Sunday 8 July 2012

Underwater Photography - Part 4

On my travels i have not met many people that do not enjoy floating in the sea and watching fish or cephalopods swim around you!.... Or enjoy looking down into an amazing and infinitely colorful coral garden where tiny little fish swim and play!

So...your challenge now will be to try to capture "some" of what you see when you are amongst all those amazing sights. I find that you will never be able to capture everything you experience or feel! But when has that ever stopped me so "try" to do any way..... :)

So without further rambling let me get to my next tip.

Tip #6 Look beyond your target.


What i mean by this is, inevitably behind "that fish" or "that piece of coral" there is likely to be an amazing backdrop. The scenery itself can be totally breathtaking! I realize that when you get into the water there is so many things to look at and its hard to "take everything in". But if you have the time and you know you'll be there for a few days or at least a few snorkeling session then "slow down" and try to force your eyes to "look around".

Also just like above-sea-level geography (where there are cliffs and drop-offs and gullies and hills), the same thing can be found underwater as well! And these are just as nice to take as above-sea-level ones! So if you look beyond your intended target you may see some of these. Below are some examples...








To the left is a picture of a coral garden that is also a natural gully...almost like a foot-path along a garden..... It has formed something like a nice little miniature canyon (if you were the size of the fish).
























To the right is an underwater CLIFF!!!! Fortunately unlike above-land geography you CAN NOT FALL TO YOUR DEATH!! Instead you can fly and float on-top of it!!! You can try to swim down to it but underwater cliffs/drop-offs tend to be very deep!











Any how that't it for now....got to forage for some food and get ready for work....I hope some of the things written here has helped you in some way.....


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Saturday 7 July 2012

Underwater Photography - Part 3

Now...chances are that some or most of you have gone to the sea before and you've tried snorkeling/freediving. As such you'd probably be thinking to yourself by now "Yeah Right!! As if you can ever stay still long enough in one spot to compose and take a shot!!!"

You're right....it is indeed difficult to hold a steady position/angle simply due to the waves and current in the water. Not to mention the fact that out to human physiology/buoyancy if you dive down a couple of meters, your body is going to want to float upwards naturally. SO...when you've dived down or when you've snorkeled to your "spot" here's what i suggest....



Tip #4. Grab onto something!!


But BE CAREFUL!!!! There are many things in the marine world that can hurt you, quite a lot of them have very sharp spikes/teeth and some even have venom! On top of that coral themselves can be very sharp and will easily graze/cut you. Finally, be careful not to damage the coral, they are living organisms too!

By grabbing onto, say a large rock with one hand, you'll be able to stay underwater without having to constantly swim downwards. Plus with your other free hand you can be holding onto your camera and snapping away.






Grabbing on will give you those precious few seconds to steady yourself, compose your shot, take the shot and then shoot up for AIR!!!! I know this sounds crazy but after doing this a few times (and over a few days/weeks) you'll find that you'll be able to stay underwater for longer periods of time. You'll still need air of course but your body will be accustomed to you holding your breath. This leads me to my next tip...






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Tip #5. Once you've reached your spot, be calm!


When i first started to do this i was flapping about trying to get the shot, kicking my fins/legs frantically trying to keep myself at the right depth (i hadn't learn Tip#3 yet, i.e. to grab on to something). But in doing so all the marine life got scared off!! So try your best to be smooth, quiet and calm when diving down to your spot. Once you've reached your spot, just compose  your shot and stay still for as long as you can (or as long as your one breath will allow you too). You'll find that the fish will come back, the colorful clams will open back up, the little playful clown fish will swim out of their shelters and you can snap away to your heart's content! But they will not come out if they fear you......








Try your best not to be flailing your arms about, or kicking the sand up, the faster you blend into your surroundings, the faster the marine life comes back out! The shot on the left was taken at about 7m and it didn't take long for the fish to come back out once I settled near the coral at the bottom. It was really amazing to see the three brightly colored yellow fish almost dancing in synchrony!!








Underwater Photography - Part 2

Part 2

So it seems like I'm back for more of this "blogging" shenanigans...i dont mind it really.... I mean, some of these things took me ages to learn (and often i did it the hard way) and if i can save you (the reader) a few minutes of pain/frustration then I would have succeeded!

So without further stalling, let me continue with more tips for taking underwater photographs....

Previously i discussed the scenario if you entered the sea and the visibility was  bad....but WHAT IF the visibility was good!!?!??!?! Happy Days is what!!! :) Besides the most awesome fun you would have just swimming/snorkeling/driving about amongst the amazing marine life and sea-scape you "may" find some time to take a deeper plunge down and take a few snaps!! Of course this is subject to your penchant/desire to take a freedive down to a deeper depth.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely no pro at diving or freediving, the absolute max i can hold my breath for is probably 45 seconds and max depth i've gone on one breath probably 15m and thats REALLY PUSHING IT FOR ME! (i.e. struggling to resurface and feeling like i'm about to pass out!! yes, i realize this is not very smart but sometimes curiosity just gets the better of me when i see something facinating!).

