This is the first in a series of blog posts comparing shooting with cropped-sensor versus full-frame sensors. I hope you enjoy! – Scott Gietler

When I used to shoot with the Nikon D80, D300, and D7100, when I wanted to shoot macro I had to decide between using the 60mm macro lens and the Nikon 105mm macro lens. Now that I am using a full-frame camera, I no longer have to decide. When I use the 105mm macro lens, it has the angle of view that I had with the 60mm macro lens, but the bokeh and ability to isolate the subject that I had when I used the 105mm macro lens on a cropped sensor camera. The best of both worlds!

I have more room for compositional errors with small fish than I had before with the 105mm lens. And if I crop the photo, I end up with the exact same image I would have taken on a cropped sensor camera. I will admit, one thing I do miss is the lighter weight and smaller port of the 60mm macro lens + cropped sensor setup.

Have you tried shooting with both a cropped sensor and full frame camera? Which one did you prefer? Leave your answer in the comments.

Here’s a sample of photos I took last year on a 3-day Channel Islands trip with the Nikon 105mm VR macro lens. I hope you consider joining one of my photo trips this year to the SoCal Channel Islands in August, Anilao  Philippines in December, or Tahiti for Humpback Whales in September or October.

And if you are serious about macro, check out the Nauticam D850 housing, Sea & Sea D850 housing, Aquatica D850 housing, and the Ikelite D850 housing, and my recent article on photographing mandarin fish underwater.

The post Flexibility of the full-frame macro lens first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

At the end of last year I had the opportunity to take a demo of the Aquatica A7R II housing out for a test. Overall I was very happy with the performance, and had a blast diving with a couple of friends. The housing performed beautifully, allowing me to enjoy the dive and shoot some images without feeling like I was constantly fussing with the new gear. As with all Aquatica housings, the ports with easy to attach and change, controls were well placed and easy to use and everything I needed to access was available on the housing.

The Aquatica Housing uses the same port system as all Aquatica DSLR cameras, so there are no compatibility issues with the larger diameter Sony lenses and port options are available for using the Canon EF lenses and Metabones adapter. The housing comes with your choice of strobe connector, including a fiber optic trigger – which costs no more than any other option, something unheard of with other DSLR and MIL housing manufacturers. In addition, vacuum electronics are available and an optional bulkhead valve is available for added security when using this housing.

Here are a few sample photos from the dive, overall I have been very impressed with the quality, detail, colors created with the Sony A7R II camera, and the Aquatica housing makes it easy to use and love this camera underwater.

For more information on the Sony A7 II / A7R II / A7S II cameras or the Aquatica housing please check out our full review here.

To purchase the Aquatica A7R II Housing, please click here. 

Underwater Images with the Aquatica A7R II Housing:

Going, going, gone! Aquatica A7R II with Sony 28mm + Fisheye Conversion Lens (F9, 1/100, ISO 100)

Diver in the Channels – Aquatica A7R II with Sony 28mm + Fisheye Conversion Lens (F9, 1/125, ISO 100)

Juvenile Garibaldi – Aquatica A7R II with Sony 90mm Macro (F15, 1/160, ISO 100)

Diver in the Kelp – Aquatica A7R II with Sony 28mm Lens + Fisheye Conversion Lens (F5.6, 1/80, ISO 100)

Diver and Sea Fan – Aquatica A7R II with Sony 28mm Lens + Fisheye Conversion Lens (F5.6, 1/80, ISO 100)

The post Aquatica A7R II Housing Photos first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Wide angle compositions are often the hardest to nail perfectly. During the SoCal Shootout participants have to do just that. There is very little editing allowed, so getting correct lighting, exposure and above all, that striking composition is key. Ben Hofilena succeeded with his first place image in our open wide angle category. While he claims just a lucky shot, he at least knew the most important part of luck, which is preparation. Proper settings and being ready for the moment allowed this excellent shot to get captured. Here’s the details on our first place winner.

Title: Ocean Bouquet

Location Captured: Eureka Oil Rig (off the coast of Long Beach, CA)

Camera / Housing: Canon 70D with Tokina 10-17mm Lens, Sea & Sea Housing

Strobes / Lights: Dual Sea & Sea YS-D1 Strobes

Camera Settings: F8, 1/125th, ISO 200

The Story: The first time I took a camera underwater was about a year ago. Prior to that, my topside photography was limited to point and shoot cameras in AUTO mode and taking pics on my iPhone. That being said, I’m a newbie to underwater photography and this was a lucky shot. This photo was taken on the Sunday of the SoCal Shootout while aboard the Pacific Star. We were lucky to have good visibility and a bait ball at the Eureka Oil Rig. I was able to get really close to a section of the bait ball and compose my shot. It was awesome to be able to capture what I saw as a solid wall of fish and bouquet-like image in the middle.

