A question for Alex Mustard- 10.5 at SR City

I'll be on Grand Cayman in a couple of weeks and I want to experiment with my 10.5 at Stingray City. I'm going to try some filters including a CC30R which I think is the same as you used last year. My question is, did you do your white balance underwater or above. I think I read that you used a grey card. I was thinking it would be possible to WB right off the sand. What do you think?

Larry

Hi Larry, I am also off to Grand Cayman in a week's time! I'll be there for 3 weeks so maybe we will overlap?

Stingray city, as you may know, is actually more than one place. There is the original stingray city that is 3.5m deep. I prefer a CC40R there. A CC40M might be useful if the site is covered with green water when you are there (depends on the tide). If it is green it is best to visit it again when it is blue! It makes a massive difference to the pictures.

The other larger stingray site is the sandbar. This ranges in depth from waist deep to 4m. I take most of my pictures in the shallowest part. The water tends to always be blue here. In the shallows I use a CC10R. I find this is very nice on both digi and film.

I white balance my camera underwater with a grey card. If you are not moving much, you can do this just once at the start of the dive. Alternatively you can get the filtering as close as possible using light path theory and then white balance adjust afterwards in your RAW converter. Obviously shoot RAW files for this sort of photography.

The other key ingredient for good images is the sun. If it is cloudy, do you photography another day. Finally if you want to do spplit level shots it is probably best to shoot with no filter. Even the CC10R makes the clouds go pink!

Hope this helps,

Alex

ALex, I note that you go to Grand Cayman regularly. Is this for the diving/photography side of things or for other reasons and the diving is always available when you want it?

I have been to the Brac and would like to go back, I have not dove Grand Cayman yet. Just curious as to your thoughts on this. Or, Grand Cayman vs Brac and Little Cayman.

Grand Cayman is a funny place. I think a lot of people incorrectly pigeon hole diving in GC - thinking thay know what it is all about from the Skin Diver Image of the 90s. The Brac and particularly Little Cayman have the best reefs, but Grand Cayman has a greater diversity in diving. I would particularly recommend the East End of Grand Cayman.

Just to make the point that there is a lot more to Grand Cayman for the photographer than a chance to take Skin Diver pix, here are few of my less traditional Cayman shots:

Alex,

Thanks for advice. I will only be on Grand Cayman for one day on the 29th of April so it will be a roll of the dice as far as the weather is concerned.

I think a lot of people, myself included, take a pass on Grand Cayman for several reasons: the cost, regimented diving and congestion. I generally try to avoid dive-ops that severely limit dive profiles. If I hear "does everybody have a buddy" or "we'll meet at the mooring-line" I'm outta there.

Alex,

Thanks for advice. I will only be on Grand Cayman for one day on the 29th of April so it will be a roll of the dice as far  as the weather is concerned.

 

I think a lot of people, myself included, take a pass on Grand Cayman for several reasons: the cost, regimented diving and congestion. I generally try to avoid dive-ops that severely limit dive profiles. If I hear "does everybody have a buddy" or "we'll meet at the mooring-line" I'm outta there.

I agree but, what I have found is that after the first dive or two I individually ask the boat crew if they mind if I do my own thing. By this time they have had time to evaluate you in the water and I have never had a problem doing my own thing after that.

As the guy who chaired the jury in Antibes when Mr. Mustard won it all... I must confess that the last pic in his - non-Skin-diver - pictures truly mystified all jury members.

Everyone including yours truly thought the green water shot was a freshwater one... hence the fact that most of us loved it for its different look at the u/w world of freshwater lake...

Mr. Mustard... soon to be Sir Alex Mustard I'm sure... made a lasting impression on the jury members... especially when the winners were announced in the Grand Auditorium. Since the pictures are judged without names, only staff assigned numbers on images, it would have been very hard to know that all of Alex's images were from the same individual.

I thus take this opportunity to salute the talent, dedication, and generosity of Alex.

NOTE: never met him in person, never talked to him, only read some posts on the internet AFTER his sweep in Antibes.

Michel G.

I'd like to add something here too knowing some stuff about Grand Cayman.

April by the way could be one of the best times for sting ray city ... bad winter wether (not that bad .. but bad for here) is over and there is no real algae bloom yet so the water isnt that green ever until like july.

September is still my fave time of year for conditions as long as a hurricane doesnt come through.

Grand Cayman is not that expensive especially if you think about your vacation. Accomodation and diving can be cheap especially with packages.

A month like spetember is almost dead tourist wise for some unknown reason, so you can get better deals and better weather and less packed dive boats.

there are SOOOOO MANY dive operators who specialise in photography.

and Camera Equipment is Duty Free !!!

You have more choice than most places I have ever dived in different sorts of dives

and if you are a photographer who either knows what to look for in the northern caribbean or you actually take your eye out from the viewfinder you will find much more than has become stereotypically expected in Cayman

when I dive with Alex I think I am safe in assuming we both learn something new about the area and we have both been diving here for many many years.

If you have never dived Grand Cayman then you should, theres a reason it is a mecca for diving and always gets in the top 5 lists (even if the rodales boys do get freebies here a lot!)

It's easy yet dramatic, technical yet safe, busy yet quiet.

Very rarely will you find over filled dive sites, theres too many !!!

Every dive is different even at the same site, everyone has their favourites.

And the dive companys may be busy but theres loads to choose from depending on what you want.

Come to Cayman ... if you do .. you will come back .. everyone does ... it should be the Cayman Slogan .. its what all the residents of cayman say.