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TylerMoore

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Posts posted by TylerMoore

  1. Posted

    Oh, and the lens was a sigma 18-50mm. I wouldn't mind using a wider lens next time, and I used the 50mm to do close up portraits of of small things like christmas tree worms and such. I don't know if this is a common way to do things, a True macro would have probably been better for that.

     

    I was having problems having the photos in focus when I was at 50mm shooting smaller subjects, but I think it might have been a problem with my buoyancy, and holding still long enough for focusing. More practice will help I guess.

  2. Posted

    Way to go Tyler! First ocean dive and you come home with good pictures to show your friends and family, nicely done. Congrats too on completing the initiation to the ocean world. Your life will never be the same again. For our friends around the world Nebraska is just about as far from an ocean as you can get in the northern hemisphere. The only reason to wear a mast there is to keep the mud out of your eyes. You brought back a rush of memories for me Tyler with your post. I made a similar road trip from a little town in Missouri to the Keys in 1972. Four friends, sleeping in a station wagon, first sight of the ocean, first taste of saltwater. We were so green we covered up the shiny parts of our regulators with electrical tape because we'd read that barracuda struck shiny things. Now 36 years and 4000+ dives later, I still remember those dives like it was yesterday. Hang on to those pictures Tyler, put copies in a safe place. Trust me when I tell you that someday they will mean even more to you than they do now.

    You don't mention what lens you were using on the 20D, looks like it might be a tad long, my favorite is the shot under the overhang, the next time you're in that situation you might try using the strobe to light the fish on the right. Balancing the strobe lit subjects and ambient light is fun to try and work on. But I'm nitpicking, first ocean dive, with a camera. Great job! :bananashark:

    Steve

     

     

    Thanks a lot for the comments and suggestions. We actually took an old Subaru station wagon, and we got the chance to break down in the small town of Odessa Missouri on the way down there (only about 5 hours into the 28 hour long trip- which was 14 hours longer because of the breakdown). A very nice local resident offered to fix our car, and we ended up making it down in time for all of our dives still.

     

    Hopefully I'll get the chance to make it out again soon for photos and for great dives.

  3. Posted

    3 friends and I went on a road trip from Lincoln, Nebraska down to Key Largo Florida to do some diving and free-diving as well for lobsters. This was the first time I've used my housing in the ocean, I had only shot with it one time before in murky Nebraska waters. I was trying my best to not get backscatter in photos when using a flash, because I never really mastered that technique on the 2 or 3 dives I made with my Nikonos setup.

     

    Let me know what you guys think I should do better for next time. I know the composition and photo content is lacking in most because I was so worried about having somewhat decent lighting. All photos with a 20D in ikelite housing with a Nikonos SB105 shot manually.

     

     

    SpottedSpinyLobster_small.jpg

     

    Spotted spiny. Taken while free-diving.

     

     

    FishSchoolBrainCoral1_small.jpg

     

    School of fish around a Brain Coral at French Reef, Key Largo. This was taken while actually diving.

     

    AlanaAndySwimThrough_small.jpg

     

    This is one of the swim throughs on our French Reef dive. It was pretty cool. Being my first dive in the ocean, I was excited to do some different stuff like that. This is 2 of the 3 friends I went with on the trip.

     

     

     

     

    Any comments/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks a lot guys.

     

    Tyler

  5. Posted

    I have the same housing, and sometimes the top dial (shutter speed in M mode) doesnt always couple with the button as well as I want. I do use it under water, but not that much and always changing just one or two stops.

     

    If you call Ikelite, they might be willing to send a new rubber bit that is slightly larger. Ikelite have a great service department. I had the larger pad fitted when it went to Ikelite for different reasons. The larger pad helped very well at first, but I expect these pads wear just a wee bit in use, making the fit worse in time.

     

    My short term solution was using a tierap, but then the dial works only with the fatter part of the tierap.

     

     

    Thanks for the comments and tips guys. I'll just try and limit the need for changing settings as much as possible.

  6. Posted · Edited by TylerMoore

    I have been shooting with a Nikonos V up until this spring where I bought my first housing for my 20d. I live in Nebraska, where there isn't much diving, but I finally got the chance to drive out to the clearest lake in the area (some sandpits off the platte river). These are a couple from the 2 days of diving. The visibility was less than 2 feet the first day, but up to about 6 feet the second day.

     

    A couple friends and I are diving down the Key Largo to do some diving for a week (taking some dives out with Quiescence), so I wanted to make sure I knew how to work the housing. If you guys have any tips for a beginner to get the most out of the housing, let me know. It seems like the settings are difficult to change under water, and the shutter dial couldn't be turned on most dives. Is there a way around this? Am I putting the camera in wrong, or do the dials need some repair?

