Sometimes you just have to be creative

In north Texas it is hard to get excited about getting all geared up with scuba gear and an underwater camera to take pictures underwater when the water is in the 50s and the visibility is in the teens. Sure you can swim around and find a fish or two, but it seems like an awful lot of work, particularly for someone like me who is basically lazy. So as I was wracking my brain for ideas for what to shoot at this time of year underwater I came up with the thought of why not create a wreck or two out of legos and see what it looks like underwater?

Well the first problem that had to be overcome was how do you get legos to sink? What occurred to me was maybe some water proof glue with some big washers or bolts glued to the bottom of a legos 10 X 10 sheet would work.

As I found out, four large washers will sink a standard 10 X 10 lego sheet. And, I figured out that with just a few attachment points the legos figures I was able to build would actually adhere to the 10 X 10 lego sheet.

The next challenge was how much do I want to spend on legos and mini-figures to create these submersible platforms. I found much to my amazement Legos really seem to hold their value. I was quite surprised that used mini-figures go for $5 bucks or more a piece at the local used lego store. I made a comment at the local used legos store about the mini figures holding their value, and the owner looked at me like: well duh! what planet did you come from.

I looked at eBay and found that here and there there were a few mini figures that would cost about $2 a figure, but that still seemed pretty pricey for something that might or might not work.

So it was back to the legos resell shop and buy an assortment of bricks and see if I could build a wreck or two out of the assortment of legos. It was a bit interesting to see what came in an assortment package. With some creativity I came up with a few ideas of how to put together a few figures that looked like they might be the remainder of a wreck.

I have a few more mini figures on order so we will see if they arrive in time to be added before the next class.

Conquering Currents in Thailand

Do you snoot II?

Trying to stay neutral?

Wide angle at the Keith Tibbetts in Cayman Brac

Want to go to Tonga?

Is it time to go back to Fiji?

The islands of Fiji
Broadclub cuddlefish
The cabbage patch
blue green damsel fish and stag horn coral
Blue chromis in the afternoon sun
Rainbow reef
Rainbow reef in Tevouni with loads of soft corals
A juvenile anemone fish trying to hide in an anemone

How should underwater photographers treat the underwater environment?

Have you seen a fresh water jelly fish?

Close up of a fresh water jelly fish

Have you been diving on the Lesleen M?

My grandfather used to say quite often “Sonny using the right tool for the job makes all the difference.” My grandfather was a very skilled repairman who could take almost any mechanical device apart and repair it, most of the time without any schematics, diagrams or other description of the devise. When he took something apart he was very systematic. When he was done dissembling a device it looked like an engineer’s exploded schematic of the device. Of course for him the device went back together with no left over parts and almost always worked better than when he found it. Coming from my grandfather, advice about using the right tool for the project had significant meaning to me.

On the other hand, some of my family members motto has been adapt and change to meet the situation. Or if you don’t have the right tool for the job, improvise.

So I guess it is somewhat telling that one of my reoccurring nightmares is going on a trip to take pictures of whales underwater and discovering the camera rig is set up for macro or worse yet super macro. How many pictures of a whale’s eye do you need or want?

The same thought applies to ship wrecks. When I think about shooting a ship wreck I am thinking about what is the environment like where the wreck is located?

Is the reef near the wreck, is the reef interesting? Has the wreck begun to grow over the wreck?

The tugboat with encrusting corals — Curacao

In preparing for a recent trip to St. Lucia I had looked on the internet to see what the most important wreck off the coast of St. Lucia was. I found some reasonably helpful information about the Lesleen M which pointed out that the Lesleen M Wreck is an old cargo ship that was sunk in 1986. The resulting artificial reef is home to numerous species of coral and aquatic life. The Lesleen M Wreck lies evenly on its keel. The wreck is approximately 165 feet long and rests at a depth of at a depth of 60 feet. From inside the engine room of the Lesleen M Wreck, there is a ladder that takes you into the cabins of the main deck. I think that is a reasonable good description of what I saw when I dove the Lesleen M.

But wouldn’t you know the day I dove the Lesleen M instead of having my wide angle lens, I had a 105 mm macro lens. So how did I adapt and adjust? I had no choice but to shoot macro. Here are few macro shots I took.