My first attempt at photography (underwater/vacation)

[ZoCrowes]

These are my first real attempts at photography (underwater or otherwise.) I've always enjoyed taking pictures with just a point and shoot and I've decided to get a little more serious about it here lately. Underwater shots were taken with a Sony Cybershot 4.1mp with a Sealife Digital Strobe. Topside shots are from a Sony Mavica and the Cybershot.




















My backyard last winter


Tower of London, England


Arc De Triumphe, Paris, France


Royal Naval College, Greenwhich, England


Thames River, London, England

[kliljedahl]

1. Lot's of nice shots & welcome

BTW, that's one nasty looking eel.

[BamaGirl]

2. Very cool!

[regnaD kciN]

3. Ladies and gentlemen...

...I believe a new threat for future contests has emerged!

:applause:

[kliljedahl]

4. Scary isn't it?

I have never made a top 10 yet & my chances just got considerably slimmer.

[Mutley]

23. me too!

These shots are fantastic!

[ET Awful]

5. I wish I could afford an underwater housing and strobe for my D-70

That would be sweet :).

Very nice shots.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Haven't priced a strobe

But the underwater housing for my Olympus C-4000 was relatively cheap ($150), with smart shopping. I could have spent a lot more - most of the brands started at around $500. The price differential made it affordable (for me, anyway), and was worth the 4-5 months it took of searching and watching for sales.

[ET Awful]

7. Good underwater housings for the D-70 start at $950 or so and go

up from there. OUCH.

[ZoCrowes]

10. If it's an Ikelite

It's worth every single penny. Ikelite housings are VERY wellmade and they have great customer service

[Ms. Toad]

16. I'm sure Ikelite's are wonderful

. . . but the price is a tad excessive to protect a camera I can replace for under $200.

I believe they started at around $500 for my camera.

[ZoCrowes]

18. Personally

I would not spend that money on a housing for an el-cheapo camera. However if I was using a high-priced SLR cam you bet your ass I would have the best housing available.

[Ms. Toad]

17. Unless you're seriously into dive photography

- or just have the luxury of a lot of money to spend - I'd buy a good cheap digital (my Olympus C-4000 has been consistently ranked in the top 10, generally #1 or #2 for cameras up to twice its sticker price) and (relatively) cheaper underwater housing so you won't cry so hard if the housing leaks (mine hasn't). You can see the general quality of the photos my camera takes at: http://photogroup.smugmug.com/gallery/681553. Unfortunately, the only dives I've been on since I got the housing had vis of about 10-20', so too much backscatter to have any quality photos.

Total camera and underwater housing for under $400. I believe it was $300, but it's been a while.

Otherwise - buy throwaway underwater cameras. I would strongly recommend against renting film cameras from the dive outfits. My first dives I did that - that throwaways were far better than the ones rented from the dive outfit. The one underwater photo I have in my smugmug portfolio (around the middle) was taken with a throwaway and scanned.

[ZoCrowes]

19. Throwaways are great

I know I took decent pictures with them for years. However in my opinion if a person makes less than 15-20 dives a year they should not be shooting pictures anyway. And anyone who is serious about diving will probably want better pictures than they ones they can get from some of the throwaway models. All depends on the diver though.

[TahitiNut]

8. Some of my favorite places! How about the IMPORTANT stuff?

What kind of dive gear? Depth? Viz? Temp? Where did you do the diving? Bottom time? Tables or computer? Aluminum 80's? :evilgrin:

(Gawd! I miss diving!! It's been far too long.) :silly:

I love moray eels! They're fascinating ... and great photo/video subjects.

[ZoCrowes]

9. LOL

Yep, definitely the important stuff.

The shots are from a few different trips. The shark is from a Bahamas Liveaboard trip I made (Blackbeard's) The starfish and wreck shots are all from the Empire Mica (British frigate torpedoed by a U-boat in WWII.)

Mica's depth is 111' to the sand with the temp at 88 degrees at the surface with a thermocline at 100' that took it to the mid-70s.

I am a Scubapro kinda guy except my BC is an Oxycheq Backplate and wings although I've used a lot of different BCs in the past. I'm lucky in that my full-time job (besides being a college student) is that I am a Scuba Instructor (NAUI, SSI, SDI)

Few more shots:


Me making a 60' stop.


Wreck of the Sapona


Trunk Bay, St Johns, USVI


Octopus on the wreck of the Vamar

[TahitiNut]

12. I use all Scubapro, too ... including BC.

(Except for the light, that 60' decompression stop looks more like a 15' ... you had dive bars at 60'?) I've only logged about 100 open ocean dives. I have NAUI & SSI "advanced" (whatever that means) certs.

