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D3X goes underwater

deepdiver

New member
Yes, I finally decided to up-grade my underwater photography equipment :p
I used to dive with Nikon D50 and D80.
Now I'm using my D3X for underwater photography :)

I had a really great time working with D3X for underwater photography... the AF was very wonderful.

Now I want to share some pics from it.
(All picture were taken using Nikon 16/2.8 Fisheye Lens and Nikon 105 VR)

This is the hotel where I stayed in Bali (Located at Tulamben)
It's a very nice hotel, all i have to do if i want to go dive, is grab my dive gear then walk to the beach in front of my hotel.
With a short swim distance (around 3-5 minutes only) I can reach the Liberty ship wreck.
It's a very nice dive spot.




the coral at Liberty Wreck



A giant sea Fan at 80 feet



Angel Fish on the coral



On of the original canon on the wreck that already full with hard and soft coral



continue....
 
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deepdiver

New member
on the soft coral, if we stop for a while and take a closer look to it, examine every details of it, we can find a soft coral crab (of course you need some luck too)
the size of this crab is about 1- 1,5 cm only.

The Yellow one



The White one



On this trip I was really looking foward to see a yellow pigmy sea horse. Pigmy sea horse is a smallest sea horse in the world, that live on a sea fan. It's really hard to find one and usually they live on a deep sea, around 90-120 feet. Therefore to take a picture of it, it's not easy... first we need to find it, after we find one, we have to take a picture of it really quick! otherwise I will enter decompression dive mode, which is not good...
at 100 - 120 feet, i believe we only have around 6 minutes before entering decompression dive.

I was lucky on that day! I found 1 yellow pigmy sea horse ^.^

This is my original position when I found the pigmy sea horse ( it was behind some of the sea fan branches)



then I move around a bit, to find a better spot




Aside from pigmy sea horse, I also found a very beautiful harlequin shrimp.




and a pair of white nudibranch (matting)


On the way back to the surface, I also found a lot of creatures ^^

Blue Ribbon Eel



Leaf Scorpion Fish



Moray Eel



then finally at 15 feet, I found this beautiful Nemo ^^




I really enjoy this dive trip ^^
Thanks for Looking

Andree
 
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Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Andree, those captures are beyond awesome. I hope you will have them published in some sort of nature science magazine. You'd probably know the right media yourself.
Congrats with your new underwater equipment, and congrats with the spectacular captures of the rare Yellow Pigmy Sea Horse. You have done a phenomenal job.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Andree Thats some beautiful work! Shooting underwater is not easy but I am in envy of your equipment. Using a D3X would be more than I could risk .

What housing did you buy for the d3x?
 

David K

Workshop Member
Andree, wonderful shots, I love underwater photography. I never even heard of a Harlequin Shrimp before this... but what an apt name. What's your lighting setup and how do you meter.
 

deepdiver

New member
Hi Steen.
thank for the comments :)
to be honest I dunno any nature magazine that want to publish my picture hahahhahaa :p
Actually beside the yellow pigmy sea horse, I found a red one too! (after a couples dives on the same area)
I will post a picture of it too later.

Hi Roger,
Yes, It's very risky to use D3X for underwater shooting, I dunno what's inside my head >_< hahahhaha
btw, I'm using Sea and Sea PRO MDX D3 + Sea and Sea YS 250 Pro 2 units for lighting.

I really like Sea and Sea housing :)
 

deepdiver

New member
Andree, wonderful shots, I love underwater photography. I never even heard of a Harlequin Shrimp before this... but what an apt name. What's your lighting setup and how do you meter.
Hi david,
Glad that u like my pictures :)
did you know that a harlequin shrimp always live with star fish? because they eat the star fish!! :D
Yes, they really eat the star fish slowly... day by day, until nothing left.

About the lighting setup,
I always shooting under Manual mode on my DSLR and my strobes (in this one i was using 2 units of sea and sea YS 250 pro with diffuser).
it's kind of try and error base for metering the light, however since I do shots a lot of underwater macro photography, so by just looking at the distance of the subject to my camera, I can tell already how much power on the strobes should I use in order to get the right amount of light.
Most of the time, I only use 1/2 of the power from the strobes :)
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Andree, we've had the sad news about the terrible earthquakes in Padang and Bengkulu on the western coast of Sumatra.
I hope you are well, where are you located in Indonesia ?
 
A

ALau

Guest
Nice shots. esp the eel staring/marvelling at the D3X.
I would love to see the D3X setup as well.
 

deepdiver

New member
Andree, we've had the sad news about the terrible earthquakes in Padang and Bengkulu on the western coast of Sumatra.
I hope you are well, where are you located in Indonesia ?
Hi Steen, Thank you for your kind attention :)
I'm very lucky that I live on the south coast of Sumatra. I did not feel the earth quake at all, it's a huge one....
Lately so many earth quake happened in Indonesia ( 2 week ago, a small earth quake in Bali) so weird.
 

deepdiver

New member
Thx guys for all the comments :)

now i want to show u the red pigmy seahorse that i found on the other day.
I managed to get only 2 shots, it's wasn't very good one... due to the strong current :(




this one is a White Crinoid Crab



Yellow Crinoid Shrimp



Orange Christmas Tree (it's worm actually)



Poisonous Scorpion Fish



Alau, Sorry I dont have the picture of the D3X setup right now.
Once I get home, i will post it for u :)

Andree
 
M

Mango

Guest
Thank you, this is all so beautiful! And you have great skill in capturing their beauty for the world to see.
 

Heidi

New member
Andree, these photos are incredible! Thanks for sharing a world that very few of ever get to see. Can't wait to see more.
 

deepdiver

New member
Hi Guys!
Once again thx you for all the comments :)
and I want to apologize for the delay of this reply (I was out of town)

here we go:
Housing : Sea and Sea MDX PRO D3
Strobe : Sea and Sea YS 250 PRO (With Diffuser on it)
Lens Port for Nikon 105 VR : Athena Japan
Arms : 2 small one from ULCS , 2 big one from Inon Mega Float Arms

Please take a note that In this pictures I did not install the cable that connected the strobes to the housing .
Also on the left mega float Arm, I installed a small plate to attach a Wet diopter Lens.

here are the simple picture of the housing










All pics were taken using Nikon D80 + 35/1.8 + SB 800 :D
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Wow. Looks very high-tech and pro, I guess it doesn't come entirely free with the D3X :angel:
Isn't it a bit of a heavy rig to maneuver due to the resistance from the water ?
 
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