GBR live-aboard trip.

Im really happy with the pictures from my last outing. On Mike Ball's Super Sport. 13 dives 3 days and the most luxurious dive Boat I've ever been on. I wish I could allways afford to dive with that much style, perhaps I would allways be as happy with the pictures. Please tell me what you think?

Sorry there are so many pictures, but I just couldnt cull them any further.

Lionfish Panorama

Hungry Hawkfish

Pair of Skunks. I'm glad i'm not a clownfish.

Red Pygmygoby? (does anyone know species of this fish)

Striped Pygmygoby

Hermit Crab Portrate

Bubble Coral Shrimp

Red Triplefin

Brown Triplefin? (Does anyone know species)

Sunball

Doubble Sunball. This what sunaballs would allways look like if we lived in a binary system.

Pair of pipefish

Turtle

Pair of Black Coral Gobys

Another type of Bubble Coral Shrimp

Camo Man

Great stuff William. Really love the Hawkfish and crab, fantastic capture that one.

THink your skunks could use a little TLC in exposure. Really like the Triplefins too, both of them

One thing that did strike me, a lack of vertical composition, just the lack of a certain something that stands out in a large portfolio like that. But that is just me...

All in all a great set of images and superb focus all across the board on some very tough macro subjects.

Well done, thanks for the images

Mike

Ok, Mike. That is scary. Over the 13 dives I took 544 exposures. Grand total of vertical exposures: 4

Thank you very much for poiting that out. Definatly something I need to work on. I am perfectly happy to spend a whole dive upside down, but I cant stand roll onto my side. Just thinking about it makes me feal uncomfortable. I think I need to spend 90 minutes on my side and get over that.

I am perfectly happy to spend a whole dive upside down, but I cant stand roll onto my side.  Just thinking about it makes me feal uncomfortable.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ummmm, William... I've spent the last seven years trying to convince the Americans that Australians aren't all utter nongs (Steve Irwin is not really a help in this regard )

Try rolling the camera to the side while you float horizontal. It's not all that hard

Superb portfolio William!!

I love the combination of wide and macro work and I particularly like the shallow DOF on some of the macros (particularly red pygmy goby). The sunballs have worked very well and I'm impressed that you managed to balance exposure on the turtle against such a bright background. Were you working eTTL or manual?

Excellent work either way. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more if you feel inclined!

I started off the trip on TTL. But by the second day somthing must have gotten wet because TTL quit working. Fortunatly the TTL converter still worked fine in Manual mode on all but one dive(i think it was because I had the TTL converter set to DS-50 instead of DS-125), but even then I could still function with the strobes 4 manual settings. All the pictures I posted were from the second or 3rd day so all were shot in manual.

The shot of the turtle was maby an hour before sunset so that made it easier. EXIF is 15mm, 1/40 sec and F/14 so you can see it is really quite dark.

Exposures look great to me, I can see that it must have been reasonably dark given the EXIF data - thanks for that.

Did you figure out what went wrong with the TTL connection? Is it working now?

Also, got any more shots to share?

Acutally it has gotten worse since I've gotten back. Yes I do know what the problem is. The problem is that I flooded the housing in march and the TTL converter is now rusty.

The problem is that in TTL mode it gives a full dump every time. It is sometimes difficult to get it into manual mode becasue the buttons that adjust mode and settings on the contoler are the most rusty. I will probably just use my external manual contoler untill I get back to the US in June and will then send everything to Ike for repair.

How do you switch between DS-50 and DS-125 with the eTTL module? I know about the manual and digital sensors, but not the eTTL module.

Karl

How do you switch between DS-50 and DS-125 with the eTTL module?

Karl - There's a recessed switch on the bottom (underneath the tray).

William - EXIF if possible? Really nice lighting on the shots in general...

~Matt Segal

Thanks Matt....I was helping a friend with his rig and never knew you had to tell the module which strobes you were using

Karl

Karl - There's a recessed switch on the bottom (underneath the tray).

 

William - EXIF if possible? Really nice lighting on the shots in general...

 

~Matt Segal

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As I said above, all of these shots were lit with manual strobe power.

Pretty much all the macros are at ISO100, 1/200Sec, F/16. I very rarely change shutter or aperature for macro.

The first sunball is ISO100, 1/320sec, F/14

Second sunball is ISO100, 1/320sec, F/20

Turtle is ISO100, 1/40sec, F/14

Greats shots.

I had to stare at the second 'Shrimp in Bubble Coral' shot for a good minute before I could pick out the shrimp. The illusion adds a nice element to the photo.

It must have been difficult to achieve focus.

-Brad

Greats shots.

I had to stare at the second 'Shrimp in Bubble Coral' shot for a good minute before I could pick out the shrimp. The illusion adds a nice element to the photo.

It must have been difficult to achieve focus.

 

-Brad

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well then you are 20x faster at spotting it than my camera was. According to my dive computer, I was at 15ft +/- 1ft from 11:35 untill 11:56. Fortunately I had a very understanding buddy.

Well then you are 20x faster at spotting it than my camera was.

Manual focus?

~Matt Segal

 

Manual focus?

 

~Matt Segal

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That would be wonderfull, but there no way I'll ever be able to MF the 150 in an Ikelite port. It just wont fit. The lens is to large diameter to fit in the port properly by itself so no way it would share its space with a gear...

I just wish the camera had somethink like CF4 so you could take a picture without focusing first.

But I manage fine with what I have. It just takes a little extra work.

Hi William,

All your pictures are spot on technically. It is clear that you are really on top of the rebel now and producing consistently good results.

I think all the images could be improved with a bit more attention to produce interesting compositions (there are a lot of centre AF bullseye compositions here) and in quite a few images you have chopped bits off the subjects when there is plenty of room in the frame not too.

I know this sounds negative - but the images are spot on technically so now its up to you to do more with your photography. Its clear that your technical skills are there to produce some really stunning shots.

I think you should be concentrating more on what you are trying to communicate with the image. What is the image about? What is the story it is telling? Exploit the space in your frame with your compositions and put the subject in areas that the viewer may not expect (like the head of the pipefish).

I hope that you take these comments as encouragement. I really like your images, but you are on the GBR and have a fantastic camera that you clearly know how to use. A little bit more consideration when you are putting your images together and you will be producing shots that stand way above most you see on the web.

Best regards,

Alex