Stu Hastie
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Hi Matt. I just made that up as I went along. I’ve had a few runs with it and have found I can shoot with up to about 4 inches of water over the housing, which isn’t too limiting. That’s firing from fairly close range though. I’ve had it set up on a tripod and you start having issues with buoyancy if you go too deep anyhow, without adding any weight. I’ve had an aluminium frame made up which bolts to the bottom of the housing, and then attaches to the tripod with the head inverted. Shot below is taking using this set up. Lots of set up to get the shot. First find the fish, think up a shot and set up the camera, go catch the fish, and hopefully get the shot. With all the gear necessary, one of the luxuries that is forgone is a net, so there has been one or two fails along the way.
I’ve got a cool shot I’m slowly working through using macro, and playing around with bokeh which I’m quite excited about, but I haven’t quite nailed that one yet.
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I’m no expert, but my basic understanding is you need to edit the RAW in some editing program like Lightroom, and then export them out of there as a Jpeg or Tiff file. The benefit of shooting in RAW is being able to control white balance, contrast, saturation and all those sort of parameters to a greater degree than you could with a Jpeg, without degrading the original file. I’m not sure you can print a RAW.
Thanks Daryl! I had my housing out last weekend for the first time in a long time. Learnt plenty.
Here’s a shot of our Tim Angeli swinging flies in the Red Hut pool on the Tongariro river.Attachments:
Another budget alternative to a tripod is to use a “bean bag”. I just use a zip-loc bag half filled with rice, size dependant on your camera of course.
A wireless remote can open a whole lot of creative options too. Manually focus on a spot you can readily identify, maybe a stick you’ve poked into the mud or a rock that breaks the water surface and then fire away to your hearts content once you’re in frame. Some remotes will have various firing options; single frame, bulb and timer on the cheap aftermarket remotes that I use. If I’ve got my camera set on high speed continuous drive and the remote set to single frame, the camera will typically take 3 frames, or if you set the remote to bulb, I’ll get about a 2 second burst, great for release shots.
You might have to get creative with tripping the remote. With the shot below, I had to set up the camera while the fish was “half played out” in the pool, stick in the mud to focus, and orient the frame (removed in post), camera on rice bag, digital level, remote in mouth, pray for the best!Attachments:
And another couple. I carried that housing all day long. It’s a big commitment, and you certainly don’t want to be carrying a rod as well.
Bright sun is good. Toward the end of the day we were in a tight valley with little sun and I found I was hunting down little patches of sunshine to shoot in. We had to carry that fish of Sven’s about 20 meters upstream to a tiny slither of sunlight. You might notice too the fish is facing downstream.Attachments:
And a couple of shots of that remote mod. I’m a struggling artist, so I can’t afford the spec goods 😉
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Thanks Steve. I really love that reflective quality of shooting up at the water surface. Very cool, and needs to be explored 🙂
I haven’t been using my housing much lately, as we’re just coming out of winter here, so Trout season starts in Oct. I did get out with it once or twice toward the end of last season, so theres a couple of shots here from that.
My housing came with an 8″ dome and a 50mm extension tube, which was set up to house an EFS 10-22mm, and since then I’ve added (I think it’s like a ) 50mm flat lens port, and combining the extension and flat port together, I can use my EFs 17-55 (with very slight vignette @17mm) and 100mm macro, and with just the flat port attached, 50mm 1.2. It’s great having such versility with lens and port selection for both U/W stuff as well as in hideous weather.
I’ve tinkered around a bit with a cheap shutter remote, and I’ve managed to squeeze one into the housing, sitting high in the housing above the hotshoe. I haven’t tried it out yet, but allegedly I should be able to still fire it with a couple of inches water cover, but time will tell. I had it firing out to about 20 meters the other day, line of sight. I’m quite excited about the creative opportunity all that opens.Interesting times ahead. I’m off with a few friends swinging flies in Sept, so hopefully have the opportunity to shot some more then. I’ll keep you posted.
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Woohoo, congrats Travis. Such a stonking fish!
Great idea Zach, thanks for running the contest. My young fella was constantly reminding me to check in on the progress. Especially big thanks to the sponsors!
Thanks Marty, I appreciate that. It’s a great age he’s at now. Very important years in a young mans life. I can only hope that in a few years time he’ll be spotting for me!
I should add, North Island, NZ. He did all the work, I just did the spotting. Proud Dad. 29 June 2014
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While not THE biggest fish, it’s HIS biggest fish. My oldest son with his 5 1/4 lb Rainbow 🙂
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Thanks for looking that up Jason. For some reason I was expecting that to be up over 1/250. I don’t use flash too much, so I need to get my head around that.
Cheers.Pretty fish Chris! The river looks popular. Do you have to book a beat of the river, or is it all public access and you just book the trip with Mum 😉
Nice work Jason! What’s your synch speed in that last shot?
It’s winter down here in NZ. Nearly the shortest day, but last Friday was treated to a nice Rainbow picking off the top. Pretty to watch.
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Thanks Corey! I haven’t had a proper play with it yet. It’ll be interesting to see what other lenses I can get in there.
Very exciting times down here. My Aquatech housing finally arrived on my doorstep the other day, so wasted no time in getting it wet, despite the water carrying a bit of colour. Very steep learning curve.
Not sure why these have cropped square?
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I guess I should introduce myself too. Stu Hastie. I’ve been lurking / posting for a while now. From the North Island of NZ, I’ve been flyfishing for the last 20 of my 47 years. My day job and a busy family schedule sees me away from the water more than I’d like, but I’m sure that’ll change in time. I have 3 young boys, who are just starting to take up the fly rod, which has made for some very memorable fishing.
I’m a keen photographer, just on the brink of getting myself an aquatech housing. I find myself getting closer and closer to the water, so it only makes sense to take the plunge and get in there and see what happens. I still don’t have myself a website, but hope to within the next 12 months.
I really appreciate all the great photographers who frequent this forum willing to share their knowledge, and or course Zach, for all your time and energy you put in here. Love those podcasts!
