By Ambassador Lorenzo Terraneo
For my placement as runner up for the Ocean Geographic Photo Journalist Award 2018, I won a week at the Eco Divers Resort in Lembeh, one of the best spots for macro photography in the world.
I arrived in Lembeh, in the middle of October, with my personal idea of a perfect equipment for a macro/supermacro shot: my Nikon D7200 DSLR with its Ikelite housing; a Nikkor 105mm macro port that fits well also for my Nikkor 60mm with Kenko 1.4x teleconverter, a +10 diopter macro wet lens, DS160 strobe, and and a DS161 strobe with a snoot. The DS161 is very suitable for snoot, as it has a powerful focus light that helps pointing very well the subject before the shot.
The Nikkor 60mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (like 90mm) with wet lens is perfect for two reasons: you can shot macro and supermacro photography (magnifying past a 1:1 image ratio of your subject) very easily and you can as well differentiate the frames of your photos from all the usual pictures made with just a 60mm or 105mm.
Lembeh is a paradise for macro shots because it is particularly full of critters, so I stressed a lot my equipment diving four times a day and using my battery flash with an average of 100 pictures each dive. Even though the Eco Divers had a comfortable full-day boat with rechargers, the long-lasting batteries of my Ikelite strobes made it almost unnecessary.
All photos copyright © 2020 Lorenzo Terraneo
Ambassador Lorenzo Terraneo, from Milan, Italy, works in the world of communication and web marketing and is a journalist enrolled in the Register. In 2010, he joined the strong passion for the sea and diving with the one for photography that always accompanied him since his first analog Nikon SLR. Passionate about marine and terrestrial biology, he is always looking in his photos to recreate the magical meeting between the wonders of nature and human emotions aroused by unusual shapes and colors. Therefore, not naturalistic photos in the strict sense, but moments of artistic beauty (nature art) according to the human canon, which nature expresses incessantly. Read more...
Additional Reading
Every Little Stretch of Coast is Dying, We Need to Act Now!
Super Macro Underwater Photography Techniques
Getting it Sharp: Back Button Focus and Post Processing Workflow
Capturing the Elusive Mouth Brooding Jawfish
Nudibranch Underwater Camera Settings and Technique
