Catalina Island Dive Report Jan 2010
Catalina Dive Report & Underwater Photos
Jan 30th, 2010
We had some excellent diving and underwater photography at Catalina Island in the Channel Islands, Southern California yesterday in Jan 2010.
Good photo subjects for macro and wide-angle, great friends on the boat and decent visibility all made for a great day in and out of the water.
Our first two dives were at Ship rock, where I shot wide-angle. Vis was variable at 30-40ft, water temp 57 at all depths. Many blacksmith, opaleye and lingcod were out, although I didn't see any nudibranchs. Two tech-divers who joined us did a 3-hour dive on rebreathers, wow.
Dive buddy with Starfish. Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens at 17mm, F11, ISO 200, 6 inch dome port almost touching starfish.
12mm, F8, 1/160th, ISO 250, side/backlighting with strobes out wide
17mm focal length, F9, 1/80th, continuous focus mode. This large lingcod was swimming towards me fast, unexpectedly. Luckily I was in continuous focusing mode, so as soon as I pressed the shutter the camera fired.
15mm, F13, 1/320th, ISO 250, right strobe in close and back, left strobe out wide. Three Norris Top Snails on giant kelp.
Schooling blacksmith. 15mm focal length, F10, 1/80th, ISO 250
Two Norris Top-snails on kelp & scuba diver. 14mm, F11, 1/320th
Our last dive was near Little Geiger, where I used my longer macro lens. I found 4 pikeblennies and 3 mantis shrimp, what a great dive! We also saw an incredible crab that looked like brown algae.
Pikeblenny, selective focus on her head. Nikon 105mm lens, F9, 1/320th, ISO 250. Strobes out wide to reduce backscatter.
Colorful pikeblenny in a worm parchment tube. F13, 1/320th, ISO 250
Colorful mantis shrimp, pushing a shell out of it's hole. F16, 1/320th
Mantis shrimp eyes. F16, 1/320th, ISO 250. Front-lighting, strobes in close
Many thanks to my excellent dive buddies Dana, K-Man and Walt, my other friends who joined us on the boat, and great fills, food and service on the Sea Bass.
Further Reading
Close-focus Wide-angle underwater photography
Underwater strobe lighting - front and back lighting
