I’ve dived Flinders Pier before and regularly but it’s been a while. Looking back through my photo archives, it’s been more than 6 months since the macro lens went on the camera. I think there were probably good macro opportunities in Truk Lagoon but it’s hard to concentrate on little things with great big shipwrecks in front of you. In just three weeks I’m off to the Maldives for two weeks of sharks and tropical waters, with a few hints of small critters. I thought I had better get the macro lens dusted off and back in service.

It was a stunning evening at Flinders with the tide creeping in as the sun went down. I disturbed a big stingray as I walked into the water and his surprise appearance set the scene for my encounters on the dive. I spent a few minutes with the first weedy I spotted before leaving him to motor off into the seagrass. The next one was the guy above, much more relaxed and happy to hang around for a portrait. I noticed this eyebrow isopod on him as I downloaded the photos afterwards.

As I was changing angles on him, I spotted a tiny cuttlefish hanging out to the left. He was not in a good spot for a good angle. However he was convinced he was totally camouflaged and didn’t move as I circled around to try and find a shot that would work. From there I moved on to yet another weedy and was just lining him up with a pylon when I realised a piece of grass was in fact the pipefish below. I doubt I would have spotted the pipefish at all if he hadn’t passed across my viewfinder – a nice surprise.

After one more weedy seadragon encounter and after watching a huge school of tiny fish flee through the pylons, I was thinking about heading back to shore. On the way home I was swimming a meter or so above the bottom when a massive octopus swooped under me and engulfed a rock. His tentacles went looking for dinner to flush out into the waiting mouth, with his flared shirts preventing escape. With the rock cluster cleared of dinner, he retracted and scooted over to the next target. I watched him cover half a dozen rocks, half sad that I had the macro lens on and no way to capture the behaviour, and half glad that I could watch without worrying about angles and opportunities.

He jetted out of sight to good hunting and I headed back to shore on the surface of a very calm sea. There’s a lot to be said for summer diving in good vis and good weather. Here’s hoping the Maldives are as calm, as clear and as fruitful – I reckon I might be in luck!

About the site

Rye Pier is a long, shallow shore dive. The pier is probably most noted for the annual invasion of the spider crabs which I photographed in 2012. They’re in the area at the moment and have been spotted at Blairgowrie Pier recently. They’re now on the move and will likely be seen at Rye over the coming days. While we were hoping to see the start of the crab invasion on Sunday, it was a fairly slim possibility. It was nice to see the pier life before it gets overrun by crustaceans. The rest of the year, Rye is known for orange sponges and lots of pot bellied sea horse.

About the dive

We intended a Sunday afternoon splash as a shakedown dive for some upcoming cave diving. Unfortunately Dave and Sandy discovered some vital bits were missing as we geared up and our water entry was slightly delayed while they were retrieved. We ended up staggering down the beach in far too much gear just as the sun went down. There was a little bit of chop on the surface but the vis was excellent underwater. A bit of a surprise given the number of divers removing wetsuits in the carpark at the end of what must have been a busy weekend at the pier.

There’s been a fair bit of caving in my life recently. As a result it’s been a long time since I’ve had the macro lens on the camera – this might even have been the first macro dive for the year. Certainly the last macro photos I posted here were taken last November. My critter spotting skills were definitely rusty as it took me nearly the whole dive to find my first pot-bellied seahorse. I’m sure I swam past a couple of dozen laughing at me down their long noses from camouflaged positions. I did spot a small eel, a small school of squid, endless hermit crabs and chase a few fish down for their portrait.

About the shot

The water was registering as 12 degrees on my Petrel so after a lap to the end and back I was looking forward to getting out. As we got back into shallow sandy territory I noticed this little jewel sitting on the bottom. I manoeuvred around to get a shot from the side as he tried to dig himself in. Luckily for me though unfortunately for him, he’d picked a bit of sand that he couldn’t get into. Just after I took the first shot here he relocated to a softer spot and rapidly made progress down into safety.

One of these little guys was one of my favourite photographs from my Dumaguete, Philippines trip. That was partly because I spotted him all on my own and partly because I think the shiny colour combinations on these squid are amazing. Seeing one in home waters was very cool.

