Baitball!

John Collins · Issue 8, Aug/Sep 2002 · pp. 22–24

Products mentioned: Nikon F80, Nikon F100, Subal N10 housing, Sea & Sea flash, Fuji Provia 400F, Nikonos

There are a couple of mantra’s we are prone to hearing often. ‘ Ah! You should have been here last week’ is most commonly heard from a kind crew member on seeing you assemble your rig. They can’t help it - a reflex reaction to that housing and strobe appearing on the camera table. You then hear about the Whale Shark/Manta/ Striped Marlin encounter last week - no picture was captured of course. ‘One guy had a Nikonos, but it was set up for macro’... What, then, to do to try and get ahead of the Gods of Underwater photography, whose sense of humour, as we know is boundless. On a recent trip to Cocos, where anything really is possible, a dry bag on the chase boat saved the day more than once. First, a flash blanking plug for the housing and a sealable cap for the flashlead (keen crew members will put the flash in the rinse tank later!) . This along with spare film allowed a snorkel with a c…