Morrison Springs dive report and pics 7/28/09

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SeaYoda

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Location
Florida Panhandle
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High tides at the jetties are very early this week so I checked the river level for Morrison and, even with the recent rains, the level was under 6'. I needed to experiment some more with the camera for the cavern project so I decided to give the old water hole a try. I convinced Mrs. Yoda to go along as a bubble watcher and bribed her with a fancy dinner at Sally's :D. There were no clouds in the sky at the house this afternoon and I checked the radar, storms seemed to have passed through near Morrison and were headed northeast. We loaded the car and headed out on our way. The closer we got to Ponce DeLeon the darker the sky got. Just before the exit on I-10 it began to rain. In typical Florida fashion, we turned south on 81 and it stopped raining. When we got to the spring, there were a few swimmers / tree climbing, rope swingers and just a couple divers. The water was bluish with a green hue. I could tell from the surface that conditions were not pristine. I geared up and entered the water with overcast skies and when I checked the viz it was OK but not spectacular. I really needed a sunny day with clear water to do the camera tests that I wanted to do so I figured I would just play with some settings today. I stayed in OW for the whole dive (I needed to surface a couple times for the camera play that I was doing). I saw two divers going in and out of the lower cavern while I was swimming around. There is a lot more "grass" in the shallows than I have ever seen at Morrison - along with lots of baby fish. During the dive I noticed a haze layer coming from the edges of the basin and slowly filtering across the shallows. The run-off from today's rains was filtering into the spring already. I got to see several small bass, sunfish, and two baby snapping turtles on the dive today. The experimental pictures today were done to see what I could do with an aperture of 10, slow shutter of 1/25 Seconds, and manual focus to try and estimate where focus is with the dome port. With the dark conditions, I also tried ISO 400 to see how noisy that gets. The results are grainy due to the ISO, a little blurry due to motion blur, and slightly out of focus due to the manual focus trial. Still not too terrible considering everything ...

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Great pics, I have a feeling the waterlevels are about to spike back up. We just got a heavy line of showers come through, that are heading east.

Thanks for the report!

For the project, I'd say go with ISO100 and definately use a tripod, so the longer shutterspeed the better. Longer shutter speeds will allow for more painting and more strobe flashes.
 
So Yoda, let's set a date to get in the cavern with some lights and strobes and see what happens. Actually, the best time to try things might be while the river levels are up...it will keep the cavern from getting full with divers.
 
...For the project, I'd say go with ISO100 and definately use a tripod, so the longer shutterspeed the better. Longer shutter speeds will allow for more painting and more strobe flashes.

On the E-330, the best aperture is f11 for sharpness, best iso 100, and I'll set the shutter at 60 seconds (longest before "bulb" on the camera). Noise reduction will be on and I'll have the tripod rigged by the time we get to do the project. I still need to find the right manual focus point for the dome port. The virtual image is the problem. There are formulas to calculate the right setting but the math is over my head. There is no calculator on-line for dome ports underwater - just for land shots in air. I may have to settle for using autofocus in OW and taking a picture that has the needed depth of field and then switch to manual focus to lock in the focal length. If I can get a sunny, clear water day at Morrrison I can test different focal lengths (set in air) to see if I can find close to hyperfocal with the dome underwater. I'm not near happy with my tests so far because I have not had the conditions I need to do them right. I want a nice crisp picture, not the junk I've taken on my test shots so far.
 
So Yoda, let's set a date to get in the cavern with some lights and strobes and see what happens. Actually, the best time to try things might be while the river levels are up...it will keep the cavern from getting full with divers.

With OW being so dirty we could try to light the cavern enough to take a shot in autofocus and then switch to manual to lock that in. The worst part is trying to light a big enough patch that the camera can focus on at the 14 mm end of the zoom. The E-330 can be kind'a cranky about focusing in non-ideal conditions but I'm willing to give it a try.

I might have tomorrow morning open and then possibly Monday or Tuesday next week. Anything sound good to you?
 
It figures you could go the week that is out for me. I fly out for a trade show Thursday, and I don't fly back till Monday. So, we will have to shoot for something after that.

With OW being so dirty we could try to light the cavern enough to take a shot in autofocus and then switch to manual to lock that in. The worst part is trying to light a big enough patch that the camera can focus on at the 14 mm end of the zoom. The E-330 can be kind'a cranky about focusing in non-ideal conditions but I'm willing to give it a try.

I might have tomorrow morning open and then possibly Monday or Tuesday next week. Anything sound good to you?
 
Bill - Using spotfocus or centerweight? Seems like the camera would pick up if you used center spot focus and just shined a bright light directly at the camera from the opposite side fo the cavern, plenty of contrast for the focus motor to detect.
 
Great pics Yoda!!!
 
With OW being so dirty we could try to light the cavern enough to take a shot in autofocus and then switch to manual to lock that in. The worst part is trying to light a big enough patch that the camera can focus on at the 14 mm end of the zoom. The E-330 can be kind'a cranky about focusing in non-ideal conditions but I'm willing to give it a try.

I might have tomorrow morning open and then possibly Monday or Tuesday next week. Anything sound good to you?
Let me know when. I can bring my cave light.
 
It figures you could go the week that is out for me. I fly out for a trade show Thursday, and I don't fly back till Monday. So, we will have to shoot for something after that.

My schedule is kind'a in limbo again - my counterpart on the nights I'm not working is moving to Spain. Probably Mondays and Tuesdays will still be my dive days but I won't know for sure until the next scedule is posted.
 

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