Return to underwater photography

After a break of over 2 years I have at last bought an underwater housing for my SLR camera and not particularly surprisingly I was very rusty!
Starting out with no strobe and making good use of my new status as a dealer for Magic Underwater Filters I set out to capture something of what Palau has to offer.

This image taken inside Palau's infamous blue holes gives some idea of this cathedral sized cavern which can be truly beautiful with the light filtering down from the ceiling.

The next subject has probably been photographed more times than I've had hot dinners so of course I had to have a go too. Jake Seaplane supposedly crashed shortly after take-off in 1944 due to not being refuelled, a reconaisance plane powered by a Kawasaki engine with a 2000km range carrying a 3 man crew. Now a relic of a sad period of Palau's history.



One of the hardest group of fish to photograph with a flash are the highly reflective silver types such as Barracuda, Tarpon etc. This is where the magic filter really helps, manual white balance and getting the sun (and the fish) in the right position help dramatically especially when there are around 100 fish all giving you a looking over. These are Chevron or Blackfin Barracuda and can be found at dive sites like New Drop Off and Blue Corner, they allow you to get very close and are an amazing sight to behold, not at all aggressive each one adding to the huge school as they approach and surround you, each meter long predators.....

I was lucky enough the other day to be at Blue Corner when there was no other boats there, the main group hooked on at 14m and I went to the edge at 18m. There the current was strong and the sharks were gliding along the edge, riding the upwelling current as it surged in. Beautiful animals, honed to perfection, super efficient, some individuals just gliding in loops round and round riding the same spot time after time. I positioned myself as low as possible and waited until one such animal comes into the right postion, hugging the bare rock, straining against the current and resistance to my camera, squinting through the viewfinder keeping the exposure right, at least one picture came out ok!

Take care all,
Richard








photoshop@fishnfins.com
www.lightningstrikeproductions.co.uk

Palau upholds it's No Shark Fishing policy

Good news!
The President of Palau has told the UN that the whole of Palau's Exculsive Economic Zone (EEZ) is to be protected from Shark Fishing providing a haven for these endangered animals.
The Micronesian Shark Foundation who have been fundamental in conducting research and public education programs are extremely happy at this news as they have worked so hard to see this happen.
Divers and environmentalists everywhere I think should also be celebrating this as the shark is becoming so critically endangered in other parts of the world. Hopefully enforcement will stop the illegal fishing that is still threatening to wipe out Palau's shark populations and provide the area with much needed protection.
Words will not stop the fishing, only action.
For a link to a New York Times story please follow this link:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/pacific-nation-declares-itsself-a-shark-haven/

photoshop@fishnfins.com
www.lightningstrikeproductions.co.uk

German Dive specialists Schoner Tauchen expand website with Fish 'n Fins Promo

As a way to increase our exposure in Europe I have compiled a short film for Schoner Tauchen's website, here is a link:
Fish 'n Fins
if your german isn't quite up to scratch then here is the video itself:


Cheers

Richard
http://www.fishnfins.com/n/Photo-Shop.html
Stock Portfolio

Motherhood on the Reefs

About a month ago I had the privelage and luck to find a single Broadclub Cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus) at a dive site here in Palau. I shot a lot of footage of it and vowed to go back as soon as possible, which I did, it was still there, and if anything had grown. Great news I thought but again was determined to go back again as soon as possible.

It was a calm, bright, sunny day here as I jumped in the water and swam in the direction of my favourite subject, and as I was slowly finning over the reef my mind wanderered and my imagination started to formulate possibilities.

What if the lone cephalopod wasn't alone anymore? What if somehow it had found a partner?

I told myself not to dream and to concerntrate on actually finding it first.

So I arrived at the site, and it was there in exactly the same position but then I see as I swim around a coral head another! I can't beleive it! Two of my favourite animals right there for me to observe and film, but it didn't stop there....

Because as I continued to watch, keeping my distance so as not to disturb them I noticed that one was behaving differently, bunching it's tentacles up underneath itself in an almost puckering fashion, then relaxing, colour changing, stretching out the tentacles before swimming in my direction to a large coral head, there it hovered over an area, before moving to another and, there I realised that it was in fact a she and she was laying eggs! I couldn't believe my luck, not only had the local population doubled since my last visit, the population could potentially explode and here I was as it was happening!

The process was mesmorising, and followed a set pattern each time and in the 77 minutes that I was there watching and filming she laid over 15 egg masses.

The process was repeated over and over: the female "puckering", the colour change and stretch, the move to the coral head, the choice of the site, the production of egg in tentacles (pictured pale mass in tentacles), deposition, then dramatic colour change and move back to near where the male was waiting at which time the male had a colour change and held his tentacles in a lopsided fashion. Over and over again I watched the process.

According to literature it takes (in captivity) 55 days for the eggs to mature and the juveniles to swim free. The couple will mate possibly twice during this time and there could be 3 laying events. According to the literature the female dies once the eggs have hatched......but her sacrafice has bought new life to the reef.

Richard

photoshop@fishnfins.com
richardwbrooks@hotmail.com
http://www.lightningstrikeproductions.co.uk/

Blood in the water.

