Grand Cayman without James

Mr Wiseman has gone, but there are still fish in the sea. The silversides are really starting to fill the caves here now. These shots are of Giles (digitallywet) on Sunday morning. I was using a Nikon D100 and 10.5mm.

They were taken at Devil's Grotto shore diving from Eden Rock dive centre.

They are a bit overcompressed because all the detail from all th fishies makes the JPGs too large to upload!

Alex

On the macro front I have been doing sailfin blennies. D100 and 105mm.

For those looking for sample shots from the D70 - it is not mine and I am not prepared to dive it without Steve. Seems to much like infidelity to me! But the D70 photos would be exactly the same as these has I used it!

Alex

Beautiful shots Alex. It looks like you've managed to light the entire frame of the 10.5mm. How far apart did you have your strobes?

This is how far apart

so about 4ft or arm span ?

Giles

Now that's an answer.....nothing subjective in this one

Karl

You boys spend all your money on cameras and can't afford wetsuits? Brrrr...

Great shots guys.

Yes, i am one of those who wears a 7mm in 29 degree celsius divers

(thats 82-84 for you Americans out there)

And just for the record while Alex wasn't forcing me to be 'Incredibly Good Looking' I was able to take some photo's myself.

This one was taken while James was here

And this one this weekend whilst trying to get some different Moray Photo's

Giles that secretary blenny shot is awesome. What a great perspective. I'd love to see a big print of that shot. Thanks again for modelling, mate, though next time I could do without the underwater walk off.

Despite the photographic evidence of my strobe positioning I would add that they were pulled back a bit about 3-4 inches compared with the lens to increase their coverage (not clear in the image). One of my Subtronics is having a few issues at the moment - so I am shooting with one Subtronic Alpha and one Sea and Sea YS120. Basically, the way I was lighting the fish was to use the more powerful subtronic on the side where the fish were further away.

I was shooting at f8 and f9.5 with the YS120 at 1/2 power and the Subtronic Alpha at 1/8 power. The Subtronic was still more powerful at 1/8 power than the YS120 with its diffuser on at 1/2 power.

Alex

Mike,

The water is lovely out here - no need for wetsuits at all - you should come and try it!! We did dives at Devil's Grotto on Saturday morning and Sunday morning and a second at Eden Rock on Sunday all with Eden Rock divers http://www.edenrockdive.com/. The dive times were 79, 82 and 87 mins basically just sitting still in the caverns and I was never cold (although I carry a bit more natural insulation than Giles).

On the Saturday morning Cathy Church's photo course group were boat diving the same site when we arrived and the viz wasn't quite as good. Both these shots come from Sunday morning at Devil's Grotto. I did UR pro shots for the Eden Rock dive. Which to be honest are best not shared!

Alex

Giles: Do you have any photos with me in the frame, from Turtle Farm Reef?

Alex: Wrockin! How long did you have to lay on the bottom to get that sailfin?

Cheers

James

James,

I'll put it this way - the dive was 100 minutes long. Actually it was the first time I have bothered to shoot the sailfins. I had always been put off before by the introduction to Paul Humann's book that talks about him lying on the seabed for dive after dive to get the shot. Not my cup of tea.

As it was close to dusk they were popping out every minute or so for about 10 seconds. So it was actually pretty easy. I shot about 70 shots of this guy and stayed with him for about 15 minutes went for a 5 minute swim and then came back settled again for another 10 minutes. Actualy given the very slight shutter delay of DSLRs I kept getting shots of the fin not fully out (as the flash it up and down). Which is why I shot so many.

Alex

I think i am packing more insulation than you right now Alex .. but I am not one to argue as long as my chick likes me I am happy. BTW you missed the dancing at Next Level tonight ... way fun.

James ... Yes I do have shots of you ... I am gonna try and dig them out right now and post them, they aren't as great as I'd like them to be. My mentality is kinda weird .. Alex will atest to this. I don't like having people in my shots right now, I know they sell well but When i worked as an underwater photo pro all i did was take photo's of people, and i am yet to be able to do shots with people and enjoy it, I have one model right now though that I am dying to take some pics of cause she looks so good underwater, maybe i'll get her out with me and Alex next weekend.

These are really bad piccies .. but they have you in them James .. my wide angle has really gone to pot since i started getting creative in my macro. Also I don't get in the water as much as I used to.

BTW Alex ... I want to get rid of the backscatter in that blenny shot and a few other I have and I want a cover out of it. It's my fave / maybe best shot ever in my mind. I love it.

Ah well... I'm an ugly model anyhow.

Cheers

James

Giles,

While we are on the subject, how did those pictures come out of me that you took at the East End, the weekend before last? With the yellow tue sponge?

I agree with you about the Secretary Blenny shot. I haven't seen all your images, but I think that it must be up there. I think it would do really well in competitions. So much personality.

Alex

Alex .. i'll find them this evening ... and post em ....

James .. you ain't so ugly .. you have a nice tidy look to your silhouettes, which is always good .. hoses everywhere is bad in any model shot. And the fact that you take photos meant you knew how to pose .. even though you can't really tell it's you i like the photos for various reasons. (dont ask what they are .. i couldn't tell)

For you James

these are the two pics I have of James from when he came out with us at the Turtle Reef. Not my best efforts but you can see he is a good model. Just need a good enough woman to get his camera out his hands i guess.

And Alex .. i seem to have lost the east end photos .. no great loss, they were bad anyways (maybe i deleted them all) I was very piccy when recently deleting all my old photos and choosing the good ones and the catgrosing them and keywording and describing the majority.

Just need to finish work on the new website for them all.

Which means rechoosing more photo gallery software.

If anyone has any suggestions message me in wetpixel, we have had a thread on this before, so it's not needed, but I personally could do with any ideas that users have on their own site, looking for somethign php mysql, and styled with css. I used ACDSee to make my iamges, i know that it makes databases but as far as I know it doesn't make database driven photo gallerys.

Just to add to previous comments re-lighting these shots.

This image was taken with the 10.5mm (and this is the full frame) and was lit with just a single Subtronic Alpha - without a diffuser. I was very impressed by the coverage. I would have preferred to use two strobes - but my YS 120 had packed up so I was reduced to one strobe (it is working again now).

Alex

I'm getting pretty good at this modelling stuff .... but it does help to be ridiculously good looking ... blue steel .... i'll bring out the magnum next time

I still wanna share yesterday !