Category Archives: Photography

First Attempts at Light Painting with iPad & Sparklers

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For one hour one March 23rd people around the world were turning off their lights to raise awareness of climate change, this one hour is called Earth Hour. So once its all dark – then what? Myself, @RealMichaelToye & @LBrimson took this opportunity to play with a feature of my new camera: Live Time. This is like bulb mode only better because you can see the photo building up on the screen. We had a few technical difficulties (I think theres some settings I haven’t quite figured out and it kept going to sleep and not starting the exposure when expected) but overall we had a lot of fun (and delicious Mojitos, thanks Mike) and celebrated Earth Hour in style. Here’s what we came up with. For most of them we used indoor sparklers (glad we didnt buy the outdoor ones since it was snowing)!! But for this Earth Hour one above we used an app called eightbit on the iPad (we tried it on the iphone but it didnt quite ever come out). We were in the pitch black but I bet when we try this again with some lights on the scene we’ll get some great images with spooky floating text.

You can see the full gallery here.

PhotoFriday – ‘Candid Shot’

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This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Candid Shot’

This weeks theme is candid shot and I was thinking of putting in a photo of a fish yawning. It was however pointed out to me that the word candid only applied to people, so disbeliever that I am I looked it up on the oxford online dictionaries and darned if it isnt true! It makes mention specially as

“(of a photograph of a person) taken informally, especially without the subject’s knowledge”

So here we are, transported back to 2008 when I first got my DSLR, location: Venice, event: Masked Ball for Carnevale di Venezia. Bear in mind four things when looking at these photos, one, I was a newbie, two, I should probably reprocess them in a newer version of LR, three, there wasn’t much light and finally, four, I’m better at taking pictures of fish ;) I hope you enjoy reliving this experience with me anyway. Below is a photo of me in my get-up (taken by Mike), the rest of the photos are all candid shots I took through an evening of opera & dinner – all done incognito:

To see more images from this ball, the gallery is here. It’s great fun if you ever get a change to go.

If you do want to see my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery. Or my best from 2012 here.

See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Candid Shot’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling the my nikon gear. Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!

Focus On: Underwater Macro Photography Part 2 – 105mm

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Following on from Mondays 60mm macro underwater post, today I’d like to showcase some of the photos I’ve taken with the 105mm macro + Nikon D300 and highlight some key differences.

Equipment:

  • Nikon D300 + Subal Housing for D300 (£2000)
  • 105mm VR macro lens + Subal 105 port with manual focus knob (£925)
  • 2 Inon z240 strobes (not for sale)

As Vincent so rightly points out in his comment on my previous post, the 105mm takes a bit of getting used to. Its a wonderful lens but as with all camera gear it has its pros & cons. Pretty much the only con of consequence for me personally is the weight. Its a much heavier lens. If you too are struggling with this I’d recommend the StiX floats buoyancy collar that they developed to combat this issue. It encircles the port and balances it all out a little. Don’t forget to cable tie it on though as you may see it float off when you tip the lens upwards! There are quite a few pros, the main one being the extra working distance you get. Both the 60mm and the 105 are 1:1 lenses but to have the critter the same size in the frame you can back right off with the 105 giving more room for lighting and more distance for shy critters. And of course you can more easily get that nice blurred background (bokeh) which can help to lift your subject from it’s surroundings especially on messy backgrounds.

Here are a few shots I took in Bali at the end of last year (click images for larger)…

This tiny shrimp was difficult to see so having a nice clean background was essential for the shot. It is nice to have the second part of the coral blurred out in the  background for some context though.

This little toby was very small and very shy, I would not have been able to take a good shot with a 60 without him just swimming off.

Another very shy critter:

Its good fun and games trying to get shots of garden eels, when you approach they disappear into the sand. This is another shot which would have been almost impossible with a 60mm’s reduced working distance.

You have to be careful where you focus when the DOF is so shallow, getting only the tail in focus would have ruined this shot:

Pygmy seahorses are notoriously shy and they hate the light of the flash & spotting torch (it can stress them so much that they would die so responsible underwater photographers take the pygmy pledge – to only take a maximum number of 3 or 4 shots per seafan).

Dreamy bokeh can give a different atmosphere to a photograph than a straight on ID shot.

The lens can ‘hunt’ for focus if the subject is not contrasty enough, this little guy was quite contrasty but so close to the seabed (which is the background in this topdown shot) that the camera would constantly back focus. The manual focus knob on the port is worth its weight in gold in these situations.

