madguppy

I just finished editing my photos and website from my last trip to Isla Mujeres to catch some sailfish. I can't say enough about the trip. When I went to the Galapagos with Amos last September, he wouldn't stop talking about the sailfish so I had to give it a shot. He wasn't kidding! As you saw with Berkley White's shots, the sailfish hunt is a fury of action. We heard that Berkley only had one bait ball the week before us and we hoped to fair better. We started out with a bang and got our bait ball on the first morning. Here are some of my shots...not really as fantastic as I had hoped but I was a lil rusty and didn't have much time to adjust. Please check out my website and toss me some critique. I know I may have shopped these too much but I didn't have the sharpness I wanted to show them right out of the camera. My Webpage

thanks for the fast reply....sounds like I need to call Macgyver or I need to order a new housing

Can we revive this thread yet with any new info? I already have 2 x D200 bodies and a Subal ND20 housing and just ordered a D300 to replace one of 200's. If it won't fit in the ND20 I won't be heartbroken but from the images I saw B. White took of the sailfish and everthing I've read...it sure looks like a nice lil upgrade. I called the shop where I bought my whole Subal rig and asked if they knew if the 300 would fit in the 200 housing and the answer I got was "I don't know". Now I've used this shop alot in the past 2 years and must be pushing the 10k mark in money I've spent with them. They have always been the best in customer service and go beyond what I expect from retail. I'm just gonna chalk this flippant answer up to somebody have a crappy Monday. I hope you guys can fill me in a bit more. A new backplate & tray would make my day John

Not really Anthony, I had maybe 5 mins in each "session" and the first 2 chances i took 5 shots total...there was kinda a "line" behind me.

thanx for the help guys...now to get back in the water and play

Hi gang, I just had my first outing with a new rig and the Nikon 10.5 FE. I'm using 2 Ike DS-125's on 2x8" arm segments. From what I had read here and a few books on the subject I thought this to be a good starter for arm length and had my arms in the M position... /\[ ]/\... if that makes sense. I had the strobes angled out and the only huge botch I made was not putting on the diffusers. My shooting situation was an anemone with 2 clowns hiding underneath the mantle in the center. Best I can remember was a shooting distance of about 1 foot from the lens...trying hard to fill the frame on the FE monster. After a few shots and reviewing I was getting nothing but black...so to compensate I did the idiot manuever and pointed the strobes inward...aiming directly at the subject. This resulted in horrid backscatter and strobe hotspots as you will see in the attached photo. When I got home and contacted a dive buddy who was in Fiji at the same time, he suggested putting the strobes close to the lens and angling outward to try and illuminate the center of the frame. This never occured to me because every photo of a diver with a WA setup has them extended outward. So what is the best way to light a subject that is "touching" the dome port without getting backscatter. I'm sure diffusers and reducing strobe output are vital to this photo but strobe position has me lost. thanx in advance! John

no polite way to say this...but if Erick is trying to justify prices differences in the sub K range...I really doubt he would even remotely consider an upgrade from the 30D to the 5D....thats quite a monetary step no? I wish money was never a consideration for compromise! John

mreid---I went to PNG via singapore...I got lucky at Changi airport with the transfer desk...I never had to check in my bags personally so I got past OW charges on that leg...when I hit Port Moresby I guess my puppy eyes got me through...both my bags came to 106lbs so well over the 30kg limit...on the way back from walindi resort, I gave the bus driver 20kina for grabbing my bags and he then FORCED his way past the whole line...pushed my bags in front of 8 other people then came back and grabbed my ticket and tossed it at the sole air nuigini rep...I guess my 20kina got me pushed through there at no charge! In all I only got hit once for $25 by continental...I was lucky! RebreatherDave---it's actually a funny story...we get on the boat and they tell us the first day that they have reports of where there may be a ornate ghost...so they take us to restorf island and sure nuff...there it is!...we all go crazy cuz for most of us it was our first one. We then hit another reef the next day and find another...then another on the night dive. The weather was pretty bad that week so we headed in to restorf again and I say great...maybe I can grab a better shot this time...so we head back to same gal...she's still there..more photos...another dive at restorf...more photos..and then another guest points out a 2nd one there...a male...we are like wow! 3 dives and nobody noticed the 2nd bugger! Then on the 3rd dive that day there I find another ghost about 20 yards away. So that makes 3 pipes at restorf. The boat trip ends, and I have to lay over at walindi resort for 4 days till I can make a flight out...so I go diving on the day boats...bad weather lands me at Restorf again. I still wasn't happy about my previous shots so I decide at the end of my dive to head over and nab a few more. I was just watching the pipe for a bit cuz it would constantly give me ass shots instead of a nice profile...it was almost as if it wanted to show me the brood. Cuz as I'm looking at her I notice the rear "flaps" doing a fanning motion almost like a venus flytrap would open and close. I tuck in closer and thats when I saw all the lil guys inside. Kinda freaked me cuz I thought that was just an ornate fin...not a brood sac. I was so excited all my shots came out crappy and cuz I waited till about 500lbs to head over I was outa air pretty fast. So don't forget when u go to check for junk in the trunk on those pipes! john

Henry Henry Henry....you have a great camera already!...wrap an Ikelite around it for a good housing with a low cost! I'm not sure about the prices of the camera/case combo's you have listed but I'm sure they have to be close to 1k for most of them...the Ikelite housings are usually around 1300...its really not that much of a difference and I believe you will be sorry if you give up such a great camera. Start with one strobe to keep your costs down. Just my 3 cents but I think this would be your most cost effective solution and yield much better photos...especially if you are very familiar with your rig already. G-luck! John

just a few really quick here

I've just returned from a few weeks in paradise. It was my 3rd trip to the pacific side but first time in PNG. After hearing how hard it is to get there, I really feel I was super lucky! Air Nuigini didn't screw me this round but others on our boat didn't fare as well. I just wanted to post my gallery and get some critiques from the board. You guys are always very helpful. It was my first run with a new rig from Ryan at Reef and I wanna thank him for getting me the whole kit in time for the trip...heroic effort Ryan! I struggled quite a bit with my first foray of fisheye composition. I found it to be huge fun but I still haven't found the trick to lighting. Only one photo with my fin in it though! PNG really is incredible...we even saw a juvy whaleshark (6-8ft) and I wanna give a hip hip for the 3 divemasters on the boat...Pippa, Martin and Jamie. They made it a spectacular trip! I just have the pix up atm but am working on a trip report by the end of next week for anyone heading over there. Thanx for taking the time and please don't hold back on the critiques! John Abramo http://web.mac.com/madguppy2 follow the gallery link or just hit the papua new guinea link on the top of the site

There are still windows users?? how wierd!

Well after reading about this trip in the magazine and signing on a year ago...buying a drysuit that ran me over 4k when all is said and done...then diving in said drysuit in "insane" locales...like 84 degree water of St. Vincent just to log 20 drysuit dives....THEY CANCEL THE FREAKING DIVE PORTION OF THE TRIP!...not enough divers!! all I gotta say is you guys let me down! not enough lunatics around these parts I guess Depressed but warm I guess, John

Go long for topside...I've been there twice and each time I wish had a longer lens...the buggers always seem to be breaching just a tad farther than I could fill the frame with. Then again on my 2nd trip, we had 5 whales in a rowdy group all over the boat...kinda needed wide there . Your'e gonna love the trip...I'm hooked on humbacks!

Why does this sound too cheap to be true??