Night Photography without a Photo buddy

[Wolverine]

I had a fistfight with one just last week. Was trying to take a picture of it. Manage to get one off then it charged! I boxed it and beat a hasty retreat. You can see the fish in my gallery. Big ugly mean brute.

 

[Dee]

Dee, ever since a friend of mine told me a story about how a barracuda got curious and decided to charge my friend's flashlight, I have been very paranoid about attaching any kind of light to my body,let alone my head. :11:
Of course now with my new camera gear, I think I would rather have a barracuda taking interest in my head than my camera

You're full of cheery news! I've never had a problem with barracudas but as they say it would only take once, wouldn't it?!? To be honest, I've never thought about them at night. I did learn the hard way not to bait them in closer with your light during the day! :11:

My favorite place for a spotting/focusing light is to attach a small light to the strobe with a velcro strap or even zip-ties. I don't need to do that now that I have the D-180.

 

[ssra30]

When I nightdive, I generally am not thinking of anything except what I can see with my light. Too scare to worry about anything else out there in the dark

Any kind of light attached to the strobe is my favourite way also.
I agree Titan triggerfish is the worse by far and I defnitely don't want to see one at night, don't even want to see one up close during the day.

 

[Wolverine]

Have decided to get a UK light that can be mounted on the tray arms. Large and powerful to complement the D-180 focus light. The problem with the focus light is that the angle is too small and it is damn difficult in a night dive to aim the small point of light at the target. With the D180 on the left and the UK Light Cannon on the right of the housing, it should eliminate at problems (I hope!).

 

[ssra30]

Don't forget to use the diffuser the UK Light Cannon comes with. Otherwise you can get significant hotspot. I used to mount the Light Cannon on one arm and my Ikelite strobe on the other arm but gave up the idea quickly because the Light cannon is very heavy with 8C size batteries and very little air inside so my arms got tired very quickly.
For night dive, you will most likely be shooting macro anyway so you don't really need a big powerful flashlight like the Light Canon.

 

[Wolverine]

Yah, it does weigh quite a bit doesn't it. But I was due to upgrade my 10yr old UK anyway. That uses 8 D size batteries! I guess if I was diving without a photo buddie, I would mount the light. Otherwise, I would just snap it to my BC as a light source. Arms will get tired but better than fumbling around trying to point the light and shoot the camera at the same time.