Uploads from Jim Patterson Photography, tagged nikond200

Ocean Views - Baranof Island, Alaska

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:23:51 -0800

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I just finished submitting 20 images to the annual Nature's Best Ocean Views contest. The winners over the past couple years have included many amazing images, and I tried to include a lot of my cold water underwater shots.

I haven't been diving in about six months due to my ear troubles, but it may just be time to give it a try, give the ol' ear a test dive in the pool.

So, here is a shot from my trip to Alaska in 2008. Eye to eye with a Red Irish Lord, a true "Ocean View".

Nikon D200
Nikkor 105mm AF-D
1/250sec @ f14, ISO 100
Aquatica Housing and Flat Port
Sea & Sea YS-110 and YS-90DX strobes on manual power

The Underwater Ballet - Carmel, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:21:34 -0700

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One of the aspects of diving that is certainly quite the thrill is the underwater acrobatic ability of sea lions. They can reach speeds up to 25mph and often swoop in to within a few feet of your face and veer off at the very last moment.

Offshore along the coast of California, specifically Garrapata State Park, lies two large rocks covered in California Sea Lions. Divers rarely get here, and in fact, I haven't paid a visit for over two and half years.

I've been skunked before, and not a single sea lion came to visit, but on this day, they all wanted to play and performed their part in the underwater ballet.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 24mm
1/100sec @ f4, ISO 200
Aquatica Housing and 8" Dome Port
Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes on manual power

Check out the map link to see just how rugged and remote this dive site is!

A Chance Encounter - Carmel, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:02:25 -0700

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One of the aspects I enjoy immensely about SCUBA diving is the chance encounters with the "locals".

Along the central California coast, harbor seals and sea lions often times come in close to get a better look, and in some cases, a friendly nibble. Imagine if coyotes, wolves, and bears were this friendly!

There you are, walking along a trail in the forest, and out of nowhere, a bear taps you on the shoulder. You turn to face it and it gives you a hug. Highly unlikely, but not with harbor seals.

I have had an underwater encounter just like the scenario I described with the bear. I was leading a couple divers on their final Advanced Class dive, and I felt a nudge behind me. As I turned to investigate, a chubby face full of whiskers greeted me. This friendly seal proceeded to put its front flippers on each of my shoulders. At first I was a bit perplexed, but had heard once that seals like their chests scratched. I slowly reached out and started scratching the seal's chest, all at 50 feet underwater and with my two students witnessing the entire thing.

My scratching must not have been up to "standard" because the seal squirmed a little, appeared disappointed, and swam off.

Fast forward six years and I am swimming out to do a dive at Point Lobos, one of the most spectacular places to dive in the world, and it's pupping season for the harbor seals. I had my camera set up for macro, but as this harbor seal surfaced a few feet away, I lifted my 15 lbs of camera, housing, and strobes out of the water. Lifting this much weight out of the water does have the effect of pushing me underwater at the same time. I prayed the auto focus would find the right thing, and of the three shots I took before the seal dropped below the surface, it found the proper focus once...this shot.

Truly a chance encounter.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 105mm AF-D
1/250sec @ f7.1, ISO 100
Aquatica Housing with Flat Port

South Pacific Adventure - Rangiroa, French Polynesia

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:38:55 -0700

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Some of you may remember that Kendra, my girlfriend, won a recent photo competition, beating out yours truly for top prize. She picked a trip for two to the Bahamas.

Well, as it turns out, the resort is undergoing some ownership changes. Kendra was recently contacted by the photo competition organizers that she will likely get to pick from a prize list for an upcoming competition...before anyone else. This is to make up for the fact that the trip to the Bahamas may not happen.

We are crossing our collective fingers because the prize list for the competition in the fall should have a wide variety of trips to the South Pacific, where this image was taken 2.5 years ago.

The waiting game is on. We both find out in September where we may be going, but several trips in 2008 went to Raja Ampat, Lembeh Strait in the Sulawesi Sea, the Maldives, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Komodo.

The Bahamas would have been nice, but I will take any of the above locations 10 times out of 10 if given the chance.

For the shot:

Back in December 2006, Kendra was finishing up as a teaching assistant for a field marine biology course on Mo'orea. I flew in and we headed to the atoll of Rangiroa for 6 days of diving and relaxing.

Most of the diving here is done on two passes, with this one being at Avatoru Pass. The bigeye trevallies would school like this and it was quite the spectacle. I shot this looking straight up the school towards the surface.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 12mm
1/100sec @ f22, ISO 200
Aquatic Housing and 8" Dome Port
Natural Light, strobes turned off to avoid backscatter

An Alaskan Underwater Bouquet

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:14:06 -0700

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With Spring in full force for some folks, I decided I wanted to upload an image of spring flowers. But my two attempts at some colorful landscape shots have come up a bit lackluster, so I decided to dig through the archives.

