Hi all.

I was in Bonaire from the 15th through 28th of March. In our group of eight, there were three of us with our new Olympus C4040 Digital 4.1 megapixel cameras and PT-010 housings. It was the first foray into underwater digital photography for us all. I had used a Sea and Sea MX10 on a previous trip to Roatan so I was the newbie in the group. Here is a sampling of shots taken with my C4040 using only the internal flash and no external strobe. Thought we'd start with the basics and see how that worked out.

Enjoy ... Cindy

And a few more ...

Wonderful stuff, Cindy! I would say your first outing with the new cam was a great success!! Really nice framing and captures. The lobster is really "in your face", eh?! LOL. Thanks again for taking the time to post them.....we CAN handle more, ya know...hint, hint. Thanks again. Very enjoyable. Carole

PS What were the settings on the camera? Just curious. I am still learning how to work with my Canon S40 under water and could use help on the settings. I do not have an external strobe, either and stay in shallow waters as we are snorkelers. Thanks again. cb

Hi Carole. Thank you. The beauty of this camera and housing setup is you can operate the camera in the water much as you would topside. All the adjustments are available through the housing. So in fact, I did switch from regular to macro and used the zoom as well. As much as possible depending on how well I could see the display, I adjusted the aperture. It was somewhat a guessing game but things improved as the two weeks went along. I must say, I had a lot of fun experimenting.

Great pictures, Cindy! Thanks so much for sharing them. :-) ML

Don't know if you are looking for advice or not, but that has never stopped me before... ;^)

You have a great eye for composition and apparently great stalking skills.

On your camera, quit letting it decide whether to fire the flash or not. You always want it to fire. That is easily set in the menu. I don't have a 4040 anymore (sniff, teardrop), traded up to a 5050 (much more complicated), but you can set the flash to always fire. Also, set your camera for macro mode (little picture of a tulip) unless you are more than three feet from your subject (and don't try to take many shots from more than three feet).

You have some great shots. Do you have Photoshop? A couple of those shots could really shine with a little color correction.

Hi Jeff

Feedback is always welcome. This is my first foray into underwater photography (I've never been much more that a 'vacation snapshot' kind of picture taker).

It was my intent to use the flash always but I inadvertently let it get into auto the odd time. I switched between macro and regular quite a bit while down there.

Yes I have Photoshop and I've messed around with colour correcting a few shots (with some tips from Freddie).

Before



After



Before



After

You guys have me hooked on playing with this stuff!

I'll stop anytime you want!!!

great pics cindy, thanks for sharing

Hi Cindy,

You indeed have the eye of an artist. I actually prefer the photos using ambient light. I know a strobe or flash will bring out the lost color at depth, but I like being able to store my memories the way they looked to me at the time.

Keep up the great work.

Dive Safely

Why thank you Randy. I was just saying last night that having acquired the digital camera and housing for diving has really added a new dimension to the sport. There is a new set of challenges under the water for me now. I look forward to gaining much more skill and experience. I took about 700 shots during this two week visit. Can't wait for my next trip!

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated .... Cindy

These photos are unbelievably crisp. Thank you for sharing.
Meehyun

Hi Cindy

I definitely agree. I shoot the Sony DSC-P3 in their little MKP-P5 housing and the change from "film" has been just great. I think last trip I filled nearly two 128meg sticks taking low resolution shots 640 x 480. I have since picked up a Digital Wallet to give me 5gig of VERY portable storage (about the size of a paperback book). Next trip I'm planning on higher res pics for crisper detail. You gotta love that digital!

Cindy - another question about the digital that I'll post here. You said you took about 700 - how did you download? Onto what?

Hi Gail

I have a ZIO drive (an external drive) for the SmartMedia cards. Using Explorer, I moved the contents of all 7 cards into separate file folders on my hard drive. The space occupied is about 600 MB (I have a new machine with a 120 GB hard drive so have the luxury of space). I also backed those folders up to a CD as an extra safety measure.

The SmartMedia cards are all tucked away in their little Pelican case.

Been playing around with a few more ... hope ya like.

I thought this was so cute. I didn't realize the Sergeant Major was in the shot until afterwards. Kind of fun I thought.

Thanks, Cindy...keep 'em coming, if you have the time we have the desire to view and enjoy the shots! CArole

Thanks Carol. I need to figure out some way of transferring the pictures I want to save from my smart media cards while in Bonaire. It might mean a trip to Michael Gaynor's to get them put on a CD or something. Don't know if I can afford the external memory (ZIO drive) right now.

Hi Carol

Although I didn't take advantage of the service, the City Cafe Internet Cafe does have current Gateway PCs with XP, USB ports and CD writers. So pack a CD and you can run in there to copy from your camera to CD while on the island. There are a few other cyber cafes but I didn't inquire about this service.

Hope this helps ... Cindy

Ooops. I mean Gail. BTW ... a ZIO drive is relatively inexpensive, I think around $30. And very tiny and portable.

Cindy

Here's this green guy again. These moray shots were taken at Willemstoren Lighthouse on Saturday, March 22nd at 4:25 p.m. He had the most entertaining expressions for me!

Experimenting again ... thank you for allowing me to indulge.

BEFORE



AFTER

Check out the teeth on that puppy!! Whoa! Thanks, Cindy...enjoying all of them. Carole

Great shots Cindy. I did some research on the ZiO drive and found them to be around $40. Now I just have to figure exactly how they work. I've sent an e-mail to my nephew who is much more digital/computer/ literate than I. I thought I was good but things change much too fast for me.

Hi Gail. Thank you.

On most PCs they simply plug into a USB port (you may need to install the driver that comes with the device). They then work as a removable disk drive on your machine which you access just like folders on your C: drive. It's pretty straight forward and handy in that you don't have to hook up the camera when you want to view files on the media cards.

Good luck.

Freddie has me really curious to see what I can do with some of these shots that are very blue because they were shot from a great distance and with just the internal flash (which at this distance didn't do any good). But I so wanted to get shots of this gorgeous creature, I went for it anyway. Sp I've been experimenting with the power of Photoshop. You're so right - this is addictive stuff.

BEFORE Photoshop



AFTER Photoshop

Wow! What a differnce....great shot, Cindy. Keep 'em coming! More, more! I love photography and also enjoy other folks' work, too. This is really fun.

Time for a new thread tho? My dial up connection took a while to get the the ray shot. Thanks a million, folks, for the great entertainment. Carole (Shutterbug)

Good idea Carole. I've started a new thread by the same name. I've now been through most of the (lots of) pictures I took and selected some of (what I consider to be) the better ones. Thanks to everyone for the feedback and encouragement. I don't know that I would have experimented quite so much without all the input. I think I've found a new passion!

Great images Cindy!!! I've been enjoying them.

At what site did you see the Eagle Ray?

Thank you Philip. The Eagle Ray went by as we were near the end of our dive at The Lake on Sunday, March 23. Time was 5:45 p.m.

Thanks for the info Cindy. I'll look for him/her later this month.

15 days and and wake up.

You only saw one ray on that dive? I was there too and saw a couple of them. And more coral too.


(don't you just love photo shop?)