Send in the clowns

[Bruce Enns]

More clownfish! This is a Spine-cheeked Anemonefish, also known as a Maroon Clown. Shot on a reef near Wakatobi dive resort in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Canon Rebel XT in an Ikelite housing, DS125 and DS50 strobes in E-TTL mode, 60mm EF-S, ISO 100, 1/200s, f/16

C & C greatly appreciated...thanks for looking!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Absolutely top-notch underwater work there Bruce. Wonderful colors, endearing subject and great habitat! Well done mate. :)

[Jay Gould]

Hey Dive Buddy, great head angle and love the catch light :D .

Good color!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bruce

Sweet pose and bg !!! I like how he is coming out of the anemone and looking at you !!! I think the image is looking flat and can be improved in PS I posted one with a fish looking somewhat similar and David Thomasson did a number on it .. here is a link http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=39123

Will re work when I get home unless someone jumps in I think you can do a curves adjustment and probably do some tweaks in selective color !!! Excellent image !!!!

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely work, lovely habitat, lovely fish, lovely repost. Love the way the fish is framed by the anemones.

Can you give me an idea of the cost of the Ikelite housing and the two flashes? Would a 50D fit in the same housing?

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks very much everyone for your kind comments and critique! Here I have taken Alfred and Peter's advice to try and add a bit of punch to the original post. Peter, I appreciate your repost but feel that the orange is a bit overdone...I won't know until I repost if or how much my repost will differ from the original because the oranges change significantly when converting from the ProPhoto to sRGB colour spaces, even with absolute colorimetric conversion. They really are this kind of burnt orange colour and not the bright orange of the familiar 'Nemo' clownfish.

Thank-you Artie, the current cost of an Ikelite housing that would fit both the 40 and 50D with two DS160 flashes including the arms and manual flash controllers runs about $3700US at B&H as of today. They don't make the DS125 or DS50 flashes anymore. You could replace one of the above flashes with a DS51 for a saving of about $500, but that would limit your ability to shoot wide angle (the DS160 gives both wider and more powerful coverage).

Thinking about taking up diving? (I did have a complete setup for the 40D (adaptable to the 50D for $200US) for sale in the Buy and Sell forum about a month ago) ;-)

Cheers!
Bruce

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Artie

Hope you go UW Artie .... will be the next Cousteau :) Good advice from Bruce on the prices. The housing itself is about $1300 plus you will need ports. I like the coverage of the flashes and neat WA capability .. maybe Ebay

Might also want to look at Aquatica Housing !!

Repost looks great Bruce .... .and hope everyone gets to look at the shrimp in macro .... Awesome !!!!!!
here is a link http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40049

[Bruce Enns]

Doh! Yeah, the camera might get a bit wet without the ports! Add another $5-600 for the better modular port system or less...this would of course depend on the lenses you plan to use.

Aquatica would be great...there are definitely fancier setups out there, but plan on spending a lot more money!!
B&H has an underwater photography section and more advice and lots of other uw stuff can be found at wetpixel.com

Thanks Alfred, the repost image was tweaked only with a curves adjustment, dropped the darks, raised the brights, and moved the mids to the left to brighten a bit.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the info Bruce and for the encouragement Alfred, but with the high costs, with the hasses of travel, and knowing that there are David Doubilets, Norbert Wus, and Bruce Ennss out there, I am gonna stick to birds for now! One plus: the gear is lighter when it is in the water!

[Bruce Enns]

YAW, as you would say Artie. And thanks very much for the extremely flattering, but I'm afraid undeserved mention in the same sentence with the likes of David Doubilet and Norbert Wu. You are too kind sir!

Just think of all the new subjects you would find!! ;-)

Cheers!
Bruce

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. There are lots of bird that I have not yet photographed...

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Artie underwater? Look out Doubilet! ;)

[Arthur Morris]

Artie underwater with SCUBA gear? Say hello to the to the morgue wagon!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Come on Maestro. Don't think so, that ain't even funny! I have seen some people dive, believe you me! I am sure you'd go hard and do extremely well!