Eddy's Scuba Blog

Today was a chance to review the settings that I have used on my Olympus SP-350. Jack Drafahl was also a fan of the SP-350, so this was good opportunity to tweak some of my settings and learn from the masters.

I first learned what settings to use on the SP-350 with a private class that I took with Cathy Church in the Cayman Islands. She had taught me to use two settings that she stored on the "My Mode" settings, one for Macro and another for Wide Angle. Here's a table of those settings.

Mode Menu -> Setup Tab

Reset	Off
Language	User Preference
PW On Setup	User Preference
PW Off Setup	User Preference
Rec View	On
Speaker	Off
Beep	User Preference
Shutter Sound	User Preference
My Mode Setup	4 Custom Modes
File Name	Auto
Pixel Mapping	Run Occasionally
Screen Bightness	Middle point
Date	Date
Dual Time Setup	User Preference
M/Ft	User Preference
Video Out	User Preference - NTSC for US
AF Illuminator	Off
Short Cut	A: Flash+/-, B: ISO, C: Macro
Histogram	Off
Frame Assist	Off
Custom Button	My Mode

This is what I have programmed as "My Mode 1":

MY MODE - Wide Angle

P/A/S/M/Scene	M
Fno	5.6
Shutter	1/125 sec
Monitor	On
Zoom	38mm
Flash Mode	Flash (Lightning Icon)
Metering	Center weighted (Screen with dot in the middle)
Macro (Flower Icon)	Off
Drive	Single
ISO	100
Timer/Remote	Off
Flash	0.0
Flash Sync	Sync 1 (Front Curtain)
Flash	External
Digital Zoom	Off
Noise Reduction	Off
AF Mode	Spot
Focus Mode	AF
Fulltime AF	Off
Microphone	Off
Time Lapse	Off
Resolution	SHQ or RAW
WB	Cloudy
WB +/-	0
Sharpness	0
Contrast	0
Saturation	0
Info	On
Histogram	Off
Frame Assist	Off

This is what I have programmed as "My Mode 2":

MY MODE - Macro

P/A/S/M/Scene	M
Fno	8.0
Shutter	1/500 sec
Monitor	On
Zoom	38mm
Flash Mode	Flash (Lightning Icon)
Metering	Center weighted (Screen with dot in the middle)
Macro (Flower Icon)	On
Drive	Single
ISO	100
Timer/Remote	Off
Flash	0.0
Flash Sync	Sync 1 (Front Curtain)
Flash	External
Digital Zoom	Off
Noise Reduction	Off
AF Mode	Spot
Focus Mode	AF
Fulltime AF	Off
Microphone	Off
Time Lapse	Off
Resolution	SHQ or RAW
WB	Cloudy
WB +/-	0
Sharpness	0
Contrast	0
Saturation	0
Info	On
Histogram	Off
Frame Assist	Off

First Boat Dives: Witches Hut and Nearest Point (Klein Bonaire)

We started the day with a boat dive. I had purchased from the Drafahls 10 boat dives at a discounted price of US$ 10/dive. I was disappointed that you were on your own on the boat dives, we did not go out as a group. The boat dives as well as the shore dives were just opportunities to capture pictures to take to the class. I had been "warned" by Sue Drafahl that the best dive was the house dive: the shore dive right on Captain Don's. She was right. The two boat dives that I did that day was somewhat disappointing and compared to yesterday's ,I did not see as many interesting creatures.

I took this opportunity to play with the settings of my camera and tried to "practice" both wide and and macro. I tried the macro settings on this anemone on Klein Bonaire and soon discovered that there was a pederson shrimp inhabiting it.

Playing with macro shots I discovered that focusing was really hard to accomplish. For some reason the camera had a hard time to focus. At that time I knew that my camera had manual focusing, but I had not learned how to use it yet.

Lecture: Menus and Exposure

That night the lecture gave me some hints to refine my settings. The lecture was on Camera Menus and Exposure.

Menus

• Nikon: Icons
• Olympus: Rotating Menus
• Drive: Single shot or multiple
• Contrast: Use zero or slightly negative
• Histogram: Not a lot of value under water, hard to see under water

ISO speed

• Not the same as in film. Point & shoot: up to 400. SLR up to 1600 because of bigger chip
• if using higher than ISO 400 on a P&S, pictures will be very noisy
• P&S sensor elements are crammed together. On SLRs, they are more spread out
• DON'T use auto ISO underwater

White Balance

• Use cloudy setting or shade
• Custom WB: Use a white card only (that you carry with you), not sand on the bottom
• My mode: Program WB at 10, 20, 30, 40 ft, specially when relying on ambient light
• Jack uses ISO 200 or ISO 400 always. Not ISO 100. Modify settings until exposure is right
• ISO 200 is more versatile. Use ISO 200 for night dive

Resolution

• Always set to maximum resolution
• Don't use TIFF, massive file use lots of space

Sharpness

• Use default

Modes

• Don't use P/A/S modes
• Shutter Priority: Use if need to freeze the action
• Sharks in the water use ISO 800

Shooting Techniques - Exposure

• Use Manual exposure. In Bonaire, can only use Manual
• Shutter speed: Regulates more or less ambient light in the picture
• F/stop max F8.0 on P&S
• Background: Sunlight control by shutter speed
• Foreground: Fix with F stop, flash and ISO

Lighting

• On shallow and white sand bottom, turn flash off, and use "P" mode
• Deep Large subject. Use "P" mode, let camera decide

Backscatter

• Change the shutter speed by one stop to reduce backscatter
• Use twin flash
• Point flash away from the lens

Macro

• Subject to distance really close
• When diving deeper you have more control of exposure, because of less ambient light
• Manual exposure works with TTL
• Use manual even for bright sun

Blooming effect

• Problem with red sensor
• Use shutter speed to fix it, use higher shutter speed

Flash Position

• Make sure to point flash in position. When changing WA to macro, needs flash adjustment
• Simulate sunlight: Put flash above, looks like sunlight
• Two flash: One above, the other on the side, not necessarily symmetrical

Coming up with More Settings for the SP-350

After listening to Jack's lecture I confirmed my thoughts for settings for night dives, shark dives and macro. Here's a list of those settings that I started to use on this trip.

