DS-125 with 60mm lens and Woody's Diopter. F27 at 1/90.

Thanks,

John

Hey John, Cracking shot with fantastic detail and a fierce pose

I completely agree .. love it

i love nudi's

i love u/w photo's

i love this

Depth of field is also impressive, given the magnification. So many nudi shots are just clear ID images - but this one is a dynamic image. Excellent.

Well done John I'll have to come dive with you sometime as you certainly make the area look very enticing for us cold water folk.

Any suggestions on how to improve the shot guys? Even just an "I would have tried X" would be cool.

Every shot can be improved and we would like to make sure this forum is more than for just "Showing Off" (Although showing off is fine too, as long as you say something to the effect." The idea is that with such a large body of photographers we'd like to use the pool to help us all improve.

Cheers

James

Great picture!

Only thing I can think of to improve this shoot is to have the nudi more in the lower half instead in the upper half of the frame.

This would be more pleasing to MY eye at last.

Best regards

Christian

Lovely picture.

I think the compositional point raised in Christian's message might be addressed by recropping the image, chopping off part of the bottom of the frame, so that the nudibranch is positioned more centrally.

Robert Delfs

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the comments.

The attached image is the uncropped version. I originally cropped it to get the nudi out of the center of the frame. I thought when looking at composition, the "bullseye" effect of having the subject square in the middle was undesirable. As happens so often, now that I look at the original, I think I prefer it.

Your opinions are appreciated as I'm going to print this image and add it to the ones hanging around the house. Please feel free to crop it yourselves and repost.

Thanks again,

John

I think the original is better, although I do agree generally about centred subjects.

Me again,

I gave it a quick try.

Perhabs it gives you the idea what I meant. Still one of the finest nudi pics I have every seen!

Best regards

Christian

mexwel,

Just my opinion, but I think by cropping it at the bottom, the Nudi loses it's superior postion in the frame. Which also reduces it's impact, at least for me. The first example is my favorite.

Rand

Hey Rand,

I think I still like the uncropped shot because it looks more "balanced". But a superior position was what I was trying to portray in the first crop. I try to follow the "get close, get down, and shoot up" mantra, and I thought the first crop captured the "shoot up" ideal better than the centered image.

Thanks,

John

I like the original better too.

I've never seen one of these. Very cool. Looks like a character out of a Pokeman cartoon.

Here is one that I shot back in July of 2002 off Anacapa. Let me know what you think.

Jeremy,

Did you realize that you actually shot two of them? Maybe getting ready to mate

For being so common, I think spanish shawls are one of the most beautiful nudibranchs out there.

As for critique, the "fringes" (I forget the proper term now) seem a little overexposed/out of focus and I think there is too much shadowing on the right. It looks like you used a single strobe coming from the left. If this was the case, the strobe placed right over the lens may have prevented some of the shadows. It seems that your DOF extended from the body of the more forward nudi into the 2nd one in the rear hiding in the shadows.

I really like the detail you captured in the body and the rhinophores of the slug. Nice texture. The colors are also very nice. I also like the diagonal composition.

I imagine the forward shawl saying "hey baby..."

Are you still diving in So. Cal ?

Beautiful picture,

John

Thanks for the feedback. You're correct that I used a single strobe and it is highly likely that is was off to the left a bit for this shot. I did realize there were two in the picture. In fact, there may even be three, but I can't quite tell.

I still dive out at the Channel Islands whenever I can (which isn't enough these days).