Here’s a gallery of some more of my shots from St. Kitts and Saba aboard the Caribbean Explorer II. My camera is an Olympus XZ-1 inside the Olympus PT-050 Underwater housing. Lighting was done using a Sola 1200 Underwater Video Light from Light and Motion along with the flash from the camera and a diffuser. Click on any image to enlarge it and click on the arrows on either side for a slideshow. Enjoy!
Flame Scallop
Juvenile Drum Fish
Caribbean Lobster
Flamingo Tongue
Arrow Crab
Barrel Sponge
French Angel
Blue tube sponge
Spotted Filefish
Spotted Moray Eel
Lion Fish
Coral head
Turtle shell (as he swam by)
Starfish on the Wreck of the River Tau
Sea Urchin
Turtle with Remora Hitchhiking
Scorpion Fish well disguised
Green Anemone
Feather Duster
Arrow Crab by Cathy Ulrich
Trunk Fish
Cephalopod’s Domicile by Cathy Ulrich
Orange Frog Fish by Cathy Ulrich
Love,
Cathy
All photos copyrighted by Cathy Ulrich
©CathyUlrich and LargeSelf, 2012
Thank you for sharing your gorgeous and fascinating photos, Cathy!
Russ
You’re welcome, Russ. I’m glad you liked them! Cathy
brilliant
Thanks very much! – Cathy
Wow, such colorful pictures! I wish I could go diving to see those fish!
I wish you could, too, Elisa. You would love it. And it is so colorful! Thanks for stopping by.
Cathy
These are amazing, Cathy. Did you see any sting rays? I love sting rays.
Yes, we saw a few sting rays. I got a couple of shots of them covering themselves with sand on the bottom, but they didn’t come out very well. I love sting rays, too! I’ll post a few pictures, just for you, MW, from our dive trip last year to Grand Cayman where we did a special dive at “Stingray City.” They’re not as good as the ones I got this year because they were taken with my old camera, but there are still a few decent ones. Cathy
These are so great! I’ve looked into getting a waterproof housing for my Nikon DSLR, but have been dissuaded by the price…(the housing costs more than the camera/lens!!) Any recommendations for a good alternative?
Yes! Like you, I own a Nikon DLSR, but when I looked into underwater housings for it, the housing was going to cost three times as much as the camera! Not to mention the strobes, etc. And the housings for DLSRs is huge – very bulky to travel with. So I did a lot of research on more compact systems. What I discovered was that a key component in the quality of photos is the size of the sensor in the camera and that is one of the things that distinguishes DSLRs. The larger the sensor (rather than the number of megapixels) is a better indicator for photo quality. So a few manufacturers are now making more compact cameras with larger sensors. I went with the Olympus XZ-1 and the housing made by Olympus (PT-050). Camera and housing together costs about $700. Then for about $200 more, you can get an Olympus digital viewfinder that can be inserted in the hot shoe on the camera to make it as close to a DSLR as possible (for land photography – won’t fit in the housing). Canon also offers a similar setup (large sensor compact camera with additional housing) for a little more (but I’ve just never been a Canon person). I love this new set-up and it blows me away with the quality of UW photos I’m getting. Hope this helps, Searunner! Let me know if you have other questions.
Cathy
Thanks for that reply Cathy! Yes, I couldn’t believe the pricing for those underwater housings.. That’s sound advice on the Olympus though. $700 for an underwater setup that’ll get pictures like that isn’t bad at all! Especially seeing as you can double it as a land camera. I have a small Olympus point and shoot that is waterproof, but it doesn’t have a designated underwater mode, and thus it’s tough to get an underwater shot that isn’t washed out in blue. I’ll look into the XZ-1. I’ve spent some time in the tropics, and it’s always frustrating not being able to capture all the amazing fish while snorkeling. Look forward to seeing more of your posts Cathy. Thanks again!
-Stewart