12-09-2004, 01:01 AM
Digital Photography \ Manatee \ Blue Springs – Orange City 12/5/04
I talked to my dive buddy Ray about doing another Blue Springs dive and breakfast. Ray lives about 10 miles away from Blue Springs State Park http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/ and he goes there almost every weekend. My commute to the park takes a little under an hour (about 60 miles). Our usual dive plan is 120’ for 20 minutes, followed by stops at the different ledges and caverns on the way up. The target run time is 60 minutes and the goal is to have fun, take lots of pictures, and then have a nice breakfast at the Cow after the dive.
I have been thinking about upgrading my underwater photo equipment from a Nikonos V to something digital. I have several friends who take pictures, when I dive with them, and I also wanted to contribute to the photo section on this forum. For the last year my goal was to get an underwater camera housing (capable of at least 330’) and a strobe for my Canon EOS Digital Rebel.
About a week ago I got a flyer, via e-mail, about some digital cameras and I finally saw an underwater camera package, which I thought was in an affordable price range. It wouldn’t be the best camera, but it looked like it would meet my needs, for now, at a price which I was willing to pay and I could claim it as a Christmas present!
I purchased a digital SeaLife Reef Master DC310 Pro Set
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/news/news_sprg_03_1.html http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/sl148.html last Friday night. It includes a 3.3 MP digital camera, close up lens, strobe, strobe mounting kit, carrying case, USB upload cable and photo software (MGI PhotoSuite III and Photo Vista) for your PC for $559.95. Currently, SeaLife has a $50 mail in rebate if you purchase this package
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/rebate2004.html before 12/31/04 at an authorized SeaLife retailer. I also got a 10% approved dive club discount and I had a $10 off card (so I paid $443.95 + tax after the rebate).
I also bought a 1 G SD card on Saturday for about $70. It gives me approximately 1260 pictures on full resolution. I got the camera all setup and I took some test pictures on Saturday, so it would be ready for the Sunday morning dive.
I met Ray outside the gate to Blue Springs at about 8:45 AM on Saturday. We talked for a little bit as I started the last minute preparations on my dive equipment. Ray then went back to his vehicle to finish getting his camera ready. Ray uses an Olympus C5050 5 MP camera, an Ikelite housing with a 100 degree ION lens and Ikelite DS125 strobe. His camera outfit costs approximately $2500 - $3000 and it’s very nice.
The gates to the park opened at 8 AM, so we drove in and parked to sign in as dive group number 2. We were told that on Saturday they had 54 Manatee in the spring run. One of the Rangers was putting up a sign with the number of Manatee on it and it said 60. We initialed and signed the dive waiver, showed the Ranger our Florida State Park passes and gave them our dive cards, to check in, to dive. We then headed back to our vehicles and drove down to the parking area.
I showed Ray my new camera and we took another test picture, before we proceeded to the boardwalk, which heads to the diver entrance. After we started walking, we saw a couple of other divers who told us a Mother and Baby Manatee (AKA Sea Cow) were present at the spring head. When we got to the steps, which head down to the water, and we noticed the water level looked like it was almost back down to the normal level. We noticed a rope was stretched across the spring run, just after the entrance, which closed off the bottom portion of the run.
The bottom portion of the run was closed till about 2 PM to isolate the people from the Manatee in the morning. The spring is approximately 72 degrees and the Manatee enter the spring run when the water temperature and air temperatures are below the spring temperature. The spring run serves as an electric blanket for the Manatee and Blue Springs is known as the “Winter home of the Manatee”. The park gift shop has the largest collection of Manatee items that I have ever seen.
When we got ready to enter the water, Ray mentioned the water was too deep to walk up the spring run the prior weekend. We put on our masks and we entered the water. After I put on my fins, I noticed I could stand up towards the side of the run, so I took off my fins and we walked up the side of the spring run. Its nice to wear booties when you walk up, because the bottom has lots of pebbles, which will make for an uncomfortable walk with your bare feet. While we walked up, it looked like we had the place to ourselves. We noticed a bird on the way and I stopped to take a couple of pictures.
We then continued to walk up the run until we got to where we could see the head spring. Ray put on his fins and I proceeded over to the new tree, which got knocked into the spring run from one of the hurricanes earlier this year. I put on my fins and dropped to the bottom on my knees. Shortly after I got to the bottom, I saw the Mother and Baby Manatee. The Mother has propeller scars and the baby was only about three feet long. This was the smallest Baby Manatee which I have ever seen.