Macro

Macro	Super Macro
Focus Mode	MF (Manual Focus)

Regular Macro allows you to get as close as 8 inch. Whereas, Super Macro allows you get as close as 0.8 inch. Once the MF (Manual Focus) mode is set, use the up and down arrows to focus. You can turn the manual focusing mode on and off by keeping the "OK Menu" button depressed.

Fast Moving Wide Angle (Shark Dive)

Fno	5.6 - 2.8
Shutter	1/30 - 1/125
ISO	200 - 400
Flash Sync	Sync 2(Rear Curtain)

As confirmed by Jack's lecture it is better to use a high ISO for fast moving big creatures as in a shark dive. Unfortunately, there was no shark dive in Bonaire. But I made notes for myself. A slow shutter (1/30) would create an impression of motion and a rear curtain flash sync (firing the flash at the end of the exposure) would create a lighted imaged in from with a trailing image behind.

Night Dive

Fno	8.0
Shutter	1/200
ISO	50
Flash Power	-1.0
Flash Sync	Sync 1(Front Curtain)

I came up for these settings for night dives after some experimentation. In some sense, it is similar to a Macro shot in that you want all the light coming from the strobe. These settings are for a Sea & Sea YS-110 and Heinrichs-Weikamp connector. Depending on whether I am shooting wide angle or macro I would adjust the the f/stop and flash power. However, at night I have found that most of my subjects were no further than 3-4 ft.

After the Nekton cruise I had decided to stay for several days at Sunset House, in Grand Cayman. The main reason had been to take a class with Cathy Church. I was so impressed with the capabilities of the Olympus SP-350 that I decided to buy it. I was already looking for a new camera to replace my Sony Cybershot. I had been looking at the point-and-shoots with manual settings. It came down to two choices: the Canon S80 and the Olympus SP-350. During my scuba trips I had heard many good things about the Olympus 5060 series, which was already discontinued. The Olympus SP-350 was the continuation of that pedigree. The big seller for me was the TTL capability. Having used a fiber optic connector, often times I would end up with overexposed pictures. With TTL you would never get an overexposed picture. The SP-350 is one of the few point-and-shoot cameras that have a hot shoe. Getting the Canon S80 would imply the continuation of the use of the fiber optic cable.

So I decided to buy the camera and the housing. Prices in Grand Cayman were full price, so I ended paying far more than I would have back in the US (I later learned that you could get the camera even at Costco). I decided not get the strobe, thinking that I could get the strobe back in the US. In addition, I already had my existing strobe, a Sea&Sea YS-25 which had performed well so far. So I went with the fiber optic option. Cathy even made a custom gromit on the housing plate (in front of the flash) to fit the fiber optic connector.

Anatomy of a Flooded Strobe: Trinity Caves and Royal Palms Ledge

It's funny how fate is, after deciding not to get a new strobe, something happened to my own strobe. This was the first time I was on a boat dive at Sunset House and we were at a site called Trinity Caves. The site consisted of a series of caves and channels. By the end of the dive, I noticed that tiny bubbles were coming out of my strobe. Immediately, I said to myself "uh-oh". It was strange that a leak happened at the end of the dive, not at the begining. Could it be because of the pressure? I was down to 98 feet at that dive. When I looked at the front of the strobe, I noticed that the water was already inside and it was dark. It looked like something had corroded really quickly. The strobe was completely lost.

Once on the boat I knew that strobe was already useless. We still had a second dive so I promptly detached the strobe arm from my camera and planned to use my (new) camera without a strobe. The area around the flash on my housing was (neatly) taped up (so that the built-in flash would never be used), so I didn't want to take it out. I was going to take pictures with ambient light.

Unfortunately, on our second dive, we went to dive site with very little ambient light. The site was Royal Palms Ledge. As it names suggests, it was a round ledge, like circular channel with overhangs in some areas. Actually this was one of the most interesting sites in Grand Cayman. There were lots of small creatures like coral banded shrimp, juveniles and this Caribbean scallop that I have never seen before:

I was kicking myself for not having a strobe. The scallop was inside a hole on one of the ledge's walls. The reason the picture looks washed out was because of the very low light conditions. My dive buddy Gordon and I were using our flashlights to try to illuminate the scallop. It was really a shame that I didn't have the right equipment.

Once back at my hotel room I examined closely what happened to my strobe. When I removed the battery cover, I found that the o-ring out of place towards the inside. I was trying to figure out whether I had closed the cover incorrectly with the o-ring out of place. If I had, bubbles would have come out when testing it. This was really strange. Another things that happened was that the batteries were seriously leaking. This probably caused the water inside to go dark. If there was something wrong with the batteries, the strobe would have not worked at the begining. I was able to take pictures at the begining of the dive with the strobe. In conclusion, the most plausible explanation was that the o-ring was a bit out of place and caved in with the pressure. However, it never broke, it was just out of place.

