ce4jesus

Final one...

My wife liked this one due to the eye lens being half open.

more....

B) This one was taken by a friend...tis I behind the manatee.

My mother was thrilled....of course she's also told me I'm handsome and can sing.

...or not

They do get a little better...

Keith...thanks. I may have to find another site. The following are some of the photos .. simply converted not digitally enhanced. Thanks,

Larry - Nice photo. BTW, there are a couple of options that might help you with the focus time. There's a full-time AF which automatically focuses on anything you point at....so you theoretically could point at the ocean where the whale is breaching and it would focus beforehand. The other is manual focus mode. I have done this several times. It brings up a handy distance meter on the LCD and allows you to set it manually. While setting it, the LCD actually gives you a close up window of the subject you're focusing on. In the case of a whale you would preset this to infinity and just snap away. The other option would be to employ one of the above methods and set your camera to continuous shoot. If your resolution is on HQ, I think you get about 5-7 fast shots before the buffer fills completely. I'm with you on the happy selection thing. I've only used it in the pool and on a manatee dive and I'm thrilled. Later, Gary

William - in particular any behavior by new photographers at any point before, during or after a dive. Since I'm new to the sport and the art, I thought I would ask the question to elicit responses that could head off any "accidental/ignorant" behavior. Stories are a great way to share experiences that put you off.

After reading Alex's article on the main page, I decided to start this discussion because it was evident I need some help in this regard. My first true underwater experience with a digital camera was last Friday. I was like a puppy on steroids shoving my LCD in the face of anyone who even feigned a moment of interest to be polite. I'm sure there are a host of other "new guy" behaviors that are as annoying as Aunt Martha's Sock Chewing Chihuahua. I know as a seasoned fisherman there are certain unwritten rules that are constantly broken by those new to the sport. Everyone has a great story of bad behavior that would be excellent to share.

Mike, As a side note, if you're going to make that once in a lifetime trip to see the Manatees, it appears 3 sisters springs is by far the best clarity. Just click on a few of the manatee pics from the other two threads on this very page. The difference between the spring where Mo was at (escaping me at the moment) and 3 sisters is like night and day. According to my dive boat operator the water was too low to get to 3 sisters safely. Despite poor viz, the experience was nothing short of fantastic. I had one little guy who wouldn't leave me alone..haha. He came right up and stuck his snout on my mask. Gary.

Carol, Very nice shots. Mine were, well,...not quite so good. However, I did get to meet Mo and this manatee above with the damaged tail. I also got to meet another little guy with some damage. This was my first experience with these creatures and I was floored by their gentle nature, inquisitive and playful ways. "scratch me" was the theme of the day. A must do for everyone, including future generations. I can't believe they're contemplating removing them from the endangered list. Thanks for the pics and links. Gary,

Wow. I just returned from the Manatees as well. Went there yesterday. The Tide was too low so the operator couldn't take us to 3 sisters. The clarity where we went was awful compared to what you have. Nice pics.

With the budget he set forth, a TTL external strobe might be out of the question forcing the use of a slave cable; therefore, he would make use of the internal strobe. Later,

I finally "field tested" my Oly in some challenging viz. http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?act=S...st=0#entry78123

