USVI-On-Line

IsaT: Your photos are amazing; congratulations! For those of us aspiring to one day take underwater photos as good as these, a few questions:

I don't see any of the usual underwater blue-green tints; did you perform any white balancing afterwards, and if not, what camera white balance settings did you use?

Your photos are very well lit; I presume that most or all were shot near mid-day, but was the ISO setting auto, and if not, what ISO setting did you use?

Was the camera set on Auto, or did you use manual control of the exposure and aperture? If the latter, any tips would be welcome. Did you use vivid mode?

How the heck do you run into so many undersea critters? I've only seen one octopus, ever, and that was towards twilight in Brewer's Bay, Tortola. I do see squid while snorkeling on St. John, but the color and detail in your squid photos is amazing. I suppose if I spent more time under water and less time under deck, my odds would be better...

[EDIT] Whoops... missed this: "I used the Canon G10 set on the underwater setting. On land it was Auto.
We had poor visibiltiy almost every day so I did have to clean up the photos in photoshop. Took out cyan, sharpened, contrast, etc."

All the best,

Kevin

your underwater shots are great! Reef squid are my favorite and amazing to interact with.

Beautiful photos! The octopus and the "smiling goat" were my favorites!!

Hi Kevin,
The D20 or D10 does an ok job in the underwater mode. It automatically adds red and yellow. I never did notice what the iso or shutter speed it selected... sorry. I'll try and see if I can get the shooting data to see. I think the trick to a decent underwater pix is to get as close as possible and keep as still as possible while shooting the pix. So if possible I hold out my arms as far as I can to get close or I'll dive down and do the same thing. I do quite a bit of photoshop to them too.
What I do is go super slow while snorkeling and keep my eyes peeled. Look for movement and you'll find lots of hard to find creature. I do also have a secret weapon, my spouse. She is the type to crash into light poles, parking meters, trips on things from dead rats on the sidewalk to small rocks while crossing the street. Never sees a damn thing in regular life, miracle she hasn't been killed by an 18 wheeler! But she can find everything underwater.
As far as Jimmy goes, we left him in the care of a neighbor who was going to watch out for him. I do hope he is ok and growing up safely.