     

     

    All photos were with a 20d, and if there was a flash, it was just a nikon sb105 shot manually.

    post-7041-1216060986_thumb.jpg

     

    post-7041-1216061071_thumb.jpg

     

    Bass1_small.jpg

    Bluegill2_small.jpg

    Bluegill1_small.jpg

  10. Posted

    Ikelite (the housing you were going to buy) has the TTL in the housing, but only usable for Ikelite's own strobes. Be careful when buying second hand DS-strobes: check the Ikelite page to check the compatibility (serial numbers).

     

    I dont think you can mix a digital TTL and a SB105 strobe though, so if you want 2: you might as well get another SB105 and shoot manual.

     

    Gerard

     

    (PS I chose to buy two small DS-50 strobes, but am now pondering if I should've got a DS-125 instead, because of the WA capabilities. However, I can light my 15mm FE.

     

     

    So if I'm shooting with 2 sb 105's what would be my wide angle options? Could I use flash for wide angle at all if I was within 4 feet or so?

     

    I'll look at the coverage area of the two flashes combined, and then of my lens to see if it will cover the whole area. Any body have experience shooting with a setup like this?

  11. Posted

    I'm going to be getting an ikelite housing for my 20D here soon. I already have a nikon sb105, but I would like to get a second flash as well. I'm wondering what is another good flash for underwater that I could get for less than $400. How necessary is TTL underwater? It can't be any more accurate than above water, where I generally manually meter my flashes anyways. Should I just get a more powerful flash without e-ttl, or get a less powerful one with it?

     

     

    Any opinions on different models to go well with the ikelite?

  13. Posted

    rtrski is right about the ttl conversion circuitry. Ikelite has that in it's housings.

     

    Just a few observations±

     

    I think the reason(s) they are cheaper is the material used± Not only cheaper to buy, but once you have acquired the right tools also easier to work on, especially at large volumes.

     

    my 20D ikelite housing is not nearly as bulky as the old MD sized housing. But at least that was completely neutral underwater.

     

    Ikelite make a few housing sizes, and then adjust the details in the housing to fit the camera (be it controls or TTL circuitry), rather then starting each housing from scratch.

     

    okay, so with an ikelite housing, could i get ttl or e-ttl with flashes that arn't ikelite? what would my choices be?

  16. Posted

    I've been shooting underwater with my nikonos v and sb105 for a while, and I decided to sell a lens of mine plus pitch in a little extra to get an underwater housing for my 20D. I'm really excited about actually being able to shoot more than 36 frames when underwater, but there are SO MANY underwater housing brands I'm swamped by them.

     

    Is there a standard for which brands are better? My budget is probably $2000 tops for a used housing and at least one port. I like the ikelite housings that I've seen because they are rated so deep, have ettl, and seem to have simple to use functions.

     

    Are there key features that I should definately make sure to look for in a housing, and ports later?

     

     

     

    Thanks a lot guys, you've all been so helpful on here.

  17. Posted

    I went to florida this august like we do every year, but the past 2 years i've tried underwater photography. Only going once a year is hard on the learning curve, so any help is appreciated. I'm 19, and have been a photographer for many years now, and I work at a local newspaper as a staff photographer while going to school for bio sciences. I'm hoping to work as a photographer for a nature oriented magazine. I'm still working on getting certified with my busy schedule, so all these photos were taken snorkeling in 10-20 feet of water.

     

     

    Shot with a Nikonos V, 17mm Sea and Sea lens, SB105 flash, Velvia 50F, scanned on Minolta Dual Scan IV

     

    SwimmingWrass_small.jpg

    Reefscape_small.jpg

    WrassReef1.jpg

     

    Also, I was having a lot of problems with backscatter in my photos. I was talking to stephen frink's wife while down in key largo, and she was mentioning that a main cause for this is aiming the flash in front of the subject. The reason people do that is because the subject appears closer than it actual is. Is that a solid way to elimit the backscatter problem?

     

     

    Let me know any techniques or critiques you have. Thanks a lot.

     

     

     

    oh, and a fun one to finish it off (testing out the gear in the pool on a friend):

    VanceNixon_small.jpg

  18. Posted

    I saw a Pterois volitan in the key largo area last year, about 10 miles out, on the reef. I was so surprised to see him. When I got back I looked it up on the internet and read that many have been introduced (whether purposefully or not) to that area.

     

    I'm curious as to whether smaller reef fish can sense this animal as a predator even if they are not native to the area. These fish wouldn't have any contact with this species in any of their ancestors. Rather interesting. I'm sure something will stand up and be the predator of the lion fish in this area.

  19. Posted

    Does anybody use any type of diffuser on their flashes underwater? I was looking over my photos from last year and the light seemed so harsh. It was my first time doing underwater photography ever, and I was shooting film with a nikonos V and a sb105 flash, so I really couldn't correct it at the time. We go to key largo the first week of august like every year and i'd like to at least get one photo or two to make a print of up on my wall.

