Every dive trip we take, I am reminded of how difficult underwater photography can be. Of all these years of practice, I still consider myself quite the amateur. It is hard to retain all the little tricks, adjustments, and bits of wisdom when you are practicing once a year or so. Between all the settings on my camera, and the settings on the strobes, balancing ambient vs. strobe light, I realized I need to be a better note taker! 🙂
It is a difficult environment to work in with a lot to be aware of. Keeping track of where you are in relation to your buddy, watching your buoyancy and keeping away from the reef, and tracking things like your air and depth when you are on a wall that plunges to 1000+ feet, and picking subjects of a 1000 different possibilities in any one area, can be a bit overwhelming. It is quite a contrast to being alone on a shoreline waiting for the sun to rise, where I don’t have to worry about… well – life support! I have great admiration for those who really excel at u/w work.
Little Cayman is famous for it’s wall dives. These are vertical cliffs underwater that are just covered with life. Some of them plunge to great depths. Bloody Bay Wall is a well known reef system there, that plunges to 1000 feet deep or more. There is little need for a recreational diver to go very deep however, typically most of the reef life is above 70 feet.
I liken it a little bit to being like window shopping along a busy street. You are swimming along the outside of it, peering into what each little section has to offer. Some critters are out waving their antennae signaling a cleaning station for fish like a street vendor shouting about their wares. There is quite a bit going on, and the slower you go, the more you see.
I was impressed with the health of the reefs around Little Cayman, obviously benefitting from the marine sanctuary established. You just had to be very careful with your time, there was so much to see and explore, it was easy to lose track.
The undersea world continues to impress and enchant me with all it offers for exploration and wonder. Yet it remains one of the more difficult places to portray just what the experience is like. Pretty colorful pictures only go so far in trying to convey the beauty here. The feeling of drifting weightless along side a living system so massive in scale, animal life in every square inch, just seems impossible to capture in an image. One of our dive masters suggested swimming out away from the wall into the blue about 30-40 feet and then just turn around and look back at it. Divers close to the wall look quite small and insignificant in comparison. You feel quite small and insignificant. It was an impressive sight to behold.
It’s a pleasure to see these underwater shots and I’m always amazed at the amount of vivid colors we see in them. Extraordinary!
Thanks Ken. Yes, sometimes I am even surprised at the color since it is not always evident underwater unless a light is present on the corals.
Another tip of the hat to you, Mark. That is a lot to keep track of. My landlubber brain will just stick to watching the sunset from the shore and enjoying your underwater photography! 😀
Photos just don’t do the experience justice Paul. I think you need to put it on your bucket list. 🙂
Thank you Mark for entertaining a nature lover with colorful photography.Looking forward for more lovely images.
Thank you Jenny.
The colors are outstanding and I especially like the portrait photo with the diver providing some frame of reference for scale and distance.
Mark, I can’t imagine trying to keep aware and balance all the different things one must do in u/w photography. Heck, I loose myself in the moments of photography in normal circumstances — I’d probably be a real danger to myself underwater. 🙂
I tip my hat to you, very nice work my friend!
I am actually quite relaxed underwater, I suppose since I have been doing it for awhile. I am pretty good about monitoring my air and time, but sometimes when you are just waiting for a photo, your mind drifts and you can forget for a few seconds you are on life support.
Thanks for the comment Earl.
lovely colourful heathly looking reefs 🙂 looking foward to more of your photos 🙂 Welcome back.
Suzy
Thanks Suzy.