Yellow Snapper School Ball Circle
Image of Yellow Snapper doing a counter circle schooling while I was about to do a safety stop in Phuket, Thailand.
Image of Yellow Snapper doing a counter circle schooling while I was about to do a safety stop in Phuket, Thailand.
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Oct, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken in Thailand when diving in Phuket. This is a country I love to dive and where the food and people are amazing.Time
This was probably taken in the afternoon around 2pm. You take a large boat to different sites and do about three dives during the day.Lighting
I did use flash (two strobes) which helps bring the true underwater because you loose red underwater.Equipment
I used a relatively inexpensive Canon Rebel T3i DSLR in a Nauticam Underwater housing and two Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobes. My setting was ISO160, 1/40, f10. Also had a GoPro attached on top of the dome.Inspiration
Frankly this was not a planned shot. I was running low on air and was Ascending to do my safety stop (where you ascend to about 20 feet and stay level for about 3 minutes before you surface) to allow the nitrogen to release from your blood stream. Suddenly we ran into this large school of yellow snappers that came towards me so I took the opportunity to film and shoot photos as quickly as I could in order to have enough air to do my safety stop.Editing
Honestly, this is one of my early photos and I used a simple free program (can’t remember the name) to do the post-processing. I still don’t know how to use photoshop but I do know how to use Adobe Lightroom. I do remember it did take a long time because I tried to remove as much little debris particles floating in the water as possible since a school can really stir things up.In my camera bag
Today I use a Nikon 850 with a Seacam housing and strobes. Wide angle lens for sharks, etc and macro lens for nudibranchs, small fish, etc. In addition, I carry a 360 camera (Insta360 One X and 360Fly) and appropriate housing, GoPro camera and of course my drones. I use DJI Mavics (various models) and Skydio 2.Feedback
Just have fun. It’s about the moment. You never know for sure what is going to be your best image so you make have to take several with several different settings if you have time. Macro is much easier than large animals generally underwater because they move slower than sharks or whales, etc. Be patient and when possible pre think the animals behavior patterns and anticipate the image you want. For instance, with snappers, I know they like to swim in somewhat of a pattern when they are curious. Maybe there is a nice reef and it swims above it a few times, be patient for the next pass and shoot. Of course, if you can preset your setting to the reef anticipating a flyover. When it happens, bingo.
