I made a lovely visit to Shane Cowley at Canon Ireland last week. He had some lovely new kit waiting for me….. 1 x 5DMKIII, 16-35mm, 70-200mm, and 14mm prime L series lenses, battery grip,1.4x & 2x teleconverter. Lots of awesomeness in a peli-case.

This meant I was able to get in the water at the weekend and try out the big 9.25″ dome port for the Aquatica housing. Ikelite DS160 strobes also on the rig. It’s amazing that 3 months ago I was effectively a novice diver, unable to control my buoyancy and now 3 months on I am taking some high end camera equipment underwater and attempting some photos. The drysuit diver course at Scubadive West essentially got my divingto the level it’s at now!

It’s a particularly amazing sensation when shore diving….I compare divers to being like seals….so clumsy and gear heavy on land but lightweight and free in the water. Each step as you emerge from a dive, each pound is felt as you get shallower and shallower until you’re back to clumsy heavy again! I am getting more used to the weight and consequently becoming more comfortable all the timewith the gear.

On Saturday one of Ireland’s top underwater photographers, Nigel Motyer, and I travelled out west to test out our camera gear. He had a new rig too and I was trying out my wider lenses and the 9.25″ dome port. I will probably be using the wider lenses in Greenland to capture those icebergs so really good to practice with them but I was seeing more macro images on these dives.

Nigel and me with our camera beasts

As you can see some pretty rubbish shots but it can only get better…..right?
Nigel is a super nice guy with a wealth of knowledge about all things underwater photography. Definitely check out his pics on his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/nigel.motyer/photos

We drove out west, had 2 dives and spoke about photography…..mostly!! And after trying out these lenses I know I have so much to learn!
Photography underwater is very different and lenses behave differently behind domes and there is an annoying thing called back scatter (Light reflecting of plankton and other particles in the water)……a long way still to go.

Killary Flyer is back in the water on tuesday May 5th and our departure date is now June 1st.

Trying to light Nigel without too much back scatter

Lot’s of plankton in the water

First split level attempt. Droplets on the dome which I need to sort out!