I took this little guy’s photo back in 2009 on a night dive, you can understand how small he is by considering that the huge boulders he’s sitting on are sand granules!

I hope you liked my stroll down memory lane with my 105mm VR macro set up for the Nikon D300. As I said at the top of the post I’m currently selling that set up. Buy for only £2875 (camera, lens, housing and port)! Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!

Focus On: Underwater Macro Photography – 60mm

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Following on with my theme of photo posts about the gear I’m selling. For the first of two posts on macro lenses underwater, today I’d like to showcase some of the photos I’ve taken with the 60mm macro + Nikon D300 and give you all some simple general macro tips.

60mm macro lens

60mm macro lens

Equipment:

  • Nikon D300 + Subal Housing for D300 (£2000)
  • 60mm macro lens + Subal flat port (£375)
  • 2 Inon z240 strobes (not for sale)

I still think that the crop sensor DX cameras make the best underwater cameras for macro. People who switch to full frame often struggle with what they found quite simple on DX. I know several professional underwater photographers who moved to full frame for their wide angle shots only and still use the Nikon D300 as their macro set up. And this 60mm is my favourite lens to use. The reason being is it is super fast at auto focus with much less of the “hunting” of some of the newer lenses I’ve used. This is essential when your tiny creature or fish is moving about and you are slightly moving too (we all have to breathe occasionally). The light weight of it is another plus for me personally. I dont have very strong wrists (too much computer work has given me RSI which is the reason I’m selling all this gear and finally moving back to a smaller camera).

Here are some photos from last year (some of these might look very familiar for regular readers of my blog) – click them for larger:

As you can see, you can get very close, in fact I think it would probably focus right on the front of the port (although it would be hard to light a subject that close)! The blue background in this image above is actually starfish skin. This little tiny shrimp lives on the starfish for a free ride.

I love blennies and the quick focus of this set up allowed me to capture this one yawning in 2011.

As well as the capacity for macro the 60mm lens is wide enough for portraits of bigger fish such as this batfish being cleaned:

The 60mm allowed me a closer working distance to this cardinal fish with eggs in his mouth. All the other cardinal fish were hanging around so close that had I tried to take this photo with the 105mm macro there would have been two or three fish between me and him for the same framing.

My top simple tips for macro:
  • Get down to eye level (if you can without damaging the reef), your images will be more full of ye contact and impact.
  • For any critters with eyes try to always make sure eyes are in focus.
  • To get the eyes and mouth in focus, for shallow DOF photos, focus between the eyes and the mouth. It will be in focus 1/3 in front of the focus point and 2/3 behind the focus point.
  • If you find your lens hunts for focus (this one does not but many macro lenses do) when don’t be afraid to switch the camera to manual focus and move the camera back & forth to focus).
  • If your camera allows (most camera these days are fairly customisable), try to have one button access to 100% zoom in on your photo. For example on the D300 I set the middle button (between the arrows) to toggle between 100% and zoomed out for quickly checking eye focus on macro shots with shallow DOF.
  • Check your LCD histogram rather than relying on LCD brightness to check for exposure.
  • Sometimes it’s hard to see the settings in the little screen on the top of a DSLR camera without flattening your subject, on the Nikon D300, the little info button (it looks like a key if I remember correctly) displays that whole screen on the LCD when in shooting mode.

This was one of the first underwater shots I took with my DLSR system in a swimming pool with Martin Edge!

I hope you liked my stroll down memory lane with my 60mm macro set up for the Nikon D300. As I said at the top of the post I’m currently selling that set up. Buy for only £2375 (camera, lens, housing and port)! Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!

PhotoFriday – ‘Springtime’

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This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Springtime’

Huh, so as it turns out I rarely take photographs in springtime! It had to back to 2010 archives to find these. We often go on a trip around February time (still very much winter) and then its a few months until a summer trip. It doesn’t stop me wanting out with my camera but the photos tend not to be underwater so I turn to my macro lens for amusement.

Its also a time for fun experiments like this one where I tried to take a photo of myself in water droplets…

If you want to see my non spring time underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery. Or my best from 2012 here.

See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Springtime’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling the set up that took these photos. Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!

I’m taking over @WeRPhotography on twitter for a week

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Weekly Photographer

As some of you may know I go by @scuba_suzy on twitter. I tweet mainly about photography and scuba related things with my 140 characters. This week from midnight tonight I’ll be taking over the curated account @WeRPhotography.

