In February 2020 I completed my Open Water Diver course (only 20 years too late), with the aim of expanding my photography into the underwater world.
After spending some time limiting myself to shore dives to improve my skill and confidence level, I decided it was time to just ‘go for it’ and book in my first boat dive, this being to Cook Island Reserve on the southern end of the Gold Coast.
Getting There – Another Early Morning
Like many other photography related trips it was another early start. In this case, in the car at 4am for the 1.5 hour drive down the Gold Coast Highway to Kirra Dive “On The Tweed” to check in and gear up.
Situated at the most northern point of the New South Wales coast, Cook Island is approximately 600 metres east of the township of Fingal Head and 4 kilometres south – east of the town of Tweed Heads.
As my dive was booked with Kirra Dive “On The Tweed” in conjunction with Tweed Gold Coast Dive Charters the trip out to Cook Island would be a 15 – 20 minute boat ride from the Tweed River with a small bar crossing thrown in for good measure (don’t forget to take a sea sickness tablet if you’re that way inclined).
Cook Island
Cook Island, sometimes even referred to as Turtle Island, is a protected marine park with a healthy population of, you guessed it, TURTLES. Other notable marine life that can be found in this area are Leopard Sharks, Grey Nurse Sharks, Manta Rays and an abundance of tropical fish and coral, basically a candy store for underwater photography.
Getting The Photo
Armed with a pretty modest underwater camera setup by professional standards consisting of a Sony A6000 with Sigma 16mm 1.4 lens in a Seafrog’s Housing and 2 x Sea & Sea YS-01 strobes, and Dive Master Josh, the most patient dive buddy I could ask for, it was time to make friends with the local turtle population.
Water temperature was a perfect 23 degrees but with visibility at around 8 metres, getting some decent images was always going to be challenging.
After only a couple of sightings in the distance, it wasn’t until we were part way through our second tank of air that the turtles really came out to play and let us get close enough.
As with the majority of wildlife photography, I’d recommend a slow approach where you and the animal gradually become more comfortable with each other. If you are really lucky, the turtle will become inquisitive seeing their reflection in your dome port.
If the turtle is moving, don’t come rushing up from behind it, try and take a more ‘out and around’ approach and come in from the front, let’s be honest, no one wants to see photos of a turtle’s backside.
Prior to leaving the boat, I had some basic camera settings dialed in, this being a shutter speed of 1/160 (this is the fastest the shutter can be set whilst using a flash on the Sony A6000), an F-Stop of F8 which seems to be a good balance between keeping things in focus and letting in enough light whilst underwater and an ISO set at 200, you don’t want this too high as it can lead to a grainy image.
In an effort to minimise back scatter, I position the strobes wide apart, angled outwards a little and behind the focal plane of the lens.
Colour corrections and finishing touches are then made in Adobe Lightroom once I return home.
Special thanks to Rudi and Josh from Kirra Dive “On The Tweed” and Dave from Tweed Gold Coast Dive Charters.