This shot is from Inian Wall in Alaska. It is located at the far north end of Baranof Island and is a wonderful, wild place. While we were stationed there for a couple days, we saw humpbacks, otters, and steller sea lions. The misty mountains and Glacier Bay in the distance all made for a unique area that will forever be etched in my memory.

Oh, and the dives were epic, too. The colors and density of life here are amazing. Living animals packed so tightly, there is no bare rock visible.

So, here is my underwater bouquet to celebrate the colors of spring.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 16mm f2.8 fisheye
1/40sec @ f4, ISO 125
Aquatica Housing and 8" Dome Port
Sea & Sea YS-110 Strobe on manual power

The Dive of a Lifetime - Big Sur, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:40:52 -0700

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Schmieder Bank - Big Sur, California

Eight years ago, I made my first diving trip to Cozumel, Mexico. Cozumel is a little island off the Yucatan Peninsula famous for drift diving and deep walls.

I mean really deep. It is routine to dive over 100' and occasionally some of our more fearless (some could say foolish) group would make the plunge to over 200'. I was one of them.

Fast forward six years, and I am a much more cautious diver, no longer fascinated with the cheap buzz of nitrogen narcosis. I can thank my camera for that. The best light for wide angle photography is often in the first sixty feet. Your air lasts longer, too. Shallow diving compliments my style of underwater photography just fine.

In June 2007, my shop charters a boat to take us diving along the Big Sur coast. For years we spent most of our time south of Lopez Point, only occasionally making our way up towards Pfeiffer Point. This year, however, we made the trek further north to try our luck with a site known as Schmieder Bank.

And it is deep.

Schmieder Bank lies approximately four miles off of Point Sur, the iconic mass of a rock with the lighthouse. Four miles offshore is not your typical distance to a dive site along this stretch of coast, maybe more like 0.5-1 mile...tops. So we are "out there". Heavy currents are highly possible, as is the chance the fog will settle in resulting in surface visibility being reduced to less than 1/4 mile.

Schmieder Bank also is about 140'...at its shallowest. It drops off to 200' at least. It was now time for the foolish and the fearless to come together as one. A little experience over the years taught me to have a better plan for this type of dive, and my buddy and I executed it perfectly.

Of course, this plan meant only about 8-10 minutes at the top of the reef before we needed to head back to the surface.

The visibility was epic, easily 80' or more. The massive stands of orange, pink, and purple hydrocoral, although found at shallower depths, rarely get so dense and large. They need currents to feed them, and the depth to protect them from storms. Clouds of blue rockfish mixed with deeper species blanketed the reef. For many of the divers that made this dive, it ranked as one of the best they had ever done.

Looking back, I'd have to agree.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 10.5mm G fisheye
1/20sec @ f4, ISO 100
Aquatica Housing, 8" Dome Port
2 Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes, 1 at full and 1 at half power

Go Speed Racer, Go!

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:49:46 -0700

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Life in the Slow Lane

Fast forward from my last Alaska photo, the year is now 2008 and I returned to cruise the inside passage. The boat now has five more years of experience in finding the best spots, though this shot was from an "exploratory" dive site. The site: Patterson Point on Baranof Island. Hey, who knows, maybe some distant relative was a great Alaskan explorer!

We dropped down for our first dive and immediately I was having technical difficulties. I wound up surfacing, climbing aboard the skiff, and discovering my lens wasn't engaged with the camera completely. Doh!

After solving this little hold-up, I jumped back into the 41 degree water and proceeded to blind slugs and fish with my strobes.

A common habit of macro shooting underwater is moving at a slow pace, finding something interesting, and shooting the heck out of it before moving on. Sometimes, I don't travel more than 50 feet on dives when shooting macro. It's definitely "life in the slow lane".

Cruising along, I noticed a couple taking photos of an unusually large nudibranch. From twenty feet away, I could tell what it was. Impressive indeed!

Now this is where the title comes into play. A dive instructor I knew always talked about a how a good nudibranch shot was like a sports car...comin' right at you with a sense of motion. Think the cover of Car & Driver magazine with a Ferrari or Porsche bearing down at you.

And if you know what a nudibranch is, then you know they are slow, and really don't have much in common with sports cars. They are a slug, afterall, and life tends to be a bit slower underwater anyway.

This is my second favorite version of this slug. The first is here.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 105mm AF-D
1/125sec @ f14, ISO 100
Aquatica A200 Housing, Glass Flat Port
Sea & Sea YS-90DX and YS-110 strobes on manual power

Flabellina trilineata Nudibranch - Carmel, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:10:36 -0700

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This shot is pretty close to full frame. I shot it at minimum focus with the macromate 2X magnifier. I rotated 20-30 degrees and cropped, but needed to "paint in" some background to finish the job.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 105mm AF 2.8 D
MacroMate 2x magnifying diopter
1/250sec @ f25, ISO 100
Aquatica D200 Housing, Flat Port
Sea & Sea YS-110 and YS-90DX strobes on manual

Steller Sea Lion Nose - Glacier Bay, Alaska

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:11:53 -0700

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Incoming!