     

    I was thinking about wrapping some white cloth around the flash and rubber banding it on there for a diffuser? anyone try anything like this?

     

     

    Also, this weekend i'm going up to south dakota to dive some of the clearer lakes up there and my friend and I are going to test our cameras out before the florida trip. Does anybody do any freshwater lake photography? Especially in the midwest here? I'd like to see some photos from peolpe if you have them, and some tips you have as well.

     

     

    Thanks a lot!

     

     

    -Tyler

  20. Posted

    The problem I'm having is that many of my pictures are out of focus. I'm thinking that the focus light would greatly help in this regard. Also, I think I'll get better light balance using dual rather than a single strobe.

     

    I'm not totally happy with the Ikelite housing. The wheel and plastic ring for adjusting the zoom is not the greatest quality and I've had problems with this since day one. So, if I decided to go with a new housing, my thinking was that I would upgrade the camera at the same time.

     

    Or, I could get a better dome port and zoom control for the existing Ikelite. In any case, I'm also looking to get a better Macro and wide angle lens. I could certainly do this with the existing Rebel / Ikelite set up, and get new dome ports for the new lenses. Maybe the zoom aparatus from Ikelite has improved over the past few years.

     

    Thanks for your reply to my posting!

     

     

    he's right. even with good lenses, the rebels really arn't that awesome as far as focusing goes. In taking husker football photos I rarely have more that 50 out of focus images out of 500 in one game using my 20D. If that helps you any.

  21. Posted

    thanks for the remarks. In all honesty, i'm not a bad freediver at all. We've been going down there all my life so i have no problem spending half a minute under or more if i have a weight belt on.

     

    I was planning on getting one of the closeup kits before I went down. Now I might buy another lens too, if I get the money in time (we leave first week of august). Will I be fine with only 1 flash? Is there a huge difference between the nikon close up kid and the helix ones (or other ofbrand ones, for that matter)?

  22. Posted

    Hey, my name is Tyler. I'm 19 years old and have been involved with photography most of my life. I'm currently a photojournalism student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Every year my family and I (and usually a friend) go down the key largo and stay with some friends and go out on the ocean. We go down there to lobster, and since its so shallow we always snorkel instead of scuba dive. Last year I bought a Nikonos V setup with the 35 3.5 lens and the SB105. I wanted to try and take some underwater photos since i've enjoyed the underwater for so long, and even with my 75 gallon saltwater reef tank i can't get enough of the ocean back here with me.

     

    I was wondering if you guys have any specific advice for me as I will be snorkeling instead of diving again this year? I didn't get any images that I was happy with last year, and I would really like something that I could be proud of and make a print of. I shot about 5 or 6 rolls of velvia 100 over the course of a week or two.

     

     

    Also, any advice on little quirks the camera has, or the flash would be good. Any general tips as well. The lighting seemed tricky for me to get perfect. Thanks, there's a lot of talent on this website. Underwater photography was quite challenging for me last year. Here are a couple of photos that i took (again, not at all happy with them):

    post-7041-1184592592_thumb.jpg

    post-7041-1184592618_thumb.jpg

  23. Posted

    I did a 1,5 hour dive in a fresh water patch near home a few weeks ago.

     

    I did see some small fish schools, but didnt really have any luck. I used a 60mm macro on a canon 20D. I had a hard time focussing. I tried using a focus light, but even the light of a mini C lite scared them. Also the perch were very scared.......

     

    Most of them turned out like this, if I was able to get focus at all

     

    652074834_e091748829.jpg

     

    the better one, with a rather distracting background, was this one

     

    651212201_b9e2dfd101.jpg

     

    Other animals behaved better, but they had to guard their eggs I suppose

     

    592714441_de8c36270c.jpg

     

    what techniques are others using to get small schools: maybe use preset focus ?

     

    Is the * button and custom function technique the key (using canon 20D in ikelite)

     

    Gerard

    PS: clicking through to the flickr link, you can get the exif: but these are taken with a 60mm macro.

     

     

    I use a nikonos V for underwater, but I just wanted to chime in with saying that I always focus with the * button on my 20D. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm a student photojournalist as of now, and the * focus is the best way to focus and reframe, and hold the same focus if necessary, or focus quick before shots. Hope that helped somewhat, even though it was somewhat out of context.

  24. Posted

    My parents and I have gone down to Key largo since i was 4 or 5. Its great. I would recommend hitting up reefs like mollasis (which is a ways off if your in key largo, but worth it) and pennykamp which is very close. Also the statue of the christ is a popular one. There's also a number of wrecks there, most of them are apparent above water because of the shallowness of the ocean there. You should be able to find coordinates of the spots mentioned on any brochure or anything you find down there.

     

     

     

    Have fun.

     

     

    We're actually going to key largo this August, too. Maybe we'll be there at the same time.

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