Category Archives: photography

Low Depth- Low Depth of Field

Posted on by under fish, Macro, molluscs, mzuiko60mm, photography

Apologies for the title, but this is what this post is about: snorkelling in one meter of water taking soft focus images. Low depth of field (DoF) results from a large (or wide) aperture (somewhat confusingly, to make the aperture larger you need to select a lower f-number on your camera). A wider aperture results in more light hitting the sensor, so it is something you’d do when taking photos under low light, but it can also be used for creative effects, as it results in only a thin slice of the image being in focus. This leaves cluttered backgrounds and foregrounds blurred out which makes for a more pleasing aesthetic effect. I used this technique for the photos above and below of a European Cowrie (Trivia monacha) (M43: f4, 1/160s, ISO100). Of course there is a trade-off: most of the subject is out of focus, so it is not a setting you would use for an ID shot that needs as much detail as possible. The golden rule is to keep the eye(s) in focus – something that worked slightly better in the second pic. Strangely, this snail has two pupils in its right eye! I have indicated the slice that is in focus in the second photo with a red line; the shell is 10-15mm in length.

While I was taking photo after photo of this snail, I was approached by several small Tompot Blennies. This species (as well as Common Blennies, but not so much Montagu’s Blennies) is very curious which is great for a photographer (although sometimes they come too close and you have to keep moving back). I used the same settings as above for the smallest individual (not longer than 4 cm). I noticed for the first time the blue spots on the dorsal fin (see first pic). I did not get THE photo but it was good practice. Finally, a close-up of a baby Topknot; although the aperture was smaller this time, the mouth is still not in focus. Sorry for all the photography talk if you are not into that, but at least I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Shells

Posted on by under molluscs, photography, shells

Another short post with some pics I took earlier in the year at the kitchen table. I was an avid shell collector when I was young and, since I am at the beach or underwater a lot, I still pick up and take home shells (never live molluscs). I found that it is actually quite hard to take decent macro shots of shells. Ideally you take photos at an angle while the shells are underwater on a black background, but I had trouble with glare and gave up on that approach. The photos here were all taken above-water on a white background (which will be overexposed with the shells being underexposed so that is something I need to figure out). Shells tend to lose their lustre so I have used baby oil to restore their gleam. Above the Pheasant Shell Tricolia picta (previously UK specimens were considered to be T. pullus), a favourite macro topic of mine as well when alive, see here. I have pasted a few more photos below, including the five species of Topshells common in Cornwall, but I am too lazy to add all species names! (feel free to comment if you are curious about a specific species and I will do my best to answer). Something to experiment more with in winter when I cannot go out.

Blue Jellyfish

Posted on by under cnidarians, fisheye, jellies, photography, wide angle

It is jellyfish season again and the Blue Jellyfish (Cyanea lamarckii) is probably the commonest species in Cornwall. Supposedly they sting but I have never noticed. Rather than taking a ‘true’ photo with an exposed background, I usually opt to not expose the background and light up the jellyfish with strobes. As these jellyfish are quite small (the ones I see are 5-12 cm in diameter; they can grow larger though) this is hard with the jelly up against the mini-dome (using a 8mm fisheye lens). The Microsoft Photo app let’s me get rid of the backscatter in the background but this does not always work as it tends to remove tentacles as well. (I cannot really see it on my computer screen but did notice on my phone: the bottom two pics have the background replaced but the top one hasn’t and so is a bit less clean.) Anyway, these animals are beautiful and quite otherworldly!

