Snapper fishball

[Mike Poole]

154237


Thought I'd test the waters, so to speak, with something completely different - what is known over here as a 'marmite' shot in that you either love it or hate it.

I was on a dive at a Manta Ray cleaning station called Fushivaru Thila. A 'Thila' is like a small underwater island within a channel, and at this particular site the Manta Rays like to line up, then one at a time they come in to get cleaned by the tiny cleaner wrasse. In doing so, they allow a close approach and nice photographs. However, keeping with the theme of this particular trip, the current was running the wrong way to bring them in which meant I had my fisheye lens on and only small skittish fish to shoot.

So I decided to try slowly swimming towards shoals of snapper, and if you get it right, they will part, let you through, then reform behind you. This is what I tried to achieve here. To give you some idea of the scale, the lens shoots at a 180 degree angle (diagonally) and the closest fish to me were just a couple of centimetres away.

Canon 7d in a Subal housing
Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens at 10mm
ISO 100
1/100th, f5
2 x Inon Z240 strobes

Mike

[Karen Pleasant]

Having dove for several years, I love underwater images! The exposure is very well done and the color balance seems fine. Very good DOF. What depth were you at? The lighting is so even, I'm assuming no flash, right? To my eyes, the composition is very nice! Thank you so much for sharing!

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Awesome image with great head-on angle on the school of fish. Well exposed and composed Mike. TFS.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Mike you know i always enjoy YOUR UW images ..... well easy because you are the exclusive UW photog of BPN :bg3:.
I love this one a lot , well composed and technically well executed . Love the mass of fish and i fully understand your hope and thinking of the outcome .
I think the image does look basically well processed ..... but there is always room for more if you like , but fully understand if you say i am fine with my version.

So here is my quickly done view , not perfect though , but you get the idea . just take it into PS and watch side by side .

TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Mike - I don't like marmite but I like this image! Very well captured and it does give the feeling of being almost surrounded by the snappers. I'm fine with the op because I know you are trying to keep it as you saw it but Andreas' rp does give it a bit more punch.

TFS,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Hi Mike -- This is beautifully done ! nice composition and colors , liked both the versions , hope to see some more from under water world . TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Love it Mike, even though I have no clue about underwater photography:)

I like the distribution of the fish, the angle, the POV. The colours also!

Well captured, and I hope you'll forgive me for this, very unlike me but here is one very extreme version of your image and I know it is over the top but this is how I see the world under with my mind's eye:)

I really enjoyed this, something fresh and new and what a wonderful surprise, so thank you my friend:cheers:, do keep them coming!

Warmest regards,

[Nancy Bell]

Definitely no to the marmite stuff!! But this is a fabulous image! Love the mass of fish you got with the wide angle lens and how they spread out evenly at an angle from the center point. Outstanding framing with the solid blue at top with no cut-off fish and same at the bottom with no cut-off fish. Colors maybe between your image and the one from Andreas.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love this one Mike!
I think you need to be prepared to tweak them a bit more - as I love the reposts, with Gabriela's taking the cake for me :5

[Mike Poole]

Another big thanks for all the comments and suggestions, as well as the RPs!

I think Morkel has summed it up perfectly, I really should push the sliders a bit more. I'll remember that.

Karen - a bit late to mention it, sorry been busy at work, but the strobes were used, each one about 45 degrees above the lens and pulled back behind the plane so they didn't appear in the shot

regards

Mike

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello again Mike,

Every time I saw this image I thought "PRINT, PRINT, PRINT"!!!

I really think you should print it big...

Kind regards,