Thailand - Similan Islands

[fishguy]

really nice shots! what setting did you use to take the butterfly fish?

I also use G11 and love it for it's clarity with macro shots.

I didn't get much time to shoot any macro since I was diving with my wife. The settings for the butterfly shot was 1/100, F4.0, ISO 80 and WB set to underwater. I was shooting in full manual, for the first time, and it seemed to work out pretty well.

The reefs seemed very healthy then. What happened?

The coral bleaching event that happened last year killed a lot of SPS coral in a lot of the dive sites, some more than others. It was mostly the shallower water where is was happening, East of Eden for one, which has apparently now been closed. Most of the dive sites we visited were still in great shape.

 

[fairybasslet]

I saw my first whale shark and manta in Thailand. It was my first dive trip to the east. Sorry to hear about the bleaching.

 

[Quero]

Nice shots, fishguy! Thanks for sharing.

Pawara is a nice boat. I was on her not too long ago as a private guide with a diver. There are a number of boats in the same price range with similarly good crews, dive staff, comfort, etc., doing Similans trips. Pawara is among my top ten favorites!

 

[TightLines]

I also just wrapped up a liveaboard through the Similans but was on a different boat.

We were absolutely shocked at the amount of devastation done to the reefs. It has been described as bleaching but it is clear that happened many months ago as now many of the SPS (hard corals) are completely dead.

The soft corals are in fine shape and the marine life was still abundant but the damage was very surprising. One summer of excessively high water temperatures did some very troubling damage.

 

[AKA_Longlegs]

I've also shoot in manual but on manual WB for wide angle shots, mainly 1/60 f2.8. Some turn out really nice, especially if there is good light! For macro i use C1 setting, which is set to 1/500 f4 and i adjust the ISO according the the depth and light available.

The coral pic is from a recent Bali/Komodo trip and the Frog Fish from Similan.

 

[Quero]

Sweet froggie, LL!
I use different settings than that in my manual mode, since I find that those low f-stops produce a ton of "noise" underwater, but whatever works for whichever camera+shooter combo is what works! For me, with my G11 p/s camera, and shooting wide angle, I set it at f5.6 and then adjust the shutter so that I've got a -1.7 to -2.0 ev (to get blue backgrounds). For closeups, I set it at f8 and use strobes for light.

 

[ghnouer]

Sweet froggie, LL!
I use different settings than that in my manual mode, since I find that those low f-stops produce a ton of "noise" underwater, but whatever works for whichever camera+shooter combo is what works! For me, with my G11 p/s camera, and shooting wide angle, I set it at f5.6 and then adjust the shutter so that I've got a -1.7 to -2.0 ev (to get blue backgrounds). For closeups, I set it at f8 and use strobes for light.

I use highers f-stops too.....usually F8 for macro and F6,3-F8 for WA.

GHN