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Bonaire Photography & Videography: A Few Pictures from My Dec trip
Bonaire Talk: Bonaire Photography & Videography: Archives: Archives 2005: Archives - 2005 01-01 to 2005- 05-01: A Few Pictures from My Dec trip
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #447) on Saturday, December 18, 2004 - 10:46 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I am not much of a trip report writer but I thought I would share some of my pictures from my Dec trip.
Enjoy
ballonfish
vase spounge
flamego toung
anemone

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #448) on Saturday, December 18, 2004 - 10:52 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

And a few more.
iguana
iguana2
slender
something

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By The Ginocchio's @ Golden Reef Inn (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #483) on Saturday, December 18, 2004 - 11:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman,

Your pictures are great! Loved them, thanks! Liz

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Debbie Babcock (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #669) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 12:01 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great photos, Herman! :-) Do you have any more? You take really good pictures!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4460) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 1:17 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Fabulous, Herman! So crisp and beautiful. Thanks for posting them....no need for a written report when you can express your feelings with photos like yours. Ayo. CArole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henk van den Berg (BonaireTalker - Post #21) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 6:25 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

awesome shots Herman! please post some more. btw. what camera did you use? colors are so beautiful!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #449) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 10:16 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks all.
The camera is an Olympus C5050 in a PT-15 housing using the internal strobe.

christmas

Smooth trunkfish

Red Hind

Azure

Yellowfin

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Babs (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #7071) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 2:40 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman, I love the pics! Thanks for posting.....keep em coming! :-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Frank (BonaireTalker - Post #65) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 7:35 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman,

Love your pictures, especially the slender filefish, which I missed on my first look. They're my favorite thing to look for on the reef. Find one, look away for a second and it "disappears"

-David

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard Simmons (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #5) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 9:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great photos Herman. Was hoping you could share some of your secrets such as shutter speed, aperture setting, etc. and what photo enhancement software you use. I am new to underwater photography and am still collecting tips that I can apply when I try out my Canon A85 for the first time.

Thanks,
Richard

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #450) on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 10:00 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Richard,
I am just starting to get the hang of this camera. There are a lot of poooor pictures that were taken along with these. :-)
Everything I have read about using digitals UW says that it's best to use manual. So basically, I tried using a set speed (1/100) with an ASA of 100 and varied the F-stop. My camera has 8 modes that I can preset and basically use one button to recall the setting so what I did was set up 8 modes and swapped between them. If memory serves me correctly I used F-8 above say 15 ft, F-5.6 from 15 to 25ft and F-4 below that except on macro shots which were shot at F-8. My camera software has the ability to go back and look to see what all the setting were on each picture but I have not taken the time to go and look. I intend to compare the pictures with the setting and see what actually worked.
I use Adobe Photoshop Elements to process the pictures, it makes up for many of my mistakes.

The 3 biggest hints I can give you are:
SLOW DOWN, most divers go way to fast and miss a lot.
Perfect your buoyancy control, most divers buoyancy control is where near good enough to be carrying a camera. That might insult a lot of divers but it's a fact. It's impossible to do what I suggest next if your buoyancy is not dead on.
Get close, get closer and still closer. When you think are too close you are about right. The trick is that you have to be able to do this slowly and carefully and then hold position. Fish will move so it's up to you to wait on them.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard Simmons (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #6) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 9:21 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman,

Thanks for the great photo tips! I've been practicing using the manual mode above water and can't wait to try some underwater shots. Looks like a big challenge with using a fast shutter and mid-range to small aperture is getting enough exposure, especially when using just the camera internal flash.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mary Mueller (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3488) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 12:03 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman - great pics!!! And your tips are right on!!!

I did not know that you were returning in December - when is your next trip!?!?!

Are you going back with Gene in January - he was really twisting my arm at the Christmas party - trying to get me to do go with him - but I don't think that will happen - my hubby won't let me go without him!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #451) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 1:15 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I hate I missed the party but it was the Gypsy party or a week in Bonaire...quess how long that decision took. Don't know when I will get back but the wife and I are already talking about going somewhere warm in Feb/Mar time frame. It's not likely that I will go with a dive shop. I would like to, I love the company but I can put the trips together so much cheaper on my own. The Dec trip started as a Fla Keys trip with a buddy of mine but after running the numbers and taking into account to good possibility of setting in a hotel room not diving due to bad sea conditions it was a no brainer. Besides we both like Bonaire better anyway.