There's no need to go deep though, in fact i found that i've been able to take some very nice sea-scape shots closer to the surface! Plus, the closer to the surface you are the more sunlight will hit your target and make it Shine for you ;)



Tip #3. Be the Rock...or in this case..."Be the Coral"


You can take some nice shots while floating on the water's surface but i find that if you try to get a little lower and shoot from at least 45 degrees downwards, your shots get much better. Try to avoid a direct 90 degrees shot downwards unless thats what you really want!! To the left is a shot that kinda shows an angled shot, showing shadows below corals and their relative sizes compared to each other.


















If you can manage it, try taking a sea-scape at level or just a little below the level your target, I find this really brings out the sunlight rays, gives "perspective" and generally looks better. The below photo is taken at an angle just above level with my target....



To give you an idea...the following three photos  are taken just about level with my target (which is in this case a nice clump of coral/rock that has caught my eye and caught the Amazing Rays of Sunlight). Each photo is taken from a different perspective BUT OF THE SAME CLUMP OF CORAL .....but each time I've moved back a little and swam around a little...


  









Photo #1. This photo is rather close, but it captures the colors and structure of the coral quite well



















Photo #2. In this photo (of the same clump of coral), I have now moved a little further back to capture a more clusters of coral



























Photo #3. In this photo I wanted to show not just the color but the size of entire structure with a background for perspective.





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Waw...this post is getting rather long...perhaps i should bump the next tip into the next post.....



Friday 6 July 2012

Underwater Photography - Part 1

Part 1




So this being my first ever post i thought I'd start off with something i find really cool...i.e.  taking underwater photos!

I'm no expert but I've spent enough time in the sea to have a few tips of my own. My methods aren't complicated and have basically been gathered through lots of trial and error (mostly error!!) hahahaha!!!



I know this should go without saying but first of all you'll need a camera that can function/operate underwater. Preferably one that goes to about 10m underwater. There are a number of these on the market these days Nikon, Cannon, Panasonic, Pentax and even Olympus makes a couple. My choice and my favorite so far however, is the Cannon (left). I've used the Cannon Powershot D10 to take some pretty neat underwater shots (all my underwater shots have been taken with the D10).




This is the Cannon D20, and its something i'd really like to try out but have not had the opportunity yet....it offers HD recording which the D10 doesn't have...i'm sure it has other goodies as well.



I have used the Olympus too and though i do prefer the body / physical structure of the Olympus (to the left), the Cannon chip/processor still is second to none (in my opinion). The colors/sensors tend just pick up more and is more vibrant.









Having said that though though I am a very firm believer that it is not the equipment that makes a good photographer but instead it is the photographer's skill and ability to see and "feel" where a really "neat" shot can be taken from. You can have the most fancy-shamcy gear but if you dont know how to use it then its no use.... With the most modest of cameras (as i have), you could take some pretty decent shots!

Anywho.....I was on Christmas Island not too long ago, and though this tiny island has had some bad press lately, I have come to love the amazing marine-life and underwater sea-scape.


So Tip #1 Sunlight Is Your friend!!! 

You can never get enough sunlight....The reason for this is that naturally, there are particles in the seawater which in greater quantities reduces visibility drastically (which is bad). You cant control the visibility of the sea water so you're going to have to make do (i'll explain this later). The more sunlight you have the more vibrant the colours of the marine life come out!! Even mundane creatures like the common (and very menacing) sea urchin displays almost luminescent qualities! BUT DONT GET TOO CLOSE trying to get the shot, you know you WILL get stabbed their needles!! The below photo was taken completely with sunlight and no other light or flash of any kind.



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Tip #2 If in doubt...go MACRO!!


In the event that the visibility is crap (but there is still good sunlight), then adapt and experiment with Underwater MACRO Shots!! Most point-and-shoot cameras have the Macro function, and "most" of the time it works fine...but i would advise you to try going into its manual manual settings and seeing how close you can get without spooking the marine-life:

Example A - the tiny little Christmas trees you see on the side of coral, very elegant and very colorful but if you spook them they'll just disappear and shrink into the rock!


Example B - Your ordinary clam, often overlooked by snorkelers/free-divers as its so common...but in fact they are very colorful!






















The auto-focus Macro function may not always work smoothly underwater (i know my little D10 had a bit of trouble), i suspect that it is because, inevitably underwater, you will always be moving (even just slightly) and the little camera's processor can't keep up. Hence if you go into manual mode and lock it at a certain distance, you can always try to anchor your hand near your target and take several snaps at its sharpest image.
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So remember, if you've got good sunlight but low visibility underwater it does not necessarily mean "game over" for your day of taking underwater snaps...just experiment, play around with your camera's settings. Its all about having fun, understanding what your camera likes and how you can best feed it! :)

Ok that's it for Part 1, its getting late over here and I didn't realize its already 11:48pm!!