Giant Trevally

One of my favourite photographic styles is what I describe as The Big Blue Genre. There is something very pure about roaming the blue armed with just a camera (no strobes) and capturing the nuances of light as it illuminates subjects in a vast ocean. I love shooting in this style, I love freezing light and motion in an artistic way and the challenge is simply to find subjects worthy of painting with sunlight. Surface snorkelling between dives I encountered this Giant Trevally and it gave me the perfect opportunity to capture the light, shadow and reflections as sunlight danced across its scales.

Photo Data: Location: Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia Genre: Wide Angle Sunlight Photo Data: Nikonos V Camera. Nikonos 15mm Lens, Aperture Exposure Mode. Kodachrome ISO 64 Film. Exposure f8 @ 1/250th sec shutter speed. Image by Kevin Deacon.

Photo Hints: The great thing about shooting in Aperture Priority Mode is this is an automatic exposure mode meaning all the photographer has to do is frame and shoot, free of technical adjustments. This is really fantastic in action shooting scenarios and a wonderful development in technology we never had in the early days. The key is to be prepared with an aperture pre set at around F8 and your ISO set for around 200 – 400 ISO. Ths will ensure the camera will automatically select a fast shutter speed of at least 1/250th or better. This is essential for freezing the light and eliminating movement blur.

Interesting Facts: Reaching 170 Centimeters in length this is a giant among fishes. They are not common on most reefs these days, probably the result of overfishing because there are plenty of them on the wreck of the SS Yongala off Townsville where I think they are protected. In fact the only places I ever see big fish these days is in marine protected areas. Common names. Giant Trevally, Giant Turrum. Latin name. Caranx ignobilis

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