BACKGROUND: I will be visiting Bonaire in early May and plan both a Woodwind and a Water Taxi trip to Klein Bonaire. I am a snorkeler and largely a surface snorkeler. If the need arises, [say a good picture opportunity] I can with effort make it down to 10 or 12 feet -- but not too often. That's using 8 pounds or so of weights which I will be doing on my Bonaire shore snorkels. In addition to snorkeling from the Woodwind and Water Taxi, I have three day and three night snorkel trips scheduled with Renee.

A FEW QUESTIONS: Is the snorkeling off the Woodwind [at Klein Bonaire] and during the drift after the drop from the Water Taxi in deep water on the outside of the reef? What would be the typical photographic opportunities? By that I mean are they likely to be beyond flash range. I have an Oly-5050 in PT-015 case with camera flash only so I am talking 3 feet or less.

What I am trying to determine is if the recommendations that I have gleaned from this site of, "get close and then closer; shoot manual; shoot flash at 1/125 or faster and use a higher f number [f/5.6 or f/8] " may be impractical on the Woodwind and Water Taxi snorkel trips. Would I be better off leaving the camera at the hotel on those two trips? Or does the coral come up near the surface and it is still possible to get close up shots?

Assuming that the desired picture is of something at 5, 10, or even 15 or more feet from the camera what settings are good starting points for getting non macro photos? Do you recommend spot focus or what about manual focus preset say to 5, 10, or 15 feet.

Oly-5050 owners: Do you use the MY Mode settings? If so where do you usually set them for both macro with flash and the longer range non-macro shots.

MANUAL VERSUS AUTO_FOCUS: One final item relating to the taking of close in photos: Keeping in mind that I have zero underwater photographic experience at this point, feel free to correct me in what follows: It seems to me that setting the manual focus to say 8 inches or perhaps 16 inches and shooting at f/5.6 or f/8 with the camera flash gives me a much better chance of getting a picture then does using auto-focus where 1. I am an out of control moving platform [unless I am lying stationary on the surface]. 2. I have to wait [often up to a couple seconds] if I'm lucky enough to be able to track the critter to obtain auto-focus; and 3. the critter is likely retreating [moving] as this 220 pound snorkeler dives toward it.

Even at close distances, the depth of field, with the short focal length lenses of the Oly-5050 seems to be pretty forgiving and my experience in rapid point and shoot around the house seems to favot the manual pre-set focus. Your thoughts and comments please.

Bill

bill,

the shutter and f-stops you quote sound good for non macro near the surface (a snorkel)

auto/manual focus - i use manual when i am REALLY close and the subject is stationary. i use auto focus with single area mode (center) for moving items that are a bit furthur away...

depends on what that camera will really do - check your auto focus modes/areas and practice some...

good luck!

William those settings sound good. Although I am an auto focus person, there's enough other settings to fiddle with, I don't need to be messing with the focus also. I get around the missed focus problem by shooting many pictures of the same subject. I have a tendency to shoot at max f-stop and adjust the lighting by changing the flash power.

As far as snorkeling is concerned it makes UW photography way harder. It is just so difficult to get close enough. There's two techniques that I use, one is to dive down and pray you get the shot before you have to go back up. The second is to snorkel in very shallow water. Unfortunately there is not very many places on Bonaire where this works. On the Woodwind trip to the klein you can hug the wall and at Andrea I you can do the same. Another good spot for this is to the left of the Tipsy Seagull at the Plaza resort.

Remember it is digital, so pictures are free, so shoot many many shots.

I ditto most of what Cecil says except there are tons of places in Bonaire to get great shots while snorkeling. Getting close to your subject is the best advice that one can give. Remember if you are not close you are shooting through the water column and pictures are usually not that good. I can only go down 10 - 15 feet max and also wear 8 lbs of weight. When you are out with Renee she will take you places for awesome photo opps. The drift at Kline is where I get most of my turtle shots. It is too deep for me to dive down but there is a lot of fish life in and near the reef that you can get shots without going deep. That's where we saw a ton of slender filefish our last trip in March. You can see some of mine and my husband's pictures on Renee's web site www.reneesnorkeltrips.com and on my last trip report. If you hit last week at the bottom of this page you will my last trip report. We both only have a Sony P8 or P9(I can never remember which) point and shoot camera.
I have never taken the water taxi but I think it will drop you off for the drift and then will pick you up at no name beach. I love the Woodwind too much too try any other options to go to Kline.

a little off topic but more on auto/manual focus:

if you have the means to manually focus (in macro) it may be your best choice:

autofocus may involve different modes and areas - with the intent of giving you a way to get a focus on moving as well as static subjects. they make it sound like there are dynamic focus modes that can "track" and maintain focus on a moving subject. along with these is another autofocus parameter, "S" or "C" for single or continuous servo action for autofocus.

as it turns out, single servo "s" can lock your shutter out (if the camera does not like the focus) - so that is not a good idea. as far as tracking dynamic targets - i don't do that. if i am using autofocus then i pick continuous servo "C" and single area AF. i keep the subject in the center of the frame re-depressing the shutter release to get a new focus and finish the shot when it looks good. with some of the other modes/areas you just never seem to get a focus - the camera may not be exactly sure what you are after - just seems to hunt continuously. really a problem when shooting really close.

i'm not sure what cameras/housings combos support some sort of manual focus (for macros) so none of this may really apply - just stuff to look for...

Bob: Thanks for the confirmation on shutter speed and f-stops. I do plan on using single-area center [spot focus] if and when using auto-focus. I also plan to use lock focus so that the camera isn't hunting. Often for me, however, in the auto-focus mode the time to acquire focus results in missed photos.

Yes, I can manually focus in Macro Mode To do so, I must first set the camera to manual focus and then go to Macro. I don't seem to be able to set Macro and then go to Manual Focus. Also, when I power off the next startup is in Auto-Focus mode and Macro mode but now the camera will allow me to switch to manual focus with two button pushes. Too much to remember for an "old guy!"

Cecil: Yes, I agree that with digital the pictures are free, but I'd like to increase my odds of a good one. Also, so often you only get one or maybe two shots before the critter has moved on. If I preset the manual focus, my thought is that I can then concentrate on just two things [which is one more than I am good at] -- closing to my predetermined distance and keeping the critter in the field of view. I hope to have a laser pointer and shoot wide angle to help in the latter as well as to maximize depth of field.

I was in Hawaii earlier this month [no U-W camera] and noticed the problem of surface diving down to look at something [10 or 12 feet or so] and running out of air about half way back to the surface. Came up sputtering a couple of times. I definitely plan to follow your advise and other then Klein spend most of my time in shallow water around where I am staying -- The Dive Inn. I also will make a point of snorkeling to the left of The Tipsy Seagull at the Plaza. I believe it is within snorkeling [or walking] distance of the Dive Inn and I understand that between there and the Dive Inn there are many good shallow water snorkel spots [off of the Plaza, Divi and Dive Inn itself].

Darlene: Thanks for your inputs. I looked at your pictures on Renee's web site as well as your last trip report. Those include some GREAT shots. I hope that I can do half as well. Most of my snorkel time is planned with Renee so I am ensured of having many good photo opportunities.

I have reservations with Renee as well as on the Woodwind but only have tentative plans for the drift from the Water Taxi [Eno Beach ? to No Name?]. I assume that the Taxi might cover a different area of Klein then the Woodwind does. Anyone know if that is the case?

General: To be honest, my biggest concern is that at some point the housing leaks and my underwater photo safari and my camera come to a disheartening termination. I'm told one grain of sand or a single hair can result in a leak and here I have trouble finding my glasses, wallet, and car keys let alone a single hair.