Hi everyone and welcome back to my underwater photography blog with Sairee Cottage Diving. This week, I have chosen this photo of a turtle. It has been a while since I have had a chance to shoot one of these guys, so I was really excited to see one while with a group of DSDs (Discovery Scuba Divers). He was feeding on soft coral at Lham Tian bay and stirring up the silt. In fact, I only managed to spot him due to the silt as he was rather small.
The main point of this blog entry is that, sometimes, when finding the subjects you want to shoot, look for something completely different that could lead you to your desired subject. For example, most nudibranches are too small and time-consuming to search for. However, if you know their main food source, you can minimize the time searching for them by locating their food source. This leaves you more time to shoot.
So, with plenty of soft corals around, I knew I had a good chance of finding a turtle. However, it was the colourful Wrasse and Butterfly Fish that directed my attention to it.
I tried to alert the divers to the turtle by tapping my knife on my tank, but as there are many divers around Koh Tao, most people ignore tank bangers. It is good to remember that there is always a possibility that the person banging his or her tank could be trying to show you some interesting marine life, rather than getting the attention of their students. If you hear a tank bang, look for your photographer/videographer and you might catch sight of a turtle or a whale shark. Remember that the instructors’ and dive masters’ main roles are to take care of their divers, whereas photographers are looking for all the best things to see.
What’s the best thing you have seen that the rest of your group missed and possibly didn’t believe you saw? Leave your comments below.
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