Kelpscape

Sea Lion

Sea lions are hard to photograph because they move fast. They love to flaunt their grace underwater, mocking  divers.  They occasionally pause for an instant to strike a pose, then move on to the next one or shoot out of sight.  It's tricky to focus.  This one visited a group of scuba divers at The Gap, on the south side of Anacapa, during a 2-day trip on the Peace.

New Housing: Joining the Digital Age

I got a new Subal housing, for my Nikon D700, and hope to take it underwater soon!

The FX sensor on the D700 is counter-trend.  Senitments among serious underwater photographers seem to favor DX-format sensors. But, I've come to prefer to larger sensor, perhaps because of the many thousands of images I've shot using 35 mm film with the Nikon F5, and the Nikormat before. I hope that the GS-180 Magnifying Viewfinder may be as helpful as the action finder on the F5.  The newer housing isn't quite as bombproof: 20 vs 25 lbs, including the Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes.  We'll see how those work out: they won't get TTL with the D700. 

Evil Nudibranch Twin

This nudibranch looks like it's glowing redly from within as it erupts from a blade of red algae.  Actually the strobe is shining through the kelp, illuminating an opalescent nudibranch (Hermissenda crassicornis).  When the surge passes and the kelp blade turns, the same nudibranch an instant later still looks like it's glowing from within -- but with white light rather than red, from the unfiltered strobe.  So it's really that color, right?  Well, when not illuminated by the strobe it looks pretty bland, to eyes or cameras. No doubt it looks pretty different to the underwater creatures, who have eyes that see different colors -- when they have eyes at all.