The Manatee started swimming towards me and we both started taking pictures. As they were swimming, they stirred up some particulates from the bottom and I waited until I could take some nice pictures. After a short while, we finished taking the pictures and we both headed for the head spring. As I entered the run, I noticed the flow was very strong. Blue Springs is a first magnitude spring and I usually wear 3 – 4 extra pounds of weight to help me get to the bottom. It also helps if you wear a hood on this dive. If you don’t, you will be combing little pebbles out of your hair after the dive.
We entered the spring head and we proceeded to the bottom. The spring head itself has several logs across it at about 10’ and the entrance is about 20’ X 50’. Blue Springs has very pretty limestone walls. At about 60’ you encounter the Grim Reaper sign. The spring then proceeds at about a 135 degree angle down to the West. You then enter a large room, which has a depth of about 120’.
At the bottom of this room, in approximately the center, you find a very strong flow coming out from a vent between two ledges, with a large rock, called Cork Rock, stuck in the center. The flow is so strong; it will rip your mask off your face, if you are not careful. It also has the tendency to push you around, if you swim to close to the vent.
You have to be in a group with only cavern or cave divers to legally carry lights in the spring. It’s a $125 felony if aren’t in a cavern or cave group and you get caught diving with a dive light. They want to prevent Open Water divers from going to the bottom. Here is a link to a Map of Blue Springs created by Joe Odem: http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2411&size=big&sort=1&cat=504
You can get a copy of this map from a Park Ranger at the Ranger Station.
At the bottom of the run we signaled our OKs and we proceeded to take pictures. We usually look for nice backgrounds for our pictures. Today was a little different, because we now had two cameras in the water, so we took turns taking pictures. It’s interesting to note that each digital camera is different and it takes a while to get use to the camera and the strobe. After about 19 minutes, Ray signaled he was ready to go up. I took one last depth reading by Cork Rock and we headed up. The reading on my watch was 118’ and the reading on my VR3 was 117’, but the VR3 was up by my elbow. These depths are about normal for Blue Springs.
We headed back up the sand slide area (on the bottom) slowly to the large cavern area in about 60’ and we started to take more pictures. After this, we took more pictures around the ledges and smaller caverns as we slowly headed up. When we got to the 15’ cavern, I purged my rebreather and I manually injected pure oxygen. We then took all kinds of pictures around the cavern in 15’ of water. This is a silty little cavern, but it’s very nice. You can notice an air pocket just inside under the ledge. The second to last dive we notices about 20 small catfish in the room at the end of the tunnel.
This is the cavern which Ray took the really nice picture of John entering the cavern!
Yes, it was taken at Blue Springs. It was at about this time that I ran out of battery power in my camera. I was using regular AA batteries on the dive, so the batteries ran out, before I ran out of my picture allotment. You can buy rechargeable batteries, which last a lot longer, but they are more expensive (my next investment).
Link to the picture of Ray’s picture of John:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip1_026-med.jpg
We exited the cavern area at about 50 minutes into the dive and we headed to the surface, by the spring head, to do a quick debrief before we headed down the spring run. I then dropped down and Ray took some more pictures of the Manatee. If you look in the CDF photo gallery, you will find the original dark pictures of the Manatee, which Ray took (I then digitally enhanced the lighting and contrast in the following two photos). Then we headed down the spring run. On the way down we didn’t see that much life in the run.
Here are the links to some of the Manatee pictures that Ray took:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_012e-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_013e-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_021-med.jpg
Here is a Manatee picture which Ray took this past Monday at Crystal River:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2412
I uploaded my pictures from my camera on Monday night and Ray sent me nine pictures via e-mail. Here are the links to two pictures of Ray, which I took with his camera:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/502/283blue_springs_chip2_060-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/502/283blue_springs_chip2_058-med.jpg
These pictures were taken right under the 15’ cavern and Ray is holding my camera. Here are the links to some pictures which Ray took of me in the same location:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_052-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_051-med.jpg
Here is a picture that Ray took in the bottom room of a Catfish:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_040-med.jpg
If you look in the photo album, at the picture properties below the picture, it will tell you the File name, File date, camera which took the pictures (Camera model) and some other properties (Resolution, Focal Length, Aperture, Metering Mode, Jpeg process …). You might want to check this, because we had two different digital cameras in the water on our dive. This was the first time I took any pictures with my new digital camera, so I am just a beginner with this camera and strobe. TJ uses the same camera setup and he knows a lot more about the DC310 camera and strobe. He uses it to take his Weekend Pics.
