Blue-green Chromis

Canon 5D, 17-40 @ 23mm plus two strobes, 200 iso. 1/60 @ f14 to maximise DOF. Small crop.
Working very close to these fish is not easy - they sink down into the fingers of coral you see below them and only emerge when they think they are safe. So you have to stay still and close for a while, hardly breathing, until they rise a bit. The white stuff you see at the surface are the clouds above.
Taken in the Maldives where as you can see, much of the coral in the top 10m of water is very poor. All down to El Nino in 1998 when water temperature in the Indian Ocean rose several degrees centigrade and killed a great deal of coral in the shallows. Many coral species grow just a few cms. a year so recovery is slow - except that is for acropora (in which these fish are living) which grows rapidly and seems to be developing everywhere.

Isn't 'hardly breathing' a little tricky under water? Like the habitat view here. I always fins that many underwater shots focus solely on the subject. I know you lose colour wavelengths after a few meters so the background normally goes dull and blue, but as your subjects are blue anyway, it all works for me.

Very nice indeed, your lighting works well and I like how you have included more of the background rather than focusing just on the coral and fish as it give you a good feeling of actually being down there. I don’t know how you dare take a 5D to that depth though! Tristan

A wonderful sight Jim, and you have done it full justice

No dought this is a specilised area, with its own unique photographic hurdles to overcome, but you have pulled off a fine result

Alan

Lovely image, As Tristan has mentioned, I like the environmental feel of the picture and the sense of 'being there'.

Chris.

Hi Jim - fine image and a very effective UW shot of the environment. The water looks wonderfully clear.

I know exactly what you mean about holding your breath Jim some of those little fish are so skittish. Loevly environ image, and a change from the normal static coral reef shots. Might just try a touch under exposing the background - 1/2 stop just to pick out the main subject a little more. That's not a criticism by any means as I like this image a lot.

It's views like this that make me wish I wasn't such a coward about learning to dive - a lovely image of great clarity and detail Jim

I'm with Andy - just wish I'd enjoyed diving more when I've tried it. My eldest daughter is mad keen on it - now I need to teach her to take photos like this which is really good.



Mark

I've been diving a few times in the Indian ocean and such places and thank goodness I've not planned any trips since becoming interested in photography otherwise it would cost me a packet in underwater kit no thanks to images like this!!. Inspiring image for me

Looks great to me! It's different than usual under water photos that I came across. More environmental and much to my landscape taste. Perhaps a bit on blue side, so a bit more power on those strobes could help, but who am I to know that.

Tristan underwater housings are designed for this type of work. A friend of mine takes down there his D2X that is even more expensive.

Cheers,
Marko

Great shot

Wow how wonderful, underwater landscapes now there's something to try!

Love how the shoal of fish echo the shape of the coral 'bush'. Great stuff.