This is my second post since finding this forum. I'm pretty obsessed with marine macro photography and still learning. I'm using a Nikon D40 with a 105mm VR Macro lens, I'll be upgrading to a D300 or D700 by Dec 25th... This is a zoanthid, the polyps are about .25" in size and this one was a royal pain to capture as the skirts kept moving around.
^^ what he said! especially the Blastomusa with its green ripples! Reading your intro post I take it these are shot through glass from your collection? also I think you have a mark on either your camera sensor or lens - dust or a mark - in the upper righthand corner - its in all your shots that I can see.
It's got to be on the sensor it self, otherwise it would vary in size as macro ratio changes, I see it too.
Wow, hundreds of images taken each week and I can't believe that I never noticed those marks/dust... And yes, the images are shot thru 1/4" glass. I also have a larger tank thats constucted of starphire glass (low iron) it's an expensive specialty glass for reef tanks so that the coral colors don't get washed out, due to it's thickness 3/4" the corals look amazing, but almost impossible to capture any quality macro's. Just got the Ok about 10 minutes ago to go ahead and order the D700, I'm going to try and attend some local classes or possibly do an online study course, I consider myself an "Ok" photographer, I have a good eye for composition, but still needing to master the camera controls. I no longer shot in full auto and have forced myself to shot in manual and it's taught me a considerable amount, especially with respect to DOF. Here is another little gen, Ricordia from Florida. Very difficult to capture image, as the tentacles want to move around. Red Mushroom
The ocean has some of the best looking and most interesting kinds of wildlife. colours are always amazing.
The new D700 arrived today and still trying to navigate thru all the settings, here are a few, not the best images....Give me a week to figure the camera out. Zoanthids Umbrella Leather, these spikes are about 3/8" tall Still playing around with WB, colors are OK,not the best. I'm loving the "Live View" thru the 3" display screen, lets me digitally zoom in on macro shots to fine tune the focus.....love it love it love it. These are Palythoa's This image above was cropped from the image below....The area is almost in the center, a little to the left and down about 1/4 of the way from the top.
Impressive work looks like someone is really having fun with the new toy might I suggest though - if you having white balance problems - when you get the time read up and try working in RAW mode - that way you can set the white balance in the computer yourself (shoot RAW+JPEG though to start with as RAW can take a little while to get used to)
