Riding Rock - San Salvador Jun 09 trip report

[meonline007]

nice report and nice pictures too.
really hard work.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Thanks for the report. My wife and I are going there on July 25.
What was the water temp?
Their web site states that their tanks allow you to use about 4 pounds less weight. I have never experienced that before. Did you find that to be true?
Contrary to some other reports about the Bahamas, you reported alot of fish life. That's great.

Water was 84 F before the wind and rain, 82F/84F after that..I would guess the rain was cooler.

Higher pressure AL tanks take around 4 lbs less weight...I dive HP steel tanks (which are 5 lbs different).. was very similar, so yes that is real.

Fish life was amazing...as some of the photo's show...

 

[divesergeant]

Puffer Fish,

Thanks! We've been considering Sal Salvador for a while and it's good to read about it. The air issue is a problem, as I suck air pretty fast. I suppose another dive operator might have better tanks.


Nice shot of the anemone with the squat anemone shrimp.

DS

 

[saltybubbles]

thank you for all this. the pictures are great. We are considering a trip there at some point and this, i believe, helped make up our mind.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Puffer Fish,

Thanks! We've been considering Sal Salvador for a while and it's good to read about it. The air issue is a problem, as I suck air pretty fast. I suppose another dive operator might have better tanks.


Nice shot of the anemone with the squat anemone shrimp.

DS

Not sure what Club Med has for tanks, but if they do have larger tanks, will bet Riding Rock can borrow them (they seemed to be getting along reasonably right now).

That anemone came in three versions:

1. The white tipped I posted.

2. A purple tipped:

3. A Green tipped (lived in the grass):

The other common species of anemone there has peterson shrimp on them:

 

[mbs]

Been a couple of years, but Club Med did al80's. They are the only 2 dive ops on the island.

 

[divesergeant]

Puffer Fish,

What are you using for camera gear?
DS

 

[Puffer Fish]

Puffer Fish,

What are you using for camera gear?
DS

Canon G10.. with two YS110 strobes.. using a canon housing, a custon made fiber optic attachment (block of black plastic attached over the stobe, with a hole in it to match the fiber optic cable..the less outside light the fiber gets the better).

All strobe shots were done in auto ttl setting...but used lots of different camera setup..from simple program to both aperture and shutter priority. All are hugely downsized to post.

Only shoot ISO 80 (unless not using strobes) and raw.

Most macro shots are done with the stobes way to the side, level with the camera and pointed to a spot about 8 inches behind where the object is (I dive in a lot of low vis water, so reducing backscatter is a major issue). I use zoom to frame objects.

Only adjustments to images I usually have to make is sharpening and because I use auto white balance, an increase in the blue channel (seem the stobe light is less blue than it expects from it's own flash).. not tested it exactly but there looks to be about 500k difference in the light temperature between the camera strobe and the 110's.

I could make a custom white balance, but I use that for when I do video (but do have two I can use).

 

[deeper thoughts]

Great pix and report

 

[divesergeant]

Sounds like a nice set-up. You have almost three times the megapixels that I have, twice the strobes and even more cool stuff to outfit the camera with! I gotta go shopping...

We're still using an old (by digital technology standards!) Olympus C5060 and love it. Hopefully it'll keep soldiering on for quite a while since I'm starting to get it figured out. Still, the alure of newer higher resolution cameras is tempting...

DS