Up and Under

As i mentioned before i have purchased an underwater housing for when i go to Florida in a weeks time, It may sound extravagant to spend best part of $500 for something to use on holiday but i intend to use it quite a bit after, Yesterday i went down to a lake and walked along one of the small streams that feeds it, The stream drops down to the lake making small brooks so i thought i would try and get some half in half out shots, I did this for a while moving up as i went and then a small fish jumped out and shot off down stream, I noticed some splashing in a small brook further up so crept along and could see 3 fish 6-8 inches long, I got into postion and slowly put the camera in, The fish moved further up the brook and huddled in the corner, i took some shots and then waited hoping they would relax and move down, They did a couple of times but were very fast, I was against the clock as i had my wife and dog with me but eventually one fish broke away and came and rested right infront of me, I managed a handful of shots before it was gone and i moved off, The biggest problem with using a bag housing is that you need to set the camera up before putting it in the bag as once in the controls are nearly impossible to use, I set my Nikon D3 and 16-35 to 20mm, I used AV and -1//3 which seemed about right, I still need to try it completely underwater and thats something for this weekend, I can see lots of uses for this bag housing such as with the fish or taking images of fisherman from some funky angles
This is me in action taken by Marian on her iPHONE

Dave

Just when you think you are sorted

When i purchased all my new Nikon gear i was very particular in what lenses i got, I bought purely for full frame cameras knowing that they would work well on a cropped body, The wides include the 14-24 and 24-70, mid range covered by the 70-200 and 200-400 and then the 600 big gun, so if you look every millimetre is covered when extenders are taken into consideration, so i wouldn't need to buy any more lenses-right-well up until now yes but then i came across a small problem, The 14-24 doesn't fit the underwater housing that i have and i think that the 24-70 may be abit long for the manatee shots as i hope they get very close, it also extends abit at the wide (24mm end) and is very tight in the housing which tries to compress the lens to about 50mm unless i tape it up, So last Friday i pulled the trigger on the new Nikon 16-35 F4 VR, It doesn't extend like the 24-70 and will be about the same length as the 24-70 closed so will be easier to get in the housing, Now it may seem extravagant to fork out nearly $1300 for 2 days with the manatees and i guess it is but it has a couple of bonuses over the 14-24, firstly it takes filters and secondly it has VR which most people may seem over the top for a wide but it may save the day underwater, I have ummed and arred for a month about getting the lens but at the end of the day i can always sell it after the trip if i feel it wont be used much as i have the focal length covered by other lenses-time will tell, it should arrive here Tuesday so i will give it a workout at the local pool some time next week

New Set up and New Gear

I have continued with the garden wildlife, Whilst the fox is proving elusive i watched it last night eating seeds that had fallen or been knocked off of the bird feeders so at least i know its coming into the garden, The old branch that i had been using decided to collapse the other night so i have removed it for the time being, Its pretty rotten and a new one needs to be found, I decided to move the set up down the garden a bit, My garden is very small so there i didn't have to move it far, There are a couple of decent sized trees at the edge of the property and i decided to use the base of the tree as a place to shoot, The root doesn't stick up too far so an ideal place to put some food without it being seen in the image, I wanted the animals to find it straight away as the hide was in the place of the old set up and i didn't want them sniffing around the hide, I decided to smear some peanut butter up the tree as it has a strong odour, It worked, I watched an opossum come out of the woods in the farm and after sniffing the air came directly to the set up, I took a couple of shots but it decided to leave, after 30 mins another one came followed shortly after by another, These 2 stayed for 5 minutes before leaving and 10 minutes later a huge opossum came wandering out and had a sniff around, So a good start to a new set up, I used the D300 and 200-400 and once again under estimated the size of these animals and at 200mm i struggled to get them all in including the tail and with 2 there it was impossible so i went for closer images,
I am off to Florida for a couple of weeks next month (cant wait) and have a couple of days shooting manatees under water-my camera housing arrived yesterday and i managed an hour playing with it last night, Its a compromise as a proper one costs upwards of $2500 including ports etc so i got one of these, Basically the most expensive plastic bag in the world, Cumbersome to say the least, You basically have to set your camera up and then just press the shutter button as once its in the bag its almost impossible to change any buttons, So AV and AF will be used and the D3 will become a point and shoot-We will see how it goes-fingers crossed

Dave