Under The Surface

Blogged by Simon on August 14, 2010 6:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 14, 2010 6:41am | Category: Underwater Photography |

Under The Surface

Different take on the bait ball from previous post at Palm Island.
This is really just underneath the surface, which is why the fish appear to glow in the sun, which isn’t a photoshop trick. Strong contrast is always good for monochrome, so I converted this to black&white in Silver Efex Pro, then [...]

Spanish Flag

Blogged by Simon on August 13, 2010 5:00pm | Last updated by Simon on August 13, 2010 5:39pm | Category: Underwater Photography |

Spanish Flag

Okay, so there is way too much in this photo for me to identify! I am counting four larger snappers, species Spanish Flag but consider this temporary ID until Irene, our blog expert for Spanish Flags, returns from her well deserved holiday in Malaysia.
The reddish snapper in the bottom-right corner is probably a [...]

Bigeye Snapper

Blogged by Simon on August 12, 2010 2:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 14, 2010 5:48am | Category: Underwater Photography |

Bigeye Snapper

Schooling Bigeye Snapper I chased over the fallen mast midships at the SS Yongala. You gotta love the yellow tone contrasting with the blue backdrop. These guys are easier to photograph than silvery bodied fish because they don’t reflect as much flashlight, so less of a challenge when positioning your strobes.
I went in [...]

Baitfish Over Shallow Reef

Blogged by Simon on August 09, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 14, 2010 5:48am | Category: Underwater Photography |

Baitfish Over Shallow Reef

Another shot from the bait ball from Palm Island, which is actually more of a carpet than ball shape. Here, I like how the texture of the undersurface of the water comes out and how in these ultra shallow photos (~1m) you barely need any flash to get good results.
Camera settings: Nikon D300, Tokina [...]

Leather Coral Against Surface

Blogged by Simon on August 06, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 06, 2010 10:22am | Category: Underwater Photography |

Leather Coral Against Surface

This otherwise average photo of Leather Coral makes a great reference. Why? For once i nailed the sunball exposure in manual mode. Water visibility was about 10-12m, depth exactly 6m in tropical blue water at Palm Island, off Townsville. Camera pointing upwards at 45 degree angle with Tokina 10-17mm lens.
I used both YS-250s [...]

Hunting Trevally

Blogged by Simon on July 28, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on July 28, 2010 11:33am | Category: Underwater Photography |

Hunting Trevally

My SS Yongala photos from the last trip are slowly but surely coming to an end – time to go back and shoot some more I suppose :)
This was shot upwards from the stern, where the trevally roam. I have to admit i failed at getting good schooling photos though i tried a [...]

Six Spot Rockcod

Blogged by Simon on July 21, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on July 21, 2010 5:58pm | Category: Underwater Photography |

Six Spot Rockcod

Okay this is further down almost at the SS Yongala’s bow. I found the Six Spot Rockcod together with the unidentified school in front and the trevally coming out of the blue – it’s a very busy dive site as I already mentioned numerous times and reminds me of a big herd all going [...]

Reef Bannerfish

Blogged by Simon on July 15, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on July 28, 2010 12:44pm | Category: Underwater Photography |

Reef Bannerfish

More SS Yongala goodness! Irene identified this unusual fellow as a reef bannerfish . Photographically, you have to love the form for it’s lines and the angles it gives you.
Here I tried to compose diagonally and got lucky with the wreck in the background running almost perpendicular to the dorsal fin. A bright, prominently patterned, [...]

Schooling Baitfish

Blogged by Simon on July 12, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 14, 2010 5:49am | Category: Underwater Photography |

Schooling Baitfish

I was out of the water already after the dive at Palm Island, when Matt spotted this ball of baitfish from the boat. Lucky me started the dive with 270bar of air (can you say burst disk?) so I had some left and went back there to find them in the hundreds presumably hiding [...]

Coral Overgrowth SS Yongala

Blogged by Simon on July 09, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 14, 2010 7:20pm | Category: Underwater Photography |

Coral Overgrowth SS Yongala

More work from my favourite shipwreck to date. The SS Yongala superstructure lays at an angle on her starboard side. If you descend all the way, you reach the end of the decks where the railing must have been in about 27-30m and can fit just underneath the wreck in some places.
This was photographed just [...]

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