Here are some links to the pictures I took with the DC310:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Manatee_25-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_31-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_37-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_39-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_40-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_42-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_49-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_54-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_57-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_59-med.JPG
Here is a picture of an Armored Catfish in the spring run, by the steps which we entered and exited, these fish are not an indigenous species:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_62-med.JPG
It’s was nice to be able to swim back to the exit. We got out of the water and headed back to the vehicles. After we got out of our dive gear, we talked to a DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Officer about the Manatee rules. Here are some of the points which we talked about, which I already posted in the CDF, but I want to note them again:
At Blue Springs, in Orange City, you have to initial and sign a wavier before you can dive. One of the items, that you initial, states that you must maintain a distance of at least 50’ between you and a Manatee. This rule is strictly enforced! The Rangers and the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Officers keep a close on the divers, snorklers and swimmers. They even have web cameras, which they monitor and record.
The fines are very steep and it’s a felony for each offense. I believe it’s a $125 felony if you don’t maintain the distance. We also found out it can be a $125 felony for using a flash to photograph a Manatee. They can charge you with trespassing, revoke your state park pass, take your scuba gear, and ban you from the Florida State Parks for violating the Manatee rules.
These rules are for the Manatee’s protection. They want to discourage the human and Manatee interactions for the Manatee’s safety. This is to help prevent boating accidents. Almost every Manatee, which I have seen, has propeller scars.
Dive statistics:
Location: Blue Springs – Orange City, FL.
Dive Time: 60 Minutes (50 minutes in the cavern area and 10 minutes down the run)
Visibility: 60 - 80 feet
Flow: 1st magnitude spring
Water Temp: 72 degrees
Air Temperature: 59 – 72 degrees, with a sunny sky
Dive Equipment: Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) Inspiration with Hammerhead Electronics
Gas: Air (diluent), Oxygen and a 30 cubic foot al bailout tank with Air
Setpoint: 1.3 during the run and Oxygen from 15’ to the surface
Dive Computers: Hammerhead and VR3
Goal: Underwater Photography
After we finished our dive we went to the Cow for an excellent homemade breakfast.
I talked to my dive buddy Ray about doing another Blue Springs dive and breakfast. Ray lives about 10 miles away from Blue Springs State Park http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/ and he goes there almost every weekend. My commute to the park takes a little under an hour (about 60 miles). Our usual dive plan is 120’ for 20 minutes, followed by stops at the different ledges and caverns on the way up. The target run time is 60 minutes and the goal is to have fun, take lots of pictures, and then have a nice breakfast at the Cow after the dive.
I have been thinking about upgrading my underwater photo equipment from a Nikonos V to something digital. I have several friends who take pictures, when I dive with them, and I also wanted to contribute to the photo section on this forum. For the last year my goal was to get an underwater camera housing (capable of at least 330’) and a strobe for my Canon EOS Digital Rebel.
About a week ago I got a flyer, via e-mail, about some digital cameras and I finally saw an underwater camera package, which I thought was in an affordable price range. It wouldn’t be the best camera, but it looked like it would meet my needs, for now, at a price which I was willing to pay and I could claim it as a Christmas present!
I purchased a digital SeaLife Reef Master DC310 Pro Set
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/news/news_sprg_03_1.html http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/sl148.html last Friday night. It includes a 3.3 MP digital camera, close up lens, strobe, strobe mounting kit, carrying case, USB upload cable and photo software (MGI PhotoSuite III and Photo Vista) for your PC for $559.95. Currently, SeaLife has a $50 mail in rebate if you purchase this package
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/rebate2004.html before 12/31/04 at an authorized SeaLife retailer. I also got a 10% approved dive club discount and I had a $10 off card (so I paid $443.95 + tax after the rebate).
I also bought a 1 G SD card on Saturday for about $70. It gives me approximately 1260 pictures on full resolution. I got the camera all setup and I took some test pictures on Saturday, so it would be ready for the Sunday morning dive.
I met Ray outside the gate to Blue Springs at about 8:45 AM on Saturday. We talked for a little bit as I started the last minute preparations on my dive equipment. Ray then went back to his vehicle to finish getting his camera ready. Ray uses an Olympus C5050 5 MP camera, an Ikelite housing with a 100 degree ION lens and Ikelite DS125 strobe. His camera outfit costs approximately $2500 - $3000 and it’s very nice.
