11-10 Monterey pics

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Larry C

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Scuba Instructor
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Here are a few from todays first dive on Shale Island. I can't seem to take decent shrimp pics. These little guys are about an inch tall. F5.6@1/60 and 1/80 no zoom, no add on lens. If anyone can make suggestions on how to get a more crisp picture, I'm listening.

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Looks like a great dive!

Shrimp are tough. Seems they are almost always just almost totally crisp. Their patterns and their spindly bodies/legs/antennae make it tough for the camera to catch perfect focus. And they are ugly, really :wink:

Bump your aperture to the smallest possible and this will help, too.

Keep shooting :D
 
I find the focus is the difficulty.
I try focusing on something easier near by that seems to have the same focal distance, locking the focus and moving back to the shrimp. This usually take some change in positioning.
 
Nice collection of shots Larry.

Perhaps your shutter speed is a bit on the slow side at 1/60 and 1/80? If your hand is moving it may blur the photo at those speeds?
 
Nice pic of the yellow nudi with good focus. As for focusing on trasparent things like shrimp, I try and focus on the bottom directly under the shrimp to avoid having the camera automatically focus on the background instead. Gilligan's suggestion of using faster shutterspeeds is good, that has helped me a lot with my shots.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll try setting one of my my modes for a high shutter speed and small aperture with the SMacro on. I might try manual focus and just settle on a distance. With that sort of set-up, should I just aim the strobe right at it, or still keep it in the background to avoid blow-outs? Generally, at that distance, backscatter isn't much of a problem.
 
Nice shots Larry. IMHO for a strobe-lit subject shutter speed is irrelevant unless the subject is moving which isn't the case with the shrimp. Sharpness in this case is completely a function of aperture (smaller the better), depth of field, and point of focus. Use the smallest aperture you have, get your strobe(s) close to the subject and use their highest power setting (bracket, of course). Try to get your point of focus on their eyeballs. PS where is Shale Island?
 
Thanks, Ken. Shale Island is a raised section of shale off Del Monte beach, about 100 yards on line between the red buoy and the condos on shore. The general depth is about 60-65 feet in the area, so when we see a shelf on the bottom and get about
54-55 feet on the fish finder, we throw out the anchor. More info and a video circling the "island" can be found on the BAUE website (Bay Area Underwater Explorers). These guys are techies who have done some great stuff, mapping sites in the Monterey area and discovered a previously unknown sunken barge in about 200 ft. off Monterey. Here's a link.
http://www.baue.org/projects/shale/
The shale shelf shelters tons of organisms and gives Rockfish, Lingcod and a variety of Perch a nice place to graze. There are also an assortment of huge anchors and their associated chains nearby, as well as an old single cylinder steam engine. The shelf is lined with Cup Coral and Strawberry Anemonies, and a variety of bivalves, Anemones of different sorts, Mollusks and Crustaceans call it home. There is never a shortage of slugs and during the kelp season, you'll find rafts of Sea Otters topside and get visits from Harbor Seals while you're down. Vis is typical Monterey, from "can't see your nose with an 18 watt can light green" to 100 feet on a great day.
 
That sounds like a cool dive site Larry :)

I like the orange nudi...what sort is it?


Mel.b
 
Anisodoris Nobilis, I believe.

Peltodoris Nobilis is the current name, after further research. Commonly called Sea Lemons, there are a variety of color and detail differences. These guys, with the dark spots are (according to the Sea Slug Forum) the only Sea Lemons that actually give off a distinct citrus scent.
 

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