December 1, 2008 and it’s the third day of great dives at Nelson Bay during the practical sessions of our Kevin Deacon Beyond the Basics underwater photography course. As usual the last two days had turned on calm, clear water and fantastic subjects among the soft corals & sponge gardens of Fly Point.
Today I decided to take our group to Pipe Line, Nelson Bay, famous for special macro critters, especially seahorses. It’s a perfect day, a cloudless sky, 20 degrees water temperature and as the site is only 12 meters deep, we knew we could spend plenty of time in pursuit of our subjects.
At the site we descended through the calm, clear water and I turned our divers loose in buddy pairs to enjoy their photo excursion. I had a mission also; I was shooting a new genre of underwater photography I have developed which I call, extreme wide angle macro, a style that utilises new lenses in combination with special port optics to create images that reveal macro subjects and a wide angle view of their habitat.
It is a new genre that I have been very successful with recently and have now introduced to my new photo courses. Images captured over the last two days had been greeted with amazement and enthusiasm from the other photographers in the group. Properly equipped for solo diving with my twin 7 litre cylinders of nitrox, dual regulators, four Gig capture card in my Nikon D200, Seacam housing with twin
Thirty minutes into the dive and I discover a dark coloured seahorse sharing a small yellow sponge with a decorator crab. Unusual, as according to seahorse authority David Harasti, they don’t often associate closely. However the combination makes a perfect subject for my extreme wide angle macro style so I settle in for a shooting session.
Before long I have some nice images exposed and composed to my satisfaction and I am simply studying my subjects through the viewfinder in case I have missed something when I notice the seahorse spasm and a tiny head poke out through the abdominal pouch. A heartbeat later and 10 tiny babies explode into the water column and swiftly disappear in the gentle current. Fortunately my trigger finger didn’t fail me as this amazing event occurred and to my delight several groups of babies burst forth in front of my lens, I was able to witness and capture one of the most amazing, emotive moments I have ever witnessed in 45 years under the sea.
Exiting the water, packing up my gear and driving home to Sydney today was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Leaving behind the beautiful scenery of
At home I made a call to David Harasti who today is still studying the Seahorses of Port Stephens, especially since I had noted all the details carefully including the site number where I found the seahorse. David was delighted to have the news and is keen to see if it is one of his tagged specimens. As delighted as only David can be he confessed to being envious, hardly anyone has ever witnessed seahorse birth in the wild, he has never seen it and is not aware of successful images of the event. He can’t wait to see the pictures.
More images at http://www.dive2000.com/blog/KevinsComments/KevsPhotos