The gates to the park opened at 8 AM, so we drove in and parked to sign in as dive group number 2. We were told that on Saturday they had 54 Manatee in the spring run. One of the Rangers was putting up a sign with the number of Manatee on it and it said 60. We initialed and signed the dive waiver, showed the Ranger our Florida State Park passes and gave them our dive cards, to check in, to dive. We then headed back to our vehicles and drove down to the parking area.
I showed Ray my new camera and we took another test picture, before we proceeded to the boardwalk, which heads to the diver entrance. After we started walking, we saw a couple of other divers who told us a Mother and Baby Manatee (AKA Sea Cow) were present at the spring head. When we got to the steps, which head down to the water, and we noticed the water level looked like it was almost back down to the normal level. We noticed a rope was stretched across the spring run, just after the entrance, which closed off the bottom portion of the run.
The bottom portion of the run was closed till about 2 PM to isolate the people from the Manatee in the morning. The spring is approximately 72 degrees and the Manatee enter the spring run when the water temperature and air temperatures are below the spring temperature. The spring run serves as an electric blanket for the Manatee and Blue Springs is known as the “Winter home of the Manatee”. The park gift shop has the largest collection of Manatee items that I have ever seen.
When we got ready to enter the water, Ray mentioned the water was too deep to walk up the spring run the prior weekend. We put on our masks and we entered the water. After I put on my fins, I noticed I could stand up towards the side of the run, so I took off my fins and we walked up the side of the spring run. Its nice to wear booties when you walk up, because the bottom has lots of pebbles, which will make for an uncomfortable walk with your bare feet. While we walked up, it looked like we had the place to ourselves. We noticed a bird on the way and I stopped to take a couple of pictures.
We then continued to walk up the run until we got to where we could see the head spring. Ray put on his fins and I proceeded over to the new tree, which got knocked into the spring run from one of the hurricanes earlier this year. I put on my fins and dropped to the bottom on my knees. Shortly after I got to the bottom, I saw the Mother and Baby Manatee. The Mother has propeller scars and the baby was only about three feet long. This was the smallest Baby Manatee which I have ever seen.
The Manatee started swimming towards me and we both started taking pictures. As they were swimming, they stirred up some particulates from the bottom and I waited until I could take some nice pictures. After a short while, we finished taking the pictures and we both headed for the head spring. As I entered the run, I noticed the flow was very strong. Blue Springs is a first magnitude spring and I usually wear 3 – 4 extra pounds of weight to help me get to the bottom. It also helps if you wear a hood on this dive. If you don’t, you will be combing little pebbles out of your hair after the dive.
We entered the spring head and we proceeded to the bottom. The spring head itself has several logs across it at about 10’ and the entrance is about 20’ X 50’. Blue Springs has very pretty limestone walls. At about 60’ you encounter the Grim Reaper sign. The spring then proceeds at about a 135 degree angle down to the West. You then enter a large room, which has a depth of about 120’.
At the bottom of this room, in approximately the center, you find a very strong flow coming out from a vent between two ledges, with a large rock, called Cork Rock, stuck in the center. The flow is so strong; it will rip your mask off your face, if you are not careful. It also has the tendency to push you around, if you swim to close to the vent.
You have to be in a group with only cavern or cave divers to legally carry lights in the spring. It’s a $125 felony if aren’t in a cavern or cave group and you get caught diving with a dive light. They want to prevent Open Water divers from going to the bottom. Here is a link to a Map of Blue Springs created by Joe Odem: http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2411&size=big&sort=1&cat=504
You can get a copy of this map from a Park Ranger at the Ranger Station.
At the bottom of the run we signaled our OKs and we proceeded to take pictures. We usually look for nice backgrounds for our pictures. Today was a little different, because we now had two cameras in the water, so we took turns taking pictures. It’s interesting to note that each digital camera is different and it takes a while to get use to the camera and the strobe. After about 19 minutes, Ray signaled he was ready to go up. I took one last depth reading by Cork Rock and we headed up. The reading on my watch was 118’ and the reading on my VR3 was 117’, but the VR3 was up by my elbow. These depths are about normal for Blue Springs.
We headed back up the sand slide area (on the bottom) slowly to the large cavern area in about 60’ and we started to take more pictures. After this, we took more pictures around the ledges and smaller caverns as we slowly headed up. When we got to the 15’ cavern, I purged my rebreather and I manually injected pure oxygen. We then took all kinds of pictures around the cavern in 15’ of water. This is a silty little cavern, but it’s very nice. You can notice an air pocket just inside under the ledge. The second to last dive we notices about 20 small catfish in the room at the end of the tunnel.
