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








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