ce4jesus

After living in the same house for 17 years my wife and I took the plunge and bought a new house last December...needless to say the money pit has absorbed most of our time and resources. We did manage a family vacation with friends so we chose the side of Mexico with nice beaches over Cozumel. Great choice for topside activities, not so great for diving. After 12 dives, I was on my ascent when I saw this ray swimming. I swam to where I placed myself directly in his path. He saw me and promptly parked in the sand with his butt to me :-< I remained still for at least a minute hoping to get a take off shot and he didn't disappoint me. He turned around and swam over my shoulder!

I went to Dumagette with a group that arrived in from Puerta Galera. According to the group, they enjoyed PG more. So much so, that several in the group rebooked at PG after staying for a day or two at Dauin (Dumagette) I had a great time in Dumagette. The shore diving was really good. The shore diving at the Ducom Pier was outstanding but the pier has been rennovated and last i heard was still not open to diving. The pier was the single best dive of my life. Too awesome to put into words. The group enjoyed day trips to Apo Island and raved about the coral but I chose to stay and shore dive on the house reef which I could never get tired of. If you're into macro, I don't think either will disappoint you. You might PM this sites Tankado...an excellent macro photographer who lives there and he should be able to give you more of an update.

I don't know but that is one superb CFWA

Macro...shutter speed as fast as it will let you while syncing the strobe. Strobes at full. Aperture, F16-F22. I like the faster shutter speeds to darken the background.

I use Inon Z240s. It is tough not to light particles in the water with strobes. As someone stated above, shoot macro when it gets bad. If you must shoot WA, I usually remove the difffusers (contrary to most) and try and angle my strobe out...starting with the placement over each shoulder back from the plane...or at least on par. It is tricky and I usually underexpose a few shots before getting it almost right. Feathering the subject with the edges of your strobe light will reduce, not eliminate, the particles. BTW...the shot in the pool really isn't a good comparison with the conditions you had in the photos above.

I kind of wondered about that as I typed it...hehe. Cheers, Gary Sent you a quick PM. Las Galeras just hit the radar

I'm thinking our Caribbean Destination this year will be Puerta Plata on the North side of the Dominican Republic. Has anyone been to this area? If not, where is the best place to dive/stay on the island. Anyone know how you can arrange to see the Sperm Whales? Thanks, Gary

Although there is no denying the impact of the subjects and the uniqueness of the shot from a "frogs view". Looking at the photos from a technical perspective, I'm not sure I see the excellence that is constantly achieved on this thread. In particular, the lack of attention on background exposure as the colors appear very washed out. I guess i'm being way too harsh

Works with my Olympus lenses and even in AF mode with the 14-42 and 9-18mm. Hmmm this thread might cost me some money.

Awesome experience and great shots Jeff!

I take it the well though-out stand was to stablize the lens in order to achieve a sharp image? I would think hand-holding that modified Clint-Eastwood Lens would be impossible.

I believe that Keri uses the snoots in combination with the subsee 10X wet diopter

Unless you've entered the world of wet-diopters and then the problem is magnified. Most wet diopters I've used have a painfully narrow DOF and I never realized why some of my shots had the eye slightly out of focus until I just read what Jeremy posted.

if you like muck-diving for macro then the Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach is nice, you can only really dive it at slack tide though. Key Largo has a lot to offer. Both French and Molasses reefs are very fishy. If you're into wrecks, just down he road from Key Largo is Tavernier and the Florida Keys Dive Center usually heads out to the Spiegal Grove. Reef Photo and Video is in the Fort Lauderdale area. I've always maintained that the West coast from Jupiter to Fort Lauderdale always has some nice diving but you're not in a protected marine park and the reefs start at about 70ft. Anyway, if the weather's nice, you should have a good time no matter where you choose to dive. Some dives I've always wanted to check out are some of the inland dives. There's a drift dive through a river with 200ft vis that I thought would be awesome.

In the past couple of weeks my dive buddies and I have been switching positions on who is in the "You lucky bastard" crosshairs. We end up giving each other a lot of sh@# because of it and I feel it won't be long before we find lens caps secretly placed on our camera lenses (a technique mastered by Tony Wu -- although in his case it was self administered. Sorry, Tony, I couldn't help it. hehehe). Haha. A bacon grease thumbprint on the port works well. I've had that self-inflicted prank completely ruin a set of shots. Very nice shot. You know that West Coast of Florida is way underrated IMO. Very nice diving to be had there.

If you do use epoxy you might consider putting a safety lanyard on the strobe. The physical size of the housing can change at depth, just like cold weather, and it might pop the epoxy off. If you have a safety lanyard it means you just have to re-attach it later. If not, you could lose a nice strobe.

Most large companies have net-60 days on accounts payable. Mine even has Net-90. When dealing wtih large companies you probably should factor that into your initial bid.

I knew I was doing something wrong...

Marketing and perserverence are always king. Most of us take at least 1 or 2 worthy of publish but the vast majority of us will never see an imaged published and fewer still can make a living at it. Your images look fine to me. A couple even stood out. Camera, lenses $3000 Underwater housing arms strobes $5000 Finding someone to publish your photo.....priceless

WA, not a problem because as stated above you can spot the subject up ahead. With that said, I've missed many opportunities there due to the current. Choose a dive shop like Dive with Martin or the Scuba Club that will take you to places where you can also get macro and portrait stuff.

Viz in the photos looked okay. I was there a few years back and it was like 15ft. Is it less?

Awesome Carol! Score a big win for the Manatees!

Sorry if these questions seem novice but here goes: Wouldn't turing the ISO while keeping it in TTL accomplish the goal? Granted that is a factor with diminishing returns the higher you crank the ISO but the D300 should handle the higher ISOs well enough. Also when shooting something like a shark wouldn't you want to have the metering set toward the center of the frame so your camera isn't trying to expose the background? I've only shot solitary sharks so I haven't had the good fortune of being in a fast shooting environment with them. I too would like to learn before i get there and figure out I'm doing it wrong :?)

Pam has a point though. It might be a wise idea to carry a copy of the regulations with you in case you run into that rogue agent.

Looks to be an outstanding inbetween camera. I'm curious about the live view speed.