Flabellina trophina Nudibranch - Baranof Island, Alaska

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:31:21 -0700

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One of my favorite shots from the trip. At Patterson Point, my namesake, along the east coast of Baranof Island along the inside passage of southeast Alaska.

POTW (Picture of the Week) Winner at wetpixel.com/competition/index.php?view=competition&i..., Week #251 for Nudibranchs, Cowries, Snails. 102 total entries. Thanks!

Open Wide! - Glacier Bay, Alaska

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:31:41 -0700

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I think this one mouthed my head twice, the second time leaving a souvenir puncture in my 10mm hood.

Tahitian Stingrays Over-Under - Mo'orea, French Polynesia

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:22:56 -0700

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After a week on French Polynesia's atoll, Rangiroa, my girlfriend and I spent a couple days on Mo'orea where she had helped teach a university course on field biology using snorkeling or SCUBA for the students' research projects. We had access to a small boat, and she took me to where the local boats take tourists for the stingray feedings.

The stingrays, like Pavlov's dog, have been conditioned to know it's feeding time when the sound of a boat engine moves in and comes to a stop. They swarm around looking for handouts, but will eventually vacate the area if you aren't giving up the goods. I spent a lot of time taking photos, probably too much, as I suffered a horrible sunburn along my lower back where my rash guard rode up above my swimsuit. The 9 hour flight back to LAX the next day was brutal as I could not lean backwards in my seat due to the burn.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 12mm

Twin Lakes Beach Sunset - Santa Cruz, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:39:48 -0800

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First attempts at seascape photography. Twin lakes pier pilings.

Epic - Carmel, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:05:01 -0700

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Nice vis, eh? Taken with D200 and 10.5mm and Mono Lobo Wall in Carmel, CA. Featured in October 25, 2007 SF Chronicle supporting opinion piece by Francesca Koe on the MPAs along California.

Once underwater, I knew this day was special. Easily 80-100' visibility is rare, and it could've been better than 100'. It was epic.

I quickly looked for a foreground subject to balance the very sweet vista I was seeing in the background. I am at about 70' feet here and you can see the kelp forest creating a shadowing from the upper left corner trailing back to under the sun bursting through the kelp.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye
1/125sec @ f3.5, ISO 100
Aquatica Housing, 8" Dome
Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes, 1 at full and 1 at half power

California Sea Lions - San Miguel Island, California Channel Islands

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:42:40 -0700

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After spending some time at a deep pinnacle called Boomerang Bank off San Miguel Island, I was greeting by some cavorting California Sea Lions. Luckily the boat wasn't too far away, so I had some time to spend enjoying the circus display of acrobatics.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 10.5mm
Aquatica Housing, 8" Dome Port
Sea & Sea YS-120s

Silvertip Shark - Rangiroa, French Polynesia

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 00:17:52 -0700

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Taken at Avatoru Pass, Rangiroa with 12-24mm

The Depth of My Love - Carmel, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:59:53 -0700

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The underwater realm cannot be adequately described in the few short sentences I am about to write. To even try to capture it in words is like trying to describe life itself.

So instead, I will simply state that since I learned to dive back in 1997, my life has changed forever. SCUBA diving is underwater flying in three dimensional space. The wildlife routinely is as curious about you as you are of it. The light shifts through ripples on the surface, and under the kelp, sun beam fractals split, bend and reunite.

Many divers only descend into the depths if the water is clear and warm, but they are missing out. There exists a mystical, magical quality to the light when it passes through planktonic microorganisms, through life itself. I'll take my kelp forests any day over "warm and clear".

And I'm crossing my fingers my ear heals up to allow me to dive another day. The depth of my love for the underwater world knows no bounds.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye
1/250sec @ f6.3, ISO 100
Aquatica Housing with 8" Dome Port
Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes at full and half power

Even Seals Get Hangovers - Año Nuevo State Park, California

nobody@flickr.com (Jim Patterson Photography) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:28:07 -0700

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Thought I'd mix things up and post a wildlife shot taken a couple years back.

I'd love to get more serious into land based (and underwater) wildlife photography, but on land, there are times when you really do need a 500-600mm lens that can quickly auto focus. Considering the huge costs associated with these lenses, I will stick to shooting more sedentary animals...like the lounging elephant seals along the coast.

There are still challenges to be had, namely getting a seal that doesn't have vast quantities of snot oozing out of its nose.

This seal was fairly clean and nicely isolated from the masses nearby. The wind was blowing pretty hard, kicking up sand, and although this female was most likely giving herself a good scratch, it's fun to anthropomorphize just a bit.

So what is it, a hangover? Tired of the paparazzi? Or just an itch? The fun thing about photography is, you the viewer can make that decision.

Here's to a quick recovery for any of you that had one too many last night!

Nikon D200
Nikkor 70-200mm @ 200mm with 1.4 teleconverter
1/400sec @ f8, ISO 160
Old Manfrotto monopod (before I owned my Gitzo tripod)