Flooded Strobe: Sea & Sea YS-25

Flooded Strobe: Dark waters coming out

After the strobe incident I immediatley went to Cathy's shop to rent another strobe. It was Sunday and they were all out for a photo shoot! The store itself was closed. This was my unlucky day. Since I couldn't do anything about the strobe I decided to relax and have a stroll in downtown Georgetown. Sunset House is located within walking of distance of downtown. It was about 10 blocks away. Since it was in the middle of the afternoon, it was really hot. There was nothing out of the ordinary in Georgetown. There were the usual jewelry and watch stores, clothing stores and souvenir shops. After a couple of hours I was done and returned to the hotel.

It was past 6:00pm when I was sitting at the outdoor restaurant right next to bar when I saw one Sunset House's boats unloading divers. It was Cathy and her crew returning from the photo-shoot. Then it went to my head: Salvation! They were going back to the shop. I took the opportunity to "intercept" Cathy at the shop and told her what happened to my strobe. According to official business hours the store was already was closed. However, she told me to return the next morning before the dive boats leave (8:00am), she said somebody will be at the store at 6:30am. I also asked her about her photo shoot, it turned out that they were at Royal Palms Ledge that day. This kind of confirmed my opinion on the dive site. If the dive site was good enough for a photo shoot, something must be out of the ordinary there.

Eden Rock

The next morning at 6:30am I was able to secure a Sea&Sea YS-90, just like the one I've used during the two classes I took. I was breathing a sigh of relieve. Since I already had a fiber optic connector hookup, I was ready to go. I just needed to set the strobe in "slave" mode.

Today's dive boat was heading to two sites: Sand Chutes and Eden Rock. Sand Chutes had some channels and some swim thrus. I was surprised about the desolation though, there was not much coral life. I didn't like this particular dive too much.

On our second dive we headed to Eden Rock or Devil's Grotto. This site is quite famous because of the dramatic lighting effects inside the numerous grottos and swim thrus and it is only in 30 feet of water (average). The site was located not far from Sunset House. In fact, you could see Sunset House from it.

Eden Rock was quite interesting from the get go. At the begining of the dive, I found this purple-tipped anemone and stopped by to take a picture. Julianne, one of Cathy Church's staff, who was with us as a "photo buddy", took this picture of me taking the picture. To this day, I don't know whether she took the picture right at moment my strobe fired or if she triggered my strobe thru the slave mode. Anyway, the picture turned out to be great!

I didn't know that Julianne had taken this picture until I showed up at the store. Julianne was very excited and told me "you have to see this picture of you". When I saw it, I had to get it. It cost me $US 30, again priceless.

And this is the picture that I was taking while this picture was taken:

This was not the only anemone around there, soon after I ran into another anemone, this time it was a green-tip one.

So far I had noticed, that using the SP-350 with the fiber optic connector was more sluggish that using TTL. Since the built-in flash had to be charged every time, the cycle time and responsiveness was slower than with the TTL connector. With the TTL connector, only a small electrical signal was needed, this obviously cut down on the camera's battery life.

My dive buddy at Eden Rock was Gordon, a geology professor traveling with his son. We were passing one of the formations when I noticed a ledge at the bottom of it. It turned out that you could crawl underneath into the other side, which turned out to be a cave. I took the lead as I noticed it first, Gordon followed after. To my amazement, I ran into a tarpon inside the cave. I was at the right place at the right time. The tarpon got later spooked by two other divers coming from the cave side, it turned out that there was another entrance.

We went thru numerous swim thrus and caves. One of them I recognized from pictures: the Devil's Grotto. It is a smaller cave than what it looks in pictures. Only one person can go in at the time. There is an opening at the top of the cave and the noon sun light comes as a beam of light, like a spotlight into the cave. I took this picture with only ambient light with high aperture and slow shutter (F/2.8 and 1/60 sec).

Eden Rock was the best dive definitely that day and one of my favorites in Grand Cayman. Specially for the opportunities for underwater photography and best of all, it is not very deep, the max depth was 40 feet. So you can stroll around for even more than 1 hour.

Visiting the Mermaid Again

That afternoon I did a shore dive from Sunset House. I buddied up with Randy whom I was diving with on the same boat dives during these couple of days. This time I put my macro lessons to practice, as well as some of the lighting techniques that I learned in the past.

For example, with this yellow tube sponge, I used "rim lighting", meaning that I point the strobe right above the tube along its vertical axis. This illuminates the rim of the tubes and gives it a different and dramatic effect. This picture was taken at F/5.6 and 1/250 sec.

For this next picture, I was practicing "back lighting", having the strobe point in the opposite direction of the camera, with the aim to capture some "see thru" or transparent aspects of a formation or creature. I was taking a picture of this soft coral and making the strobe light shine thru it. While I was setting up my strobe, I noticed a small well camouflaged fish among the branches of the soft coral. It was juvenile scrawled filefish. This picture was taken with macro settings of F/8.0 and 1/500 sec. The fish was really difficult to shoot because it was moving around and the camera was going crazy with the autofocus.

In retrospect, I could have used manual focus; however, at that time I didn't know I had that capability with this camera. I could have just set the focus to say 10 inches and move the camera back and forth.

