Cardinalfish with eggs

[Karl]

After about two weeks of trying I finally got the shot I was after - albeit a bit dodgy

Anyway spent about 20 mins with these fellas trying and these are the two best ones.

Comments welcomed.

Karl

Close to hatching



Another week to go

[Donald]

Amazing stuff, Karl. Well done.

[Bobobird]

Amazing stuff, Karl. Well done.

+1

[Splatsworth]

amazing stuff, karl. Well done.

+1

+2

[Rob Douglas]

Great work. Perfect timing.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Very cool!

[Karl]

Thanks everyone for your comments as it makes it worthwhile. Unfortunately the water wasn't very clean with visibility around 3m and it was very milky with lots of floaty bits - which makes it harder to get a nice good shot.

Karl

[shreds]

Karl,

Facinating. Can you tell us a bit more about the depth, the lighting, any particular recommendations regards underwater, your set up etc?

[ktuli]

Karl,

You are not helping in the least with my scuba withdrawl...

- Bill

[Karl]

Karl,

Facinating. Can you tell us a bit more about the depth, the lighting, any particular recommendations regards underwater, your set up etc?

I have a Canon G12 in a Recsea housing with twin YS110 Alpha strobes and I have a M67 x 3 macro wet lens (diopter) attached to the front of the housing.

The shots were at F7.1 @ 1/100s ISO 100, strobes at 3/4 power and set upfor 'Edge lighting' - that is the outside edge of the beams cross where the subject is.

The depth of water was about 8m and there was a slight current. The water is green (temporate waters usually are) and visibility was very poor at only about 3m and it was very milky and lots of floaty bits, so I had the strobe arms pushed far out as possible to reduce the chance of backscatter.

Basically I found a couple of fish that I thought would be good subjects and got myself comfortable (well as comfortable as I could) and just waited. They go through a routine of every two to three minutes they open their mouths to rotate the eggs and bring in fresh water, but this happens very quickly and I missed more than I got.

Hope this helps - just ask if you want any more info.

Karl

[shreds]

No thats great.

I have done underwater, down to about 18m, but am always fascinated about other peoples experiences. Usually, photographically, for me the shallower dives have produced better results, mainly due to the available light added to any strobes I have used.

[Karl]

I don't normally dive deep - most of my local sites the depth isn't any more than 15m max - on average about 8m. The reason for this is the most productive zone for life is from about 0 - 15 / 20m. Plus you get longer bottom times in the shallower depth - this dive was for about 92 minutes which gives me plenty of time to find a subject and take my time trying to get the shot right.

Karl