DIVELOG JUNE 406

www.dive2000.com.au

C uttlefish are excellent marine life subjects, their ability to change colour and skin texture combined with their natural curiosity of us provides great opportunities to capture good images. The Importance of Surroundings & Backgrounds

Although I have photographed these before I am always looking for opportunities to improve on my previous images. Photography is not really about competing with others, it’s really about challenging yourself to create even better images than before. One of the best ways to achieve this is to always consider the surroundings or background in your images or at least the other attractive elements surrounding your subject rather than just pursuing images of the main subject. That is exactly what I did with this Mourning Cuttlefish. Image by Kevin Deacon. Location : Dive Site, Pipeline, Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, NSW. Genre : Macro Photography. Photography Data : ISO 100, F22 & 1/125th second. Nikon

D800, 60 MM Macro Lens, Seacam Housing & Seacam Strobes. Photo Hints : Instead of shooting a few images and moving on in search of other subjects, invest more time with the interesting subject you have and assuming it’s roaming the seafloor, follow and observe the habitat looking for moments when the surroundings or background is much more appealing than where the subject was originally. Accomplished photographers refer to this as `Making An Image Rather Than Taking An Image’ Interesting Facts : There are a great many species of Cephalopods, commonly known as Octopus, Cuttlefish & Squid. They all provide wonderful, unique Images for the patient photographer. Scientific Name : Sepia plangon

Kevin Deacon is a pioneer of Underwater Photography. His images have been published World Wide in prestigious books, magazines and advertising media. Kevin & Cherie Deacon operate DIVE 2000 based at Sydney’s, Northern Beaches providing Photo Guided Dive Travel Tours, Photo Guided Africa Wildlife Safaris, Sales of Underwater Photographic Equipment & Training www.dive2000.com.au

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DIVE LOG Australasia #406 - June ‘24