Moody black and white macro shots

I was lucky enough to be diving at Capernwray last Sunday. Congratualtions to Darryl Leaning on completing five PADI Instructor Specialities. It was a very busy day, that ensured limited visibility, together with rain and cloud making underwater conditions very gloomy.

I used the conditions to experiment with black background macro shots-by keeping my aperture small, and using only the light from my strobe to illuminate the subject. I then converted these into mono, using Lightroom.

I quite like the result-the perch loook like boxers to me! Kind of bruised but still with attitude!

Taking the bow!

Wetpixel Flikr Group

I am an administrator of Wetpixels Flickr group, and have been spending some time recently adding and inviting images to it. It is a spin off from the Wetpixel site, which to me mind is the best source for info on underwater photography available on the web. It now has 1462 members, and is one of the largest underwater photography groups on Flickr. Probabaly more telling, the group's pool now has some 23754 images!

A friend who has recently go into underwater photography was bemoaning the fact that he had a lot of great images, but never got to show them to anyone. Groups like this on Flickr are a great way of showcasing your pictures, and getting them to a wide audience! Best of all they are absolutely free! Even if you don't take pictures underwater yourself, the quality and variety of images on the group make for a fascinating visual feast! Join up today!

Walking in Eskdale, Lake District

I have been lucky to have had a week off, travelling first down to North Devon to visit my parents. They have moved and run a fantastic Bed and Breakfast, at Chittlehamholt, very close to the fantastic beaches and scenery of the North Devon coast. Their www site is here. Caron and I took the dogs down with us and had fantastic walks along the beach at Saunton and at Instow

We then travelled up and spebnt a few nights in Eskdale, close to Wastwater, in the Lake District. Again, we travelled with the dogs, so spent our time walking with them. Caron's sister and brother in law (Caroline and Rob) joined us with their dogs too-so we had quite a pack. I took these pictures while we were walking up around Irton Pike, one of the view towards the coast (as a panorama) and the other looking up into Wasdale

Seth playing in the sea (and Jacob looking cute!)

I've added some pictures from earlier this summer to my pets and animals page on my web site We went down the the slipway at high tide on a sunny day and messed about! Seth enjoyed fetching his ball out of the waves an Jacob just chilled out being cute!

More 60mm f2.8 pictures

Some more shots from yesterday. The bokeh on this lens really impresses me

Gnarly old trout!

Congratulations to Scott Evans for completing his PADI Digital Underwater Photography and EANx specialities yesterday. DUP is of course an excellent excuse for me to get my camera in the water at the same time! I was trying out my "new" Nikkor 60mm f2.8. I got it at the same time as my 105mm VR and it has played second fiddle to the longer lens for a while. I have found that it is a REALLY sharp lens, that focuses fast and is a great length for fish portaits.

While diving with it yesterday here at Capernwray, I found this battered old brown trout. Trout, when they reach a certain age, develop a pronounced hook jaw (when they are called a kype), and in the last stages of their lives, darken in colour.

I've added more pictures from the day to my www site here

Morecambe Bay sunset HDR

Slave strobes at Capernwray

A black and white shot from the shoot with Alex that I mentioned earlier!

More black and white seal shots from the Farne Islands