Playing with sea snakes in Niue

A 45 second opening shot, even the creative rotation of it, was way too long imo. Some real color problems especially in the shallow areas probably due to your UR filter and grabbing of the sea snakes by their tails is really considered harassement and should be avoided. There seemed to be plenty of them around so grabbing them should have been completely unnecessary.

Steve

Trying to emulate Steve Irwin?

Thanks for the video - a great reminder of my one weekend of diving in Niue. I was amazed at the number of sea snakes there. The caves were just packed full of them

But seriously dude, handling them like that is inappropriate, and not very bright!

A big no no in my opinion. Why you felt the need to grab hold of them only you know the answer to.

I've just watched another one of your videos. Seems like you have some sort of disorder where you feel the need to harass and grab animals... Next time you grab a shark and it lashes out i hope it gives you a little harassment... you have some serious issues.

A 45 second opening shot, even the creative rotation of it, was way too long imo.

that was actually the main reason why I shared it. I thought letting go of my camera worked rather well.

Some real color problems especially in the shallow areas probably due to your UR filter and grabbing of the sea snakes by their tails is really considered harassement and should be avoided. There seemed to be plenty of them around so grabbing them should have been completely unnecessary.

Steve

I have not found a robust way of color correction for videos/pics (unless they are raw files) yet and welcome any suggestions. Using the red filter is indeed a bit tricky. Videos come out too red when I'm too shallow and it cost me too much light when I dive deep. Keep in mind that this was filmed with entry-level video camera and a m43 photo camera. I know I don't do the animals a favor by tickling them. I try to make up for it by discouraging the use of scuba gear and disturbance with air bubbles. Look, half my diving friends say I'm a bad person for not exclusively feeding on seaweed, the other calls me gay for having swapped my speargun for a camera. I'm quite comfortable with where I am.

Why do you do it though (serious question, whats the thinking behind it)?

Trying to emulate Steve Irwin?

with a better ending, I hope. Diving is a reasonably new thing to me (~5 years). I grew up thinking the ocean is a terribly hostile place because of all the bs I saw on TV. Irrational fear for wildlife keeps a lot of people out of the water and in the case of Niue even from visiting. Even the locals are scared of snakes, sharks, whales preventing them to make the most of their marine heritage. I think the stuff Steve Irwin, Manny Puig, Andre Hartman, etc do is important no matter what the wildlife aristocracy thinks...

Everyone has made their point so I won't belabor it. Do not use your UR filter above 30ft and you will avoid the red saturation. Use lights, white balanced, below that depth.

Everyone has made their point so I won't belabor it. Do not use your UR filter above 30ft and you will avoid the red saturation. Use lights, white balanced, below that depth.

Agree, I really need to look into lighting. It seems to be very well spend money. Always wondered if video lights can be used for photography?

Always wondered if video lights can be used for photography?

On a dive boat recently, a diver had a housing flood that destroyed the flash sync unit. We were able to help her get the housing and camera operational, but no strobe. So I lent her a spare Sola 1200. Worked fine for macro photography as long as the light was on full, within 30cm of the subject, the shutter speed was 1/60 and aperture f8 or wider. She got some great shots. The lighting was pleasantly soft. With a Sola 4000 on full, you would probably be able to move back to 60cm or more.

One big upside is that the lighting is WYSIWYG.

Regards

Peter

I like the opening sequence. You could've done it better by releasing the housing from underneath, swim away then swim into frame then catch that shot with the sea snake. It's inventive to try catching the snake in the frame as you swim down and it's too bad you ran out of space for a long shot. Would've been a cool sequence all by itself even... I like it as an intro shot and I see what you are trying to do.