St. Vincent Trip Report

[tarczy]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Bird

With macro I tend to use spot focus, and move the little focus spot around to where it needs to be in order to accomplish the composition I like and put the spot on the eye or close to it so there isn't much recomposition to do once I lock focus.

Jonathan

Ha!

I've only shot macro on my last T&C trip, so I'm definitely not a pro. But I'm doing EXACTLY what you're doing with that focus spot. The Canon 5D has 9 focus points, but you have the ability to choose which focus points are active. So, I activate only the center focus point and then laser-in on the eyeball of the subject and fire away. If I don't want the eyeball in the center of the frame, I'll focus-lock (half-shutter press) on the eyeball and then re-compose. That works only some of the time . . . usually the subject moves by the time the shutter releases.

Using my Canon 100mm macro, I find the auto focus does just fine. I turn on both strobe focusing lights when using this lens, so the lens has plenty of light and doesn't seem to hunt very much. However, when I load that +3 diopter on the 100mm . . . that's when focusing gets really tricky. I've blown whole cylinders just trying to get that one perfect shot of some pesky lil' critter.

I think I can tell which macro lens you used on which critter, but it might help if you let the board know which lens shot what image. The only one I'm fuzzy on is the Yellow Throat Pike Blenny . . . 50mm or 105mm?

BTW, how many firings did it take you to get that "one" Jawfish shot? I must have 43468441647 Jawfish images . . . only three of which I like. Before I die, I want to get that "one" Jawfish perfect shot of the male rolling his fertilzed eggs out of his mouth. So far, I'm not even close!

[andyt]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Bird

I'll post a few macro shots.
Jonathan

I am glad you did. I particuarly like the blemmy, but they are all great shots. Thanks for sharing.

Andy

[Jonathan Bird]

Mark,
I'm pretty sure the Pike blenny was with the 50. He was very cool about letting me close. I would have to open lightroom and look to be sure and I'm too lazy right now.

I haven't had any problems getting lots of good jawfish pics, but I never seem to find any with eggs. I did shoot HD video of one with eggs in Malaysia for my new film, but I waited 40 minutes for him to aerate the eggs...and when he finally decided to do it, I was shooting a medium shot instead of a close-up.

DAMN!!!!!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Originally Posted by andyt

I am glad you did. I particuarly like the blemmy, but they are all great shots. Thanks for sharing.

Andy

Thanks Andy!

[Clay Coleman]

"how many firings did it take you to get that "one" Jawfish shot? I must have 43468441647 Jawfish images . . . only three of which I like".

Mark: A buddy of mine rigged a remote cable release for a Nikonos with a 1:2 framer and got some of the best jawfish pics I've ever seen. He was all set to retire after selling his invention to the highest bidder. Of course, Nikonos was discontinued about a week afterward. -Clay

[Paul Young]

Three of us went to St Vincent in December 2006.

We took a nonstop flight from Boston to San Juan on US Airways
and then Caribbean Sun to Kingstown. This was on a single
ticket. No baggage recheck, no cameras stolen.

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Paul,
Thanks for that tip. I'll check it out. I have never heard of Caribbean Sun. Are they still in business??

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

I finally got my recent trip pictures sorted and captioned. Here is a lightbox of images from St. Vincent for anyone who is curious.

http://www.jonathanbird.net/cgi-bin/...396.8983333333

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Bird

I finally got my recent trip pictures sorted and captioned. Here is a lightbox of images from St. Vincent for anyone who is curious.

http://www.jonathanbird.net/cgi-bin/...396.8983333333

Jonathan

Your Bluebar Jawfish pics accepted !

Best in my mind stayd one pic with group of faces of soldierfishes...very impressive .

Off coarse striated frogfish pics are beutiful!

I loved also arrow crab pics.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Originally Posted by sorvju-f

Your Bluebar Jawfish pics accepted !

Thanks! Even though Mark's are better.

I like the jawfish pics where the fish is half out of his hole, even though it may not be as aesthetically pleasing as a full body shot, because it shows their behavior a little.

Jonathan