DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

The adults are plain grey but the juveniles are electric blue and very photogenic. They will move back and forth across their territory angrily trying to avoid your gaze and simultaneously threatening you to leave. You wait at a mid-point and try to shoot your photo as they pass back and forth every one or two minutes. As they enter the frame of the camera, you have a few milliseconds each time. You need to stay alert. Slow breathing is mandatory. I try to start the dive with a controlled descent, fin pivoting and then mid water hovering. At the same time, I take ten deep slow breaths and get into a good slow breathing rhythm. When you encounter a good subject, try to slow your breathing down as much as possible. Take your photo between inhalations or exhalations, i.e. when you are still. Try to exhale quietly and then inhale slowly over a longer time. I call it ‘breathing through your ears.’ Creep in slowly and let the fish know that you are not behaving like a threat. It might help to avoid direct eye contact with a nervous fish. Slow movements give the fish confidence to behave more normally. General techniques.

If possible, get low and sneak in at a snail’s pace.

Be patient and take your time. When you are close enough, it might help to gaze directly into the eyeball of a Weedy Sea Dragon and communicate calm thoughts. It is quite amazing to have them stare back at you deep into your eyes and then behave normally, feeding in your torchlight. It is almost as if they understand that you are not a threat. If you stay put in one place, some fish will approach you after a few minutes. That is why the underwater sprint style of diving is totally unsuitable for fish photography.

You can even try messing with the fish’s mind. Pretend you are not interested in it. The fish will be emboldened and

Occasionally you will be rewarded with a special moment suh as this “Odd one out” fish school.

77

Dive Log Australasia #415 DECEMBER ’25

www.divelog.net.au