Ashley_Missen
Followlight rays and a weedy sea dragon
light rays and a weedy sea dragon
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Awards
Action Award
Contest Finalist in Game Of Flares Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Water Animals Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 37
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superb Composition
All Star
Superior Skill
Outstanding Creativity
Virtuoso
Genius
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Ashley_Missen
September 03, 2018
Thank you, this shot was taken at Flinders Pier, where I do most of my Sea Dragon shots as it a natural haven for them and you normal can see up 40 of them on a dive, have some photos with 6 or 7 dragons in them
Ashley_Missen
October 18, 2018
thank you, yes they are a rare creature and one of my favourite to photograph
vickiehwright
January 31, 2019
Unique & Amazing photo, I can't imagine coming into that photo, I would have been shocked seeing it! TU so much!!
Ashley_Missen
February 01, 2019
Thank you, they are amazing creatures to see, they actually aren't that big, this is just shot in close focus wide angle as the dragon is only about 2cm away from the camera
pascalmartin
February 15, 2019
It's really one of the betters pictures of this contest : the one I like a lot ! congrat
Ashley_Missen
October 03, 2019
Thank you, a personal favourite to dive and photograph these amazing creatures
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken under the Pier at Flinders in Victoria, Australia. it is a dive site well known to locals as a haven for these beautiful creatures, which are quite rare to find in nature.Time
so I normally try to get to this dive site early in the morning to get in before anyone else does, and because the morning light is better to work with at this site as it no a deep dive site. I do remember dive I did for this shot because I was expecting not the best conditions as it was the start of spring and the water is really cold and the wind normally make the sites visibility almost zero, but when I got in for this dive the water was clear like I was in the tropics or something. so with the early light and the clear water conditions i was able to get some amazing shots.Lighting
underwater light in one of the trickiest things to work with, because you want lots of natural light yet you lose colours so quick, from depth and distance of subject from you and the camera. in this shot I set the cameras setting for the background to give it the nice blueish tones with the sun rays and turn up my twin guide 32 external strobes (pointed inwards and downwards) to light up the Sea Dragon and the foreground to stop it just being a silhouette and dark. the trick is to watch the angle of the strobe carefully otherwise you end up with a lot of scatter in your shot which will ruin it.Equipment
So for this dive site I go with a setup I us for Close Focus Wide Angle photography because the Sea Dragons aren't very big and they have great colours so you want to be very close and fill the frame with them. I shoot with an Olympus OMD EM-1 (Fast focusing at close range and find the contrast focus is really good underwater) Olympus 12mm F2.0 M4/3 Lens with a uv filter on it in a Nauticam housing with the 4.33'" dome port, twin Sea&Sea YS250Pro Strobes (Guide 32) connected via fibre optic cables to the flash ports (this stops forward firing flash light from the camera and lets you external strobes to angle the light how you want and need to stop backscatterInspiration
Sea Dragons are a rare a beautiful underwater creature, I am always trying to capture them in interesting ways. I keep work on how get the sun rays and dramatic backgrounds with the dragons and keeping the beautiful colours of the dragons in tact. I am working on a collection of dragon shotsEditing
I do a little post-processing in Adobe photoshop, this is on ly to remove any odd bits of scatter and to bring back a little bit of the colour the water take out of the shot, usual I get it right in the camera and only have to clean up a little bit of scatter (white dots from particles in the water reflecting the flash)In my camera bag
I have 2 bags as such. An Underwater one and a Land one, and because my underwater kit has only got 2 configurations (wide angle or macro) my dive bag only has the camera (Olympus OM-D E-M1) a wide angle lens Olympus M4/3 12mm F2.0 and a Macro Olympus M4/3 60mm F2.8 and the ports for them. the 2 Sea&Sea YS250Pro strobes and fibre optic cables a focus light 2500 lumins wide beam Fix Neo the Land Bag has the same camera and those 2 lenses plus a few others for different needs but mostly Prime lenses up to 75mm then so zoom lenses 150mm upwardsFeedback
first get good diving skills including buoyancy because if you don't that righ you can kick up a lot of scatter. take your time and learn the site and the creatures, dive the site a few time without a camera and take it slow and look at where the creatures are and how they react to you, most spook very easily, so you have to let them get used to you being there. move slowly around them, let them come to you a bit. when taking shots of the animals try not to get too enthusiastic and shoot heaps of shoots with flashes firing off everywhere, as you just spook the creature and you will only get a few shots. take your time whit the shots and the creature with slow get used to you taking the photos and start to relax are you and show you their normal behavior. and as usual with underwater photography, get close to the subject, and then get closer again. fill the frame, because the less water you are shooting through the better. Use external strobes because natural lighting doesn't exist underwater and white balancing can be unreliable and produce bad result due to the colour shift calculation the camera is doing and that you have to do it as you can depth and distance from object. Take it slow and have your shots thought out before you start the dive