Photo of the Week: October 12, 2009

Hi Gang!

Recently I spent a week diving in Caribbean waters around the island nation of Curacao. The reefs in Curacao appear to be in very good health, and they are, no doubt, loaded with all kinds of fishes. I think it fair to say that Curacao has a reputation of being a macro photographer’s dream-come true, and that reputation is well deserved. But being an ideal location for macro critters does not mean that there are not plenty of larger subjects such as snappers, groupers, turtles, stingrays and barracudas to enjoy as well.

Larger subjects are sometimes difficult to get close to. One way to solve that potential problem with a variety of fishes is to find the fishes while they are visiting a cleaning station. That is precisely how I was able to capture this week’s POTW, the toothy grin of a great barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) requesting the services of a gathering of cleaner gobies. A common resident in many reefs systems in the Caribbean, Florida and the Bahamas where it feeds on a variety of fishes, cephalopods and some shrimps, the great barracuda is a fearsome looking creature.

In an ideal world I would use a 60 mm lens and get to within a couple of feet of the fish’s face to compose my shot, but having tried that approach with barracuda before I felt certain that if I tried to get that close there was a good chance that I would disrupt the cleaning and send the barracuda swimming into the distance. I had seen several barracuda being cleaned at the exact same cleaning station the previous morning so I had some reason to think that I had a decent chance of seeing the same activity on this day. I decided to make a shot of a barracuda’s toothy mouth or a shot of a goby or two providing their cleaning services my photographic goal for the dive.

With my goal set I selected my Nikon 105 mm lens and D300 camera. I was well aware that using this lens was not ideal because I would have to shoot through more water than I would have to in a perfect scenario, meaning I would need to be a little farther away from my subject than I would in the perfect situation with a 60 mm lens. But after analyzing my chances I decided that sacrificing some image quality and getting a photograph that was useful was far better than getting no pictures at all which would be the case if I frightened the fish away before I got my shot.

Lucky me! When I approached the cleaning station a barracuda was already in place and getting cleaned. I hoped I wasn't too late in arriving. As is so often the case I had to resist the temptation to charge right in and start shooting. Instead, I kept some distance between the barracuda and me in an effort to allow the fish to get comfortable with my presence.

When I evaluated the shooting scenario I wasn’t sure that the auto-focus feature on my lens would work because of the lack of contrast between the fish's face and the surrounding water. Auto-focus requires an “edge with sufficient contrast” in order for the system to “grab and lock focus”. At the same time I didn’t want to have to manipulate the focus control after I was in position because I was afraid that that movement might spook the fish. In the end I went with auto-focus, and it worked.

I composed my frame with a camera-to-barracuda distance of about five feet because that was as close as I thought I could get without disrupting the behavior. Once I was in position I was able to shoot a number of frames of the barracuda with its mouth open as it showed off its pearly whites!

The accompanying shot is my best image. I hope you enjoy it! See you next week!

Marty