The post SoCal Shootout: Story Behind the Shot, Ben Hofilena first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Shooting Portraits underwater can be especially challenging as most subjects like fish are moving constantly. You must nail that perfect composition, eye contact and focus. With that in mind we loved this playful capture of a Bat Ray from Cindy Shaw which took First Place in the Open Portrait Category. Here are the details that went into this winning image.

Title: Wanna Play?

Location Captured: Farnsworth Banks, Catalina Island

Camera / Housing: Olympus OM-D E-M5 with 12-50mm Lens in Nauticam Housing

Strobes / Lights: Dual Sea & Sea YS-D1 Strobes

Camera Settings: F8, 1/125th, ISO320

The Story: We arrived at Farnsworth early after crossing over from San Pedro on the Perfect Mistress with Captain Derek.  There were four divers, two of us with cameras set for the shootout.  We weren’t sure we would be able to dive the pinnacle when we saw so many boats there even earlier than our arrival.  Most were fishing boats and we smiled when we saw that the dive boat Vision was anchored at the high spot with divers already in the water.  Our Captains managed a smooth switch so we moved onto the pinnacle as they slipped off, all divers back on board.  Nicely done Captains!  We dropped into the water and could actually see the purple on the top of the pinnacle from the anchor line.  One of our divers had never been able to dive Farnsworth before and I loved knowing his first experience would be an epic dive.  We were able to stay for 2 full dives before the conditions encouraged us to move on.  I absolutely love California diving because you really never know what you will find until you go in and see.  We have incredible diversity and myriad of opportunities here.
At about 80 feet, it was darker, so I bumped my ISO  to try and allow more light in while still keeping blue water.  I shot LOTS of purple hydrocoral shots and loved doing it, but then I swam over a rise and saw this magnificent bat ray in a shallow sandy spot.  Her wingspan was easily 6 feet across I am sure because it was head to booties for me when I approached sideways.  I Quickly went to the most versatile camera settings I could in case she decided to fly.  Then I settled down slowly and moved my lens to 50mm a good distance back.  I took a series of shots as I approached closer ever so slowly and moved my lens to 12 mm.  We spent about 5-10 min together, but it felt much longer making me quietly check my remaining air frequently because of course I found her at the end of my second dive.   I approached from a slightly sideways angle hoping to frame her diagonally and she kept constant eye contact.  She shifted perfectly for me and rose up a little to prepare to fly but stayed as I put the camera down and we just hung out.  As she seemed more comfortable but didn’t settle flat again I picked up the camera and took 2-3 more portraits before she slowly rose, circled and dipped a wing in farewell.

The post SoCal Shootout: Story Behind the Shot, Cindy Shaw first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

We’re all addicted to our phones these days, so what better way to keep connected than to have your phone with you underwater?

For those folks who love taking photos with their phone and want to be able to upload to social media right away or share with friends and family, taking your phone underwater might be the perfect solution.

Check out the new iPhone 6 & 6+ housing from iTorch. This housing allows you to take your iPhone under the sea to use as a camera while diving, snorkeling, playing in the waves, or even in the pool… anywhere it might get wet! Through the use of the custom iPix app you have the ability to take photos and video.

I took this new housing down on a dive the other day to test it out and really enjoyed it. Paired with the extremely tiny iTorch V10 light I was able to get great portrait shots of different fish and critters while diving. The only drawback I found is that currently the app does not allow you to review photos, meaning you can’t check what you just shot. Luckily you can easily take multiple photos quickly, so shooting a couple extras “just in case” is easy to do. (Hopefully this will be fixed with a future update)

The V10 light has a very wide beam angle and an even bright beam making it a perfect addition to the iPhone underwater. When you’re within 2-3ft of your subject it brings back all the vibrant colors beautifully. If shooting something further away, I recommend adding on the red filter to help counter the loss of the red spectrum at depth.

In addition there are both a wide angle lens and a close up lens that you can screw into the housing to get more creative. The wide angle lens gives you more field of view and the close up lens allows the camera to focus closer than it normally would.

Comparison of with and without the wide angle lens. The photo on the right is much wider, allowing you to see more of the bow of the shipwreck and even the diver in the distance.

Overall I was really happy with the use of the housing. The app was extremely easy and the iPhone takes great quality pictures for a very simple auto only camera. I also did a short clip of video, and with the V10 light was very happy with the results.

Example of the shot straight out of the phone, and then the same shot after being edited in Lightroom. 

The post Take Your iPhone Underwater! first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Bluewater Photo has 6 amazing blue shark trips scheduled. The first two have completed, and were amazing! Everyone got photos of beautiful blue sharks. Now the real question is – will we make it onto the best shark diving in the world list?

Blue shark being hit with sunlight

Blue shark approaching an underwater photographer

We went out of San Pedro on the famous 73ft “Shark Boat”. Some people slept on the boat in the large bunks the night before. A great breakfast was waiting for us when we arrived.

We saw pods of Rizzo and Bottlenose dolphins on the way to our spot. Attempts to photograph the dolphins underwater were unsuccessful, but it was fun to try.

The famous “Shark Boat”

2.5 hours later, we were at the “spot”. Some of us went underwater for a quick bluewater dive looking for jellyfish. However, vis was poor, and the wind was pushing the boat quickly, so it was hard to take photos. It will be better with less wind.

Fried egg jelly

After we finished the bluewater photo dive, we checked the waters for blue sharks. None yet! However, we spotted a Mola mola near the boat. A couple people snorkeled over to the Mola, but it was swimming and it was hard to keep up with it. 3 of us jumped into the skiff and motored around looking for it. We found it!

Mola mola and diver in the open ocean

Saturday’s trip only had to wait 2 hours for sharks to show up. Then they stayed around the rest of the day. They had 3 sharks for 4 hours!!   We had to wait longer, it was about 4 hours when the first shark showed up. We saw 2 total, and everyone got some shots.

Blue shark swimming

Blue Shark biting the buoy line

Blue Shark getting very, very close

Captain Chris ran a great operation. Awesome crew, great food and great sharks. Special thanks to Chris, Ocean, Jeremy, and Paul. I can’t wait to go again! All photos on this page were taken this past Sunday, while snorkeling in my drysuit (lots of drag!), with my Nikon D7000, Tokina 10-17mm lens, dual YS-D1 strobes.

Join us in May on one of our Blue Shark trips!

The post Blue Sharks in California – amazing trip first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Last year was a busy year for us with eight Southern California trips and the popular SoCal Shootout.  2013 is shaping up to be just as strong with ten local photo trips already on the books, including the 3rd annual SoCal Shootout set for Sept 13-15.

Here’s a look at how our local trip calendar is shaping up:

February 10th – Catalina Island (Little Farnsworth, Valiant wreck, Long Point) on the Pacific Star – $125.00. More details here

March 2nd – Macro trip to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands on the Peace Boat – $135.00. More details here

April 7th – Ship rock and Rock Quarry, Catalina Island on the Pacific Star  – $125.00. More details here

June 23rd  – Four dives on Santa Barbara island on the Pacific Star  – $159.00

July 28th – Four awesome dives at Anacapa on the Peace Boat – $135.00

July 27th – Aug 3rd – Meet in Phoenix for our Sea of Cortez big animal trip – $2,295. More details here

August 25th – Catalina trip seeking black sea bass on the Pac Star – $125.00. Many guests’ favorite trip!

September 13th-14th – SoCal 2day Shootout at Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz Islands on the Peace Boat – $359.00. More details here

October 20th –  Oil Rigs and Wrecks on the Pac Star – $125.00

November 17th – Farnsworth banks on the Pac Star – $149.00

December 15th – Catalina West End, Albertson’s, and Emerald bay on the Pac Star – $125.00

All trips are 3 dives except for the Santa Barbara trip (4 dives) and the 2-day trip (9-10 dives). Peace boat trips leave out of Ventura, Pacific Star trips leave out of San Pedro.

We’ll have trip pages up for these soon but if you just can’t wait, send me an email at travis@bluewaterphotostore.com.

The post Local Bluewater Photo Trips for 2013 first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Colorful, beautiful, and devilishly quick.  Those are just some of the words I’ve heard people use to describe juvenile garibaldi.  These tiny versions of their parents, sporting their temporary iridescent blue spots, spend their days darting in and out of the shallow reefs.

Mirrored image? These two seem to be playing an optical illusion trick on us. 1/10, F22, ISO 100.

This past weekend I set out with the intent of capturing these speedy subjects, and portraying their elusive nature.  But how?  Certainly focusing, and then maintaining focus while they dart around would be near impossible, and frustrating to say the least.  My approach: let them come to me.

These little guys and gals seem to stay in a relatively small area of the reef (at least from my observations).  With that in mind, I set my dSLR to AF-C (release), utilizing the AE-L/AF-L button to focus.  This would allow me to set my focal plane at a specific distance, and leave it there.  By using the AE-L/AF-L button to focus, this freed up the shutter button to only release the shutter, so I could fire the trigger whenever my heart desired, whether or not the subject was in focus.  This allowed me to do two things:

1. By predetermining the focal distance, I could focus on another object at the same distance (a rock, for example), and then position my strobes for the ideal lighting and take test shots.
2. Once the focal plane and strobes were set, I could concentrate on timing and composition.

