WWII Wreck diving in Truk Lagoon - Photos, etc.
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 2:34 pm
I just returned from Truk Lagoon, where I spent a week diving on shipwrecks from WWII (on the liveaboard M.V. Odyssey).
Everyone on the boat was diving nitrox 30 (the only mix available), which was just about right for the deep diving (practically every dive was 100-120 fsw). Many people had dual tanks, however, so got some pretty decent bottom time.
I spent almost the entire trip using one of the coolest new lenses to be introduced in the last ten years IMO: the Canon 8-15mm circular fisheye lens (used with my 5D Mark II camera inside an Aquatica housing with two Inon Z-240 strobes). This lens permits true 180 circular images (from straight up to straight down, and straight out to both sides). I was very excited to use it, and was very happy with some of the results (it is now my favorite lens)!
You can read my brief trip report on my blog http://bruceyates.blogspot.com/,
or go directly to my TRUK GALLERY on my website: http://www.underwaterreflections.com/Un ... &k=q2zmjDP. Each of my photos has some further discussion of the wrecks, diving, etc.
But here are a few examples:
This is a circular fisheye shot of the bow of a ship sitting askew on the sand, from close enough that the soft corals are sharp, but still including the entire width of the ship.
I also used the lens at 15mm as a replacement for my Sigma 15mm FE. This is a huge bow gun on the wreck of the San Francisco Maru, at a depth of 165 feet (the deepest dive I've ever done - using nitrox 24). Although I only spent 10 minutes on the wreck, and was a bit narc'd, I was able to take a few good photos of this gun and several tanks that were resting on the deck.
I even added a 1.4X teleconverter and used it with my tiny 100mm dome port to shoot some "wide angle macro" photography like this one of two clownfish.
Truk is expensive to get to (because Continental Micronesia has a virtual monopoly for that area -my ticket was ~$2,000), and the boat is expensive (~$3,000 for one week), but it is definitely worth doing at least once in your life, especially if you like wreck diving!
Everyone on the boat was diving nitrox 30 (the only mix available), which was just about right for the deep diving (practically every dive was 100-120 fsw). Many people had dual tanks, however, so got some pretty decent bottom time.
I spent almost the entire trip using one of the coolest new lenses to be introduced in the last ten years IMO: the Canon 8-15mm circular fisheye lens (used with my 5D Mark II camera inside an Aquatica housing with two Inon Z-240 strobes). This lens permits true 180 circular images (from straight up to straight down, and straight out to both sides). I was very excited to use it, and was very happy with some of the results (it is now my favorite lens)!
You can read my brief trip report on my blog http://bruceyates.blogspot.com/,
or go directly to my TRUK GALLERY on my website: http://www.underwaterreflections.com/Un ... &k=q2zmjDP. Each of my photos has some further discussion of the wrecks, diving, etc.
But here are a few examples:
This is a circular fisheye shot of the bow of a ship sitting askew on the sand, from close enough that the soft corals are sharp, but still including the entire width of the ship.
I also used the lens at 15mm as a replacement for my Sigma 15mm FE. This is a huge bow gun on the wreck of the San Francisco Maru, at a depth of 165 feet (the deepest dive I've ever done - using nitrox 24). Although I only spent 10 minutes on the wreck, and was a bit narc'd, I was able to take a few good photos of this gun and several tanks that were resting on the deck.
I even added a 1.4X teleconverter and used it with my tiny 100mm dome port to shoot some "wide angle macro" photography like this one of two clownfish.
Truk is expensive to get to (because Continental Micronesia has a virtual monopoly for that area -my ticket was ~$2,000), and the boat is expensive (~$3,000 for one week), but it is definitely worth doing at least once in your life, especially if you like wreck diving!
