California and Washington underwater shots

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here but an in the planning stages of my first cold water tank. I've kept many tropical reef tanks in the past and am looking forward to temperate. Here are a couple shots I've taken in California and Washington while diving. Thanks for looking.

Here's a few more

Those are some seriously killer shots!!

Wow, great pictures . What kind of camera do you use?

Thanks. I use a Canon 40d in an ikelite housing with an ikelite ds125 strobe. I have two lenses I use, a Canon 60mm f2.8 macro and a Sigma 10-20mm f3.5-5.6. It does pretty well all in all underwater. You'd be surprised how many many shots are throw aways right away. Generally I'm happy with a shot that's moderately well composed and is in focus .

No, I completely understand where you're coming from! You definitely have an eye for this though.

What species do you most frequently encounter when you dive in Washington? And where in California do you dive?

Hero wrote:No, I completely understand where you're coming from! You definitely have an eye for this though.

What species do you most frequently encounter when you dive in Washington? And where in California do you dive?

Well thanks so much. As far as what species I'd say I encounter the most, I'd say it depends a lot on the particular site you're diving. In washington I've seen walls of plumose anemones, schools of shiner perch, yellowtail rockfish, puget sound rockfish etc. On night dives I'd say I consistently run into lots of shrimp and crab species, and usually a few ratfish. The more rare finds like stubby squid, spiny lumpsuckers and grunt sculpins are definitely out there, but you end up seeing them more on the sandy non-exciting dive sites, maybe it's just because you're looking for them. I see tons of different sessile invertebrates but again, really depends on the dive site. I'll be going diving again in 2 weeks time, I'll be sure to post the new photos when I have em.

As far as California goes, I've been to Catalina Island, Malibu and out to some oil rigs off long beach. Some great diving at all of those places. Loved the oil rigs the best for the amazing amounts of Corynactis, which I have a few photos of above.