Grand Cayman Super Macro

Hi Guys,

I shot the 105mm with +1 diopeter this weekend in Grand Cayman. I was suprised and pleased to find so many good subjects there.

Here are some shots:

Tiny Triplefin on M. cavernosa coral

Small goby on brown sponge

A "barnacle blenny" (Don't know proper name)

Another small goby on M. annularis coral

I used the Sea and Sea D100 setup. Strobes were dual Inon Z220's with the 1/2 stop diffusers mounted. All shots were f22 @ 1/90th Strobe power ranged from -1 to -3 stops depending on how close I was.

Your comments and feedback are appreciated. I posted a lot of Triplefin shots. Which one do you like best?

Cheers

James

I like the "barnacle blenny" the best. Very nice!

Hi James,

I think that the abundance of macro subjects that you found was in part due to your choice of dive sites (the Turtle Farm is very good for critters) and the fact that you were doing go-slow photographic shore diving - with plenty of time to find subjects and a chance to work them photographically. And of course your keen spotting ability!

I photographed mating lancer dragots and lots of sailfin blenny activity on the same site last night.

Alex

Of course... after I leave...;-P

Cheers

James

Great stuff James.

Makes me mourn my waterlogged 100mm macro (it died in Lembeh) That blenny looks like a secretary blenny.

Very nice James....looks like you and Sarah had a great time....what's the most profound photo tip that you picked up form Alex?

Karl

It's a special super-macro camera-holding trick.

Cheers

James

and it's..........??.....kind of like an E.F. Hutton commercial

Karl

James, I really like this one:

Alex

Wow... awesome shot.

Cp

So... James and Alex... can you tell us the super-secret-super-macro-holding-trick?

?

Cp

I have been racking my brains, but I am still not sure what James is referring too. I thought the most impressive skill I demostrated was eating lots of fresh chillis on the Nachos! We talked much more about lighting that holding the camera. The mystery continues.

Alex

I believe I saw james super secret super macro holding trick -

i believe it refers to the act of holding whilst in the midst of something very tiny.

this takes extreme concentration with a delecate yet firm touch that brings out arousing results .. and i must say the super macro resulting from the super secret trick is indeed arousing for the eyes.

I hope that sheds some light on the mystery for you all.

of course this is only from my brief observations whilst diving with James on the two occasions, and I may have gotten it all wrong .. there may have been strings involved. or maybe some camera trickery .. there were lots of cameras in the water that day.

Boy, Giles certainly makes it sound mysterious and I don't want to dispell that if I don't have to! I can say that smoke and mirrors were certainly involved. Wait a second - smoke wouldn't work underwater.

Actually, what I am talking about is the arm-crossing trick you told me about Alex. I didn't use it to get these shots, but it sure seems like a good idea.

For those of you from Texas, think of firing a handgun with your right hand and bracing across your left forearm (Author's note - I have never fired a handgun). Rather than put a finger down on a piece of rock to the left of your subject, holding the housing w/ the right hand (what I usually do) - place your left hand/finger to the RIGHT of the subject if possible, then rest the housing on your forearm.

How did I get so close to the critters? Well I was just as quiet and calm as could be. Don't blow out a huge burst of bubbles in the critter's face. Approach slowly and move slowly. Fire a shot or two from out past a foot, then slowly move in, half pressing the button as you to in order to maintain focus. Once you lose focus, the Nikkor 105mm can get really lost, and you'll have to move back out and start over again.

Bring your strobes in really tight to the port, like almost touching it. This way you don't bash the coral to the left, right, top or bottom of your subject. Use diffusers.

Shoot, that's all I can think of for now. These are pretty much just general guidelines for shooting macro that I have heard before many times. Except for the forearm bracing trick that Alex told me about.

Cheers

James

Aaah. All is clear now!

holding the housing w/ the right hand (what I usually do)

James, how do you press the shutter on the "unusual" occasions when you hold your housing with your left hand. So to re-cap the trick is to look for a dead bit of rock on the right of your subjecct rather than on the left. This means that your left arm will autmatically form a convenient rest for the port.

Alex

p.s. I don't use diffusers. Will my pictures still come out?

Hi Alex,

Believe it or not, one of the secretary blenny photos was taken when I was holding the housing w/ my left hand only! It wasn't easy.

When your strobes are very close to the subject, using a diffuser effectively makes your "flash tube" be the size of the diffuser as the whole thing lights up. If the flash is only 5 inches from the 1 inch subject it has the effect that it makes it look like light is coming off a softbox. I like that look sometimes.

If you don't use diffusers, you will get discrete shadow lines that you won't get if you use the diffusers, right?

James: Thanks James, I'll try that sometime. I have mostly been shooting manual focus, thought so I need both hands on the wheel most of the time.

Alex:

p.s. I don't use diffusers. Will my pictures still come out?

Cp

Hey James, while typing my previous post and telling Sarah that I was teasing you, she informed me that she saw you using you left had quite a bit during the dive for verical shots. So I knew I had it coming! She says that she finds the housing a bit too heavy to emulate your technique!

Hi CP, my less than smart response to why I don't use diffusers, is that you can't get them for Subtronic strobes! Unless you make your own, which I did for a bit, but they looked so scruffy that I couldn't possibly be seen in the water with them. Style is far more important than performance, why else would I have a Mac.

On a more serious note, I do not believe that diffusers make that much difference for macro - and their use or not is very much a personal preference.

Alex

Cool, thanks. I put the diffusers on my Inon's when I got them and have been too lazy to take them off.

BTW, I am typing this on my new Powerbook... :-)

Cp

Great work James

Alex too

Chris