About the site

Mornington Pier is currently under reconstruction. In the last 12 months they’ve removed and replaced almost all of the pylons, changing from the old wooden pillars to new steel and plastic contraptions. All of this work hasn’t done much for the underwater scenery with many of the critters that could manage it moving on. The bottom has been scoured down in places and until the greenery grows back there won’t be very many places to hide. On the other hand the local fishing community hasn’t had easy access to the end of the pier either. I spent the dive surrounded by schooling old wives, juvenile sweep and yellow tailed silver thingies. Being on the rEvo made me bubble free. The drawback was fish sneaking over my shoulder and scaring the crap out of me while I was focussed on the camera.

About the dive

After dipping a hand in the water to determine temperature (warmer than Mt Gambier!) I jumped in with macro lens fitted. The adventures of the last few months mean I haven’t been diving in the ocean in Melbourne since July. It was good to be back in home waters. I also haven’t had my macro lens on the camera since my trip on the Arenui. I pootled gently along the side of the new pylons, keeping an eye out for small critters. The obvious ones were the blennies, who were everywhere. I also encountered a few very relaxed rays and I’m sure I swam right past a seahorse or two.

About the photos

I love these little guys for their expressive faces. The construction of the new pier means the old pylons have been cut down to about a metre off the bottom. The flat tops have little holes in them, and the edges have deep cracks – perfect for curious fish. For the top photo I used just one strobe. By moving it down to sit to the left of the frame at the same level as the top of the sawn-off pylon I side lit this subject. Side lighting keeps his hole deep and dark and gives him nice contrast from his environment.

With lighting established this was a game of wait and see. Eventually he got sick of hiding and poked his head out to say hello – and voila! I especially like the way his feelers stick up in advance of his eyes appearing. The second little guy was not so little and not so concerned. He watched me from this position as I crept closer and closer with the camera until I got to here. This shot is uncropped and close to minimum focus distance for my 100mm lens behind a flat port. As I thought in Komodo, it may well be time to splash out on a super macro converter.

About the dives

The first half of our trip from Alor to Komodo was more focussed on muck diving, but it was on the last couple of days on the Arenui that I got some macro photos that I really love. There was less tiny life around and it was easier to focus on a subject photographically without getting excitedly distracted by the next tiny thing. I also had a few great photos achieved which helped with the confidence to try new things. In this instance it was photos of things I generally consider a bit too small to sensibly take photos of with my lens setup.

About the photos

Both of these shots were taken at the maximum capability of my 100mm macro lens on a full frame camera. In both instances this means I was at absolute minimum focus distance to make the subject as large as possible in the frame. The second shot here, of the hairy shrimp, has been cropped but the pygmy seahorse is straight out of the camera. While the shot could be cropped in a bit, I like the way he is framed by the branches of the seafan, and the pattern of the feeding polyps.

The pygmy seahorse was taken on a night dive. By using the red light on my Archon video light I was able to achieve focus without blinding the little dude. I used one strobe and pointed it straight down on a fairly low setting. I was close enough that the light escaping sideways provided what I needed. I’m aware that photographers can over-strobe these tiny little creatures and I had determined before the dive that I was only going to take a very limited number of shots. The one above was the third one, and I got what I was looking for and left him to enjoy his evening in peace.

I love this shot in part because it showed me how far I’ve come with the 100mm lens. Even a year ago this shot would have taken me a hundred tries and most of the dive. Stressing out both myself and the subject in the process would have only made it harder to get something in focus. Being able to swim up, assess the opportunity, get the shot and leave in less than 3 minutes made me feel like I’ve finally conquered the 100m lens.

This feeling was backed up on the last night dive of the trip, the following evening. There had been both green and red hairy shrimp on the day dives and I had got a few shots of them that were recognisable but not great. Then Ronald found this little guy, who was both slightly larger than usual and clearly carrying a bunch of eggs. On the downside he was very active and seemed to enjoy jumping away just as I got him in the viewfinder. In this end he jumped on to the perfect background, my strobe was in the right position, and I shifted the camera to get the focus sharp at just the right moment. The end result was the second shot here, of one of the tiniest creatures I have recognised underwater.

These two shots can only mean one thing – it’s time to purchase a supermacro setup! A whole new world of tiny things (and frustration) awaits.