In the world of underwater photography and videography, proximity to subject is all important. The water column between the camera and subject robs you of light, colour and clarity and pays you back with suspended particulate matter in spades. That is why I was so happy to be in the right place at the right time with this crowd:




In places like Palau there can be found a interspecific hunting relationship where different species of fish rely on and interact with each other in the pursuit of food.

The main players in this case are Moray Eels, Napoleon Wrasses, Red Snappers, Brown-marbled Groupers, White-tip Reef Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks and usually Giant and Blue-fin Trevallies.

The moray hunts by entering small cracks and crevices in the reef where small fish often hide, the Napoleons and Snappers know that any fish encountered may try to escape and so follow the Moray as it moves over the reef, waiting for any fish to be flushed from it's hiding place by the Eel.
In the above clip, two eels were under the yellow flat coral and flushed out a small fish that was within a fraction of a second chomped by an alert Red Snapper, the tiny amount of blood released was carried by the current and was quickly picked up by the huge number of White-tip and Grey Reef Sharks in the area.
The Shark's incredibly well honed instincts snap into action and they swim over as fast as they can to investigate closely followed by an assortment of other predators with every animal focused on finding the source of the blood.
Each species has developed it's own hunting strategy, White tips being slender with flexible fins placed well back along the body can get their heads and most of their bodies into cracks and crevices in the reef, the Napoleons with their size and "aggressiveness" can threaten the sharks, butting them out the way, then use their enourmous mouths to "hoover" up any prey that gets close enough. The Grouper is very well camouflaged, resembling a large rock where it lies in wait. All these species are out-manouvered by the Trevallies with their ability to accelerate and change direction incredibly quickly.
The Fathom Imaging wide-angle lens I have mounted on the front of my Gates underwater video housing produces an image that appears smaller and further away than in real life, this enables me to get very close to a subject and still keep it in frame. The point of this is that the water column is much reduced and the image clearer than when viewed with the naked eye.
I have been watching these fast and furious displays in the past and up until now have either been too far away for a good image or too close and have disrupted the animals natural behaviour with my bulk and bubbles, this time however I could see that the key players (Moray, Napoleon, Grouper) were poised and the stage set and I carefully manouvered into position, slightly up-current, attaching my reef hook to a rock so I could hang relatively easily in the current, and I waited.
I wasn't disappointed.
At times the sharks are passing only centimeters away from the lens and there are moments in these situations where you have to remind yourself that they are very highly evolved hunters who are not interested in a great big ,rubber clad, stationary human being holding a big black monocular box and blowing noisy, shiny bubbles.
However this all means nothing if you are not in the right place at the right time. Keep your eyes open and watch for the signs, just like the observant Red Snapper.....


photoshop@fishnfins.com
www.lightningstrikeproductions.co.uk

Jewels in the crown

Hello again,
I'm currently hosting a TV crew from the French/German Channel "Arte" and whilst I'm shooting the underwater footage for the project I also had the opportunity to go up with them in a helicopter to get some aerial footage of the beautiful Rock Islands here in Palau, especially the Seventy Islands, I'm sure many of you will have seen them on the brochures and promotional documents for Palau and Micronesia.
Visually stunning and off limits to all surface craft, the only and best way to see them is from the air.
Feast your eyes on the photos!

Distant Cousins

Spot the difference time; two quick clips of truly fascinating animals that you can see whilst SCUBA diving in Palau; the Chambered Nautilus and the Octopus both from the cephalopod family.
Found throughout the western tropical Pacific and Indo-Pacific; Nautilus inhabit the deep, dark abyssal areas in near total darkness. They have fantastically well developed senses of taste and smell to help them locate prey and carrion. They join the incredible biomass of other animals that make the vertical migration each night from depths of 300m or more to shallower waters of 100m following the food chain. It is possible to catch them in traps as they come up by using a steel cage and a dead chicken, gross I know but they love it. The cage is bought up to recreational diving limits in the morning and it gives us the lucky few a chance to dive with them.

The Octopus is another incredible animal, intelligent, capable of puzzle solving and with 8 arms a mutitasking brain. I filmed these two late afternoon at 20m as they were "getting to know each other better" The male extends out a tentacle and deposits a package of sperm inside the female's mantle whilst giving an amazing display of skin colour and texture changes. The Octopus has lost it's external shell and now uses camouflage and an extremely flexible body to avoid predation. A good way to locate one is to look for discarded bivalve shells around their dens, they just throw out the dinner plates!

Whats even more incredible is that they are both related to your common garden snail!

Big meets small

First post and I'll start with one of my favourite subjects: symbiosis!

On a recent dive at German channel we had the incredible good fortune to have a young Manta Ray come in for a wash and brush up at the cleaning station there, she was getting so close that it was possible to film one of the shark sucker fish that regularly travel with these graceful animals, the sharksucker picks up anything edible that the manta swims near but it's unsure what exact benefit the Manta gets.

The fish has a modified dorsal fin that it uses to get a grip on it's host and a streamlined body to reduce drag, thereby getting a free ride, they will try to attach to anything big enough: divers, even other sharksuckers!