Hopkins Rose In The Sand

I was able to get out last week for a day of diving over at Catalina Island, California, USA. This was my first day of diving in the last 4 since my son was born. It was so nice to get back in the water.

Camera: Olympus EPL10

Lens: Panasonic 8mm fisheye

Lighting: Backscatter MF-1 + Snoot

This is the establishing shot. This is supposed to set the scene and show a wide angle of the creature in its environment. For scale those "sticks" poking out of the sand are about 1.5-2" tall

Close up of the creature. Notice how large the sand particles are compared to the creature.

I waited a little longer for the creature to move out away from the shell and then I put a snoot on the strobe, next time Ill trying using the aperture card to reduce the light even further to only light the creature and not the sand.

kelpdiver wrote:

nice to get out! I've been seeing so much good photography from Monterey divers that I think I'm going to get my 7mm wetsuit fixed and stop being a warm water wimp.

Im located in southern California (hlaf way between LA and San Diego) but yeah I know what you mean, I ditched my 7mm and now use a dry suit. I feel  I have so more flexibility in a drysuit.

You got hit with the classic 8mm + nudi dilemma. All you can do is go with it. The WA exposure seems correct as you can discern the reef in the background and see the fish.

I only brought my 8mm, i have been struggling with my 60mm but I need to just use it more.

The rule of thirds isn't an absolute, but in your first shot we can see that center framing it is not ideal. I would crop the photo down so the HR is in the lower left 3rd intersection and let it open up to the fish on the upper right.

Ill try this tonight to see what it looks like and share it.

Is the backscatter at the top from your strobe, or is there a diver + light coming to you. Presuming its your strobe given the size of the composition. Need to either point it less directly, or longer strobe arm. I've been fighting this problem with my new rig using the 8-15mm on the R5. If my strobe arms drift at all forward, it shows on the left or right. Can't really remove the negative impact short of cropping out entirely.

I had my strobe in the angler fish position, a little more forward and pointed backwards toward me to try to get less backscatter and to try for a little drop shadow.  Im using 2x 8in arms for this strobe.

You are shooting raw, yes? Have you used it to dial down the blowouts? The sand is always too reflective compared to everything else. If you carry a dive torch with a narrow beam, you can place that in the sand to light up the nudi (front or from behind or side) to enhance the color without blasting the sand.

yeah I'm shooting raw ill try killing the highlights on the next edit to see what happens.

Here is this photo re-cropped with highlights lowered.

upon a second look through the photos this one isn't too bad either, its not great but its not bad either.

Congratulations on getting a new dive buddy, who will be active with you in about 12 years from now!

The photos are nice and if the snoot would have been better adjusted in the first one, it would be great (same with the "second look" image). I like these CFWA images, they show a lot of the environment in addition to the snail. Another story the 60mm macro, where great detail can be resolved. Both the 8mm fisheye and the 60mm macro complement each other in a perfect way...

All the best, Wolfgang

Architeuthis wrote:

Congratulations on getting a new dive buddy, who will be active with you in about 12 years from now!

The photos are nice and if the snoot would have been better adjusted in the first one, it would be great (same with the "second look" image). I like these CFWA images, they show a lot of the environment in addition to the snail. Another story the 60mm macro, where great detail can be resolved. Both the 8mm fisheye and the 60mm macro complement each other in a perfect way...

All the best, Wolfgang

I need to try out the 60mm macro.  I keep telling myself to use it but when I ack up m gear I always go for the 8mm.