sponge face

[daniel valovich]

Hello to all.
Photo taken on a Grand Cayman north shore divesite in 120 ft of water. I was told this was a natural live sponge.
You have to get close U/W because the water sucks up light. There is no color at that depth. The wall at this site started at 80 ft and dropped to twenty thousand ft. Wall diving is supercharged and you always come up grinning.




sea ansd sea motormarine 2
18mm lense
dual ys50 strobes
kodak E-100 ecktochrome film
f 5.6
1/60s
distance 2 ft

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Daniel Not familiar with that wall dive, most of the stuff I've seen started much shallower and always tried making it to Little Cayman !!

Cool looking sponge, amazing if its natural !!! Tough lighting with the red cup sponge behind, they seem to soak up the most light !! You are controlling the back scatter big time well !!! Might want to post to 800 to have a better view Love these images !!!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I don't think I can appreciate how difficult getting a shot like this is, and don't know much about under the sea life, but think this is well done.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

All I can say since I've never dived is big congrats in getting this image. :eek:

[Dave Mills]

Hi Daniel, Haven't any experience shooting underwater but am aware of some of the difficulties. Compositionally I might have zeroed in more on the face than the surrounding corral(?). Interesting image!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

daniel,

Cool, dual lights nice setup. I know nothing about photography under water but find it fascinating - please post more and talk about your setup. For example, do you set flash manually by distance.

[daniel valovich]

The camera and strobes are TTL. I use an U/W exposure table to determine the distance needed for the strobes. example- iso 100 @f3.5 =4.3 - 22 ft where as iso 100 @ f-11=1-3.6ft. most of the time I will handhold one strobe while keeping the master strobe mounted on the camera tray. with macro it is always f-22 1/60s with a distance of 4 inches from the framer. the camera I use is unique because I take an 18mm lense and a 1:2 macro lens and framer along with the built in 35mm and a close up lens on a mount to my strobe arm. I can mount the 18 or macro to the camera U/W because water is part of the optics. so when mr. big swims by I have the 18 and when visibility gets bad i do macro. no need to miss out on anything.
What's great about scuba is you don't have to get on your belly to get a shot. I I just rotate 180 degrees from vertical and shoot away without stirring up the bottom and tearing up coral.