Shooting Swimming Gannets Underwater with the Fujifilm X-T1

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This morning I finally got to land on Bass Rock after four aborted trips over the past three months due to the weather or the sea state.  

 Last month we nearly landed but it was called off due to the choppy condition that made a landing on the island dangerous.  However it did give me a chance to try the Fujifilm X-T1 in the DICAPAC waterproof housing I had bought for the trip.  The images on that trip were OK but it did give me a few ideas for today's boat trip and I was able to put these into operation on the trip today.

 The results this morning were exactly what I was looking for, images of Gannets underwater fishing near the boat.

 The X-T1 was fitted with the XF18mm f2 lens and then placed into the waterproof housing.  The ISO dial was set to Auto with a minimum shutter speed of 1/125s.  The aperture was set to f2.8 and the focus level flipped round to manual after setting the lens to infinity as everything after a few feet would be in focus and I didn't want the AF getting fooled by the water.

 The Interval Timer Shooting was selected in the cameras menu and set to one shot every second and the counter set to 999.  I then put the camera on a pole and into the water.  I didn't use the cameras internal WiFi and remote app because when I tested this, the WiFi was interrupted by the density of the water, so the interval timer method was the preferred method of shooting.

 This method is a bit hit and miss but luckily I had several keepers from the 300 shots the camera took.

 As well as the underwater images I also pulled the camera out of the water so it was next to the boat on the waterline, which gave another different perspective to these magnificent seabirds.













CLICK HERE for more on the Bass Rock Landing trips on the Scottish Seabird Centre website.

 All images shot on a Fujifilm X-T1 with a Fujinon XF18mm f2R lens in a DICAPAC underwater housing.
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ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION

MacLean Photographic run Tours and Workshops in East Lothian and the Borders of Scotland.  CLICK HERE for more details and availability

In June 2015 Jeff Carter was named as a Fujifilm brand ambassador and you can view his profile and gallery on the Fujifilm website HERE


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