Brown Comber
(Serranellus hepatus), one small, very curious fish which really wanted to inspect the camera lens!
Some more hopefully interesting info...
...
Read more
(Serranellus hepatus), one small, very curious fish which really wanted to inspect the camera lens!
Some more hopefully interesting info...
This portrait was made in the Adriatic, beneath the Ugljan Island, and in an early afternoon. My diving buddy and me have just had lunch, and it was kinda boring to just sit there... so we went diving, right under the house. The depths were negligible, mainly between 2 and occasionally 5 meters. So we stayed nearly two hours underwater, moving ever so slowly because we have put the Macro extension tubes to the (NIKONOS III) cameras, intending to collect only photos of tiny themes.
The NIKONOS macro tube has an "U" macro frame made of steel wire fixed at the right focusing distance and when one centers an object within the "U", it also shows what will be photographed. This seems simple enough, except that it takes some patience to enframe anything that can move.
This comber did actually put his head into the wire frame for a second, and I was lucky enough to trigger the shot. But when the strobe fired, he was gone with that incredible fish speed that is always almost uncanny. Still, the photo remained (on Fujichrome Sensia, 100ASA), and it really made my day.
And more than that. This photo won the 1st place in "Golfo Di Trieste" international competition in Underwater Macro Photography. Well, it was some 30 years ago, but anyway, now you know the whole story! :)
Read less
Some more hopefully interesting info...
This portrait was made in the Adriatic, beneath the Ugljan Island, and in an early afternoon. My diving buddy and me have just had lunch, and it was kinda boring to just sit there... so we went diving, right under the house. The depths were negligible, mainly between 2 and occasionally 5 meters. So we stayed nearly two hours underwater, moving ever so slowly because we have put the Macro extension tubes to the (NIKONOS III) cameras, intending to collect only photos of tiny themes.
The NIKONOS macro tube has an "U" macro frame made of steel wire fixed at the right focusing distance and when one centers an object within the "U", it also shows what will be photographed. This seems simple enough, except that it takes some patience to enframe anything that can move.
This comber did actually put his head into the wire frame for a second, and I was lucky enough to trigger the shot. But when the strobe fired, he was gone with that incredible fish speed that is always almost uncanny. Still, the photo remained (on Fujichrome Sensia, 100ASA), and it really made my day.
And more than that. This photo won the 1st place in "Golfo Di Trieste" international competition in Underwater Macro Photography. Well, it was some 30 years ago, but anyway, now you know the whole story! :)
Read less
Jan, 2017Views
932
Likes
Awards
People's Choice in fishface Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
Superior Skill
Genius
All Star
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rank week 1
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was made under my buddy's weekend house outside Kukljica, a small township on Ugljan Island (central Adriatic, Croatia).Time
This was shot sometime around 1500 or 1600 hours or so in the Adriatic Summer... I can remember my buddy and me going diving after lunch. It surely is not the best practice, but we did not plan on going deep... maybe two to three meters, rarely ever touching five meters, so it was relatively safe (and the lunch was light, too)! We moved slowly and covered barely 150 meters distance in about two hours.Lighting
The light used here came from my Sunpak Marine 28 Strobe set at one-fourth power, as the available daylight would not be enough for the underwater Macro shots with 100 ASA material.Equipment
NIKONOS III, Macro extension tubes 1:1, 35mm UW Nikkor, SUNPAK Marine 28 Underwater Flash Strobe @ 1/4th power, Fujichrome SensiaInspiration
Every dive is an inspiration per se... so this photo spent as much adrenaline as any other would. In times of film, one had to wait for the material to be developed before seeing the results, but my diving group managed to take along a self-made developing gear even to the most remote spots. So we had the chance to see the results about one or two hours after the dive (e.g. we processed our slide films right away). It had an important advantage: if anything of importance was botched, we could dive on the same spot again and re-try. Of course, no-one even dreamed about digital photography in those years! I could tell you stories about DIY things we've had produced to use with the Nikonoses... now all of these things are obsolete beyond belief.Editing
I just scanned the slide to digitalize it, and optimized the file in the best way to arrive at the original colors; not much else needed to be done.In my camera bag
I will usually take just one camera underwater, on a rare occasion two; one for video or timelapse, the other for straight photography. But on dry land it is easier for me to carry a photo vest than any photo bag. So I load my photo vest with whatever I might need for my photo session, walk or trip. My photo bags usually keep the equipment I'm not using at the moment. The vest's many pockets usually contain two cameras, spare batteries, ND and CPL filters, and one small photo clamp instead of a tripod. Sometimes I'll include a small action camera, mainly for its wide field of view and resistance to water and weather. The vest has large-lens pockets that holds a small water bottle, a sandwich, or a bar of chocolate if I plan on being out for the whole day. There is about three meters length of paracord or similar strong, thin rope, one hefty pocket knife, and a lighter. With these, much can be "mcgyvered" along the way, so that's all I need. Recently I make it even more comfortable for me, and take the essentials along in a waist pouch. Simplicity and comfort; two best ingredients in most situations!Feedback
This photo won the 1st place in "Golfo Di Trieste" International Competition in Underwater Macro Photography. Seeing how even an incidental photo can be highly valued, let this fact be an inspiration to everyone, just as it was/is to me!
