Blue-stripe Snapper

Blogged by Simon on January 30, 2009 1:08pm | Last updated by Simon on July 28, 2010 1:15pm | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Bengal Snapper (Lutjanus bengalensis)What a fantastic pattern! Animals like these remind me of what I imagined colorful tropical fish and coral reefs to be like as a kid. I’m fairly confident on the fish id on this one, counting 4 lateral blue lines and a dusky pattern on the belly, so according to Randall et al., it’s a Blue-stripe Snapper (Lutjanus kasmira).

Found at the Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef in between 10 to 20 meters of water. The photo was taken using the 105mm macro at f/11 @ 1/125s, 25% manual flash which I got fairly comfy with during this dive trip for macro work. I motion blurred the background in the direction the fish is swimming in Photoshop for dramatic effect. Also adjusted color, definition and saturation in Aperture to improve the pattern visibility.

This is the last shot I’m putting up here from our recent Barrier Reef trip, so it’s time to do a quick self assessment for this photo series. What worked well is the twin YS-250 flash heads. They do help avoid shadows, and if positioned correctly on the outside facing inwards, the results are not plagued by backscatter. I did lose the flash ability twice in eight dives when water got into the bulkhead (not inside the housing), so that needs fixing but wasn’t as bad as I first thought.

What I am having difficulty with for my macro work, is (using manual flash) measuring in aperture priority mode, it almost always results in long exposures and blurry pictures. I got quickly frustrated with this and switched to manual camera mode instead. I usually need shutter speeds 1/125s or better to freeze the motion of swimming marine life, so manual mode is easier to control. It is however still easily possible to overexpose at these settings and after I have spent considerable amounts of time on flash adjustment, I have decided to invest in an external TTL flash converter, made in Germany, for my next trip.

I am happy with the close up capabilities of the Nikon 105mm macro lens, though I have to admit the workable depth of field on a DX chip camera is borderline and works best on smaller subjects. I will add a 60mm macro lens to my camera bag soon and see how much I can benefit from the extra depth of field and greater angle of view.

It was also my first longer dive trip with the SEA&SEA D300 housing and only excellent things to report here. The housing is solid and I’m not afraid of my camera bumping into things when I go diving. I’m switching the camera between single and continuous focus mode under water, I’m using AE-L with one finger and the shutter lever works like a charm. Worth every penny. Only improvement to be made here is a little added buoyancy, the gear is still too heavy for one handed operation under water.

All in all, great trip, heaps of pictures and learned a lot.

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