All right then, another post with me fiddling around photographing seaweeds. Composition remains difficult; the next four photographs illustrate this. The diversity of colours and shapes compensate somewhat for it though. I think that a wide-angle lens is crucial to get better pictures: you can get close to the subject (important, as the water is not always crystal clear) whilst still getting a ‘panoramic’ view. Cameras such as the Sony RX100 in an underwater housing can be combined with such lenses (‘wet lenses’ which go on the housing rather than in). Camera, housing and a macro and wide-angle lens will set me back £1000 or so though, so maybe not. In any case there is still plenty room for improvement with the simple Canon Powershot, preventing overexposure for instance. I use Picasa to add some contrast, crop and straighten btw. Photographing through gulleys to create some depth makes things a bit more interesting (first picture). The second picture shows an overexposed background and a dark foreground but if properly exposed and in focus this sort of shot could be nice. Shots that are half reflection make things psychedelic and quite cool. This effect works well for Dumont’s tubular weed Dumontia contorta which is common highest up the shore (third picture). It is challenging to capture the beautiful blue-green colour of the Bushy rainbow wrack Cystoseira tamariscifolia as it is caused by iridescence, i.e. physical surface properties (see this old blog post from my work blog for some more info). It thus depends on the angle of view whether these beautiful colours can be seen. In the fourth picture you can see that the seaweed is a dull brown, but its reflection underneath the water surface does reveal the blue colour. The last picture demonstartes the different colours and textures well, but it is overexposed unfortunately.