@scuba_suzy

So what is a curated account then? Well, essentially its an account that is run by different people. In the case of @WeRPhotography it features a different photographer /photography enthusiast each week to tweet about themselves, their work, their interests, basically anything they like. There are a few guidelines though. My fave of which is tweeting to ask Leonard Nimoy to take over for a week, yes Mr Spock is a photographer of naked ladies – who knew?! Here’s the introduction to the @WeRPhotography account project, brainchild of @JustJimWillDo which explains the whole thing in more detail. And the reason why I’m involved? Well as part of the process of taking over for a week Jim does a little interview with you and on week 6, Rebecca Jackrel recommended me as one of the people she’d like to see take part. So thanks Rebecca, thanks Jim, this looks like its going to be fun :)

PhotoFriday – ‘Machines’

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This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Machines’

There’s lots of machines in the ocean if you care to look, discounting the still functional boats and subs etc of course. Wrecks have a surprising amount of machines on them. This motorbike above from the Thistlegorm wreck in the Red Sea for example. It also have trains and trunks and all sorts on there!

On the Kittewake in Grand Cayman there are all sorts of machines on there…

I found it quite interesting to see this decompression chamber on there – I’ve never seen one before (luckily)!

There are also the machines on the boat that fill up our air tanks and make it possible for us to scuba dive.

If you want to see my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery. Or my best from 2012 here.

See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Machines’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling the set up that took these photos. Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!

PhotoFriday – ‘Mornings’

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This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Mornings’

I’ve got to admit, I’m not at my best first thing in the morning. For Landscape Photographers morning time is their bread & butter. Sunrise & dawn is often a time of most beautiful light. Sometimes if you are in an area near water a nice mist forms that has dispelled by the time most people are up and about (as in the photo above taken in Crystal River in Florida). And of course the obvious reason – the lack of people. Nature is allowed to wake up gracefully (apart from a photographer or two) before all the humans arrive with their boats and cars.

We got up very early in Crystal River to see how many manatees were hanging out in the springs (they sleep there over night for warmth in the winter). This blog post has reminded me that I still have many photos to go through from that trip so I can’t show you an early-morning-many-manatees-sleeping photo like I wanted too. Here’s a picture of a little baby one from later from about 8am though…

If you want to see my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery. Or my best from 2012 here.

See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Mornings’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling the set up that took these photos. The top image was taken using Nikon D300 and 18-200mm lens. The manatee image was taken with Nikon D300, Tokina 10-17 FE, Subal housing with Dome port. Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!

Wildlife Safari Lens

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Nikon 80-400mm VR

Wildlife Safari Lens! Today I want to feature photos taken with my 80-400mm VR Nikon Zoom lens. A list of lenses is stark and boring so I wanted to do a feature of photographs taken with some of the gear I’m selling. I’m not a commercial trader or anything like that so all the gear I have has personal reasons for buying it in the first place. In 2011 we went on an amazing trip to Namibia. I had nothing with enough reach in my lens collection at that time so I bought this one and didn’t regret it for a second. The VR is amazing, it has three settings, off (for use with a tripod), normal (for general walking about and hand holding) and active (for on the back of a moving safari truck)! Perfect for shots like these:

Hand Held walking about:

Cheetah Cub shot at 400mm on D300

Mamma shot at 400mm on D300:

Naughty Cheetah stole a camera bag shot at 220mm

Hand Held from the truck:

Backlit lion shot at 400mm on D300 (you can see the exif on pbase by clicking these images and then select “view exif” under the photo):

Mamma Lion shot at 400mm on D300:

Giraffes Kissing shot at 400mm on a D300:

Giraffe Harem shot at 200mm on D300:

Lion Play fight shot at 400mm on D300:

Zebra in the road shot at 240mm:

Elephant shot at 120mm

At the watering hole (on a tripod) shot at 46mm:

shot at 150mm:

Not going on an amazing Safari trip any time soon? No Problem there’s plenty of wildlife at home. When I first got the lens I went for a wander around a Dorset town and got this shot of cheeky gulls:

Just because I’ve personally only used this as a wildlife lens that doesn’t mean there is only one use for it. You could use it for Astronomy, Landscape, Wildlife, Portraits, Spying on your neighbours (joke) etc etc! The lens is in excellent condition for only £700 (basically new as I only used it for this one trip & a few test shots). There is not much call for such a zoomy lens in underwater photography. I hope you enjoyed my photos here. Either email me with your interest on: scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk Or head over to the full list of gear for sale.