RustyTheGeek said:
I think it's a great job! Lots of work and down time there. I agree the editing is slightly frenzied. Also, Please never put captions in the center of an image. (Last unknown fish) Love the beautiful morning shots across the water. Light is nice there too.
No offense to you and your work, just my personal choice here but this video required more equipment and effort than I am willing to spend to get good results when I'm diving. You obviously love what you're doing and it shows. However, if I had all that bottom time, I would have enjoyed the diving, taken still photos and created a similar slideshow with a lot less effort. Not sure how the video medium helps make this come alive more than good still images would set to good music.
There are a lot of times when video trumps still photos. I just don't think this is one of them. Not criticizing you, just wondering if a different subject would be more engaging or this subject with more action. (See NatGeo, Discovery, etc for ideas.) Now if this video was of a victim swimming away from a bunch of hungry sharks, THAT would be exciting! (As long as we got some closeups of their face as they were screaming.) Seriously, perhaps more action from the fish, nature in action, that sort of thing.
Thanks for watching it and taking the time to comment. With regards to enjoying the diving. This is my 4th trip doing video. First doing Macro. And I have to say, it has changed diving for me. Instead of doing a 2 dive day. I now want to do 4-5 dives per day. I look for photo friendly destinations. It changes the way I look for and at things underwater. It has been really fun. Challenging but fun.
Regarding the slideshow vs. video. Slideshows can certainly be nice. But I personally prefer a well done video. Whether mine qualifies as well done, is up for interpretation.
My wife, who accompanies me diving, she has been doing underwater still photos since 2006. So I leave her to the photos, while I am the video guy.
There are certainly subjects that are better for Photo, and others that are better for video. In my video, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Octopus, Frogfish, lend themselves much better to video than photo. Photos can be nice of those, but video is better. With Photo, Seahorses, nudibranchs, etc look better than video.
As for the subject matter, Lembeh Strait is the top macro destination in the entire world. But for an average diver, they might find it a bit boring. This destination is basically all sand, rubble and garbage from the city. The critters hide in the garbage and the sand. So instead of a beautiful coral reef.....you are diving in the muck. Thats why there is no wide angle in this. the amount of critters there is staggering. Thats why its a popular destination for photographers and videographers. So unfortunately, there was no hungry sharks chasing other divers.
and if there had been, I would have had my Macro lens on....
Underwater behavior is tough. Fish aren't exactly cooperative. They don't normally like to do tricks when 8000 lumens of light is pounding down on them, and strange creatures blowing bubbles are hovering above them. And you can't make them do anything, because they will swim away, bury deeper in the sand, or sting you....So its a little challenging. Believe me.....I want behavior....but sometimes its just not possible, you have to do with what you got. the people from Discovery or NatGeo, can send someone to a destination of diving and they don't come home until they get the behavior they need. I don't have that luxury...This was 7 days of vacation and diving, and then back home for more boring work.
I did get some awesome behavior on this trip that is not in this video. This is very rare to see. The Cuttlefish used my lights to hunt. It was moving, so it was hard to keep in focus with a 100mm macro lens, but it is still pretty sweet. Here is the link:
Lembeh - Hunting Cuttlefish Attack on Vimeo
Thanks again for your comments and for taking the time to watch the video.
Dustin
