In underwater photography, taking wide angle pictures is quite difficult.
The main challenge is to find the right exposure balance between available light exposed background and brought in light from strobes in the foreground.
Local boy - Arborek Island, Raja Ampat
A second challenge is to find the right framing of the image. This is not only about spotting an interesting scenery - such as the giant octopus sitting on top of the reef (see left) - but also around framing that scenery in a way not to capture bubbles from other divers, not to have unwanted light effects when the sunlight is shining in from the wrong side, and being able to isolate the main subject in the wide frame of the underwater reefscape.
In order to get the right framing and brought in light it is important to move as close as possible to respective subjects. Since light refraction is stronger underwater than on air and light from strobes is absorbed on short distance through the water there is no way around using extreme wide angle lenses and moving to a very close focusing point.
The underwater photographers challenge here is not to make too much noise and bubbles in order not to scare away the marine protagonists.
While for the boy on the right this was not a topic, the octopus needed to be approached slowly until he adapted to the presence of a scuba diver with big camera gear and making strange bubbles.
Exposure of schooling fish - such as the school of glass fish (see left) - can be difficult too. Given the fact that part of the skin of fish is highly reflective or on the other extreme completely transparent just automatic exposure metering does not work out.
However, in the digital times a series of exposures and varying strobe positions will do the job.
Are you tired of standard smartphone wallpapers coming with the recent version of the operating system?
Here is a selection of three of my this years' best photographs prepared to match your smartphone screen. - Three images all telling an individual story by means of the subject shown, the photographic technique applied to capture them, and the story to be told around the individual location and situation when taking the shots.
Download your wallpaper image prepared for your specific phone from the downloads page of my website (see screen shot below) at http://www.andreasrmueller.com/#!/p/wallpapers
If your smartphone model is not listed just pick one with matching screen resolution or drop me a note through the contact form on the website.
The selected images are representatives of all three photographic techniques I have been applying throughout this year.
"Winter-1" is a view from Mount Rigi in central Switzerland right after sunset on a very cold evening in February using my digital DSLR equipment.
More images from that same evening can be found in my image archive at link.
"Coral" is an underwater photography shot from a trip to Raja Ampat and the eastern Maluku islands in Indonesia. This image has been taken at one of the most beautiful dive spots called Gorgonian Passage in the Misool area using a digital DSLR in underwater housing and external strobes.
For more interesting underwater images follow this link.
"Lavender" was taken mid July in the area of Valensole in the Provence, France.
This detail image has been captured on film using a all mechanical Hasselblad 500 c/m camera.
I started the year 2015 in Bangka and Manado, North-Sulawesi, Indonesia on a three weeks trip with Murex Dive Resorts. Bangka is a little quiet island at the northern tip of North-Sulawesi. Located between the most famous and crowded scuba diving destinations Lembeh Strait in the east and Bunaken marine park in the west the are around Bangka island offers some hidden treasures of marine wildlife.
Bangka island
I rarely was diving in areas where on one dive you could experience highest variety of coral, offering scenic wide angle photography opportunities, in combination with a high density of macro wildlife such as several species of pigmy seahorses, ghost pipe fish, and countless species of nudibranch.
The Murex Bangka resort is built in a little bay at a calm white sandy beach surrounded by jungle. The perfect place to indulge into a relaxed island lifestyle.
The last week of our stay we spent at Murex Manado which is a resort to the south-west of the city of Manado. It is a beautiful place built into a overwhelming tropical garden. From there boat trips to Bunaken offering best in class wall dives but also to some of the most famous muck diving places in the area are possible.
In May 2015 we made another scuba diving trip with MSV Amira in West-Papua, Indonesia. The itinerary of this trip was from Sorong on the West-Papua mainland to the archipelago of Misool and from there following the chain of islands in the east Banda sea towards Saumlaki on the island of Jamdena.
This trip offered scuba diving in very remote places. Given the bad weather conditions we had to spend more days than planned in the Misool area. However, this would bring us to dive spots such ass the sites around Pulau Jef Pele which are not usual destinations on Misool trips. Afterwards we were heading Pulau Koon south east of the island of Seram. And further to Pulau Bui, Pulau Kalbur, Pulau Nitu to reach our final destination the harbour in the bay of Saumlaki on Pulau Jamdena.
I did not only do underwater wildlife photography this year. In November I was shooting the SCKA annual swimming tournament (refer to older post). For the first time I took my underwater equipment along and took some pictures below the surface.
Interesting are the pictures of the swimming kids turning at the end of the lane either from the side or when approaching from the front.
This was all of my 2015 underwater photography work. I did two more cold water dives in Swiss lakes. One in the lake of Zug and one in the lake Lucerne. But both without a camera.
Two slide shows from our last (November 2013) underwater photography trip to Raja Ampat, West-Papua (unfortunately we were not able to visit the Wayag islands for political reasons) and to Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi.
Looking forward to another underwater photography trip to the heart of the coral triangle.
First a liveaboard (http://www.amira-indonesia.com) tour to Raja Ampat (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_Ampat) including the spectacular Wayag islands.
And second a stay at Lembeh (http://www.diverslodgelembeh.com) island with muck dives along the Lembeh Strait.
Another spectacular underwater photography trip aboard the MSV Amira (www.amira-indonesia.com) goes to an end.
The ten day cruise started and ended at the harbour of Sorong in West-Papua, Indonesia.
In between we visited the most exciting dive spots around the Kri and Mansuar islands, in the area of Penemu, the muck diving area in the south of Batanta, and spots in the south east of Misool.
The present book is a photo report of a scuba diving exploration tour aboard the MV Raja Ampat Explorer in the Raja-Ampat and Triton Bay area in West-Papua, Indonesia. The tour took place in April 2009.
Starting point was the harbour of Sorong located at the north western tip in the indonesian part of the New Guinea main land.
The tour brought us to the most beautiful dive spots of Misool. From there via the Pisang Islands, Momon Waterfall and Kaimana to the Triton Bay area.
Triton Bay offers some of the most spectacular dive spots on earth by means of its marine biodiversity.
After exploring the islands around Triton Bay for a couple of days, we crossed the Ceram Sea again to reach Koon Island in the Banda Sea.
From Koon we transfered back to Misool and from there further north to Kri in the Raja Ampat area before ending our tour in the harbour of Sorong again.
The underwater photographers challenge here is not to make too much noise and bubbles in order not to scare away the marine protagonists.
