Wetpixel Bahamas Trip

[bmyates 3]

Alex -- I really like the motion shots! They have much more "feeling" than most shark shots.

 

Really nice hammerhead shots, too (I failed to get any decent ones, dammit!).

 

And the B&W of Jimmy (or is that Grey?) with the crate is a great "mood" piece!

[debersole 3]

Alex:

 

Awesome gallery. I especially liked the motion shots and the black and whites. Also, the macro shots at the end of the gallery -- are those from the Bahamas or from West Palm before or after the trip? The background on a couple of the seahorses look like they were at the Blue Heron Blvd bridge.

 

Again, great work as always!

 

Doug

[MikeVeitch 0]

Great shots everyone!!

 

Alex, what you got in that blue cup??? Booze i hope...

[mandarinfish 0]

Agreed, great shots from everyone! Alex, I especially like your hammer silhouette shot.

[herbko 0]

Great shots Alex. I'm with Linda. I really like the hammerhead silhouette shot.

[Rocha 0]

Great shots guys! Alex, your reef shark in movement is outstanding! I also hope to do this trip in the (near) future. So, who is going next year?

 

Luiz

[james 0]

All right, time to unleash some more photos from the trip. I've been pondering which ones to post for some time now.

 

Here's my favorite full-body tiger shark photo. This shot was taken using the Aquatica housing and 24mm F1.4L lens. This lens is pretty good on FF:

 

 

This was the very friendly player shark that appears scraping itself on Eric's video housing.

 

Here she is bouncing off my dome:

 

 

And here's Laz givin' here a little luvin'

 

 

Now, on to the reef sharks. At the shark rodeo location I finally decided to experiment w/ shutter dragging and shot at slow speeds for the entire dive. It's HARD to get good shots this way. In any case, here's my favorite from that dive.

 

 

1/13th of a second.

 

Here's my favorite reef shark over the reef photo - the one that Bruce (and Sarah too) think is my best:

 

 

And here's a whole "squadron" of reef sharks:

 

 

Cheers

James

[mreid 0]

James...

 

More great photos! I also really like the reef shot with the eel. Perfect timing.

[randapex 0]

Agree, the Eel is a bonus to the shot and makes it very appealing.

 

Nice job on the shot of Laz with the Tiger as well. I'd love to have a shot like that of me. WTG James. I'll bet Laz was thrilled with it. That's really cool.

 

Rand

[dmoss 0]

James

 

Stunning....You can add me to the Bruce and Sarah list.

 

I noticed on one of your earlier posts that you used the 24-70L on some pics. Just curious...what is your impression of that one underwater ? I use it topside a lot and, as you know, it is a very nice lens for that.

 

Thanks.

[kdietz 0]

Stunning....You can add me to the Bruce and Sarah list.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ditto....very nice

 

Karl

[james 0]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to try to make some prints this weekend of a few of these. Not easy to choose!

 

David: I used the Sigma 24-70 f2.8, not the Canon lens. I got a really good trade for this lens so thought I'd try it on FF. It's pretty good for like $300. I shot it behind a flat port at 50mm.

 

Cheers

James

[Alex_Mustard 0]

Great stuff James! I really like three of your tigers. The reflection on at the beginning of this thread, the 50mm face shot and the full length tiger beach shot (which is lovely and clean - without any

people or lemons).

 

Thanks all for the positive comments on my shots. I was a real newbie out there with these sorts of subjects - so I am pleased that I have produced something useful out of my first trip.

 

Here are a few more of mine - with fairly obtuse reasons for sharing:

 

This one was my father's favourite! He loves the splash created by the bait. 1/4 sec @ F20. D2X + 10.5mm. This one really needs to be seen a bit bigger than this.

 

And this is my girlfriend's favourite of the sharks - although I'm sure she'd want me to point out that her favourite is actually the French Grunt (she doesn't appreciate sharks). D2X + 17-35mm. 1/60th @ F9

 

This is the hammer shot that several have commented on. It was in fact my first ever great hammerhead - and the reason it is a black and white and a silhouette is not through choice but necessity. I saw it and swam a little to get it in front of the sun and just snapped away! It was too far away for my strobes to reach (which were on low power as I had been shooting bulls on the bottom) and the reason it is black and white is that the sun is a nasty cyan in the colour version! D2X + 17-35mm. 1/160th @ F5.

 

And finally I like this wrangling shot simply because of the cool mouth open pose. When I process the full res version I'll probably do a bit of PS work to really bring out the details in the mouth. D2X + 10.5mm. 1/8th @ F20.

 

The full gallery is here [-click-]

 

Alex

[DuikKees 1]

Wow guys, and again WOW.

 

I am really impressed by these pics, absolute TOP

[Jolly 3]

wow, tons of good shots. My favorites are Bruce' shots (below the boat), Alex' hammerhead against sun and James' 50mm portrait (especially 2nd one on first page).

 

James, as you have direct comparison, how much would you say 5D and 1DMkII AF differ on fast moving sharks?

 

Julian

[Alex_Mustard 0]

James, as you have direct comparison, how much would you say 5D and 1DMkII AF differ on fast moving sharks?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm not James, but I sat opposite him for much of the trip. Sharks in shallow bright conditions are not really very challenging for AF.

In fact I don't think I had an AF hunting moment all trip. From what I remember, James did say at one point that the 5D AF was much closer to the 20D than the 1DMk2. But the image quality from the 5D is very impressive. My impression from sitting opposite was that he missed his old 1D Seacam housing, and I don't think either of the 5D housings he had with him (Seacam and Aquatica) were as close to perfection as his Seacam 1D housing was.

