Cephalopods of Anilao

Last portion of my trip is over; I'm heading to the airport tomorrow evening. Did ten dives in Anilao over the past three days, got a bunch of cool stuff.

Common reef octopus

Mototi octopus

Blue-ringed octopus

Blue-ringed octopus

Mimic octopus

Mimic octopus

Some kind of cuttlefish

Flamboyant cuttlefish

Flamboyant cuttlefish

Some kind of squid

I have found that while shooting macro, I was able to lock ISO to 100 and shutter speed to 1/160, then manipulate aperture according to DoF needs (f/8 most of the time, f/13-16 for smaller stuff, f/22 for the smallest critters) and TTL flash (2x SeaFrogs ST-100 Pro strobes triggered by pop-up flash) took care of exposure very reliably. In wide-angle, ISO 100, f/8-13 and 1/160 underexposes the water a great deal, but setting ISO to auto 100-800 produces a good balance of background exposure via ISO and foreground exposure via TTL flash.

That's a small octopus in the first image.  Are the others of similar size?

I started looking at airfares and saw some pretty low fares from LAX to Manila.   Then I saw the flight times...

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

That's a small octopus in the first image. Are the others of similar size?

The mimic octopus was a bit bigger, but none of them were big enough to cause difficulty framing with a 90mm lens on APS-C. The blue-ringed octopus was quite small - the sand grains give a rough scale reference.

I started looking at airfares and saw some pretty low fares from LAX to Manila. Then I saw the flight times...

Yeah, 15 hours is a significant chunk, but Anilao is not too far from the airport, and you can stay at a resort and dive up to 4 times a day like on a liveaboard.

I enjoyed seeing and learning about all these shots - sorry to hear the trip is over.

Your summary of camera settings is very helpful., and will define my starting point in a few weeks.

Good to know that the 90 mm macro can also handle cephalopods. Why do squid always look like they’re grinning?

kelpdiver wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

That's a small octopus in the first image. Are the others of similar size?

the blue ring is typically size of your fist. The flamboyant cuttlefish is much smaller.

the cuttlefish and the squid are larger, usually a challenge. A larger octopus on my 60 (120mm equiv) means partial head shots.

Sounds like my French Angel shots with a 105mm on FX...

Here's the only octopus I've seen out during the day in the Caribbean.

I started looking at airfares and saw some pretty low fares from LAX to Manila. Then I saw the flight times...

Going there is rougher, there's no way to dodge the jet stream. But return flight is 3 hours shorter. You can get small amount of relief breaking it up - flying to TPE first, or to HNL.

11 hours from HNL.   Hmm.   I like that better than from LAX, though the costs are undoubtedly higher to add a break there.

The reason you do it is the volume of subjects. There are dives where you see more sea horses in a single dive than you would in a week at any Caribbean destination. It's just an entirely different ball game.

So far the most I've seen on one dive is 3.

. Also much cheaper - 10 days hotel with 34 boat dives with 1-2 other customers in the boat - ~2500.

Now that does not sound cheaper to me.  I spend two weeks all inclusive in Roatan for about $1800, with max 39 dives.   So far I've only managed 37.

But not the place for Americans to go for a quick 5 day jaunt. Hawaii, Mexico, Carib does win there, though if it's not a direct flight from SF, most Carib destinations are nearly as long a transit, or worse. Often requires a redeye to Houston. I can fly to Fiji or MNL nearly as easily.

I hear you, but it used to be easier.  Still is depending on the time of year.   For me, it used to be a 2-hour flight to Houston, 2 hour layover and 2.5 hour flight to Roatan.  That was nice, but the 4am connecting flight from Phoenix to Houston was cancelled for September last year, and instead I've been flying to Miami, waiting 5 hours there and then 2.5 hours to Roatan.

I first flew (across the atlantic) in 1961.   Flying was a lot nicer then.

kelpdiver wrote:

did you attempt to correct for WB yet? The blue ring shots are more yellow than I would expect - unsure if this is WB issue, or the flash. I would have expected TTL to deliver closer to correct, though my experience with it is nil. Always to manual.

Now that you mention it, it does look a bit odd, but it seems that those are the actual colors that were present. I'm shooting raw with camera white balance set to 'underwater auto', and unless strobe illumination is marginal (large subject, shooting from too far away), I don't touch white balance when processing in Capture One. However, in this specific case, the guide was using a small white ziptie as a pointer for situations where a metal stick would've been too crude, and I got it in one of the shots together with the octopus - and doing spot white balance off that ziptie barely changes the palette; if anything, the yellow tinge gets more pronounced. I'm guessing the yellowish brown sand caused the octopus to match its color as camouflage.

F8 seems too open - the strobes can handle the illumination aspect, and give less exposure to the background. On the 4/3rds, I'll sit at F14, at max sync speed.

I was under the impression that on APS-C 24mp, apertures past f/8 start exhibiting diffraction softness. Past f/13, I see the pictures visibly darkening - the ST-100s really don't have that much power, at least in TTL mode. I can shoot f/22, but only with the strobes inches away from the subject. This should change when I get the Retra Pros.

I see you have an aluminum 'lobster tickler' dive stick in your first photo.

I started diving with one in the past year, and I really do like it when it is needed.   I've used it to anchor myself in sand, to push off against rock walls when current sweeps me in, to point at things and to bang on stuff to get attention (works really well).

But I lost mine during the last few days of diving on my last trip.   I made the mistake of hanging it on my BC when I was gearing up and forgot to strap it to my wrist.  Back-rolled in, lost the stick, noticed it was gone much later.

My question is - how do you manage the logistics of carrying your stick, in and out of the water, and to a lesser extent how do you carry it during a dive?

I will, in the future, NEVER hang it on my gear before a dive.   I'll hang it next to my gear so that if I forget it, at least it is there on the boat for the following dive.    What I have been doing is strapping it to my left wrist when I put on my BC (before or after), and simply gripping it in my hand for the entire dive, along with the left handle of my camera rig.   I wish there was a better way where I could have it accessible, not in my hand, and not hanging  down during a dive.   I'd think I'd actually like to clip it to the bottom side of my camera rig.  I can't see a way to clip it to my BC and have it easily accessible since I can't really see stuff strapped to my BC with my mask on.

I actually don't have one; the one in the photo belongs to the guide on that dive. I'm definitely getting one before the next trip though, the plan is to hang it off the left side of the camera tray so that I can stick one end into the sand and hold the other end together with the tray handle to form a solid anchor for the camera.