Octopus in Porthkerris

Posted on by under bryozoans, crustaceans, diving, echinoderms, fisheye, molluscs, photography, Porthkerris, wide angle

This is the second year of an ‘octopus boom’ here in Cornwall. One of our two native species (Octopus vulgaris) has become much more common, probably due to warming waters. They wreak havoc on the crab pots (it is a big local story), but have made many snorkellers and divers very happy! Although I have spotted them once or twice before, this week I headed down to Porthkerris to have a proper look. Porthkerris is one of the best known shore dive sites in the country, and the only shoredive site in Cornwall I know of that let’s you get a bit deeper than ten meters. Those extra few meters make the difference in spotting things like Cuckoo Wrasse and Sea Fans, and also make it more likely to spot octopus (although these also occur in shallow water; one was even found in a rockpool in Falmouth). Armed with my 8mm fisheye lens I drove down on a Tuesday for two (solo)dives. It wasn’t long before I spotted the first octopus, however it quickly jetted away from me – either they have different personalities or different moods (or both) but not every octopus reacts the same to a passing diver. I managed to get a bunch of shots of several cooperative individuals shown below. Some individuals looked a bit ropey as they were nearing the end of their life-span and I even spotted a dead individual.

I managed shots of some other animals as well, see the gallery below (click on pics for legends). I have done much more macro- than wide-angle photography lately, as it is quite hard in murky English waters. When using strobes it is easy to get backscatter, moving very close to the subject minimises that but makes it hard to get any light between the dome and the subject, often resulting in an unlit centre of the shot and/or blown out spots at the sides. I went back on Friday for another two dives. Fewer octopuses (octopi is incorrect!) and the viz wasn’t as good but it was enjoyable all the same. A selection of critters below. I found a nudibranch new to me (Acanthodoris pilosa) that was so large I could take a halfdecent photo of it using the fisheye lens!

Black Backgrounds

Posted on by under cnidarians, fish, jellies, molluscs, photography

Last year I gravitated to macrophotography – in part because of the mostly bad viz, and in part because of the lack of outings to deeper/more interesting dive sites. Although through necessity, this was not really a problem, as biodiversity is greater at the small scale and I find macrophotography a bit easier than wide angle photography (especially as I am not usually floating through crystalclear, sunlit waters with many ‘charismatic’ animals). One macro trick is to use black backgrounds, avoiding the clutter of gravel, seaweed and assorted debris around the subject. For this you need to light the topic with a strobe and have open water behind it (which cannot be lit up and hence remains black). (Another strategy is using a snoot but I never managed to get that working…) Most recent posts feature examples of this technique but here are three pics I did not get round to posting. Descriptions of animals can be found in the captions.

The black background method also works for wideangle photography. As a bonus I am reposting a collection of old jellyfish photos.

Macro Rockpooling

Posted on by under anemones, cnidarians, crustaceans, echinoderms, Macro, molluscs, photography, sponges, tunicates, worms
I realised I had not posted (much) about this year’s rockpool snorkels so I am taking the opportunity to post a ‘picdump’ with a whole array of tiny species. These photos were taken with a macrolens, and for most a wetlens was used for even greater magnification. Above the White Tortoiseshell Limpet Tectura virginea, a tiny species living on calcified red seaweed. I have added species names to the photos below.

Seagrass Macro

Posted on by under anemones, bryozoans, eelgrass, Flushing, Macro, molluscs, mzuiko60mm, nudibranchs, photography, tunicates
Polycera quadrilineata

I had a couple of good snorkels at the end of summer in the seagrass beds off my local beach in Flushing. The water at the end of summer is warm enough to go without wetsuit – I just had a weightbelt to let me sink down on the sand at low tide, no fins needed. I managed to do what I normally find very difficult: spot nudibranchs! Mainly one of the more common species, Polycera quadrilineata, but that was fine by me, as they are very beautiful, especially the black colour morph pictured above. I spotted one other species, the egg-eating Favorinus branchialis (with its own eggs also visible). Not great photos, but in my defense they are very small!

Shelled molluscs are easier to find. Below 1) the ubiquitous Grey Topshell Steromphala cinerarea, 2) the Grooved Topshell Jujubinus striatus and 3) the tiny Rissoa membranacea (faecal pellets on show, even within the shell). The latter two species are strongly associated with seagrass.

