Hello, Yea that was from robert capa ;) BTW this quote was for land use but it can apply underwater as well. I don't know where you get the 3ft as most of the photog's I shoot with use a longer distance. But then again the water tends to be clear. Now it's easier to get better photo's with macro as the density is way up there. I dont know of any photo that's taken 3' away from the humpback whales or whale sharks. I do know of a professional marine mammal photographer who was about 10' away from a BABY humpback whale w/ a 14mm lens and was just able to get about 1/2 of the head in the frame. Ed -----Original Message----- From: Christian Gerzner [mailto:christiang@cc*.co*.au*] Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 10:04 PM To: techdiver@aquanaut.com Cc: Ed Street Subject: RE: What Are the Circumstances where a rebreather is appropriate? Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 18:27:38 -0400, "Ed Street" <blacknet@ph*.ne*> wrote: > Well for nature photography it's cheaper, simpler and safer to put a > diffuser on the exhaust of an OC unit ;) Although you are right in saying that a diffuser is an option, there are not many photog out there who use one, probably considerably less than 1%. This is because they are (a) difficult to make (it helps if you're using a reg like the Oceanic Omega II) and (b) they severely distort (detrimentally) the breathing effort of the diver. > Besides your not fooling no one, > aquatic animals have eyes and can plainly see you. How very profound. > With the diffuser your exhaust is re-directed > behind your head out of your field of vision, the > bubbles/noise is seriously reduced. Its not because of the sight factor of bubbles that photogs would like a "bubbleless" system. The bubbles, of themselves, are not a particularly significant factor (some may beg to differ). As you say, the animal is likely to have seen/sensed you long before you see it. It is rather because of the NOISE (just like your noise) that bubbles make. Water is a much more efficient conductor of noise than air and the mere fact that these bubbles may now be a few inches behind your head rather than coming from your mouth has an insignificant effect on the noise created. Oh, and Ed, water and photography don't mix. Therefore 99% of u/w photographs are taken not more than 3 ft away from the subject and most are taken a great deal closer. Its why u/w lenses mostly range from 20mm right down to 13mm (extreme wide angle) and 50mm to 105mm (extreme close up). Telephoto is *not* an option underwater. It also means that those bubbles, never mind *where* they exhaust, are usually pretty damned close to the animal whose pic you're trying to take. A top photographer whose name escapes me for the moment has a saying: "if your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." Christian -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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