Hey there. WHen I decide to shoot close up, say subjetcs the size of a book or smaller, I dont use my wide angle lens. I've found that I can zoom in, but I have to be like 3' away from the subject for it to be in focus.. thats too far to hold the camera steady and puts too much water between the subject and the lens, ie silt and backscatter. SO.. inthose cases I put on a Century Optics +2.5 Acromatic closeup diopter on my camera and shoot behind a flat port. That makes it so that I can really zoom in at a close subject distance of about a foot or so. Of course, I use lights too. But, I am dedicated to closeup if I do that, so I pray a whale does not swim by. I try to rest the camera on the bottom and hold steady. Have fun onthe trip. Seems I'll be there Sept 12th for a one day trip. Farnsworth bankss has lots of small stuff.. its great for macro

Hi, I get most of my music on the internet. One popluar site that I like to use is called Jamendo.com Theres lots there to choose from that is royalty free for exactly the type of non commercial use.

Hi there. Actually, theres no color changes in post. There is some very slight, subtle adjusting here and there, but nothing significant was done. The shots with the very green water was actually what the water looked like at that dive spot that day. It was very green. I shoot with 6000 degree kelvin LED lights. Near daylight color temp. And I white balance to a DSSPLASH white slate with the lights on them. So.. the closeup subjects are basically being shot at a daylight WB because they are being illuminated with the same. The further away background water is its natural color as would be seen at depth.. so it looks green. So many people try to make the background water look blue, even though it may have been green in reality. I try to reproduce it as it really appeared.

Southern California is strange.. sometimes the water is clear and looks blue.. sometimes its not so much and can be green.. just depends on surface temps, if algae is blooming or not I suspect. Generally its not too green, more blue. I live near Seattle. Its always green here. Yes. I use the SUnray 1000s. In hindsight wish I had the 2000's with a bit more power, oh well. Yes, was using a Gates WB slate, but recently switched to the DSC Labs Splash. Its very nice. Yes.. is you ever get a chance to visit So. Cal.. save a day and make a dive on one of the local dive boats. They have a huge dibe boat fleet that does single day trips. I travel there every 2 months for business.. so I take my gear too and make a dive when in town if I can. Check out diveboat.com its a nice boat.

Thanks, Yea, that was a lucky shot. Them little guys sure didnt like each other.. LOL

3D I wish.. LOL. Naw.. just me trying to do my best with what I have to work with. I shoot with a Sony HC7. Its their prosumer small HD camera. Its in a Gates Housing. For close up work, I add a good quality close up lens, and use lights to restore colors. I use a white slate and set the white balance when shooting often, which really helps, and I fine tune the video in post production in the computer. (fine tune the contrast, exposure, etc. ) The toughest part is holding the housing as still as possible while underwater. I'm working on using a tripod in the future. Thanks for the nice words!

You've surprised me again, I thought you use something like Canon Mark II because of depth of field, but you have also HC7 like me and your picture looks much better, maybe because everything is washed under water?.. Your moves are very good, but still think the tripod is a good idea, I've never seen some underwater time-lapse so far for instance.. good luck!

Thanks. Yes.. my next step is to configure and test a working small tripod. I've got a prototype that I'm hoping to test this weekend. The problem is, is that on some dives, a tripod is not practical.

Hi thanks for the nice words. I've actually put together a gorillapod with a ball head that I hope to try out soon.

THanks, I'll send you a separate email with the info.