About the site
Kilsby’s Sinkhole is a great big body of crystal clear water in Mt Gambier. Andreas and I dived there a few weeks back after a very pleasant couple of dives in Piccaninnie Ponds.
About the dive
The main aim for the dive was to get some more rebreather practise in. When I’m not spending my time caving through piles and piles of mud I’m busy clocking up hours on my rEvo. I’m planning to do my MOD2 & MOD3 courses at the end of the year, and that means 50 hours required as a minimum. More than hours, I’m keen to get multiple dives in different conditions to cement my skills. Sinkholes mean no boats and give lots of time before the dive to refine gear and make sure everything is working well.
About the photo
And since we’re going to be drifting around practising maintaining our ppO2 and buoyancy, why not get some photos in at the same time? I’ve done more than a few photo dives in Kilsby’s. This dive was a search for something a bit different. After gearing up in semi-torrential rain (I love Mt Gambier) I knew there was going to be limited light available for underwater photography. I gave Andreas one strobe to hold and taped another to his unit. The handheld strobe had Hedwig’s new version of the triggerfish on it with much greater sensitivity over long distances.
You can see it worked while the old version didn’t at this extreme distance from the on camera flash. In the second photo where I’m closer to the strobes both of them have triggered. In both case this was in spite of the ambient light and complete lack of walls to bounce the on-camera flash around. The triggerfish are great little sensors and they really showed what they can do here.
I like the way the off camera strobe has lit up the rockpile behind to highlight the diver. With diver below and rainy surface above, this shot reminds me a little of that shot in the Shaft early last year. I like the darkness of it and the sense of space. Unfortunately the light at the top also showed up the scratches in the edge of my dome port that I’ve subsequently had to edit out. Enough ignoring the problem – I think it’s time for a new dome port.