After noticing the sluggishness of the camera using the fiber optic connector, I decided to go for the TTL connector. Right after the shore dive, I went to Cathy's shop and told them to install the TTL bulkhead for my PT-030 housing. They did it right away, but I had to leave it overnight. The next day I picked it up right before the boat dive.

Northwest Point and La Mesa

This was my last boat dive at Sunset House. Today we were going to North West Point and La Mesa. At North West Point, I didn't manage to see anything interesting. I had buddied up with Randy and we went our own separate way. The other group had seen all the goodies including a moray eel and a turtle.

La Mesa was a more interesting dive. It was similar to Royal Palms Ledge. It was a circular ledge with a lot of nooks and cranies. On this dive I was able to practice both macro and wide angle. And since I now had a TTL connector, my macro pictures won't be overexposed. I took a number of macro pictures of coral formations. These were taken with inches away from the camera.

Smooth Coral	Coral Closeup
Web-like Coral	Arrow Crab inside Vase Coral

I also took a picture of this juvenile rock beauty. Unlike adult rock beauties, this guy swam around, but around his home. Adult rock beauties are particularly hard to shoot because they swim fast and they don't stay in one place.

Another opportunity for macro was taking the picture of this diamond blenny. This picture was taken at F/5.6 and 1/125 sec. Blennies tend to stay on the ground for a bit, but then they "jump" to another place. The challenge is getting them in focus, because they are so tiny.

At the end of the dive, we were surrounded by big schools of fish, grunts and Caribbean chubs. This was a chance to take some wide angle pictures.

School of Grunts

School of Chubs

The past 3 days were a roller coaster experience with my new camera. I went from being excited of trying this great camera, the Olympus SP-350, buy it, flood my existing strobe, rent a strobe, feel disppointed with the fiber optic connector, and finally get the TTL connector. Every day something was going on with my camera setup. It was though a great learning experience to go with the different camera setup conditions.

The day after the Nekton cruise I had another photo class at Cathy Church's Centre. This time it was with Cathy herself. I had arranged that before coming to the Caymans.

Since I didn't know anything about macro photography, I decided this to be the subject that I would like to cover. First we had a classroom session to review the theory, then a dive to practice the skills and finally a photo critique.

The Classroom Session

During the classroom session we reviewed some of the theory behind macro photography. The settings for macro photography is very similar to a studio situation where you have a fixed distance between the camera and the subject and fixed strobe position (very close to the lens). Therefore, unlike wide-angle photography, the variables are fewer.

I went over the table that I had reviewed with Eddy (one of Cathy's staff) and we reviewed it with macro photography in mind. In this table, the areas with light blue background are the ideal settings for macro photography.

Aperture (F stops)	Shutter Speed (secs)	Film Speed (ISO)
2.8 (+ more light)	1/15 (+ more light)	1600 (+ more sensitivity)
4	1/30 (blur)	800 (noise and grain)
5.6	1/60	400
8	1/125	200
11 (SLR)	1/500	100 (preferred)
22	1/800 (max sync)	50
(- less light)	1/1000(- less light)	25(- less sensitivity)
Master Control: Strobe Ambient Depth of Field	Controls: Movement Ambient Light	Controls: Overall Sensitivity

For macro photography, depth of field is an important factor. Since the camera lens will be inches from the subject, we want to maximize depth of field, so that the (small) subject is completely in focus. Therefore the smallest Aperture is ideal. An F/5.6 or smaller is required. Most point-and-shoot cameras don't even have F/11 and only SLR lenses can reach F/22.

Since all the light that we care in a macro picture comes from the strobe, the Shutter Speed needs to be specifically set to only capture the strobe light and no ambient light whatsoever. In macro photography, there is no need for metering the environment. A very fast shutter speed will give the best results, usually around 1/500 of a sec. A factor called "strobe sync-time" comes into play. Strobe sync-time is slowest time difference between the opening of the shutter and the strobe firing. For example, if a camera/strobe setup has a sync-time of 1/500 sec, the strobe will fire at worst 1/500 secs after the shutter. That means that with this setup you cannot use a shutter speed faster than 1/500 sec, since you might miss the strobe light altogether. Cathy explained to me, how a strobe gives power over time. This graph illustrates how a strobe gives light:

Most of the power in a strobe is given off after 1/1000 of a sec. The difference in light power (from the strobe) among 1/500, 1/250 and 1/125 secs (after the shutter) are really minimal. However, the slower the shutter speed the more ambient light (the ugly blueish light) we will get. So the shutter speed that we pick needs to capture most of the strobe's light, not get ambient light and account for the sync time. According to the graph the shutter speed of around 1/500 is that ideal number.

In terms of Film Speed we want to minimize noise and grain since we want to probably "blow up" macro pictures. Also, since in macro photography we are setting up for a controlled environment, ie. fixed distance from the subject and position/power of the strobe, there is no point in using higher film speed. A film speed of ISO 100 or slower works best.

After going thru the lighting theory. We took the camera, an Olympus SP-350 and made a couple of "test" pictures on land. This was to become familiar with the controls and how the camera feels. The SP-350 has a "super macro" mode that allows you get really close to the subject. I took a couple of test pictures of a written page being about 1 inch away from it. Almost touching the subject! Since being close to the subject and remaining close to it for some time is critical to macro photography, Cathy emphasized good buoyancy control, which we would practice in our practice dive. Since it is almost impossible to remain suspended in the same position in the water column above the subject, Cathy told me about the "underwater photographer's finger" technique (which I alredy knew). It consist of finding a dead spot in the coral and use one finger to remain fixed above the subject.

