Red Sea Diving.... Round 2!

Thanks guys!

I've gotten lucky in some shots with freebies. The first was the night shot with the bonus crab and the second was the feather duster with the bonus fish eggs. No way I could have spotted them without getting lucky.
 
Thanks Manuelink! I do appreciate it.


Today's offering is made up of fishy pictures and macro shots as I wasn't feeling the wide angle today (or yesterday for that matter). By this point I'm try not to repeat fish that I have posted before but it is getting increasingly harder. I feel like I'm cataloging the fish of the Red Sea.

Tomorrow if my last full day of diving so my trip is almost at an end. If anyone has any special requests for subject matter let me know and I'll try to be accommodating.

Enjoy!










I've seen thousands of lyretails in the red sea but for the first time I saw this anthias today. Not sure of the type but certainly different coloration.
 
Thanks Reefroo! Wish I could oblige but I need to get back home. I was already tempted to join a liveaboard for a week, starting next week, that's traveling around the hotspots of the Red Sea but unfortunately I need to bounce!

Ataylo13 - The majority of my dives are spent between 12 and 30 meters. The first 15-20 minutes are usually spent between 22 and 30 meters, then 20 minutes between 12 to 22, and then whatever air I have left is spent between 8 and 15m. These depths are an average but every dive site and dive are different. Dive times usually are between 45 and 60 minutes depending on current and the air consumption of the other people diving.

Unfortunately I can't really afford (or justify) a personal guide which is what many underwater photographers do to maximize dive time and they have the chance to spend much more time on a subject if they choose to. I have to take most pictures on the fly while trying to keep up with the group. The result is usually 10-30 seconds to adjust exposure, aperture, and manually adjust the strobe (which usually needs to be adjust at least once to get a proper exposure) as well as framing the subject, getting the focus right (harder as I like to use a really shallow DOF) and trying to get a decent composition.... all while trying to "hover" with as little movement as possible. It is more difficult but I have learned a ton about my camera and my buoyancy control has improved significantly.

A little excessive of a explanation but I hope that answer your question. :D
 
I didn't even consider that you would only have a minute or less for each shot. That makes the shots you have even more impressive
 
Absolutely amazing pictures, it puts my attempts of underwater photography to shame!

Not sure if you mentioned it already but what lens or lenses did you use?
 
Wooooooow! I can't get a shot like those on land. If I tried underwater it would be miserable probably. :lol:

Do you place a lot of the cause of picture quality from the new camera body? I bought the pro lens hoping it would work. Little bit but not much. :D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15257447#post15257447 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sphelps
Absolutely amazing pictures, it puts my attempts of underwater photography to shame!

Not sure if you mentioned it already but what lens or lenses did you use?
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I am using a 105mm Nikkor Micro lens for most of the fish shots and all of the macro shots (duh!).

And I'm using a 14-24mm Nikkor Ultra wide angle for everything else.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15257841#post15257841 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by t5Nitro
Wooooooow! I can't get a shot like those on land. If I tried underwater it would be miserable probably. :lol:

Do you place a lot of the cause of picture quality from the new camera body? I bought the pro lens hoping it would work. Little bit but not much. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks! Just takes a little practice is all.

I do think that the D700 is a great camera, no doubt about it. But I was able to get pretty decent pictures last year with a Canon IXUS 870 with is a P&S. The D700 does have great auto focus capabilities and can take 5fps which does make a considerable difference.
 
I saw my first Hammerhead today! Finally! After close to 50 dives in the Red Sea I finally saw one. I only got a **** picture so I won't bother posting it but I'm still excited.

Another cool part from the first dive of the day where a pair of Cleaner Wrasse that came over and started to clean the dome of my camera! Friendly little buggers.

And lucky for Adrian we came across a Massive Fire Coral garden so I got some decent pics.

Dive 1 - Jackson Reef
Monster Acro at 35 meters (100+ft)

The cleaner wrasses. In this shot you get a good idea of the wide angle lens as the wrasses are literally up against the dome.








 
Dive 2 - Gordon Reef


Devil Stonefish! Little guy scuttled away from me so I got some pictures of his fire colored wings.


Scary Poisonous little Angel. Unfortunately his scuttling was stirring up the sand so its not the clearest picture of all time and it was take with the wide angle lens. I have one more movement 3 shot movement sequence in my gallery that came out pretty good, I just didn't want to overwhelm by posting even more photos up on here. Just follow the link back to check them out.


Oil barrels from a wreck that have been down there for 30 years.

Here you can see some oil still leaking out after 30 years of being down there. On some barrels that are split in have you can see a wavy mass of black with a dusting of sand and some coral is actually growing right on top of the oil.



 
And Finally

My last night Dive of the trip. Was pretty decent to except that I ran out of air, have to buddy breath while taking pictures for the last 5 minutes and the current was pretty strong making macro shots pretty hard. The last 5 pictures posted are while buddy breathing.

Weird starfish




Octopus





 
This suncoral was under a ledge with some serious current on the outside so was a pain in the *** to get a decent picture.


Ghost pipefish. Usually he is just handing out in a soft coral out in the open but unfortunately the current was to strong and he was taking cover so this is the best picture I could get.




A little ode to last years pictures. Found another puffer sleeping on a sponge pinnacle.



 
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