Project 52 by Mal Schulstad

This photo is probably one of my first decent underwater photos. I don't get starfish in the river so I only take these shots when I'm out on a boat trip which isn't as often as I would like.

Having something in the ocean stand out as much as this one did against its background was a bonus. The fact that this particular starfish was actually a perfectly formed star I think also adds to this photo (they come in all sorts of shapes ad sizes)

The background for me is not ideal but under the water beggars can't be choosers. The one thing about starfish is that they don't move very quickly (if at all) so I was able to set up and take a decent shot, with only really the current to worry about. I was also able to get close enough so that there wasn't any sediment to cause ay backscatter issues between the camera and the subject.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39860586-6.jpg

Here's another good example of an "almost got it" type underwater photo. I was trying to focus on a piece of coral that I found interesting when a fish stopped by to see what I was doing. Now at the time, I pretty much set up my camera before hitting the water and didn't change the settings. Controls on underwater housings, particularly for the advanced point and shoot cameras, are fiddly and cumbersome at the best of times. Due to light fall off, I always tended to shoot with at f1.8, creating in this photo a depth of field that is far too shallow.

The other setting that I tended to leave my camera on was a shutter sped of 1/250s, which in the case of this fish was just a bit too slow. Why that speed? Because the sensor on my Olympus is not a great low light sensor (fantastic for the type of camera but not when compared to an SLR) so I tend to leave the ISO at 100 to maximise light capture.

My other mistake was that the strobe was a bit bright, overexposing the coral a bit too much (what you see is what it looked liked after I reduced the over exposure already!)

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39948852-6.jpg

It's a shame really because I think it might have turned into a nice photo if all of the elements had been right.

Mal,

First, send my congrats to Kerry for getting her C-card! Hopefully we'll get the opportunity to see you both underwater sometime! :)

Second, one suggestion I can make is to "get closer" and then "get even closer still!". I still struggle with this one - especially with wider angle work. It is so much harder to figure out the light fall off on those shots!

Luckily it looks like you get to get way more opportunity for practice than I do, so I'm sure your UW photos will be improving by leaps and bounds!

Keep 'em coming!

- Bill

PS: I will offer you the same offer I made to Karl. If you find you need someone to carry all your gear, I'll gladly take the job for room/board/dive fees! :)

Your underwater images are showing some real improvement!

I'd zoom in closer on both images and maybe cut the out-of-focus fish in the second one altogether. Try centering the starfish about half way from the center of the image and the 1/3rd point to the right of center and perhaps a bit lower (or higher) than dead center vertically.

Really nice colour, Malcom!

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Originally Posted by ktuli

Mal,

First, send my congrats to Kerry for getting her C-card! Hopefully we'll get the opportunity to see you both underwater sometime! :)

Second, one suggestion I can make is to "get closer" and then "get even closer still!". I still struggle with this one - especially with wider angle work. It is so much harder to figure out the light fall off on those shots!

Luckily it looks like you get to get way more opportunity for practice than I do, so I'm sure your UW photos will be improving by leaps and bounds!

Keep 'em coming!

- Bill

PS: I will offer you the same offer I made to Karl. If you find you need someone to carry all your gear, I'll gladly take the job for room/board/dive fees! :)

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These are earlier photos. As I get to the later photos you'll see me get a bit closer ;-)

I see what you mean Frank. I'll have a look at it sometime - still well behind on my photo backlog to process!

By now you'll realise that the secret to underwater photography as clearly highlighted by Bill :D is to get closer, and closer again. This particular photo, while not of great composition because I missed getting the entire subject in the frame, was only about a three feet from my face when I snapped the shot. That probably wasn't close enough as you can still see backscatter in this photo however this is one of those subjects you're not entirely sure you want to get too close to.

In my defence, I did have the camera pointed in a completely different direction when I decided to turn around, saw what was I front of me (very closely in front of me) and just took the shot.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39960080-6.jpg

This is incidentally a grey nurse shark - one of the more docile sharks of the sea - at least so I'm told. Normally it's quite difficult to approach these sharks so to have one come up to me so close so I could take it's photo was a real bonus, although it would have been nicer if I'd known it was coming. Kerry tells me she was screaming at me to get my attention but all that came out were air bubbles...

Must be quite a feeling to turn around and see that casually swimming past just a few feet from you. You maybe missed getting it all into the frame, but what you did get is wonderful. The light both on the shark's flanks, but also on all the 'hangers-on' swimming alongside, is just wonderful.

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Originally Posted by Donald

Must be quite a feeling to turn around and see that casually swimming past just a few feet from you. You maybe missed getting it all into the frame, but what you did get is wonderful. The light both on the shark's flanks, but also on all the 'hangers-on' swimming alongside, is just wonderful.

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Thanks Donald. I hope to get some better pictures of sharks in the future. I may need to invest in a wide angle lens though at some point.

