Seagrass in Motion
One morning while diving at San Clemente Island I was struck by the lackluster light. It was cloudy and dark and I had yet to find any exciting subjects to shoot. I was spacing out in the shallows watching the kelp fishes meander among the weeds when I started fiddling around with long handheld exposures trying to find something interesting in the motion of seagrass as it was tossed about by passing swells. Here is what I got:
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| Surf grass on the rocky reef – appearing blurred in this time exposure – is tossed back and forth by powerful ocean waves passing by above. San Clemente Island. Image: 10240 Species: Phyllospadix sp. |
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| Surf grass on the rocky reef – appearing blurred in this time exposure – is tossed back and forth by powerful ocean waves passing by above. San Clemente Island. Image: 10237 Species: Phyllospadix sp. |
A garibaldi fish (orange), surf grass (green) and palm kelp (brown) on the rocky reef – all appearing blurred in this time exposure – are tossed back and forth by powerful ocean waves passing by above. San Clemente Island. Image: 10238 Species: Phyllospadix sp., Hypsypops rubicundus |
Surf grass on the rocky reef – appearing blurred in this time exposure – is tossed back and forth by powerful ocean waves passing by above. San Clemente Island. Image: 10247 Species: Phyllospadix sp. |
These photos were quite simple to expose and I shots hundreds of them on the dive, throwing away 95% of them upon review and ending up with a few worthwhile keepers.
Nikon D100, 12-24mm f/4 lens, f22 at whatever, available light.
Keywords: motion, blur, time exposure, seagrass, kelp.
