Today was my real first Solo Dive, which was really relaxing! Carrying an extra pony bottle, which allows me to ascend from 40 meters, I only planned my dive between 5 and 10 meters in order to test my Subal Housing including Lee 444 gelatine filters. This means I have put the color correction filter on my strobe.

By default an Ikelite DS-125 strobe has a color temperature of 4800 Kelvin, but with the Lee 444 filters it bumps it up to approx. 5500K, which means richer (Mustard) Blue tones in any open water picture. I have not been able to get a good shot today, but have some examples which proves the hypothesis.

Below you can find a shot of a damselfish!

We also visited Punda (Willemstad) in the afternoon for a good Stoba Karni!

Cheers,
Jaap

Today I wrapped up my Solo Diving Certification!

I know it is serious business diving solo, however the buddy-system is not a definite secure system as well. I have been trained TDI/SDI Solo Diver by Peter at Scuventures, who is an experienced instructor, and I was able to meet all the requirements by demonstrating my diving and emergency skills, and passing the written exam.

I will get into more detail later onwards, however diving solo means you’re carrying an extra tank or pony bottle to supply air at any given time. It’s like a walk in the park on you’re own with a buddy closer than you can imagine. It’s the best thing for any underwater photographer!

Cheers,
Jaap

Controlling Light underwater
Workshop Alex Mustard at Duikschip Panda, Grevelingen

Low visibility diving:

Enable backgrounds in order to complete the picture, murky, try to use half/half shots in order to open background composition. Large scene lighting has its limitations. Chase better conditions, and plan your photography conditions.

Backscatter is caused by strobe light:

Gear related: