Cuttle corner

Cottage Reef is a great shore dive halfway between Queenscliff and Pt Lonsdale. The reef is about 50m off shore with max depth of 8m.

You can reliably find cuttles and schools of old wives here and even sea dragons if you're observant.

This adolescent cuttle was just as interested in me as I was in him.




It's quite photogenic with colourful invertebrate growth under deep kelp covered ledges.

The rocky reef faces north so you can often shoot up into the sun with colourful sponges and gorgonians in the foreground.

St Leonards nudibranchs

I never look for nudibranchs these days. Seems I can't resist putting on the fisheye lens every dive.

But that doesn't mean the nudis aren't there, have a close look at the pink sponge in this shot of a pile.

Two tiny Noumea haliclona slugs snuck into the frame without me knowing. Didn't pick them up till weeks after I uploaded the shot to Flickr.

For such an un-assuming little fishing pier St Leonards provides wonderful photo opportunities, both macro and wide angle. 

Probably the best feature is that it's protected from SW winds, so when the ocean is a churning mess of swells this spot is a calm haven.

Macro lens mount in use

Next week has arrived and the weather is calm and the water is chilly and clear.

Here's a video of the lens holder being used on a St Leonards Pier photo dive.

Ozone Paddle Steamer split level

Just 50m offshore from the Indented Head caravan park and in 3m, lies the paddle steamer Ozone.

It's a great spot for a snorkel or shallow dive and a great spot for split level photos. Some days the vis is even better than this.

The Ozone was sunk in 1925 as a breakwater for the little beach nearby.

Coogee Wreck and Castle Rock

I was invited to dive on Freediver, Alan Beckhurst and Mary Malloy's excellent dive boat.

Surface conditions were not inviting at all with up to 20kn SW and rain on the forcast. There was a nasty short steep swell with wind chop making the heads quite exciting.

I used the 18 -55mm kit lens because I didn't know where we were diving. Should have used the 15mm FE in the wonderful blue 15 to 20m vis.

Many of my wide shots were underexposed using 1/60th and f/8 at ISO200 but salvagable. Could have increased the ISO and aperture maybe.

Camera issue of the day: At 32m I found one of the buttons was stuck down preventing any speed or aperture changes. I was probably a little narced so it took a while before I found the offender and freed it up. That was the main reason for underexposed images.

Cottage wide angle

Strong northerlies, 30c, nothin else to do. Let's go to Cottage by the sea Reef.

Swell was up a bit and vis was bad at 3m, and slack was late so we had a bit of current to battle at first.

Didn't expect any decent shots but by putting the strobes out as far as they could go and keeping them well behind the port, backscatter wasn't too bad a problem. Photos here.

Also there is much less sand in the water under the ledges.

Wide angle settings 15mm Fisheye - Cottage Reef

Strong N wind and early high slack meant Cottage was the site for today's dive. Cottage must be dived when the tide is ebbing. The flood tide creates dangerously strong current here.

The water was flat enough but vis was bad due to continuing strong winds which stir up the bay. However it was a beautiful warm sunny day so there was no stopping Trevor and I.

With wide angle you can open up the aperture to about f/8 - f/16 and still have heaps of depth of field. Camera shake is less of a problem so slower shutter speeds like 1/30th - 1/90th can be used.

All of this means lighter sunlit backgrounds and water can be captured. You have more scope to balance the background exposure with the flash lit subject in the foreground.

Ideally you need good vis for wide angle so today was a struggle.
Strobes need to be placed further out from the lens to avoid backscatter. Not many keepers from this dive.

Issue of the day was .... loading the camera into the housing with the shutter release lever rotated 180 deg. This meant the shutter could not be operated. Had to pull the camera out and rotate the lever into the correct position. Lucky I tested it before leaving home.

Macro settings - St Leonards

St Leonards Pier. Strong off shore (W-NW) meant flat water and good vis for a change. New buddy John Mc checked the vis earlier and gave the thumbs up.

It was a real nudi finding day with 6 different species and one of them new to me, some sort of Polycera maybe. Have a look here.

The 60mm lens aperture can stop down to f/32, way smaller than the Coolpix f/8. This means much more flash power is needed. To increase flash power I have removed the diffusers from the Inons and turned them up to -2 or -3. With the Coolpix I was struggling with too much power at the minimum -5 power setting even with diffusers.

My standard macro settings are 1/125 sec, f/22, ISO 200, WB Auto.
To lighten the background water I might use 1/60th and for really dark subjects I'll increasing the strobe power.

18-55mm kit lens with +2 dioptre at The Springs

St Leonards was flat but had zero vis so I toddled across the peninsula to The Springs, Pt Lonsdale. From shore the water looked calm and clear-ish but this is a shallow exposed site. The surge and stirred up sand made photography tricky. Vis was no more than 5m.

This is a great site for marine algae, or seaweed, having tons of different species. I am currently building up a collection of marine algae images for a proposed Port Phillip ID guide so seaweed it was for today. I also wanted to try the kit lens with +2 dioptre for middle range close ups.

The +2 brought focus plenty close enough, maybe 10cm from the dome. At f/8 there was corner softness in some shots but certainly not excessive. These are the keepers.

I had one issue to begin with. I couldn't turn the camera on. After a few panicked seconds I realized the button that activates the self timer was depressed. Once I lifted it and worked out how to cancel the timer all was well.

60mm macro at Popes Eye

Sunday 7th saw us heading out to Popes Eye in a cold choppy SW wind.

Half way out we paused to watch a seal pup flinging something tasty around tearing off big chunks. Looked like a big cuttle or snapper.
There was another big male seal snoozing on the rocks at the entrance to The Eye.

Vis was about 5m and the current added lots of suspended sand to the water. Still hanging out for a nice clear calm day.
The macro once gain performed nicely with a few interesting nudis around. Here are the results.

Tried a few fish shots which is now possible with the excellent and quick auto focus.

60mm macro at St Leonards

Vis still crappy at 2m with some wind chop. Northern pacific seastars are persisting but when you're desperate anywhere will do. Some photos here

Still awkward looking through the viewfinder and realized today that it was my reg clashing with the sync cord socket preventing getting close enough but will look for a lower profile mask also.

Blairgowrie marina 60mm macro

Jan, Trevor, Rich and I set off in the boat to Blairgowrie. It was a choppy trip over with 10kn easterly but conditions were great at the marina. This is probably the best pier dive in the bay. So many nudibranchs, gobies, blennies, crabs, cephalopods and abundant fixed life.

The 60mm macro was sensational here. 75 min and 100 shots passed too quickly. Here are the results.

We called in to Portsea Pier on the way back but recent pile works and annoying surge detracted from the dive. 2 dives at Blairgowrie in the future.

This was the first decent dive with the new rig. In a word.....awesome.
Now I feel like I am only limited by what I can find rather than whether the equipment can capture it.

18-55mm kit lens at Cottage, flat port.

16th Sept 07

Strong northerlies so St Leonards was out but tide was right for Cottage. This time I wanted to test the 18-55mm kit lens. All I had was the flat port for the 60mm macro but that would have to do. I was keen to try anything.

Once again the camera was a delight to use and I could see much more of the view with my old mask. The kit lens still focussed quickly and accurately even though a dome port is recommended. Again vis was not brilliant at 5m maybe.

Here are the images. Some nice bright and saturated images but some looked a little flat. Internal reflections became visible at 35mm when the lens was at it's shortest physical length.