Travelling is actually a tricker theme than you might think. For those of us that are lucky enough to travel, a lot the photos that we tend to take are of the destination or subjects at the destination, not the travelling itself. For me that’s usually beneath the sea. However on our last trip (to Raja Ampat) I tried something different. I love panorama photos but when you are on a boat there is very little point bringing a tripod and trying for serious panoramas. I did however enjoy creating these from my iphone. I tried to include the boat in them which for me makes them suitable for this theme. Click them to see them larger in pbase.

You can see more non-underwater travel photo galleries here.

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 ‘Travelling’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling my 60mm/D300 underwater macro set-up. 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!

For this weeks theme I was in half a mind to use a photo of a busy reef scene, however when I looked up on wikipedia, the definition of a metropolis is most certainly only cites for people…. boo! Not to be disheartened, I get to show you three photos from metropolis around the world that I have loved. Firstly, above, Singapore, photographed at night from Marina Bay. Next up is New York and last but certainly not least is my fair city, London.

You can see more non-underwater travel photo galleries here.

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 ‘Metropolis’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling my 60mm/D300 underwater macro set-up. 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!

As a compliment to the theme a few weeks ago of Natural Light, this weeks photofriday theme is Artificial light. Most of the images you will see have some form of artificial light source if only to bring back the colours of the undersea realm. The colours start to drop off from about 6m down, starting with the colour red as the first to go until all you are left with is blue (in warm water anyway). To bring back the amazing colours you need to bring your flashguns in with you. The photo of the tiny cowrie above is 100% artificial light. Also, below, top down abstract on this Christmas Tree Worm & Jawfish with eggs.

With those above I was using flat lighting with the strobes either side of my camera lens and both at the same power. The light on the jawfish is the same lighting position but the power in the right hand light is stronger causing a slight shadow to add a subtle depth to the image.

With this image of the tops of tube sponges I was trying to get the hang of something called edge lighting. This is where you put the strobes facing backwards, so the very edge of the light from the strobe leaks out over the surface of the subject leaving the background in darkness. This is why you dont see the whole sponge and seabed here, if I had been entirely successful you may only have seen the circles of the tops of the sponges in this image…

But the images I find the most evocative of the underwater world are when artificial and natural light combine to bring back the colours in the foreground but successfully balance the background with the wonderful blue of the sea. Here are a few I liked from my trip to Raja Ampat, this first one uses three light sources, the artificial light to bring back the colours of the foreground, the natural light of the blue water and the divers torch shining into the lens.

You can see more Raja Ampat photos here.

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 ‘Artificial Light’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling my 60mm/D300 underwater macro set-up. 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’ve very recently did two large posts on underwater macro photography (see here for with a 60mm – the set-up still for sale and here for 105mm). I love to take photographs of little things – this weeks photofriday theme, so I thought I’d focus (no pun intended ) on newer photos. The photo above is of a tiny pygmy squid I saw on my recent trip to Raja Ampat. Another little creature is the now famous pygmy seahorse. If you are thinking of photographing these adorable little creatures be sure to check out the Pygmy Pledge – the code of conduct for photoing these little guys. They get stressed by the light of the flashguns incredibly easily and can die as a result so to limiting your shots (to four or five) means you spend a long time waiting at depth for them to turn their little heads towards you. It doesn’t aways result in you getting the shot as these photos show but you get to spend quality time observing them safe in the knowledge you arn’t harming or upsetting them.

There are a couple of different types, above is a photo of a bargibanti pygmy seahorse (the knobbly-looking chubby ones) and below a photo of a Denise pygmy seahorse (the slightly less knobbly and skinner ones). There are also other types but I didnt see those on that trip.

They are masters of camouflage – can you spot the one in the photo below? Sometimes on the dive its hard to see them even when they are pointed out to you.

You can see more Raja Ampat photos here.

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 ‘Little things’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling my 60mm/D300 underwater macro set-up. 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!

Quite often I go underwater and turn off my strobes and just shoot with the natural light. The most spectacular and dramatic lighting comes in from shafts of sun shining in at the tops of caves or through the beams of jettys. The photo above was taken in a Mexican Cenote (a giant cavern filled with fresh water). So next time you find yourself in a dark place, try turning off the lights and see what natural light there is.

The best place to take natural light subjects underwater in the open ocean is as you can imagine right at the surface. The warm mexican sun makes the surface reflect this whaleshark and makes the tiny eggs (the food the whalesharks are there to gather) glint and sparkle in the sunshine

You can see more whaleshark and cenote photos here.

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 ‘Natural Light’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling the camera 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!

Mike and I had fun over at Hadleigh Castle this weekend test flying the DJI Phantom Quadcopter. Here is a little video I put together of footage from the air, a few shots Mike took while I was flying and a few Aerial shots from the GoPro Hero 3 I attached to the ‘copter (It was on 1080p 30fps + stills every 0.5 sec for anyone interested in that sort of detail but it’s been downgraded to 720p for vimeo).

You can watch in larger on vimeo here.

The manatees hang out in the hot springs at Crystal River in Flordia (they sleep there over night for warmth in the winter). Its a wonderfully tranquil place when the tourist are behaving themselves and obeying the rules set down to protect the manatees. Rule number one, do not disturb a sleeping manatee. If they want to come over to you for a scratch then they will but they sleep in the springs for protection and we should respect that. It is fascinating to watch them rest though. They pivot on their fin up to the surface to breathe without waking.

You can see more manatee photos here.

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 ‘At Rest’ 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!

Before the Easter break is officially over I thought I’d wish you all a Happy Easter

In the warm tropic seas around the world you can often see far into the distance because the visibility of the water is so good. This allows us to photograph impressively large shipwrecks. However due to the properties of light underwater the loss of colour is more apparent the further away the subject. For example in this Kittiwake shot below I’m very close to the front of this ship maybe 1m even though it doesn’t look it. As you get further into the photo the back of the ship looks quite blue.

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 ‘Distance’ here.

PS: I’m currently selling all 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!

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.