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marcus L. Barnes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #213) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 1:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great pictures Herman. I recently sold that same camera and housing to my brother in law. He was using the internal strobe on Bonaire in October and all his pictures came out with alot of blue in them. Would you mind advising me as to how yours was set up to produce pictures this great using only the internal strobe. Thanks. Marcus.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #452) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 4:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Marcus,
If you look closely at most of my pictures you will see that they are taken at close range to my subject, rarely am I more than 2 or 3 ft away.(and the reason for my suggestions 2 and 3 above) Except in very shallow water, it's not possible to take photos over a great distance underwater without it ending up blue. Look at the back round of the second and 3rd pictures and you will see that they are blue (the 3rd you have to look through the soft coral). How far you can get from your subject depends to some extent on how much strobe power you have available but even with the best strobe setup 6 to 8 ft is about all that you can reliably get by with. The wide angle shots you see are still taken at close range with the aid of a wide angle lens (something I don't have but you can get for the C5050). The best advise is still, get close and use as wide an angle as you can. In other words, don't use telephoto as a substitute for getting close.
One of the best things you can do to help your photography is to go to a pool or quarry and spend hours working you your buoyancy control. Every chance I get I do pool dives with the objective of adjusting my trim and weighting so that it's dead on. I practice hovering inches from a point I pick on a wall or rope and on backing away just using my fins. Learning to hover is several different positions like fins above and below horizonal and being able to shift between them with little movement is very important. I will admit I am pretty picky about buoyancy control but unless have very good control without the camera, how can you possibly expect to have enough control to hold a camera 2 or 3 inches from your subject. Most divers have no idea just how out of control they actually are. I was really humbled in a class I took a few years ago. We had to pick a small spot on a wreck in 20 ft of water and keep within 6 inches of it without touching anything...that was bad enough at the time.....the video of me was even worse. I hate to come off like a buoyancy snob but without a steady platform, it's very difficult to get good pictures. In addition, if you come zooming in on the fish and have hands and fins going all over the place, most fish will move away, leaving you with pictures of fish rears. Slow deliberate movement is required to get good, close range photos of shy fish.
A good buddy who will but up with you hovering around a coral head for 5 minutes at a time helps a lot as well, thank goodness I have some very forgiving dive buddies.


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stan (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #742) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 4:59 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

herman, loving the pictures. On and off land!
and, great tips!

thanks for sharing!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andrea & Dave Bartlett (BonaireTalker - Post #79) on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 9:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Dave just got a new digital camera and I get his old one. We are going to Bonaire the last of April/first of May and are doing a digital photo class at Cap'n Don's with the Drafals for a week. They pro's who have worked all over the world. Talk to ya'll later. Andy

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marcus L. Barnes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #214) on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 9:40 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Herman. I'll have my brother in law read your comments.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Robert Fishman (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #148) on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 11:59 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Underwater Photography is not Rocket Science and it is predictable! Is it easy? Well if were simple, I'd be bored and forced to move on to something more challenging and rewarding.......

That said,

When attempting to understand exposure settings, consider breaking up your composition into two parts, the foreground and the background.

My definition of foreground is anything that the strobe is capable of illuminating acceptably. The background of your image is what remains and is illuminated only by any ambient light present. The amount of available ambient light depends upon time of day, depth, particulate in water, etc.

The foreground exposure is controlled by strobe intensity and aperture. The background exposure is controlled by aperture and shutter speed.

The internal or onboard flash of a C series Olympus camera is capable of illuminating an area no further than a couple of feet from the lens. The angle of coverage (beam angle)of the onboard flash would not sufficiently cover the field of view offered by any wide angle lens (especially a conversion add on WAL).

If used within these limitations (basically macro compositions) the onboard flash~Oly C series digicam can produce some outstanding results, especially on night dives where background exposure is less critical (non existent). When ambient light is present, the background should be independently metered. Not doing so may lead to washed out backgrounds when choosing relatively slow shutter speeds and wide apertures.

To control background exposures, my suggestion is to set the camera to Manual mode and ISO to 100, choose an aperture f/5, and aim the strobe out to open water. Monitor the EV reading in the LCD while adjusting the shutter speed. When the EV reading reaches @ -0.7EV, the background exposure will then be set to capture a pleasing blue background. Choosing a faster shutter speed will render the background even darker. By 1/500 sec, it may be possible to achieve very dark, dramatic backgrounds.

The foreground will be controlled by the f/stop chosen along with the intensity of the strobe, in this case the onboard flash. If f/5 is rendering overexposed foregrounds, stop down ( higher f/stop number). Underexposed? Then open up the aperture (lower f/stop number=wider aperture=more light allowed to enter the lens and be captured by the CCD). f/stop changes may necessitate shutter changes also to maintain a desirable background.

Confusing? Please allow me the opportunity to refine an explanation.

btw, good, sound advise regarding buoyancy. I wish I could read a book about it the same way one can read about exposures......

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By steven giamporcaro (BonaireTalker - Post #95) on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - 7:53 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

thanks for sharing those nice shots with us all.learned a little with all the advice given.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #454) on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - 9:14 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for the post Robert. I am just now getting the opportunity to experiment with the camera underwater. The correct balance between F-stop, shutter speed and strobe(internal in my case)is what I have the biggest problem with. I will add a real strobe to the mix some time in the future so any hints on them are useful as well.

One more trick I find useful in the buoyancy category is to shoot heading into the current. It's not always possible but I find it a lot easier to maintain station if I am heading into the current while trying to get a picture. Slight finning into the current is fairly easy, finning in reverse to hold position is darn near impossible. When I am moving with the current, I look for shots that I can pass by, turn and take from the side that allows a up current shot. I do a lot of swimming in circles but my buddies are use to it.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By J.J zambrano mazzei (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #116) on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - 7:40 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

gorgeous ! nice pictures.....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By BEVERLY A FILLIO (BonaireTalker - Post #16) on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - 2:13 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

great pictures and some very nice close up especially some of the corals and fish

 


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