Guided Dive with Cathy

About 30 minutes after the classroom session, we met by the water at Sunset House's dive dock. Getting into the water was a bit challenging, since we didn't want to jump with the equipment. We used the stairs instead. Cathy was wearing a writing pad (looked like a edge-a-sketch) so that she could give me instructions under water.

The camera setup that we used was the Olympus SP-350 --capable of taking 8 MP pictures-- an Olympus PT-030 housing, Sea&Sea YS-90 strobe, Sea&Sea TTL sync-cord, Heinrich-Weikamp TTL bulkhead and Ultralight buoyant arms.

The first exercise was to check my buoyancy. Right after we got into the water, Cathy grabbed a hermit crab on the sandy area and told me to get a really close picture of it. She laid the hermit crab on the sand with the opening facing up. While I was trying to get a shot whe would "correct my posture", sometimes pushing my feet down. My feet tended to float up while I was taking the picture. Then I understood why she was wearing ankle weights. The hermit crab would sometimes hide inside or turn over and walk away. It took several trials to take this shot.

Before this picture, I didn't realize that hermit crabs had so much "hair" around their legs! I guess that's how they cling to rocks and such.

After about 8 minutes and about 8 pictures, we moved on to another subject: Squirrel fish. Squirrel fish usually stay stationary outside their "home", a crevice or a hole in a coral formation. They are not spooked easily, so if you approach them slowly, you can get really close to them. This picture was taken less than one foot away. You can even see the curvature of the cornea of the fish.

The next subject was christmas tree worms and feather dusters. These guys could be challenging to shoot, since they would hide away if they sense movement close to them. So the trick was to have all the settings ready and approach slowly for a shot. I later was impressed at the the detail and color that I was getting with this camera. You could even see the feather details.

This next picture was a bit challenging to take. There was a slight current that was moving the feather dusters back and forth. And also it was hard to stay stationary in one position. One thing that is very gratifying, is to see (in the picture) the real color of what you see down there, thanks to the strobe light.

On the next exercise, Cathy instructed me to take a picture to something on a coral head. It took me a couple of minutes to even notice this tiny guy. It's a "spinnyhead blenny" that has carved out a hole inside a coral head. This image is a magnified image (at least 200%). The guy looks like a green martian. I was so close to the coral head that my camera lense was touching the coral head slightly.

On the next set of pictures, we focused on taking close pictures on the resident gray angelfish. I've seen this guy before on my previous lesson about a week ago. The staff at Cathy Church's use a can of Cheese-whip to lure him and pose for the picture. Here's a picture of Cathy's hand luring the gray angel.

On this picture, Cathy put the can of cheese-whip inside the barrel sponge. And you thought those "perfect" underwater pictures happens by chance? Sometimes they are staged, like this one:

Finally I took a picture of the gray angel while it was swimming round. Digital point-and-shoot cameras have the disadvantage that they have a lag time between the time you press the shutter and the actual picture is taken. So the trick is to put your subject in the frame for a long time (like shooting viedo) because the picture might take a while to be taken. While I was putting this guy in my camera sights, Cathy was positioning me in the "right place", that is helping me turn around.

It was about the end of the dive, the batteries on the strobe were starting to run out. We headed back to shore and I was shooting at whatever we saw on our path. Like this "saddled blenny" which is tiny, about 1.5 inch long.

Cathy Church's Photo Centre: the Shop

Cathy Church's Shop is located in the basement of the main building of Sunset House. It is a well stocked underwater photography store, camera rental, repair shop and poster/print store of Cathy's underwater pictures.

Cathy Church's Centre: Photo Rental Corner

Cathy Church's Centre: Olympus Galore, with a big inventory of Olympus SP-350 and PT-030

The Shop is a big fan of the Olympus SP-350. They use it for rentals, professionally for photo shoots and obviously resell them. They offer a "photo buddy" service in which one of their staff will join Sunset House's boat dive, take pictures of you and sell them to you later.

There is an area in the shop where you can review your photos with the assistance of one of their staff. They are a Macintosh shop with two iMacs in the back of the store and use iView Pro software to review the photos.

Cathy Church's Centre: Photo Review Stations

Cathy Church's Centre: Poster Corner

In general, the whole experience with Cathy and Cathy's staff was great. They are very knowledgeable and I learned a lot from them. However, their services, as anything in the Caymans, is pricey for the priceless experience.

Here is a review of the Nekton Rorqual on the Cayman Islands itinerary. Since the Nekton Rorqual is very similar to its sister ship, the Nekton Pilot, this review is a comparison to the Nekton Pilot, since I've written about the Nekton Pilot before (see my Nekton Pilot: Belize Central Review).

The Ship

The Nekton Rorqual was build a couple of years after the Nekton Pilot. It includes one major design difference which is the continuous strut on each side connecting the superstructure to the submerged pontoons that provide buoyancy. For that reason the Nekton Rorqual looks more boxy than the Nekton Pilot; however, this design improvement provides slightly higher speed and range than the Nekton Pilot.

The layout of the superstructure of the Nekton Rorqual is almost identical to that of the Nekton Pilot. The living space layout is almost the same. The Nekton Rorqual has three decks as well: A lower deck for mostly guests and crew quarters, a mid-deck for guest quarters, the galley and dining room, and the top deck or Sun Deck, which houses the bridge, a shaded meeting area and the jacuzzi and lounge area. The Rorqual has 16 guest rooms and is able to house up to 32 guests. It has all the amenities seen on the Nekton Pilot, although, I noticed that the Pilot has more audio visual equipment. On the port corner, the Nekton Pilot has a TV and VCR set, whereas the Rorqual doesn't.