This is the cavern which Ray took the really nice picture of John entering the cavern!
Yes, it was taken at Blue Springs. It was at about this time that I ran out of battery power in my camera. I was using regular AA batteries on the dive, so the batteries ran out, before I ran out of my picture allotment. You can buy rechargeable batteries, which last a lot longer, but they are more expensive (my next investment).
Link to the picture of Ray’s picture of John:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip1_026-med.jpg
We exited the cavern area at about 50 minutes into the dive and we headed to the surface, by the spring head, to do a quick debrief before we headed down the spring run. I then dropped down and Ray took some more pictures of the Manatee. If you look in the CDF photo gallery, you will find the original dark pictures of the Manatee, which Ray took (I then digitally enhanced the lighting and contrast in the following two photos). Then we headed down the spring run. On the way down we didn’t see that much life in the run.
Here are the links to some of the Manatee pictures that Ray took:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_012e-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_013e-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_021-med.jpg
Here is a Manatee picture which Ray took this past Monday at Crystal River:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2412
I uploaded my pictures from my camera on Monday night and Ray sent me nine pictures via e-mail. Here are the links to two pictures of Ray, which I took with his camera:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/502/283blue_springs_chip2_060-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/502/283blue_springs_chip2_058-med.jpg
These pictures were taken right under the 15’ cavern and Ray is holding my camera. Here are the links to some pictures which Ray took of me in the same location:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_052-med.jpg
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_051-med.jpg
Here is a picture that Ray took in the bottom room of a Catfish:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283blue_springs_chip2_040-med.jpg
If you look in the photo album, at the picture properties below the picture, it will tell you the File name, File date, camera which took the pictures (Camera model) and some other properties (Resolution, Focal Length, Aperture, Metering Mode, Jpeg process …). You might want to check this, because we had two different digital cameras in the water on our dive. This was the first time I took any pictures with my new digital camera, so I am just a beginner with this camera and strobe. TJ uses the same camera setup and he knows a lot more about the DC310 camera and strobe. He uses it to take his Weekend Pics.
Here are some links to the pictures I took with the DC310:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Manatee_25-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_31-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_37-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_39-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_40-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_42-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_49-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_54-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_57-med.JPG
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_59-med.JPG
Here is a picture of an Armored Catfish in the spring run, by the steps which we entered and exited, these fish are not an indigenous species:
http://cavediver.net/photopost/data/504/283Blue_Springs_Ray_62-med.JPG
It’s was nice to be able to swim back to the exit. We got out of the water and headed back to the vehicles. After we got out of our dive gear, we talked to a DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Officer about the Manatee rules. Here are some of the points which we talked about, which I already posted in the CDF, but I want to note them again:
At Blue Springs, in Orange City, you have to initial and sign a wavier before you can dive. One of the items, that you initial, states that you must maintain a distance of at least 50’ between you and a Manatee. This rule is strictly enforced! The Rangers and the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Officers keep a close on the divers, snorklers and swimmers. They even have web cameras, which they monitor and record.
The fines are very steep and it’s a felony for each offense. I believe it’s a $125 felony if you don’t maintain the distance. We also found out it can be a $125 felony for using a flash to photograph a Manatee. They can charge you with trespassing, revoke your state park pass, take your scuba gear, and ban you from the Florida State Parks for violating the Manatee rules.
These rules are for the Manatee’s protection. They want to discourage the human and Manatee interactions for the Manatee’s safety. This is to help prevent boating accidents. Almost every Manatee, which I have seen, has propeller scars.
Dive statistics:
Location: Blue Springs – Orange City, FL.
Dive Time: 60 Minutes (50 minutes in the cavern area and 10 minutes down the run)
Visibility: 60 - 80 feet
Flow: 1st magnitude spring
Water Temp: 72 degrees
Air Temperature: 59 – 72 degrees, with a sunny sky
Dive Equipment: Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) Inspiration with Hammerhead Electronics
Gas: Air (diluent), Oxygen and a 30 cubic foot al bailout tank with Air
Setpoint: 1.3 during the run and Oxygen from 15’ to the surface
Dive Computers: Hammerhead and VR3
Goal: Underwater Photography
After we finished our dive we went to the Cow for an excellent homemade breakfast.