Dive 27 – Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Apr

12

Dive Number: 27 10/04/2010 12.05 Cottage by the Sea

Wind: 15 knot westerlies

Tide: 1 hour before 0.57 low tide at the heads

Conditions: Mostly dark and overcast day with occasional patches of sunlight. Fairly surgey and low visibility.

Bottom Type: Rocky reef ledges

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 102 minutes

Max Depth: 8.1m

Air usage: 190bar/2700psi

SAC: 12.9 litres/min

Details: After some fin strap issues that required some gaffa tape magic to fix, I had the dreaded ‘hotshoe adaptor’ problem I had a few weeks ago…so much for me checking these things out before heading down to the dive site! Anyway, after I got underwater things went well but the vis wasn’t the best. Sometimes bad conditions pay off though with more creatures out and about feeling more protected by the bad vis.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, dual SS200 strobe.

Dive Report: After descent I was greeted immediately by a young cuttlefish that was out from beneath the ledges and frolicking around the seagrass.

Moving further along, I spotted the big old cuttlefish i saw a couple of weeks ago.

He wasn’t happy this time around and spat some junk at me..well..into the water anyway. He then went into the posture below, waggling his tenticles at me in some type of intimidation display…it worked!

While he was doing this ANOTHER small cuttlefish approached ,and he wasn’t happy about this eaither and quickly advanced towards the smaller cuttlefish. Look how dark and angry he looks:

I decided to leave this guy alone and took a few pics of the youngster that was keeping its distance:

He soon became intrigued with the camera and couldn’t get enough of the reflection.

You usually dont see cuttlefish out in the segrass, but it made for a great shoot.

Moving on, i started looking under the legdes, and the resident blue devils showed up:

Schools of tiny bullseye’s fill the black voids of the caves.

Gorgonians fan out from the ledge tops:

And colourful sponges layer the walls.

A cottage dive is never complete without an Old wive shot.

Dive 23: Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Mar

29

Dive Number: 23 25/03/2010 12.29 Cottage by the Sea

Wind: 10-15 knot Northerlies

Tide: 15minutes before 0.24 low tide at the heads

Conditions: Vis was bad with very milky conditions. A bit of surge around too and some current. Generally fairly aweful conditions for photography.

Bottom Type: Sandy bottom, with large reef overhangs and ledges.

Visibilty: 2-4m

Water Temp: 20c

Bottom Time: 124 minutes

Max Depth: 7.8m

Air usage: 200bar/2800psi

SAC: 11.5 litres/min

Details: Very dissappointed with the conditions and i was expecting better based on the weather. The critters that turned up though made up for the bad vis. Two Cuttles, Two Seadragons, Two Blue Devils, a Port Jackson Shark, a rosy wrasse, a Trevalley, a large strange cod thing i’m yet to identify(maybe a Beardie???) and some very colourful and curious leatherjackets.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, DUAL SS200 strobe.

Dive Report: This was a very milky dive, and it really tested out my dual strobe technique. Instead of making it more versitile, it made things a hell of a lot more complicated, and i missed some killer opportunities because i had my strobes wrongly positioned. With a single strobe you can have the strobe up high at 12 oclock, and despite uninteresting flat lighting, you can still light your subject and get a decent shot. With dual strobes though, theres a precision in positioning thats very dependent on the distance from camera to subject, and when you have a subject that moves from 1 metre to basically right in front of the dome in a matter of seconds, its almost impossible to get correct light coverage at all distances. Especially when the vis is bad, you have a wide angled lens on, and fish insist on kissing thier own reflection in the dome port. So after an amazingly close encounter with this Leatherjacket (that usually keep there distance), i was disappointed not to nail a shot of these nicely coloured Leatherjackets. Initially it kept its distance in the confines of the rock ledges.

But once it spotted its own reflection, i think it either couldn’t resist its own image, or maybe thought someone was moving in to its territory.

He really couldn’t have got any closer than this…

But of course had a crack at eyeballing the dome as close as possible.

This Leatherjacket eventually had enough of me, and took off. I continued under the ledges and thought to myself, “gee i’d love to see a Port Jackson Shark”…literally seconds after the thought entered my head, i spotted a large shark sitting deep under the ledges… A Port Jacko! My first..i was excited! ; ) He was tucked under only about a 60-80cm ledge making it extremely difficult with a tank to get in close enough for a descent photo. I knew from what i’d read that these sharks weren’t aggressive (and i’m not sure if they even have carnivorus teeth), but to get a descent photo i’d be blocking off his exits if he got freaked out, so it wasn’t the most comfortable if situations. Lucky for me when he was getting a bit unnerved by my presence, he just swung himself around and went deeper into the cave. Such a beatiful creature though, i’m looking forward to seeing more.

I continued on, and spotted a single Trevally darting around.

More colourful Leatherjackets turned up, this time a Horseshoe LeatherJacket:

Under the same ledge was a Rosy Wrasse..a new fish for me on a shore dive.

I came across another fish i’d never seen…i think it might be a Beardie:

A gorgonian-scape:

A Goatfish fossicked in the sand outside the ledges:

My air was getting low, and a Weedy Seadragon showed up, so i thought i’d have a quick go at it, but i didn’t have long to mess a round.

A second Seadragon appeared, and they were momentarily in the frame together…not a great pic, but unique to have two together.

Dive 22: Pilots Peir, Queenscliffe

By pfuller

Mar

29

Dive Number: 22 25/03/2010 11.17 Pilots Peir

Wind: 10-15 knot Northerlies

Tide: 1.5 hour before 0.24 low tide at the heads

Conditions: Strong current running from north to south. The water column was full of sand making visibilty atrocious.

Bottom Type: Sandy bottom, with scattered reef..

Visibilty: 2m

Water Temp: 20c

Bottom Time: 21 minutes

Max Depth: 3.0m

Air usage: 30bar/400psi

SAC: 13.4 litres/min

Details: I’ve never had a lot of success at Pilots Pier, with strong currents always running. This was no exception. I decided to head out to the bouy to the right of the pier and drift towards the bouy to the right. I followed the drift to the shallow rock shelf off shortlands bluff but the sand in the water just made this dive not worthwhile.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, single SS200 strobe.

Dive Report: There were a few scattered bommies with a school of about 20 zebra fish around, and the usual wrasse. It was generally shallow, crap vis, little life and a bit dangerous from boat traffic and strong currents. I dont think i’ll be shore diving this area again. Maybe a boat dive on slack at some of the known reefs near shortlands reef is the way to go.