The Diving Facilities

The diving deck, as in the Nekton Pilot, is movable, that is it can go up and down depending on the conditions of the sea or whether the deck is open or not. There three ways to make an entry into the water: two on the side, which require a 3 ft jump, and one through the stairs in the middle. The way back to boat is through the stairs. Underneath the stairs, there is a hang bar at 15 ft with an emergency air tank with regulator. This is where you can comfortably do your safety stop. At night, the hang bar is illuminated with with glow sticks and a beacon.

The nitrox measurement is done right before a dive. A crew member would measure it and you would have to sign your name on the Nitrox sheet.

In the middle of the dive deck there is a mask cleaning station with a bucket just for masks and a sprayer with cleaning solution (I believe it's vinegar). On the two sides beside the middle stairs, there are two containers with fresh water for camera equipment. This where you would leave your camera right before the dive. A crew member would hand you your camera once you are in the water.

The dive deck has two rows of "diving cubby holes." This is a space assigned to you for the duration of the cruise. That is, you don't have to change tanks, as the tanks are filled directly using a network of hoses that can serve all tanks. Below you can see a picture of the "cubby hole" I was assigned, right next to the starboard exit platform, so I was able to get into the water rather quickly. Below the bench, where you lay your tank and BCD, you can put your fins, masks, snorkel and other wet belongings.

Right before stepping into the dive deck there is a "check-in board" where you have to sign the time you start your dive. On the way back you have to sign out. A crew member would keep track of your times and make sure you don't exceed your bottom time. Although this is not policed very heavily, as most divers that come here have dive computers.

Right next to the check-in board there are two hot water shower heads and a rinse bucket (with Clorox) for wet suits and booties. Above the dive deck (on the mid deck) there are two camera tables, an air hose for cameras and rinse bucket for leak testing. Right next to one of the camera tables, there is a dryer. The exhaust of the dryer warms the towels stacked underneath the camera table.

The Food and the Crew

As in any dive trip, divers need their source of energy. The food on the Nekton Rorqual is served buffet style. On lunch and dinner, there's always rolls, a salad, a side dish or soup, and a main course. The picture below is of our last dinner, in which Capt. Nelson is serving enthusiastically each and everyone of us (bbq ribs). One thing that is very noticeable, is how much Capt. Nelson is involved with the operation. Since he is an diving instructor himself, he gives the briefings and even dives with you. And he doesn't skip galley duty either ;). It is really a pleasure to have him as a captain. You feel that he would go the extra mile for you.

Brett (making a face, above) is an excellent cook and he would come to you to serve you snacks during surface intervals (like the eggrolls below). 10:30am and 3:00pm are the times when snacks are served. Kat is another tireless member of the crew (above, on galley duty). She gives the Stingray City briefing and is also the resident photographer. She is also the MC for the picture competition and she is the one that compiles the CD that you can purchase at the end of the cruise. One thing that is noticeable as well (compared to the Nekton Pilot) is the quality of two of the briefings: the one of the MV Tibbets Destroyer and the one of Stingray City. Both of them were well-prepared and informative Powerpoint briefing presentations.

At dinner, there is always dessert at the end, like chocolate cake with vainilla ice cream and whip cream (below).

Cayman Islands Itinerary

The Cayman Island Itinerary is an itinerary that has lots of variety. It has a wreck (MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer), "petting zoo" (Stingray City), big animal encounters (Benji the Grouper and Spotted Eagle Rays) and wall diving with the best visibility on Bloody Bay Wall.

On this itinerary my favorite dive sites were Lea Lea's Lookout, Jackson's Reef and Wall, MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer, McCurley's Wall, Stingray City and Tarpoon Alley. Below is a table of the sites we visited. Click on the site names for detailed accounts and pictures and the littele map for the diagram that was presented on the corresponding briefing.

Day	Dive Site	Location	Highlights	Map
1	Jax Dax	Grand Cayman	Porpcupine fish, Spootted Butterflyfish, Snapper, Blue Tang, Rock Beauty
1	White Stroke Canyon	Grand Cayman	Trumpetfish, First Encounter with Big Stingrays, Lobster
2	Lea Lea's Lookout	Little Cayman	Benji the Grouper. Great Visibility
2	Randy's Gazebo	Little Cayman	Turtles, Groupers galore!, the Gazebo, Banded Butterflyfish, Dog Snappers, Green Tipped Anemone, Foureyed Butterflyfish, Lobster, Nurse Shark
3	Marilyn's Cut	Little Cayman	Groupers, Swim-thrus, Big Tube Sponges, Sea Fans, Barrel Sponges, Turtles, Green Moray
3	Magic Roundabout	Little Cayman	Two Reef Sharks!, Black Grouper, Turtle, Swim-thrus
3	Jackson's Reef and Wall	Little Cayman	More Groupers, Laberythn like Formations, Big Green Sea Turtle
4	Joy's Joy	Little Cayman	Black Grouper, Brain Coral, Barracuda, French Angel, Queen Trigger, Nassau Grouper
4	Randy's Gazebo	Little Cayman	Playing with Groupers, Turtle, Chasing Nurse Shark, Unicorn Trigger, Whitespotted Filefish, Lobster, Black Grouper
5	MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer	Cayman Brac	The Destroyer Wreck, Big Guns, Barracuda, Grouper, Garden Eels, Spotted Eagle Ray!, Banded Butterflyfish
5	Land Excursion	Cayman Brac	Bat Caves, the Bluff, Columbus Botanical Garden, Maritime Museum
5	Radar Beach	Cayman Brac	Dolphin and Stingray Sculpture, Channel Crab, Sea Star, Slip Lobster
6	McCurley's Wall	Grand Cayman	The Pinnacle, Black Coral, Whitespotted Filefish, Barracuda, Juvenile Yellow Stingray
6	Stingray City	Grand Cayman	Stingrays!
6	Tarpoon Alley	Grand Cayman	Tarpoon, Long Encounter with Spotted Eagle Ray
6	Jax Dax	Grand Cayman	Smooth Trunkfish, Ocellate Swimming Crab

