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This
article is all about options. Not selecting the first subject
you see on a dive, but taking time to look around.
The
image was taken during a night dive beneath Town Pier in Bonaire
last December. The great potential of this site during the
hours of darkness is the number of orange cup corals that
grow off the pillars.
That
night I dove with Colin Bateman, another BSoUP member. Like
Baldrick, we had a 'cunning plan'. My intention was to scour
as many pillars as possible in order to find the most pleasing,
photogenic and pictorial bouquet of Tubastrea possible
It was in such profusion beneath Town Pier at night that I
couldn't fail! Or could I?
After
15 minutes of dissatisfaction with every spray I found I decided
to settle down on a small clump situated in mid-water at around
three meters. To be honest I was loosing a little patience!
I knew that it wasn't working even before I took 4 or 5 shots.
. It was difficult to get in to it, was in disarray and looked
so feeble in my viewf inder.
I
was confident that I would recognize a photogenic spray when
I saw one, but that was the problem - I couldn't find what
I wanted!
I
put the idea to one side for half an hour or so and concentrated
my efforts on small nocturnal crabs. I left ten shots over
and recommenced my search. Situated no more than two feet
above the seabed I found an ideal spray. Intact, growing proud
of the pillarsand content to tolerate the red fiIter in my
super Q-light torch.
This
shot was taken with a Nikon F90x 105mm lens, F16 @ 125th sec
using two flashguns. One Sea & Sea YS 50 set to manual
and positioned far enough away to underexpose the subject
by about 2 stops. A second Sea & Sea YS 50TTL set to TTL
but snooted with the top of an old black Domestos bleach bottle
which restricted the beam of the flash to the diameter of
a twenty pence (20p) piece. Colin was holding this second
flash directly over the primary stalk at various distances
with the intention of creating the impression that the orange
glow was emanating directly from the Tubastrea.
Only
one shot out of the ten taken really worked. The composition
and focusing were consistent throughout but the snooted flash
beam was so narrow that it proved difficult to illuminate
the primary stalk to my satisfaction even with Colin holding
and directing it.
So,
why was this particular bouquet such good potential?
o
It was situated just above the seabed, which made it so
simple to approach, to settle beside it and work on the
composition.
o
It was growing proud of the pillar which made it easy to
frame against the water column which at F16 @ 125 th sec
using 100 asa at night recorded black.
o
The accessibility of the bouquet made it easy for both Colin
and I to work close to it
o
The main stalk was growing so proud of the bunch that it
provided (in my opinion) an idea focal point.
The
moral? Take your time to find the right subject, maintain
patience, persevere with selection, don't pick the first thing
you see and remember that you have a choice in the matter.
My
thanks to Colin Rateinan for his assistance with this shot.
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