Strobes Farewell in Mahurangi Harbour

20/12/2016 (609)

This was possibly the last dive with my trusty Ikelite Substrobe M strobes (for now). I’ve been using two Ikelite Substrobe Ai for a couple of years. They were good for both macro and wide angle photography and allowed me to set either the full or half power. At some point one of the strobes died and I could not get another one (cheap). I started to use Substrobe M. They are good for macro, but the light beam is too narrow for wide angle. Also there is no way to control the light output. I tried diffusers and played with the positioning to achieve acceptable results. It worked to certain extend …

Last month I decided to get new strobes … strobes that would serve my purposes hopefully for many years. And today I received an e-mail saying the strobes were with the courier and would come tomorrow. Farewell to my old ones.

Usually the spring / early summer dives in Mahurangi Harbour are quite interesting. So was this one. Nudibranches were mating, they were everywhere, also the clusters of their eggs could be seen. Mediterranean fanworm Sabella spallanzanii is spreading more and more in the mouth of the harbour as I could see during the dive.

I believe that area would be very colourful if there was less silt there. I found a small rock with a patch of yellow boring sponge during the dive. Using my palms as a fan I removed the silt and a lot of colours showed. I met a flounder too. It was so patient allowing me to get very close and use my strobes. It was obviously watching me, but did not move at all.

Slovak

Toto bol pravdepodobne posledný ponor s mojimi starými, ale spoľahlivými bleskami Ikelite Substrobe M. Pôvodne som používal Ikelite Substrobe Ai, tie boli dobré aj na makro, aj na širokoúhle zábery a umožňovali nastaviť silu záblesku v dvoch stupňoch. Po čase sa jeden blesk pokazil. Keďže som nevedel násť ďalší takýto blesk za malý peniaz, začal som používať Ikelite Substrobe M. Tie sú malé, dobré na makro, ale inak majú úzky svetelný kužeľ. Navyše nemajú možnosť regulovať silu záblesku. Snažil som sa tieto nedostatky kompenzovať difúzerom a neustálym prestavovaním ramien.

Minulý mesiac som sa rozhodol, že si kúpim nové blesky … také, ktore by mali slúžiť mojim potrebám veľa rokov. A dnes som dostal správu, že ich už prevzal kuriér a zajtra dorazia.

Ponory v Mahurangi Harbour sú z môjho pohladu zaujímavé, hlavne na jar a začiatkom leta. Taký bol aj tento ponor. Nahožiabre slimáky sa párili, boli všade. Aj ich vajíčka bolo možné vidiet na mnohých miestach. Prišelec zo Stredozemného mora, červ Sabella spllanzanii sa úspešne šíri, čo potvrdil aj tento ponor.

Som presvedčený, zo miesto by bolo veľmi farebné, keby sa dalo zbaviť všadeprítomného jemného sedimentu. Počas ponoru som našiel šedivú skalku s malým fľakom žltej hubky. Keď som ho rukami oprášil a počkal, kým sa kal odplaví, ukázalo sa, že celá skala je pokrytá farebnými hubkami.

Okrem bežných rýb som našiel aj “flounder” (platesa?) Ležal na dne, ani sa nepohol, ale dovolil mi sa priblížiť aj naňho “zablýskať”.

Sabellas are very successful in populating the mouth of Mahurangi Harbour.

Colourful sponges appeared after I removed sediment form the grey rock.

Common sea urchin Evechinus chloroticus an silty bottom.

Flounder is very well camouflaged … except its eye.