I decided on an aperture of F22 or higher to provide the depth of field I would need to get a majority of the fish in focus.

Anything but cryptic, this juvenile looks surprised as it peers from behind its algae hide-a-way. 1/10, F25, ISO 250.

You could do the same thing with any camera by determining the distance you want to compose the image, then keep the shutter pressed halfway down until the fish came into focus.  You would just have to repeat the pre-focus after each shot if you did not have a separate button for focusing.

For this shoot, I really wanted to capture and portray the speed and elusive nature of these colorful critters, so I decided to use really slow shutter speeds to show the movement (e.g. 1/1oth of a second).  By setting my camera to rear-curtain sync, the camera would expose the movements of the ambient light, before the strobes would fire at the end of the exposure, therefore freezing the motion and allowing for a colorful and sharp photo.

A pair of juvies chase each other around the reef. Their speed, combined with a shutter speed of 1/1o, shows the “streaks” of their movement and brings a sense of motion to the photograph.  1/10, F22, ISO 100.

All photographs were taken with a Nikon D7000, Sea&Sea Housing, Nikon 105mm macro lens, and dual Ikelite strobes.  Special thanks to Selky Charters for a great day on, and under, the water!

A young garibaldi, streaking across the frame, proudly showing off its gorgeous blue markings. 1/10, F22, ISO 100.

These two seemed to chase each other for most of the dive. It was great just to pull the camera from my eye and watch them hide behind my housing. 1/10, F22, ISO 100.

The post Capturing the Elusive first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Senorita poses in front of a red gorgonian. Nikon D7000 in Sea & Sea housing, Tokina 10-17mm at 10mm. 1/200, F16, ISO 200, uncropped.

Wow.  Just wow.  Get it while the gettin’s good!  Warm, blue water, and amazing viz awaited us as we made our way from the Catalina Express to the Dive Park at Avalon this past weekend.  When I say “warm” I mean 69°F at 70fsw.  Viz was easily 70’+.  It was gorgeous.  We planned on three dives, and we made the most of every descent.

Kelp bass stalk the vast schools of bait fish in the Dive Park.

This trip was designed to get my friend, Tracey, used to her brand-new MDX-7000 Sea & Sea housing that she bought from Scott at Bluewater Photo.  She’s preparing for a long trip to Raja Ampat in December with Underwater Photography Guide.  She and her husband flew in from Chicago to dive for the weekend.  Boy, did they get some great conditions!  Our first dive took us to the Sujac, and subsequent dives took us to the other end of the park.  For me, I enjoyed watching the kelp bass prey on the massive schools of sardines and other bait fish.  The sun shone brightly through the blue water throughout the day, making for some amazing underwater photo ops!  Get out there and dive!

A Garibaldi greets me at the west end of the Dive Park. Viz was amazing!

The post Great Conditions at the Dive Park first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

On the fourteenth of September, during the SoCal shootout, Andy, Patrick and Cindy went out in search of getting some shots to submit to the contest.  Little did they know, they were in for quite an amazing experience.

They had run into a huge Mola mola on the way down to Redondo Beach to dive, a mile or two off the shore of Hermosa Beach.  Around the same spot on their way back, they started to see lots of little Mola mola fins, and so started to chase them from the boat, with Patrick jumping in.  While snorkeling, Patrick said he saw a bat ray and quickly updated that to several bat rays.  “Holy Sh*t, I see thousands” were the next words out of his mouth.

True enough, Captain Andy could see thousands just hanging in the water.  Not swimming, but hanging. The boat was in about 120ft, and the bat rays were everywhere.  According to Andy, they all put some tanks on and tried to dive with them (leaving nobody on the boat with the anchor up – the boat and the divers drifted together), but the rays wanted no part of the divers and would gently swim off when approached. We assume this was a mating aggregation, but are not 100% sure.

“The cool part was diving / snorkeling with the Mola molas over this sea of bat rays” said Captain Andy.  After about 15 minutes of hanging with the Mola molas and bat rays, the trio decided to call it a day and headed home.  What an experience!

Note from the Bluewater photo staff: Patrick, Cindy and Andy are very, very  experienced divers. If they say thousands, they mean thousands! Well – at least 1,000.  They seemed very sure that there were at least 1,000. This is a very unique experience, and the first we have ever heard of such a large bat ray aggregation.

The bat ray photo was taken that day by Patrick Smith. Although he could see hundreds of bat rays at any one time, when he tried to swim closer to them for a shot, they would slowly move away, resulting in a photo that shows about a dozen bat rays.

The post Thousands of Bat Rays! first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.