Alan’s Blog

After strobe nightmares this trip is all about ambient light in the cavern zone. The idea being to take some of the pics i took earlier with a lower iso and longer shutter speed by using a tripod.

First things first I had to some how get the camera housing without a tripod mount onto the tripod. After some deliberation I decided epoxy would do the trip. If it doesnt work I will get one of the local metalworkers to tap out a thread in the aluminum tray. So here's some pics of how it looked.

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Following on from my first serious attempt at underwater cave photography. I decided to play with a remote slave.

I have two Ikelite DS-125 strobes. I left one on the camera housing and set up another one with a slave sensor. My plan was to revisit Cenote Taj Mahal and check out how the slave would light up a small formation. The slave sensor I used is triggered by a flash. You can change the sensitivity of this trigger. I thought hmmmm.. caves dark so daylight wont trigger this. Surely if its set to max sensitivity it will be easier to hide maybe. Of course i was wrong. So here's what I learned about strobes in underwater caves.

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After endless problems with my Ikelite housing, I finally conceded and bought a new one. This seems to be OK and so far hasn't leaked. After a couple of dives in open water i headed off to Taj Mahal to catch the early morning light in the cenote. I have taken some interesting photos with my old Canon powershot and the Canon housing but never with a DLSR. I can say its tricky. Really really tricky.

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While Puerto Aventuras missed the category five winds of Hurricane Dean. There was a lot of damage along the coastline due to pretty bad storm surge.

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Following on from the Earthquake in Lima, Hurricane Dean eventually missed us in Puerto Aventuras. Though what defines 'missed' is difficult to say really.

Dean was a fast powerful Hurricane with a lot of storm surge. This ultimately meant that though the winds didn't damage too much, we did receive a vist from the ocean. Quite a few crabs moved in to take shelter from the storm.

Both Hurricane Emily and Hurricane Wilma in 2005 were certainly far more destructive than Hurricane Dean, but the water damage this time was far worse.