Photographer: © 2014-2016 Dave Waselle · All Rights Reserved.
Sea Fan | Ponepe, Micronesia
Sea Fans are among the most majestic of all corals on the reef. They gently wave back and forth responding to currents in the oceans. The have millions of living animals on the fan-like skeletal system. The small polyps will open up and feed on plankton floating by. They are a photo rich subject, ripe for macro or wide-angle possibilities and anything in between.
If there wasn’t a diver in this image, you wouldn’t have a clue as to how big this fan really is. It was taken with a Nikonis 15MM wide angle lense. A strobe was fired from over my left shoulder to not only highlight the fan, but hit the front of the diver also. At this distance, there was enough available light for the appropriate f-stop. I fired the strobe for “flash fill” and this is a perfect example of the results you get. Red correction filters just can’t give you this kind of results.
How did I know this would happen? Practice and trial and error. Studying my photos. Not only the good but the bad also. Again, it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. From studying all my previous photo experiments, I had already calculated the formula for getting the good picture.
An interesting footnote about Ponepe: the island grows its own gourmet pepper. Chefs from all over the world that knew about this ordered their pepper from Ponepe.