Some assorted macro photos below and at the end a view at a very low tide of the Flushing seagrass site this October.

Scorpion Spider Crabs

Posted on by under anemones, crustaceans, diving, EMWL, photography, Silver Steps
I recently posted on the Crustaceans inhabiting my local shore dive site Silver Steps (see here), but left out one species: the Scorpion Spider Crab (Inachus spp.), which deserves a post on its own. I have blogged about this crab before (see here), specifically in the context of ‘macro-wide angle’ for which this species, perched on- or under a snakelocks anemone, is ideally suited. My previous efforts were based on an affordable inon wetlens, but I have since bought a super-duper nauticam lens. Although very good at macro-wide angle, this lens lets in very little light, which basically gives you three options: 1) lie on some bright white coral sand in the Maldives and shoot upwards to the sun at midday (so actually not really an option), 2) increasingly compromise the exposure triangle to keep a blueish/greenish background (higher ISO>more noise, lower shutterspeed>more camera shake, greater aperture>smaller depth of field), or 3) keep all settings in a ‘normal’ range, resulting in a foreground lit up by strobes on maximum output, but a black background (only if you are shooting critters in rock crevices you can get both fore- and background well-exposed, as strobe light has something to bounce back from – see for some examples the Crustaceans post). I quite like the clean black background and dislike bluer, but grainier images, so have mainly tried option 3. Hopefully, next year in summer I can try going for some blue background shots. Sorry if this blog is occasionally turning into a photography borefest by the way, but I have been really getting into that stuff! ;-). Anyway, these scorpion spider crab pics have turned out quite nicely.

Moods

Posted on by under Macro, photography, tunicates

The inhalant (left pic, 8 lobes) and exhalant (right pic, 6 lobes) siphon of the Sea Vase seasquirt (Ciona intestinalis). The pigments are thought to function as photoreceptors. This is a common species, especially in habitats disturbed by humans, and not too pretty (the latin name means ‘pillar of intestines’…) but if you zoom in everything reveals beautiful features! Quite moody shots, to which I have gravitated this year. I like the black backgrounds, which is achieved by letting very little light into the camera, with the strobes only lighting up the subject in the foreground – unable to illuminate anything in the open water (‘negative space’) behind. (A similar effect can be achieved using a ‘snoot’, but I have never managed to get that to work…) I have also tried to get closer and closer up with my macro wetlens, ideally I’d have some sort of microscope underwater! If you are on instagram, check out @an_bollenessor for more pics as ‘posts’ and as ‘stories’.

A Late October Snorkel

Posted on by under cnidarians, crustaceans, molluscs, mzuiko60mm, photography, shells, snorkeling, tunicates
I have a lot more pics from this year to put on the blog but those have to wait, as I want to post some photos from last Saturday first, when there was little wind, a low tide and some sun! The viz was not great as expected, so I brought the macrolens and went in search for some small critters. No special finds, but I was very happy with my shots of a common little mollusc the European Cowrie (Trivia monacha). Most people will be familiar with this species as beach finds of empty shells, but not know how it looks like when it is alive, when its mantle covers most of the shell, it shows its striped tail at the back and a siphon and cute little eyes at the front. I used a shallow depth of field (f/4) to get rid of the ugly cluttered background, which worked well if I may say so myself (I need to try this technique more often!).

Many other critters were found too and I took shots of a selection. First, a Sea Spider, all legs and crawling away. A tiny mat of colonial tunicate that looked like a persian rug on drugs. A quick shot of the ubiquitous (if you know where to look – on kelp fronds) blue-rayed Limpets and a stalked jellyfish. Finally, I spent a lot of time taking shallow-depth-of-field AND slow shutter-speed photos of a scorpion spider crab in a snakelocks anemone to get some sort of ‘artistic’ shot. It did not really work, but it was fun nonetheless and I will have a go at it again. After almost 2,5 hours in the water I stumbled back to the car to get changed – an afternoon well-spent!