Underwater Photography | Snorkeling Photography - Delivers

Emperor Angelfish - and friends in natural habitat

When compact camera is too basic - a Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR - an early, lucky, attempt at snorkelling photography

Emperor angelfish and friends
Emperor Angelfish
The Maldives - Vivanta by Taj Coral Reef resort - Hembadhu island
You need better than this camera but don't need expensive diving or photographic gear for snorkelling photography
Fujifilm Finepix F70 EXR - Auto - No flash - F3.3, 1/400 sec, Iso-200, Focal length 5mm

The camera and white balance

The Finepix F70 EXR lacks a white balance = 'underwater' setting which I consider vital.

In the banner shot above, photo editing software has done quite a bit.   Tried to rescue this shot's colour with manual rather than automatic white balance adjustment.

Not all the corals were anywhere near as bleached as they still appear.
A camera with 'underwater scene' mode sounds good but it takes control of too much.

It is having a camera with 'white balance set to 'underwater' which counts.   This was used in the shot to the right.

Not a great shot, and despite the coral rubble background, the truer colours of the fish are apparent.

The Angelfish

The guy above - Pomacanthus imperator - occurs in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.   Usually alone but nice size as grow to nearly 16" (40cm).

Here, in his natural habitat, he's swimming over quite a lot of pale and bleached corals, looking as if he's in an aquarium with all the other fish.
With blue green pullers (green chromis), lots of Indo-Pacific sergents (the striped jobs) and a Pinstriped butterflyfish just below his tail.

Juveniles differ in colour with contrasting bright blue and white rings - (Wiki).   They're omnivorous (ie eat anything).
Angelfish seem quite a neat bunch.   Nice size, not too shy and neat to look at.   Clearly designed for underwater pictures.

A couple of relies - juvenile French Angelfish in Grand Cayman and the Regal Angelfish in Lahami Bay (Red Sea), shown below.

juvenile French angelfish
juvenile French angelfish in The Caribbean - Grand Cayman - coming up for a look
Regal angelfish
shyer - the Regal angelfish in Lahami Bay - Marsa Alam - The Red Sea

P1 of 7 - first photographs
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Blue green Chromis