Seahorse

Not a very good shot, poor lightning and very dirty water but it with is face half pointed to the camera.

Yey

Since I am getting a hard time for my seahorse views I will state my case. Generally I think of two things on the rare occassion that I find a seahorse.

1) Don't have it facing away from the camera. Side on profile or facing the camera is what I am after. Seahorses are shy and turn away from the camera easily - this is what I try and avoid. When I see a seahorse facing away in a shot, I interpret that as a reaction to the photographer, which is not good.

2) For me the story of a seahorse is its total shape. And I try and tell that in my pix

Its very recognisable, some might say an iconic image from the oceans! The horse like head and the curled up tail. So I usually try and get this shape into my shots. That usually means shooting a seahorse full body.

Here are a couple of my seahorses from last year, that you have probably seen before. I like this one because you can see the shape of the seahorse and (in 3 out 4) it is not turning away from the photographer - and is therefore not stressed or reacting to me.

This is another picture I like - because again you can see that characteristic shape of the seahorse and it is not shying away!

Anyway that is why I think that those two shots work.

Alex

p.s. On another day I would argue that people already know what seahorses look like. We don't need to take ID style shots of their entire bodies. Instead we should be framing them in unusual ways and adding our interpretation of this widely recognised subject!

Arnon this is from the night dive we dove together?(I added my version of this sea horse) it is a very nice shot!

Alex I loved your first photo! is it 4 different pigmies or a joined photo?

Alex I loved your first photo! is it 4 different pigmies or a joined photo?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is 4 shots of the same seahorse. Who says that the D100 had poor AF. This was taken with a 105mm with a +4 dioptre and no focussing light at Nudi Falls in Lembeh.

Alex

Arnon this is from the night dive we dove together?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, and you (or Danny) are the reason its looks to my direction, probably you are more frightening then me

You know I would like to see a looking upwards shot of a seahorse ... not that i get to take many seahorse photos .. but i mean a shot like Jerry Bruckheimer would do to make Martin Lawrence look Taller .. .. an angle to make the sea horse look tall .. and reaching into a nice blue .. maybe even sunburst sea ... i'd imagine thats quite hard from the locations i have seen sea horses in ... but hey .. dream on dreamer.

I like this sea horse shot anyways ... well I am a sea horse fan ... I think they are interesting and attention grabbing subject matter.

.  maybe even sunburst sea .

I was doing my photo specialty course this weekend and was talking to my instructor about this thread, and to my surprise he said he had just that shot.

It was shot with a nikonos, so it wasn't digital to start, but I thought some people might be interested in seeing it. I did one dive yesterday on this seahorse, but the sun was still too high to try the shot myself.

Here is one I have always liked. First time seeing them underwater in Roatan, Honduras. Shot with the cp5000