The crossing from Cayman Brac to Grand Cayman last night was pretty smooth. The Nekton ships have a pretty smooth ride. You don't even feel that you are even moving. We woke up today on the Northeast side of Grand Cayman. The plan was to do five dives around Grand Cayman: two at McCurley's Wall, an afternoon at Cayman's signature Stingray City, another afternoon dive at Tarpoon Alley and finally back for a night dive to Jax Dax, where did our very first dive on this cruise.

McCurley's Wall
The briefing today was given by Captain Nelson, who said this was one of his favorite dive sites. The main attraction of this site is a pinnacle right next to a wall that creates a little "canyon" that is 90 ft. deep. The canyon is filled with lots of black coral and sponges.

Indeed the site was spectacular. As we approached the pinnacle we went thru the canyon first. The crossing took a couple of minutes, but I stopped at the bottom to take some pictures. The bottom was at 90 ft. Once I crossed it, I stayed at around 70 ft and took some pictures of the surroundings.

The health of the coral was pretty good considering that Hurricane Ivan hit Grand Cayman in 2004. Perhaps the Northeast side suffer as much as the West side. On the West side you could not see black corals like this one:

At McCurley's we did two dives. On the first dive we visited the Pinnacle and on the second we stayed on the shallow area. We could not do the pinnacle again because it was too deep (90 ft.)
On the shallow area we found some interesting creatures. Like this whitespotted filefish, which I think is one of the ugliest fish.

When I was about return to the boat I noticed this barracuda hanging out near the surface at 40 ft. I put the skills I learned in one of the photo course to practice: take the picture from below the fish. I aimed the strobe at his head, so I got a good shot at the eye.

Once I was done taking pictures of the barracuda, I noticed something moving near the sandy area below the boat, near some coral heads. I checked my air and I had plenty of air left (more than 1300 psi) so I decided to investigate. When I reached the bottom at 52 ft, I realized that it was a juvenile yellow stingray. I took a couple of pictures of it. To make sure people got the idea of how tiny the stingray was when they see the picture, I put my hand next it in the picture. Here's that picture. This was truly something very unique.

In the effort to get a good picture of the yellow stingray my BS got tangled up with a soft coral. When I tried untangled myself I couldn't. So I unstrapped my left arm (I was tangled on that side) and voila, I was then able to free myself without breaking the coral.

The Signature Dive Site of Grand Cayman: Stingray City
After the morning dive at McCurley's Wall we sailed Northwesterly towards Stingray City, the Signature Dive of Grand Cayman, also a world famous snorkeling and tourist attraction. Any magazine, or brochure that talks about Grand Cayman has a picture of Stingray City. At first, it sounded too "touristy" for me; however, people that have done it before started saying to me "you have to do it, it's an experience."

Stingray City is a not a man-made attraction, it is a sandbar with 15 ft of water located on channel that cuts through the barrier reef that protects the North Sound, located in the Northwest side of Grand Cayman. When I departed Grand Cayman, I had the chance to take an aerial view of Stingray City. You could (barely) see about eight boats on a same point on the sandbar (in the middle of the picture, right under the airplane wing).

Stingrays at Stingray City are wild animals, not grown in captivity. The story goes that fishermen on their way back to port would stop at this sandbar to take advantage of the calm shallow waters to clean their catch and fillet them. Naturally they would throw the fish guts overboard. Stingrays who are fond of sandy shallow waters to eat mollusks and crustaceans found out about this practice and became very used to the easy food. Over time they even got accostumed to being fed. Many years later some local divers realized that not only were there lots of stingrays in that area, but that you could feed them by hand. In 1987, Skin Diver Magazine wrote about this place, and the rest is history.

We arrived at Stingray City at about 1:30pm. After lunch, Kat, one of the dive instructors, gave us a Powerpoint presentation right in the saloon. The briefing was quite interesting and useful. We were given instructions on how to "behave" around the stingrays. Here are some of the instructions:

• You should wear extra weight, usually 4 lbs, at least. The water is only 15 ft deep. All divers should gather around in one place in a circle and not move around. Kneel on the sand and stay in one place. Do not chase the singrays, they will come to you.
• You will be given a container with chopped squid. Stingrays are driven by their sense of smell and they suck their food like a vacuum cleaner. "Make the stingray work for their food", don't just give the food, tease them a bit and finally give it to them.
• Put the squid between your fingers and offer it exposing the back of your hand. Use your forearm as a "shield" as well. Do not leave your fingers protruding or they will be bitten.
• You can pet the bottom and the front edges of the stingray. Stay away from the top, back and the tail.