 

Alex

[james 0]

Hi All,

 

Yes, the 1D autofocus is better than the 5D - but it wasn't much of an issue for this trip. I didn't have any problems w/ the AF shooting under the BH Bridge, or the sharks in the water. Where the 1D was better was from the swimstep, or shooting fast-moving shark wrangling action.

 

I'd say the 1D af is faster, but not 2x better.

 

Cheers

James

[bmyates 3]

wow, tons of good shots. My favorites are Bruce' shots (below the boat), Alex' hammerhead against sun and James' 50mm portrait (especially 2nd one on first page).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks, Julian, for the compliment; I'm really honored to be mentioned in the same breath as Alex and James, both of whom I consider far better photographers than myself.

 

I, too, really like Alex's hammerhead silhouette. I tried taking one as well, but it was against a drab surface, and you can see how much difference the sunlight in Alex's shot makes -- compared to the "blah" negative space in mine. Alex has an amazing artistic eye that most of the rest of us are still working to develop... <_<

 

[MikeVeitch 0]

Alex has a girlfriend!?!?!?!?!?!

 

I didn't know....

[wagsy 0]

Hey guys, all those pics are fantasitc and I would like to put links on my hdvunderwater site to your galleries along with Eric's cool video clips on his site.

 

It's really funny how we just had a week of fish heads over here on the yearly Game X (MURDER X) event where the boys go out and harass/kill as many animals as they can over the week and then brag each night at the pub. They all think they are big hunters/heros when the hook a shark.

 

Then we get guys like you going out and doing that with wild sharks...I know who are the real men. and kind of makes what the fish heads do all a big bunch of girls.

 

I also just check my stats and my podcasts xml page has been hit nearly 18,000 times so far this month, so they help to get traffic to ones site thats for sure. Last month it got to 14,000.

 

Well done, you all inspire me to take pics now.

 

Wags

[james 0]

Here are a few more topside photos you might enjoy.

 

I caught this horse-eye jack by skipping a diamond jig at night. The sharks went CRAZY for this fish when it was used as a hang bait.

 

Here's Laz, posing w/ his handiwork:

 

 

And after a Lemon shark got a'hold of it:

 

 

Here's Alex and Eric up on the roof:

 

 

Looking down at this:

 

Dayum, that's a lot of sharks!

 

Here are a few of my more "artsy" shots from the trip:

 

 

Kayaks by the bar in West End:'

 

 

And a sailboat waiting out the blow in West End:

 

 

And lastly, here's one of Bruce - always in touch! Now my wife is going to want me to get one too...;-)

 

 

Cheers

James

[Jolly 3]

Thanks Guys,

 

I wasn’t particularly worrying about AF lock / hunting problems (even my rusty 10D surprisingly didn’t hunt in 20m with sharks, dark bottom and slow Sigma 12-24 @24 with f5.6 for AF). I use 99% one shot AF (centre point only) with sharks because I am seldom satisfied with predictive AF (AI Servo). But I think this could work much better with 1D series & sharks? Did you use it with 5D and/ or 1D MkII before James?

 

Julian

[james 0]

Hi Julian,

 

Last year, I used the mkII in AI-Servo for all of my shots. This year I used the 5D in One-Shot for most of my shooting, using the center sensor. I need another chance to dive w/ the 5D before I can judge the underwater AF performance. I can say that the mkII's AF in AI-Servo is better than the 5D's (Duh!) lol.

 

This was my first time using a fast prime (the 24 F1.4) and I can say it makes a big difference. The 17-40 focusing wasn't as fast but was still good.

 

Cheers

James

[DeanB 19]

Hi all,

 

My girlfriend said you lot would'nt make models in a girls mag but the ones of Alex(in vest, erm !!) and James could do the rounds in specialist underground Gay mags

 

And thats not Alex's girlfriend with the camcorder, She's way to pretty.

 

Great shots though chaps

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

[Jettbritnell 0]

Hi all,

 

Unfortunately I have been really busy since I returned from the Wetpixel 2006 Bahamas Shark Expedition. I am only now starting to unpack and go through images, etc. I have checked in on the postings and am awed by the quality and high caliber of images that everyone seemed to obtain on the trip.

 

I have been checking on posts while on the fly and felt that I should respond to the subtle innuendo that DeanB's girlfriend has stated that some trip participants could perhaps adorn the pages of a Gay Magazine. Clearly… pictures of macho males on a tiger shark diving expedition in various states of dress…or undress is just too much for some to handle. Let me assure one and all who may be reading these posts that there was nothing Gay about this expedition… cept maybe when a topless Laz would occasionally fling a large dead fish tied to the end of a rope into the ocean and the sharks would pounce like angry dragons on the bait. Perhaps some consideration needs to be given to not labeling that job “Shark Wranglerâ€. Maybe something more masculine sounding like “Shark Matador†or â€Shark Gladiator†would deflect the Gay inferences.

 

No…this trip started out like most others I’m sure with a pre-boarding shopping trip to a local West Palm Beach K Mart store to purchase some plastic storage boxes. How Eric Cheng, Bruce Yates and Paul Ng and I came to find ourselves in the nylon stocking section of the store could well make some ponder… “what the???†It was purely innocent in that Paul thought if he donned a pair of nylons it would help him slip his wetsuit on and off easier. A pair of simple black sheer nylons was chosen over my personal suggestion to purchase some black fishnets. Curiously, after all that…we never did see Paul in his black stockings during the trip so not sure what that was really all about? Anyway… here’s a casual snapshot of Mr Yates, Mr. Ng and Mr. Cheng looking quite at ease in the ladies lingerie department…

 

Cheers, Jett

 

Also, there is absolutely no foundation to the rumor that Jim Abernathy has renamed Tiger Beach and is now calling it “Brokeback Reefâ€