About the trip

For the first few days of the trip on the Arenui, we meandered along the lovely mucky shores of Alor. This meant lots of fantastic critters – mantis shrimp and little cuttlefish, ribbon eels and orangutan crabs, rhinopias, frogfish and pipefish. These critters come in fantastic shapes, sizes and colours but all manage to blend in exceptionally well with their environment. I was especially impressed with our dive guide Ronald when he managed to spot a small clown frogfish from over 15m away. I wandered away while others took photos and despite knowing exactly where he was, then came back and spent 5 fruitless minutes searching a very small area. As it turned out he was right under my nose with camouflage working well.

About the photo

The leaf fish aren’t quite in the same master camo list as frogfish and they can be found.  Their strange shape makes them difficult to photograph though, especially when they decide to sit in the middle of a patch of messy coral and sponges. Isolating their silhouette from the background can be a challenge. So once I had a few shots in the bag that were definitely a leaf fish I decided to experiment a little bit. The nice thing about camouflaged animals is that they’re disinclined to move as they believe they can’t be seen. This gave me time to gently manoeuvre my strobe arm around. With the strobe behind the fish I pointed it directly back at the camera. The narrow flat body of the leaf fish is translucent enough for almost all of the in the picture to be coming through the subject. I also used my second strobe on its lowest setting to provide a touch of foreground fill light.

I especially like this shot for the way it isolates his profile and helps the eye really stand out. Regardless of the weird shapes and textures, it’s immediately easy to tell that you’re looking at a face in profile.

The same lighting principle applied for this very pretty ribbon eel. With another subject prepared to stay in one spot – if I moved in slowly – I had time to get creative with lighting. While he’s not as translucent as the leaf fish, getting the stronger strobe power behind him has given him a new look. I needed just a touch of fill light in front to bring out the eyeball without overpowering the backlighting. The lighting angle has reduced light falling on the uninspiring background and helped isolate the subject from his surroundings.

The next time you’re out with your macro lens and static subjects, especially if you’re swimming around with ridiculously long strobe arms on because you haven’t changed them from your wide angle set up, consider a touch of backlighting. You never know what might work out well.

For my other photos from the Alor to Komodo trip on the Arenui with Liquid Diving Adventures, see the reports here.

About the pier

I’ve dived at Mornington Pier a lot. It’s a convenient location for gear testing – the closest “real” dive location to me where you can park your car right next to the ladder and climb into the water. I did more than a few dives here in preparation for my cave diving courses, running lines between the pylons and getting used to new equipment.

The pier is under (re)construction at the moment. To reduce wave action on the moored boats the early section has had baffles installed. These are large sheets of plastic fitted to the outside of the pylons on both sides. The new walls go down to between half and one metre off the bottom and create a dark zone under the first section. The life in here has definitely changed from what you could find before with dark-loving creatures out and about on business in the middle of the day. I’ve done three dives at Mornington since the walls went in and all three times the vis has been terrible. I’m not sure if the algae and particulate in the water is growing in the dark zone or being encouraged by the works which are still ongoing at the end of the pier, but I hope it’s just a coincidence and not a sign of things to come.

About the dive

I was at Mornington on Sunday in preparation for Tassie next weekend. I’ve just picked up a pair of dry gloves and a heated vest from Damo at DKG Drysuits and I was excited to try them out in slightly warmer water. This was partially successful as it was far too warm to turn the heating vest on. It does seem comfortable though and the internal, waterproof batteries sat neatly under my drysuit. The dry gloves were very  dry, stopping all water and also a lot of blood getting to my hands. I’ll be trimming a extra ring off the seals there.

I’m a recently convert to gloves, having dived for 10 years and almost never worn them. This includes Melbourne winter with water temperatures down to 10 degrees. Early last year I found a pair I loved and discovered the joy of being able to feel your fingers at the end of a dive. The big drawback of neoprene gloves, beside the loss of dexterity, is that your hands are impossible to see in the dark and talking to your buddy in a cave becomes difficult. Dry gloves, on the other hand, are blue…so if I could work the camera with them this could be great.

About the photo

I got in to discover vis of less than 2m and green snot particles all through the water, but I figured I wasn’t really there for the scenery. Upon reaching the mid-section of the pier I stopped and went hunting for the blennies I had previously shot in the cut-off pylon stumps. The stumps seem to have grown over with vegetation but I did encounter this little stingray eating dinner, and then later swam across the octopus up top. Both were either patient with the camera or occupied with deep thoughts. While arranging the lighting to minimise backscatter from the gunk a school of squid and another of large silver things went past at speed. Watching them, I was glad for photo subjects who are happy to sit still and pose!