So these are my first photos of a nudibranch - a very colourful sea slug that varies in size from less than a centimetre to several inches long. The nice thing about taking photos of nudis is that they don't move very fast, and because most tend to be so small, you have to get really close to take photos of them.

I do need a macro lens at some point as well though.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39966270-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39967746-5.jpg

Nudis are my favorite!!!!

Nicely done, Mal.

- Bill

Somehow the kids talked me into getting another dog. This new puppy when he was younger had a habit of hiding under the coffee table (he can't fit under there anymore) so I thought I'd capture him doing that before he got too big.

Because of the confined space i had a bit of fun getting the flash right. In the end I shot these with the flash off the camera.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39969092-6.jpg
Daydreaming under the coffee table

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39974980-6.jpg
Thinking under the coffee table

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39982568-6.jpg
Relaxing under the coffee table

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...39992634-6.jpg
Worrying under the coffee table

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...40000074-6.jpg
Hiding under the coffee table

Looking back I'm glad I caught some photos of him while he was younger to remind me of how cute he was. He's now turned into a right little @#-$) as he grows through the adolescent phase of his life.

Back underwater again and it never ceases to amaze me the diversity of life I get to see in the local river that I dive in. On this particular occasion I happened to find our local turtle in the river - the Tweed River Turtle whom I affectionately call Twurtle.

Normally Twurtle sees divers as takes off. However on this occasion he seemed fairly relaxed and I was able to swim a little closer to take a few photos.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41222844-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41217732-6.jpg

After a few attempts I finally managed to get in front of him and take this shot which is probably the best photo of a turtle that I have - at least until such time I can head back tropical waters and take a photo of some turtles in some clear blue water.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41833766-6.jpg

This next photo isn't particularly great. I've only posted it to show something that's also unique to underwater photography. A lot of sea life have a habit of tending to hide in the nooks and crannies of whatever it is that they can find. So, the underwater photographer often ends up in all sorts of contorted positions in attempt to take photos of sea creatures hiding in the showers.

In the case of the photo below, a friend of mine spotted something and told me to go down to take a photo. Of course, not being able to talk to each other meant I had no idea of what she was talking about. I spotted this crab who just tried to stay out of the way as I took the shot. It wasn't until I got back on the surface that I noticed in this photo that there was actually an eel lurking in the very back of the cave.

The way this photo looks makes it seem like the eel is sneaking up onto the crab.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41822174-6.jpg

This photo isn't one I've spent a whole lot of PP on. I might get around to tidying it up properly one day.

so cute!

So despite working so much I did manage to fit in a holiday. Kerry and I took the family to Fiji where we just lazed around and didn't do too much. This set of photos is just of the resort. Admittedly I struggled to find anything to inspiring to remind me of where we stayed with the most dramatic photos I feel being the ones at dusk. In any case, nothing too exciting in this series.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41839254-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41850652-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41856668-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...41874166-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...43999378-6.jpg

Just catching up. My dad suddenly took ill yesterday morning (21st) and I had to drop everything and make the 3 hour drive north (one of the challenges of being an only child!). But managed to get things settled and have come home for 24 hours to get things sorted here before travelling back to be with him over Christmas.

Turtle shots are great and that resort looks rather nice too.

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Originally Posted by Donald

Just catching up. My dad suddenly took ill yesterday morning (21st) and I had to drop everything and make the 3 hour drive north (one of the challenges of being an only child!). But managed to get things settled and have come home for 24 hours to get things sorted here before travelling back to be with him over Christmas.

Turtle shots are great and that resort looks rather nice too.

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Sorry to hear about your father Donald. Is he okay?

I have to say that the diving in Fiji was magnificent, if not a touch relaxed. Kerry and I and I ended up pretty much on our on private diving tour. The two spots we visited were the Plantation Pinnacle and the Fish Market. Both places had phenomenally warm, clear blue water which had me just in my short and abundance of tropical fish. It really was just like diving in an aquarium.

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44021596-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44024902-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44038070-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44046026-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44061946-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44070848-6.jpg

http://www.momentsfromalife.com/img/...44050146-6.jpg

On a side note, I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to because my camera ran out of charge halfway through my second dive. I was sure I'd charged the camera before I left Australia and I didn't have the charger with me which was really frustrating. On returning to Australia, I discovered that I had indeed attempted to charge my camera - but the new puppy had chewed through the power lead rendering it useless!

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Originally Posted by Goldcoastgolfer

Sorry to hear about your father Donald. Is he okay?

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Thanks Mal. I think we're getting there!

That last set is gorgeous. Like I've said before, you guys are taking the rest of us into a world we will never experience first-hand. Just beautiful.

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Originally Posted by Donald

Thanks Mal. I think we're getting there!

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Glad to hear it!

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Originally Posted by Donald

That last set is gorgeous. Like I've said before, you guys are taking the rest of us into a world we will never experience first-hand. Just beautiful.

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I'm happy to say that my underwater photography I think is improving. There's certainly a technique to it that is challenging to learn - you have a lot less control of the environment than you would above the water. More to come :)