stingray school - cayman

This is a shot I took in Grand Cayman - at Sandbar about 7 am - before the dive operators start showing up to feed the rays. Used a Sony DSC-F717 in an Ikelite Housing and the ambient light. I used photoshop 6.0 to warm up the color of the rays a little. This shot was actually published in the Caymanian tourist magazine "Whats Hot". I had to compress it a bit - I have it as an 8X10 (4.29Mb) and I shrunk it to 50k! so my real copy isn't as pixelated... Enjoy! and let me know what you think...

-MP

Sorry - I'll try attaching the photo again...

- MP

Matt,

I am really keen to see your picture, but it doesn't seem to be loading up.

I have been to the Sandbar at dawn with Guy in the summer of 2002. Unfortunately that morning was a bit cloudy and I have been trying to get back there ever since!

Alex

Hi Matt,

The image has loaded up now. My mistake! Your shot is very good. Capturing the schooling rays is not as easy as many might think, because it is easy to spook them and make them break formation.

I often use a 10CC red filter on the sandbar to up those reds - which does in camera pretty much the same correction you applied in Photoshop. This picture was shot on the Sandbar with a 10CC red filter on the lens:

Alex

Alex -

Glad you got the pic and thanks for the reply - I like your shot - The Ikelite housing I have only has a flat port - I really like the way the dome port shots come out at sandbar as in your pic...

regards...

- MP

I like your pic.

Decrease the image size (8x10) proportionately and don't crunch it down so much with compression. Decreasing the dimensions will help you with file size and that way we can see it without all the pixelation.

That was my first crack at a post - see my eagle ray or florida sea goddess pics that are smaller and much higher quality...I learn fast...

-MP

Matt were you there when they filmed this:

video clip of mating rays

I would really like to shoot some stills of the mating. Do you feel that it is mainly a August/September event - like all the observations reported in Chapman et al (2003) - or was this just when they made the study?

This is a shot of the rays I took when i went out with Guy - and I would love the chance to get out there again at dawn:

Alex

Love the B&W Alex. Did you use a sandtrap rake on the sand first?

Great shot Alex!

To clarify Craig us golfers would prefer the sand trap much less ridged than that. I have enough trouble getting out to the trap let alone have to deal with ridges. In terms of this shot the ridges make it sing!

Beautiful shot Alex!

I haven't tried B&W underwater yet.

If you are shooting digital everyshot you have taken can be black and white.

Alex your shot is great.

Any color version of it available?

If you are shooting digital everyshot you have taken can be black and white.

Yes, but it helps if BW shots are planned as such. Not all coloUr shots adapt well.

I'm off to Caymans in May - Hope I get to see this daily migration

I agree with Bob. I shot this on colour film, but I always planned it as a black an white. I just only had colour film in my Nikonos V.

The sun had gone in when i took this shot. So I knew I wanted black and white - because the colours would be muted in the shade, plus the black and white picks up the ripples better in the shade - when you don't get all the distracting light patterns. Also black and white images are about shape and form and this is what I was concentrating on with the Nikonos.

So there is a colour version of this shot, but nobody will ever see it!

Alex

Bob, the schooling rays are a daily occurrence. The difficulty is getting someone to take you out there so early! I'm going to Cayman in April. Pity we won't be there at the same time.

Read again...any shot taken in digital can be black and white.

I made no comment as to the quality of the shot or technique. I only made mention as I felt the individual that posted may not have realized this. My only point meant to be suggested,

That said you could then learn from looking at unplanned B&W shots and if anything learn what would constitute a good set-up for B&W. Something I am sure a lot of us, myself included, have not tried very much.

Yes, point taken and I appologise for the short comings...

As you say, a lot CAN be learned from analysing various types of shot taken in coloUr, then converted to BW. Situations of high contrasts are great for BW, and I am hoping everyone will exploit this in this years photocomp as one leg is BW specific, and another semi-specific.

Here's one that works quite well too, in my opinion better and more dramatic than the coloUr version.

I don't disagree with anyone's opinion here, but my preference - in almost all cases - is color/coloUr. Everyone remembers the incredible B&W photographs taken by the old masters of the craft, but those folks took B&W because it was the only choice they had. A young relative of mine recently shot a roll of B&W film that someone gave him. After having the film processed and printed, he was amazed at the effect - especially the subtle gradations of greyscale "color," an effect well know to old-timers (like me) who had a choice of color vs. B&W, but chose B&W because it was much cheaper to buy and process.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but to me the world I live in is colorful, and that's how I want to record it. I also readily acknowledge that I very much enjoy seeing a really dramatic B&W photograph like Bob"s and others we have seen on this forum.

So it's a matter of personal taste. At least with digital, you can go either way.

IMHO

Jim

So it's a matter of personal taste.  At least with digital, you can go either way.

 

IMHO 

 

Jim

Much better in B&W, at least IMO.

Of course I only realized this morning that I'm staring at a wall of B&W prints in my office (no col(o/oUr) at all on this wall).