About the resort

The dive schedule at Atlantis Dive Resort, Dumaguete, is great if all you want to do is go diving. The boat runs out to the dive sites are short and the boats leave every 2.5 hours, with an extra hour off for lunch. It helps that the dive sites are shallow so repetitive diving within very conservative no deco limits is possible. The schedule gives a surface interval of just over an hour between 60 minute dives and means 4 dives a day is easy. And after the four day dives…night diving!

About the dive

I’m normally not a huge fan of night diving. If I’m going to hang out in the ocean with a bunch of creatures, I like to be able to see them coming. On tropical trips I get tempted into it by warm water and the chance for creatures not normally seen during the day. Dumaguete is a very relaxed location for night diving. With so much of the dive being over sand you don’t have to worry about the current carrying you into a sea urchin. The treasure hunt mentality of looking for tiny critters from the day dives gets a bit easier at night with eyeballs reflecting in the torchlight. And there’s a whole new set of creatures to look out for.

About the photo

On this particular night dive I had just finished strobing a shrimp, half buried in the sand and was casually swimming along in the shallows. Ahead and to my left I spotted this beautiful little jewel of fish. The guy up top is a bobtail squid. He looks like a cuttlefish but doesn’t have the same internal skeleton that cuttlefish do. He was also only an inch or two long and sitting quietly on the sand. These guys are nocturnal and can be hard to spot (although with that luminescent skin I’m not sure why). He watched me for a minute while I got down low on the sand for this shot. Then I switched to video, and he dug himself a hidey hole and disappeared underground.

The second shot is of a bug-eyed squat lobster. Again, you can see these guys during the day but they really come out of their holes at night. Between the eyeballs and the glowing hair on their legs they are pretty ridiculous looking. They were good fun to observe as my torch light brought in tiny sea lice which they would snatch from the water around them.

Over the course of my week at Atlantis Dive Resort Dumaguete in the Philippines (with thanks to Diversion Dive Travel) I did 26 dives plus a day trip to snorkel with the whalesharks. This meant heaps of in-water time to photograph everything that moved and a few things that didn’t (more photo stories to come!). So by day three or four I swapped my strobes for my Archon video lights and jumped in to try something different. I hadn’t attempted video with my 100mm macro lens before and I was fairly sure it was going to be tricky – I was right. But the critters at Dumaguete were fairly obliging and the sandy bottom made it easier to stabilise the camera than it would have been over reef. So what did I learn?

One my first two dives I had the tripod attached to the housing, and found this significantly restricted my choice of subjects. Setting up the tripod on a sloping sandy bottom took me long enough that most creatures would head off to find a more peaceful spot before I even started recording. Hand holding the camera for moving subjects worked, with the difficulty increasing as the depth of focus and fstop decreased. I was definitely thankful for my cave diving experience, as being rock steady in the water was the only way to get close to watchable video.

For creatures that didn’t move too much, resting the base of the housing or the port on the sand worked well. For these creatures I found it best to pre-focus at the estimated distance, start recording, and then move in and settle the camera in the right spot. On the 5DII “recording” is indicated by a small red dot in the top right of the LCD screen – very hard to see when the camera is down on the sand. I changed my LiveView screen to show a grid, not because I used it, but because it disappeared when recording and made it very easy to tell whether the camera was rolling or not.

For the lighting, the Archon lights were great. On night dives I especially appreciated the red option as skittish animals would sit and watch me approach rather than running. It also made a great focus light for the two mandarin fish dives I did. Having a pair provided more lighting options, including leaving one on red and the other on white to add some colour to the subject. And taking two video lights with me in an extremely restricted baggage allowance situation was only possible due to the small size and weight of the W38VR lights. The twin 1400 lumen light output was great, allowing me to close down the aperture and increase depth of field. The batteries coped well with being continuously on for 2 or 3 hour long dives between charges. All in all I was very happy with the lighting performance.

So sit back and I hope you enjoy 26 hours underwater condensed into 6 shorts minutes of strange underwater creatures doing their thing.