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BSoUP's
Theme Portfolio Competition 1999
Winner
- Bob Allen |
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'Ginny Springs' © Bob Allen |
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My
winning portfolio
by
Bob Allen |
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'SPRING
CLEAN'
All
the portfolio pictures were taken in the crystal clear waters
of the Ginnie Springs Resort at High Springs in the centre
of Northern Florida, just north west of Gainesville, approximately
two hours car journey frorn Orlando.
Nature
is preserved here in this wilderness resort which rests in
200 acres of unspoiled, northern Florida forest. Eight freshwater
springs form beautiful basins that overflow into the Santa
Fe River at a constant all year round temperature of 72*°F.
Ginnie Springs is perfect for individuals, families or groups
to relax in and have fun, from camping, picnicking, swimming,
snorkelling, canoeing, tubing and volleyball, to scuba diving.
Instruction can be obtained from beginner though to cavern
and cave, and open water training, and all equipment can be
hired from the comprehensive full-service dive centre and
country store.
All
the pictures were taken at Easter time in two of the springs,
Ginnie Spring and Devils Spring and the narrow stream between
Devils Spring and Devils Eye Spring. The depth of each location
does not exceed 20ft and in some cases its only 4 to 5f t
and, therefore, does not present any serious diving problems.
Equipment:
Subal Housing, Nikon 801S Camera; Nikon 16mm Fisheye Lens;
Fisheye Mini-Dome Port (Ken Sullivan); Nikon SB25 Flash in
Custom Housing; Film Fuji Provia 100ASA |
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Picture
#1 was taken half way along the narrow stream, which joins
the Devils Spring to Devils Eye Spring, and then flows out
into the Santa Fe River. It shows the sandy bottom of the
stream, and a diver back-lit by the sun shining through the
water surface and the surrounding trees. The shallow depth,
(4 to 5ft) can be seen by the surface ripples from the diver's
bubbles. The difficulty here, and with all shots into the
sun, is recording something of the surroundings without them
becoming total silhouette. Using manual exposure control I
metered off the bottom/sides of the framed area and then gradually
reduced the aperture size taking shots as I went (i.e. bracketing).
Nominally I would think the exposure is f11/16 at 1/60 second
with no fill in flash. |
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Picture
#2 was taken from the entry point into the basin of Ginnie
Springs. The diver is shown crossing the gently shelving bottom
to the deeper (18ft) basin and entrance to the Ginnie Spring
Cave. Overall the view is from the head of the spring looking
towards the stream which leads to the Santa Fe River. There
is no difficulty here with exposure, I would have used aperture
priority and, as in land photography, kept a small aperture
to maximise depth of field (i.e. f8/11) and used no flash.
The beauty of this picture is in its composition, the reflection
of the bottom of the spring basin in the surfaces, the diver
and the absolutely crystal clear water. The surface mirror
effect is common in Ginnie Springs, and is only broken by
the ripples caused by diver's exhaled air bubbles. |
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Picture
#3 is the most satisfying, for me, of all the pictures I have
taken in Ginnie Springs. Here I am trying to capture the view
that a fish might have of a diver entering its aquatic world.
It is a shot from the bottom of Ginnie Springs' basin looking
vertically up to the surface. There are two difficulties here
to overcome, the one of recording some non-silhouette detail
of the surrounding whilst looking straight up at the sun,
and the other of eliminating bubbles from my expelled air
as it rises 18ft to the surface. The first is solved by manual
exposure and bracketing, as in picture #1, with an attempt
to hide some of the sun behind the overhanging trees. The
second is holding ones breath for long periods, which is okay
for once but for many times is quite difficult. Both difficulties
generally mean that the picture is a compromise, and, to anyone
observing the activity, very humorous. Again I would expect
the aperture to be f11/16 at 1/60 second with no flash. |
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Picture
#4 shows the entrance to the cave in Ginnie Springs and I
am shooting from inside the cave at 20ft out into the basin.
I have deliberately tried to create a silhouette of the entrance
to produce an outline mask in the shape of the Florida panhandle
map. With some gentle digital massaging and enhancement I
think it could be made geographically correct. Here again,
there is no difficulty with exposure; I would have used aperture
priority with a small aperture to maximise depth of field
(i.e. f8/11) and no flash. Incidentally, if flash were to
be used then the whole of the entrance can be shown, but the
shots produced are very unnatural. In all clear water shots
it is essential to get diver exhaust bubbles in the picture
to illustrate the under water aspect of the picture. |
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In
picture #5, 1 have moved back to Devils Spring and I am positioned
just inside the vertical shaft entrance into this complex
of caves. It shows the very dark entrance crack in the rock
bottom at 15ft and the diver back lit by the sun and sky through
overhanging trees. The only difficulties here are that of
exposure and again I would have used manual exposure metered
off the dark areas, and bracketed to reduce the bright sky
and sun colours (FS/FU). The beauty of this picture is in
the simplicity of the scene, the above water reflections and
colours. |
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Picture
#6. As a complement to the previous picture, I have included
this shot taken from down inside the vertical entrance to
the cave complex. It also balances with picture #5 in the
landscape format. The picture is taken vertically as in the
Ginnie Spring basin shot and the silhouette mask of the cave
entrance is used to create the effect of a cat or devil's
eye. The less successful positioning of the diver was an attempt
to create the slit shape of the pupil of the eye of a cat.
With a little massaging and enhancement digitally the full
effect might be realised as a print, or with much more time
on location by straight shooting. The main difficulties here
were to create the full silhouette and eliminate my bubbles.
The silhouette would have benefited from the sun being more
overhead, later in the day, (something for a return trip)
and no bubbles in the picture. You can see some top left,
but the increased depth in this site really does not help
me, not being a breath-hold specialist. The exposure for the
shot was best served by manual exposure and bracketing, setting
a speed of say 1/60th and then bracketing by aperture. If
the overall brightness of a scene cannot be accommodated by
the speed of 1/60" then increase it to 1/125th or 1/250thand
continue to bracket by aperture. |
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BSoUP
THEME PORTFOLIO COMPETITION |
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