Since my only other underwater photographic experience involved disposables, I found my first digital experience with my Oly SP350 very exhilarating. The link is the photos I've decided I would show. They reveal my inexperience <_< , mainly with composition, which will get better with time. I was limited to floating on the surface and chose not to weight myself for my first Manatee Experience. That turned out to be a mistake as I struggled the entire morning trying to even frame a decent pic from the surface. Needless to say most of the early morning stuff was throw-away. Thank goodness for the Magic Filter that I purchased before I went. After struggling to keep the strobe aimed, underwater, etc at the surface, I took it off and took the rest of the photos with the filter installed. Not only did the filter improve my composition it also made my photos turn out to be fairly nice. Stuff that will at least wow the inlaws!! The other bits of information for picture quality reference. I have is I didn't have a wide angle lens...missed several nice shots by a hair due to not having one. My strobe was not large enough to cover such large animals in close space. Water Clarity was marginal at best. Initially there was about 12-15ft of visibility until additional boats arrived....some with SCUBA <_< . Due to an rare, very low tide condition at the time, the boat operators weren't able to get us into 3 sisters springs which is renowned for its clarity. None of my shots have been altered yet. I simply converted them to jpegs for you to view. Many on here recommended Birds Underwater and I found that to be good advice. They have a very nice operation and gave us some nice tips on where the best viz would be. One additional side note, a 3 mil isn't enough. I had been on an excursion in December in the S. Florida ocean years earlier and a 3 mil seemed fine then so I packed the lighter suit. It was great in the water but after 3 hours in the water, then getting out, I was colder than I'd been in some time. If not for the change of clothes I brought and the hot coffee, I might have succumbed to hypothermia. Next time...and there will be a next time because this was simply a great day, I will wear my 7mil over my 3. Please take a moment and review my photos and give me some kind of critique. Later, Gary http://www.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/Alb...391/t_=27878391

As an oly sp-350 owner, I've been happy with the camera's performance. Write time with a RAW photo can be slow (10 seconds) but that's to be expected with a point and shoot at 8 megapixel. The lens isn't as fast (2.8-8.0)as the earlier Oly 8080 and 7070WZ which is a true disappointment. Most everything else has been very managable including the imbedded menus which I found the most intuitive on the market. BTW, Oly doesn't always require the menu and you can program certain hot keys. People on here have gotten great results with the Canon 620s and S80s however, the s-80 does not have a RAW mode. I've also heard great things about the Fuji cameras, which after further review, seem to be better than both Canon or Oly in many departments. There are many articles on this thread dedicated to the ups and downs of all of these cameras. I suggest you do a search under each camera and read them. The largest problem I see with deciding on the newer cameras is they've not been field tested as of yet. However, if you're looking for sheer bang for your buck its hard to beat an 8 megapixel OLY with housing for under $500.

I just did this with my SP-350 and the two cameras should have a lot in common. Try disabling the flash before going into the options to set the white balance. I just did this and it worked.

No....In order to post them here you need to use the "attach" feature. Before attaching your photo to your post you'll need to downsize it quite a bit using an editors resize function. All people get here is a link. All they can do is look at the photos through the link you provide.

You might look into the storage speed of RAW files if you plan on shooting them. After 4 shots rather quickly the E-500 I believe bogs down and can't take another for several seconds while it writes to the card. I don't believe the same limitation exists for the Nikon.

"I spent a summer in Aurora, whenever I went to the mountains I always wanted to bring my wetsuit and chase those mountain trout. Fond memories." I often snorkle/freedive in Aurora Reservoir in the summer. While I'm not the best at freediving I can stay down long enough to harass the local trout population and crayfish. Unbelievable crayfish...some 6-8 inches long. Its unfortunate but the area they let you dive in is pretty much devoid of any fish. The best areas with large stripers and trout lies in about 20ft of water in the summer off the beach area (no fishing allowed!!!!). Later, Gary

Lambis and Larry, I appreciate the advice. I'm going to by trying to photograph some Manatees next week with a wetsuit on. I often freedive while snorkeling in lakes in the summer and find that with a wetsuit it is very difficult to get as deep as I like. Anyway, I'll just be in 10-15ft of water in Florida but need to be able to be maintain depth to take an upward photo...not as easy as it sounds. Thanks, Gary

I often just dive down when I don't have a camera but with a camera and a wetsuit its very difficult to get yourself down far enough to actually take close up photos. I know there are some solutions to this problem but I'm wondering what the more experienced free divers do to overcome the shooting down phenomenon. I know in order to get my largess on the bottom of a 10ft pool, steady myself and snap a photo requires me to exhale completely. Needless to say a snorkel isn't an option (No air to clear it at the surface . Do the more experienced of you weight yourself and then use a snorkel vest or BCD to get yourself back up? Or, do you just fight your way down ... snap a picture and get back to the top? I can see this last one being a problem with my 3 mil full wetsuit.

Mark, Thanks. I think I'll buy it as soon as you guys come out with the adapter. Thanks