An so we went for the dive. The boat was right on Stingray City. Since the Rorqual has a pontoon (SWATH) design, it can dump ballast to make it more buoyant, so that's why it can navigate in 15 ft of water. That was very convenient for us, because we could just jump into the water there we were. I believe we were the biggest boat on the spot.

Once we were all in the water, we went to the bottom and formed a circle. One of the divemasters, pulled the squid out of the plastic containers and started feeding the stingrays. I first sat there and watched other people get mauled by the hungry stingrays. It was quite an spectacle! I watched my dive buddy Rodney being almost attacked by a stingray. He had to use both hands to push them back.

In the addition to the singrays, there were other "attackers" as well, namely sergeant majors and yellow tail snappers. They were like piranhas, very aggresive. You have to be very careful with your fingers with these guys, as the only "injury" that I got was a bite from a yellow tail snapper. You have to shoo them away when they get too close.

The environment was not great for pictures. There was a lot of silt caused by sand being kicked up; however, the experience of getting so close with wild animals was quite a rush. After a while I got the hang out of it and started feeding them as well. I also learned how to use my for arm as a shield so that my hand is not sucked into their mouths. Their bottoms are quite soft and nice to caress. Here's a picture of a stingrays mouth. It looks like a smiley face. I used the back of my left hand when I was close to the mouth. With my right hand I was holding my camera and taking the shot with one hand.

It was very difficult to "frame" a picture in this environment. It was very chaotic and you had to take advantage of the opportunities. It was almost like being a jounalist in the middle of the "war zone." In one of those ocassions, one of the the big stingrays got close to me that I managed to get this close up of his eye with a diver in the backgound.

Overall the experience was quite fun and memorable. We laughed at how some people in the group were attacked by the stingrays. We stayed on the water over one hour, about and hour and 15 minutes. The dive ended at about 3:15pm, but you had the option to go back in the water. Some people stayed on snorkeling.

Tarpoon Alley or Eagle Ray Alley?

For our second afternoon dive we moved slightly Northwest of Stingray City to a dive site called Tarpoon Alley. The dive site was also located at the mouth of the North Sound, right on the barrier reef.

For this dive, I was waiting for my buddy Nadine to go together, but she was chatting with Denise, one of the divemasters. It turns out that Nadine was thinking of joining the Nekton Rorqual crew. She did not finish talking, so I decided to tag along with the rest of the group that was already ready to go. I was however slightly behind.

When I jumped into the water, the rest of the group had already swam towards Tarpoon Alley. The water was unusually green on the surface. The top 10 ft of water was really green and the visibility was not as good as in previous dives. Once below 15 ft the visibility got better.
I could barely see the others in the group. As usual, I paid attention in the briefing, so I used my compass to go in the right direction. Lo and behold, I found the rest of the group already taking pictures of the tarpoons. There was a rock formation that looked like an alley. It was about 15-25 ft wide and 15 ft deep. The tarpoons would just sit there.

After being done taking pictures of tarpoons, I headed North towards the wall and drop off. There I saw Dina, one of the gals in the group, chasing something. I joined in the chase of what turned out to be a magnificent spotted eagle ray.

The eagle ray was apparently swimming from East to West and again from West to East. Dina and I chased the eagle ray on at least two runs. The eagle ray was apparently making a feeding run at an average of 60 ft. I later speculated that the green water on the surface was runoff from a river which is rich with nutrients. That would explain the sighting of the eagle ray. I managed to take this sequence of eight pictures and a movie. Dina and I were the only in the group got pictures of the eagle ray. We did however pay the price with a lot sweat. I was kicking very hard to keep pace with the ray. I believe that I got as close as 4 ft to it.

I later learned that Tarpoon Alley was right next to another dive site called Eagle Ray Pass. We must have been on that site, the name was very appropriate ;). This dive was quite a pleasant surprise, my initial dissapointing reaction of green murky water turned later into a quite exhilarating adventure in the end. Not only did I had the chance to see up close and personal a spotted eagle ray, but I also saw other big creatures like a sea turtle and a big stingray swimming on the wall. That was odd because they are usually around sandy areas.

Night Dive at Jax Dax

At dinner, all I talked about was the spotted eagle ray. In the end, my dive buddy Nadine never went on the dive. So she missed this great opportunity. I remember that at the MV Tibbets Destroyer site, she was very keen on getting a picture of an eagle ray. The one that we saw at Tarpoon Alley was double the size of that one, about 4-5 ft wide. I teased her about this all througout dinner.

After dinner we did our last night dive (for this cruise) at Jax Dax, the site where we started on the West side of Grand Cayman. When I first dove that site, I wasn't very impressed. So I wasn't expecting any surprises. We did see some interesting creatures like this smooth trunkfish.

Towards the end of the dive, somebody spotted this crab. It was a species that I had never seen before. It had two eyes on the back of its shell. As many other marine species, the "fake eyes" are usually on the tail of the animal in order to fool predators. This one is called "Ocellate Swimming Crab."

That was end of an action-packed 5-dive day and the end of the Nekton Rorqual cruise. That night was our picture competition. Anybody could submit three pictures and the audience would "vote out" picture by picture until a couple of finalists are determined. I submitted the picture of the eagle ray, the one with juvenile yellow stingray and the one of the reef shark. I ended up being a finalist, but I did not win :(. I did end with the satisfaction, though, that I was able to record unique encounters that not everybody was able to have. With that thought, I headed to bed.

The ship was already anchored outside Georgetown port, which for the last night, was kind of lame. I would have preferred a more "remote" dive site for the last night dive.