I got to take the G12 for its second dive yesterday when the Community Ecology (Comeco) Lab crew came over to Miniloc to check the house reef. Yay friends visiting my workplace! Still had difficulty manipulating the camera to get the look I wanted (so many buttons!) but it was a bit easier this time around. Hopefully it’ll become second nature by the time the 5th dive comes around? Haha!
This surgeonfish is feeding on the turfing algae on the rock. Tentative identification is lined bristletooth (Ctenochaetus striatus)Renmar dubbed this "The Big Ball of Awesome". This is what the school of bigeye scad (Selar crumenophthalmus) looks like from below.A schooling bannerfish (Heniochus acuminatus) with no school š
Today’s money shot is brought to you by:
A blue-spotted stingray (Taeniura lymma) getting cleaned by a cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)
Too bad about the suspended particles š
This would have been the money shot if the parrotfish just stood still for one second more:
A parrotfish (can't tell which species) getting cleaned by a cleaner wrasse
Aside from being Aids’ birthday and Valentine’s Day, February 14 also marked the day our department got our brand-spanking-new Ikelite underwater housing for our Canon G12. YAHOOOOO!!! Unfortunately, Kring was too afraid of wrecking itĀ (and the camera) to actually test it out. Fortunately, I have no such fear š
I tested the camera and housing this morning on a dive on the Miniloc house reef and it was glorious. As with all new gadgets, it took some getting used to. For one thing, the camera itself was unfamiliar. Haha. The G12’s been with Kring since it arrived last year so today was the first time I’d actually used it for an extended period of time. Case in point: I plugged in the strobe plug in the camera’s hotshoe. The thing is, I didn’t have a strobe. HAHA. End result: I disabled the on-camera flash and left myself with no other light source *facepalm* Second, the housing is humongous compared to the Canon S95 ultracompact housing that I’m used to. You need both hands to operate it – not easy when you’re trying to line up your shot and the current has other things in mind. Ah well.Ā Every dive is a learning experience š
I did manage to take some decent photos:
Red lionfish (Pterois volitans). General rule of the ocean: if it's colorful and moves slowly, it's dangerous.Giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis). This guy can reach up to 1.7 meters long!Bigeye scad (Selar crumenophthalmus). They're not particularly colorful but they're pretty impressive when you see them in schools.
