How I spent my Memorial Weekend

Hi folks,

Here are a few pictures from my 3-day trip to the Channel Islands (Catalina and San Clemente). Weather was nice on day 3, okay on day 2 and overcast on day 1. This was my chance to shoot with my Nikon 10.5 lens. The bat ray was with the 10.5 and so was the starfish and garibaldi. The topside kelp shot was with my 12-24 with polarizor, and the rest were shot with my 60 mm macro. Water temp was 51-55 degrees and viz was 5 feet to 40 feet.

Let me know what you think.

Joe

More

More from Memorial day

The wreck pic was a swing by on the Yukon in San Diego. Very bad viz and green water.

Wow!!!! I love the CFWA shot of the starfish, garibaldi, and kelp. Well done!

Cheers

James

Wow!!!! I love the CFWA shot of the starfish, garibaldi, and kelp. Well done!

 

Cheers

James

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What he said

Agree on the starfish shot. But the Flounder is unique. Great job Joe. How on earth do you get lower than a flatfish. LOL!

Rand

Good pics! I like starfish with garibaldi, it's a great photo! The bat ray is interesting and so its the kelp on water surface. And the flat fish looks good, you've got fine sharpenes at the eye in both photos of this fish.

Thanks for sharing

excellent images.... love them all! of course, as everyone has said.... that starfish/garibaldi/kelp shot is perfecto. I also really like the batray shot.... like the movement, the fact that the ray is getting ready to go... the colors and perspective on the topside kelp shot are excellent. They're all very nice images, and the all are different, with a different feel... nice to see that... great job!

I'll add my voice to the many approvals - absolutely superb.

I know how hard it is to get good shots in those conditions and like most other folks, my favourite is the seastar/garibaldi shot.

I also enjoyed the shots from the Yukon.

Well i guess that kelp et al shot will now be your signature photo as you can chalk me down as another fan of that one.

Great stuff and a nice blue for chilly water. 51-55 degrees? Thanks for showing the images and what is available off the coast of Cali., as i have retired from those temps...

Thanks for the kind words everyone. The starfish and garibaldi shot was a last minute thing at the end of a dive on the final day of diving. I saw the starfish and composed a few test shots and saw a garibaldi eyeballing me from a distance. I hade no food to entice, and I lost my knife so I couldn't chop up a sea urchin to attract it. I merely flipped it the bird and it came swimming up (no joking). He came in three times, and one of them worked...the one you see on this site. The amazing thing is the lack of softness in the lower corners. I'd expect some vignetting (did I spell that right?) but at F14 it performed superb. I am using the Titan D100 with Subal 8" dome.

The bat ray was a one shot wonder. I saw it from a distance and hunkered down behind some kelp so he couldn't see me. I did a couple of sand test shots against a small reef to get the exposure close. I gulped a big breath, held it and belly crawled on the sand until I got close. he kept eating until I got right on top of him with my 10.5 mm. He looked up and I fired a single shot.....BANG! and in an instant he bolted so fast I could not see what direction he went. All I knew was that the image looked good in the view finder.

The flatfish actually swam away from me and ended up on a ledge about 10 feet off the bottom. Little guy poked his head over (as you can see from the shot) and I shot only one picture again before it darted away. So I was lucky to capture something a little different in the flatfish photography arena.

Next stop, Indonesia in 3 weeks. Will post some goodies when I get there...after a few days of diving.

Thanks again.

Joe

Hmmmmm, wonder if flipping off a Garibaldi constitutes 'harassing the marine life' ?

I will definitely give that technique a try.

Great images...wish I had your eye for composition.