Underwater Cave Photography is hard! (4th Trip)
Progress has been slow in my quest to take a decent underwater cave photo. A lot of travelling and othe distractions have kept my cave diving gear dry for longer than I would like.I took one of the strobes into the ocean and had a nasty flood where I learned a valuable lesson.
Back to the cave
With one strobe and a far more solid tripod mount I headed back to Cenote Taj Majal. I decided that around 10 am would be a good time in August to catch a few nice rays and around 11ish I would get some of the nice vertical beams coming down into the dome rooms.
Something is missing
The main problem with my photos from Cenote Taj Majal is that they simply don't make sense to somebody that hasn't been there. This is a huge failure and I am struggling to find a solution that doesn't involve putting a diver into the frame. My goal is to take a photograph that delivers a "wow, what an amazing place", not "Hmm interesting. Whats that?".
The picture below demonstrates this problem
This picture shows a beam of light entering an air filled dome through a small hole which then diffracts on the water surface and illuminates a small area of the cavern. You can see the water surface blurred above and the distant cave opening. When you know all this the picture is half decent and i think captures the mood pretty well. Without the explanation though its as clear as mud.