Curacao snorkeling (why would you wanna dive?)

Did some snorkeling at Porto Mari and was kind of lucky with what I all encountered, here is an outtake:

Speckled eel

Speckled eel near some dutch leg coral

Little moray eel

Lion fish

Scorpion fish

Annoyed scorpion fish fleeing the pushy snorkler

Barracuda keeping some distance

Another speckled eel

A puffer

Fish curtain

That and much more.. just snorkeling!

Great shots on this thread and your other thread...I am heading down to Cancun to make my first attempt at snorkel and underwater photography.   I have the Meikon housing for the a6000 and the Sigma 19mm.  I am trying to keep my personal expectations low with it being the first time but your shots def. show it can be done.  Nice work!

good head on angles for the yellow eel and the first scorpionfish shot.

That's the challenge for snorkelers - it's difficult to get level or shoot up for the better lighting.  And the depth limit - for the average person.   I've never taken well to a single breath, despite rather decent air consumption rates on tanks.

My wife thought snorkeling was great until she started diving, and now won't go back.

vegasdood wrote:

Great shots on this thread and your other thread...I am heading down to Cancun to make my first attempt at snorkel and underwater photography. I have the Meikon housing for the a6000 and the Sigma 19mm. I am trying to keep my personal expectations low with it being the first time but your shots def. show it can be done. Nice work!

The a6000 should give you better IQ. With snorkeling, it is always difficult to get a good composition. If you snorkel down to your subject, you are always strugling to stay long enough to get a shot, camera handling is difficult. Also try to shoot raw, you will then have the option to apply a lot of color correction.

Have fun. Just shoot a lot, practice helps.

kelpdiver wrote:

good head on angles for the yellow eel and the first scorpionfish shot.

That's the challenge for snorkelers - it's difficult to get level or shoot up for the better lighting. And the depth limit - for the average person. I've never taken well to a single breath, despite rather decent air consumption rates on tanks.

My wife thought snorkeling was great until she started diving, and now won't go back.

Agree. It is tough to get level. Most of these shots were between 1m50 and 2m deep, so it was managable. With the first scorpionfish shot, I was able to hold myself down on a chain on the seafloor by grabbing it with one hand. Luckily I am able to hold the camera and housing and press the shutter with one hand.

And yeah... once you start diving... it is difficult for snorkeling to compete.

Sage input.   I am also taking my first scuba tourist lesson to see if I want to get fully certified.  It sounds like from your experience that will be a no brainer.

nafik wrote:

pocoloco wrote:

why would you wanna dive...

To get a picture like this in Curacao .

Why would you wanna snorkel? you can download much better pictures probably for free without going all the way to Curacao and getting wet.

My wife and began diving 30 years ago and did not snorkel even once since.

To each his own

Don't take the posed question 'why would you wanna dive?' too seriously. Of course they can't be compared. It was just that we were able to spot really many interesting fish etc. within 2 meters of depth while snorkeling. I was pleasantly surprised to spot a puffer, several moray, speckled eals, etc. etc. So jokingly I asked myself : why would you wanna dive?

But hey... I did! I know! I indeed did get a picture like that:

Happy diving (or snorkeling).