[Hobbies] Underwater Photography

[Voicy]

Hi friends,

Some of you may have seen a few of my underwater pics uploaded to the image of the day thread, but I have had people ask about certain ones in particular and I figured I'd rather start a dedicated thread for anyone who would like to share/learn/contribute to UW photography or diving in general.

Most, if not all, of the photos I'll be uploading are taken with my Canon PowerShot S110 + DC47 UW housing, built in flash + diffuser, shooting in RAW 12MP + JPEG. I manually adjust settings for each shot when I take it depending on the conditions. Some of my earlier footage was taken with my GoPro Hero 3 Black, before I got the Canon.

I opted for the Canon S110 for 2 reasons. 1) It was very cheap for the camera + housing & 2) It is extremely compact and I don't like babysitting equipment on a dive, like you find when people bring massive DSLR's with huge strobes down on a dive with them.

I'll be posting footage from various types of diving scenarios, locations and such - so please bare with me.

Please feel to ask/comment/criticize on any pic...

 

[Voicy]

Wreck diving various shipwrecks in the Northern Red Sea

Soft coral growing on the side of the hull

My dive buddy penetrating the wreck behind me. Not a very professional photo, but it captures the lack of light.

Somewhat dark, but a view of a ship's bow, with my dive buddy in the lower left corner for size reference

Toppled mast

100s of glass fish surrounding the structure

Staring out into the blue from an old window (underwater)

 

[Voicy]

Wreck diving continued...


An abandoned engine room entrance

Corroded cargo hold

Stern of a ship that is slowly being eaten away by the sea

Diver memorial found at +- 22m underwater, attached to the wreck of the Cornatic.

 

[Voicy]

Night diving (My new favourite thing!)


Preparing for our night dive...

The view from below

Spanish dancer

Sleeping boxy (switched my flash off and used my dive buddy to light from above)

2-bar anemone fish trying to sleep

 

[Voicy]

Night Diving continued...

Starfish chilling around

Lionfish on the hunt (they follow your light and use it to find fish)

Fan corals

Moray being grumpy for being woken up

Tiny white ghost crabs sitting on soft coral

Diver giving the "OK" on their way back up

 

[Voicy]

I will upload more albums tomorrow, but here's one of the video compilations I made of a local dive off Umkomaas near Durban in Feb. All footage was taken with the Hero 3 black.

 

[Cara]

These photo's are awesome Mr Voicy.

These are creepy though....

They just look scary....

 

[Ike_009]

These photo's are awesome Mr Voicy.

These are creepy though....



They just look scary....

I'll find my picture of a Japanese WWII soldier's skull then

 

[Cara]

I'll find my picture of a Japanese WWII soldier's skull then

Do iiiit!

 

[Ike_009]

This is the only remaining human remains on the Truk lagoon fleet. The remains off his fellow service men where cleaned up for a cremation service except for his skull.
It is believed he worked in the engine room and during the attack a bomb exploded inside the engine room. The force of the blast embedded his skull in the instrument panel and as such has not been possible to remove.

He remains on the Yamagiri, a reminder to divers of the men who died here and the sacrifices of so many over the war

 

[Draegan]

This is such in interesting thread! Those pictures look mesmerizing....

 

[Cara]

This is the only remaining human remains on the Truk lagoon fleet. The remains off his fellow service men where cleaned up for a cremation service except for his skull.
It is believed he worked in the engine room and during the attack a bomb exploded inside the engine room. The force of the blast embedded his skull in the instrument panel and as such has not been possible to remove.

He remains on the Yamagiri, a reminder to divers of the men who died here and the sacrifices of so many over the war
/snip

Wow that's also some creepy shit... :wtf:

 

[bokka1]

I only have one of those waterproof pouches that you put your camera into but it took alright photos.

The problem is that you can't see anything through the viewfinder.

One of my pics:

 

[TBlaar]

Dude, your photos look awesome... Underwater is definitely not easy to shoot, you need the correct equipment.

I took some photos with a cheapie underwater weggooi camera in Jamaica whilst diving, can't really see anything on any of the photos...

 

[Voicy]

Dude, your photos look awesome... Underwater is definitely not easy to shoot, you need the correct equipment.

I took some photos with a cheapie underwater weggooi camera in Jamaica whilst diving, can't really see anything on any of the photos...

Hehe yeah it definitely isn't easy, but incredibly fun and almost more rewarding when you DO get the right shot.

Unlike topside photography, you have to deal with the following:
- All the camera settings and lighting variances every few meters you go lower and lose more natural light.
- Navigating currents
- Maintaining neutral buoyancy
- NOT touching the coral (for its safety and yours)
- Fish NEVER stand still long enough to be photographed
- You seldom get a 2nd chance to take the shot
- Sediment in the water causing backscatter
- monitoring your air consumption
- Making sure you don't lose the dive group

So yeah, in the odd chance that you are on top of all those AND get the perfect shot - it becomes THAT much more special.

 

[Voicy]

Diving the SS Thistlegorm

This was one of those pinnacle dives which every diver would want to add to their bucket list. According to Wikipedia, the Thistlegorm sailed from England to refuel in Cape Town and then headed for the Suez Gulf, but stopped short of entering the Suez canal area due to the canal being blocked.

A German fighter spotted the Thistlegorm and shot it down. It was transporting military equipment including tanks, trains, motorcycles, trucks and ammunitions. All of which are still visible when diving the wreck. It was later discovered by Jacques Cousteau and is considered one of the top 10 wrecks to dive in the world.

 

[Voicy]

AA gun

Old Bedfort trucks & motorcycles

Fish making their homes in the abandoned motorcycles

Old locomotive still strapped down for transport

Cargo hold

 

[Voicy]

Live canon shells still wrapped for transport

Close up of the shells

Inscriptions etched into a canon shell indicating its date of origin and details (1929)

Caved in sections of the hull - very eerie to swim through

Army boots left behind

Heading back to the top holding onto the mooring line in a screaming current

 

[Ichigo]

Love all the pictures, what megapixels and zoom do you use?

 

[Voicy]

Love all the pictures, what megapixels and zoom do you use?

It shoots up to 12MP RAW+JPEG - which is what I keep it on.

As for the zoom, it has 5x optical zoom I think, but I prefer not using zoom at all.

[h=3]Canon Powershot S110 key features[/h]

• 12MP 1/1.7" Canon CMOS sensor
• 24-120mm equivalent F2.0-5.9 lens, 4-stop 'Intelligent IS'.
• DIGIC 5 processor
• ISO 80-12800
• Touch-sensitive 3" 460k dot PureColor II G screen
• Built-in WiFi
• RAW format recording
• Built-in 3-stop Neutral Density filter