Cave Pictures Yucatan

[gwndwn]

Well I'm not sure if this is the best category for these but here goes......My first attempt at underwater cave photography. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[riteflyt]

Very cool!!!

[Janice_d]

Wow cool CAVE pics..Esp..underwater.. I couldnt do this.. Id stay top side..and hold the rope..maybe.. THANKS for sharing... Janice

[NoLight]

Cool indeed.. How deep into the cave did you guys get?

[gwndwn]

Taking pictures slows you down alot so on these dives we only made it in 1500' to 2000'. On dives where we weren't taking pictures it was around 3000' feet in with dive times of about 120 minutes.

[tiffany]

very cool

[specialist]

very interestin. i love the shot where theres people. coz the other shots just look like a regular cave.. doesnt look like its under water.. but the rest are really great!

[gwndwn]

Yeah, the water clearity down there is incredible. Eventually I hope to have enough strobe power to get better DOF

[pyckse]

Those are nice shots, thanks for sharing...

[tjavery]

Cool... underwater landscapes. I think that's a first for this forum. I like the 2nd and last photos. Very nice.

Originally Posted by gwndwn

Yeah, the water clearity down there is incredible. Eventually I hope to have enough strobe power to get better DOF

Would it be feasible to mount your camera housing to a weighted tripod? This would definitely slow you down even more, but could allow you to use ambient light without the need for strobes (long exposures). Or in the deeper parts with no light, you could set off your strobes repeatedly and "paint" with light (again, with long exposures or even bulb setting).

[gwndwn]

The tripod\"painting idea is a good one, I thought about it but since this was my first time doing it I wanted to keep it simple until I get used to the additional task loading.....safety first.

I guess this might be good time to say that cave diving requires lots of specialized equipement and training and should never be attempted unless you are properly trained....sorry just thought I better put that out there.

[TexGal]

My Claustrophobia is setting in. lol
Wow those are amazing!!!

[Daylon]

Great shots.. I love the way cenote pics always look like you're flying through the air...

Was that in Dos Ojos?

D.

[Daylon]

Well you could, but the main problem you run into (besides all the safety stuff of diving in that environment) is the issue of a "silt-out".

The floors of these caves typically have a very very fine layer of silt. One inadvertent fin stroke or maybe a tripod's legs digging into it and FOOM! Instead zero vis. Depending on how bad it got stirred up, this could last anywhere from 30 sec to 30 min.

So now you're in a cave, with no direct access to the surface. You can't see your hand in front of your face. Your lights are useless. With limited air remaining in your tank. Don't panic. ;-)

So what another person said about "task loading" is very true. You've got a lot of balls to juggle when you dive into this type of environment. Throw a big camera and a couple of strobes and a tripod into the mix, and you'd better have your dive skills down perfectly.

D.

Originally Posted by tjavery

Cool... underwater landscapes. I think that's a first for this forum. I like the 2nd and last photos. Very nice.



Would it be feasible to mount your camera housing to a weighted tripod? This would definitely slow you down even more, but could allow you to use ambient light without the need for strobes (long exposures). Or in the deeper parts with no light, you could set off your strobes repeatedly and "paint" with light (again, with long exposures or even bulb setting).

[gwndwn]

Thanks,

Most of these were in Nohoch Nah Chich with a couple from Mayan Blue