I wish they'd wreck those ships a little shallower than 110' -- too little bottom time at that depth. :silly:

I'm hooked on Scubapro. I even prefer their classic JetFins over anything I've tried. I finally replaced my original Delphi with their 'puter 4 years ago, and have barely gotten the new one wet.

I didn't start diving until I was in my late 40's ... and discovered how much of my life was wasted. :evilgrin: It really is "better than sex" -- as many of my "buddies" have attested. :evilgrin:

I should see if I can get my Hi-8 video converted to DVD and do some clip-rips for DU edification. After my first dive trip, I became obsessed with underwater video, so I "geared up" with a Ricoh Hi-8, Ikelite U/W aluminum housing, and twin lights. On a 2-week dive trip to Tahiti, I got more than 15 hours of raw footage that I edited down to a 2-hour "music video." Lots of sharks, moray eels, triggerfish, etc. (It tooko me over 250 hours to edit it.)

[ZoCrowes]

13. Gotta love diving

Video is my next big step. I plan on picking a JVC digital video with the Ikelite housing and light before I head to Truk Lagoon next year.

Nothing beats Scubapro Jets. I've been diving with them since my openwater dives and won't use anything else.

Actually that is a 60' stop. NAUI now encourages deep safety stops for any dive over 50' feet. It's been nicknamed "the rule of halves." You do a safety stop at half your deepest depth for 1-3 minutes (gas permitting) and then your typical 3-5 minute stop at 10-20 feet.

Nitrox makes all the difference in the world when it comes to bottom times. If you plan your dive as a multilevel dive (no more than a few minutes at your deepest depth) then spend the rest of your time in the 60-80 range you can get 40 of dive time with an AL80 with bottom time to spare. A lot of these pictures were taken on a trip myself and a few of my buddies did in the Gulf of Mexico on wrecks that were 50 miles out, 100+ feet deep except one and we did 8 dives in 3 days. All of us were using Nitrox and all of us were well within our No Deco limits. I think the shortest dive time we had was 35 minutes. Not only does Nitrox increase your bottom time you don't get the headaches that are common with dives like that and you don't feel as fatigued. Nitrox kicks ass basically LOL

If you ever post them I would LOVE to see some of your videos.

[TahitiNut]

14. The "rule of halves" is interesting.

I got into the habit of doing that on my own, usually on the anchor chain, when I noticed better 'puter profiles doing it. I envy you. If I'd been a Dive Instructor in my early 20's, I would've been a total Hog in Heaven. It'd be a superb "back-up" vocation. I had a Vietnam Vet friend who did 9 months as a special homicide detective in Chi-town and 3 months as a dive instructor for Club Med each year. He'd pile up so much "comp" time in that 9 months that he not only had the vacation time, he also had the psychological need. What better than doing something you absolutely love and also get paid enough to cover expenses? Wow!

I've never done Nitrox ... never did the training and didn't go to sites where it was available anyway. Everyone who's done it swears by it, though. I gotta think the nitrogen "high" is just as good, if not better. Mellow.

Doing U/W video helped drop my air consumption even faster than usually happens with experience. There's something about "going with the flow" and focusing on the visual that put me into a "Zen of diving" mode -- and neutral bouyancy got to be second nature. (Getting mentored by barracuda at 15' helped, too.) It got so I'd (reluctantly) climb back on board after 40-45 minutes (average 40-50') with more than half my air left. It stunned me -- especially since I smoked (but almost never before diving on dive days). I used to suck 'em dry -- to the point I bought steel 95's for myself for beach dives. (Ugh! Heavy!)

[ZoCrowes]

15. Cool

Yeah you REALLY have to be spot-on with buoyancy before I would let anyone anywhere near a camera. Buoyancy/trim and streamlined equipment are two of my MAJOR nitpicks. Until you have a squared away rig and excellent buoyancy control you are just creating more problems than it's worth when you have a cam.

I've definitely got it made. I started diving when I was 11, have over 750 logged dives and have had the oppurtunity to go all over the world. Most 21 year olds are flipping burgers or are bagging groceries. I get to go all over the world and get paid for it :evilgrin:

[ZoCrowes]

11. Thanks for the compliments guys

they are much appreciated

[F.Gordon]

20. Geez

What can I say? Awesome photographs. And these were your first attempts? Damn.
:thumbsup:

[ZoCrowes]

22. Thanks

I've been messing around with point and shoots all my life but these are my first real attempts at decent pictures. I think my underwater shots are pretty good but I have seen much much better.

Thanks again for the compliments. I am here to learn too so if anyone has any constructive criticism I would love to hear it.

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Beautiful shots, ZoCrowes...

Welcome to our group. :hi: