How does one take a photo of these amazing little eggs that is anything other than an ID shot? They look fantastic in my opinion, but I just can't seem to find a composition that makes for an interesting photo. Here are three examples from last weekend.
In the first shot, I like the out of focus eggs in the background which give some depth and a sense of their multitude, whereas in the second shot I tried to isolate the eggs against darker negative space. Both are nice, and very interesting to me, but for anyone who doesn't know what they are looking at they don't seem to be strong images. In the third shot I tried to establish the context by showing the anemonefish as she was fanning the eggs, but the scale is so different and depth of field inadequate to capture both that I don't think it makes a good photo at all
So how do other people go about this subject?
Yeah, can sure see where you are coming from! But as for a solution..... hmmmm, how about CFWA? Could you shoot the eggs in the foreground with a anemonefish in the CFWA background?
interesting idea, for sure. i can readily imagine that third shot as you describe, but I'd have to be damn lucky to find the right scenario with eggs in the foreground and the fish behind them without an encumbering bit of reef limiting the depth of the scene. That would be well worth pursuing. Especiaily if there was an upward aspect with a purple/green anemone in the foreground, blue water behind, and a sun ball in the middle distance! A guy can dream . . .
I'm just not sure how to execute it such a shot. I'd love to know what lens/port combination could achieve a (+/-) 2:1 magnification ratio and a (+/-) 100 degree FOV simultaneously. Given my usual opportunities I'd be all over such a set up.
What's that saying, the more I play, the luckier I get.... ;-)
I can't remember what gear you use, troporobo, but with my old D300 system I used a Tokina 10-17 with the Kenko 1.4 converter for CFWA. It worked pretty well and I could pull of the shot I described. Not that I have ever seen eggs like that. But I did manage to shoot emerging flamboyant cuttlefish emerging from their sacs
Hi, i like the first shot the most... Offers with the unsharp eggs more place for ideas / dreams. If you wanna catch the viewer, get maybe a better macro ratio. With the fish, it would be the best to try just a shot of the mouth cleaning the eegs. And yes, i come from the ID fraction, do a lot of shots just for ID, and only a few for art ;-)) Just my 2 cents...
Regards, Wolfgang
Those shots were taken with an Olympus E-M5, 60mm macro lens, and a Subsee +5 diopter for the first two. I've only just started trying out WA with a 7-14mm lens but no way will it focus close enough to even see something as small as those eggs. Actually that lens is not very good for CFWA (and yeah I was warned but wanted a rectilinear lens for topside). I haven't tried the 8mm FE lens, that should be a bit better for this scenario.
