Last month I spent three days snorkeling with manatees in Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River, Florida. Being unseasonably cold, conditions were favorable from a photographic perspective because the cold topside temperatures “push” the manatees into the warm waters of Three Sisters. At various times during each day the visibility was quite good, and photographic opportunities were plentiful.
Being able to take advantage of weather and water conditions is important to successfully photograph manatees. Other keys include patience to allow the animals to become comfortable with your presence and curious about you; moving in a slow, nonthreatening manner around the manatees; and knowing some basics about the natural history of manatees so you don’t disturb them when the animals are resting or when a calf is nursing.
I had enjoyed some photographic success when a manatee calf became curious about me during the late morning of our second day. At the same time a Florida softshell turtle swam slowly past me. Now what?
In this instance, I considered that (1) I had already enjoyed some success with the manatees, (2) the manatees weren’t going to suddenly depart from Three Sisters and I could easily find them again, (3) a good image of a softshell turtle could greatly add to a story about manatees and the environment they live in, and (4) the 10- to 17-mm zoom lens on my camera was a good choice for a turtle image, assuming I could get close enough. I opted to try to photograph the turtle.
I decided that if I was not able to create another image of a manatee during the trip for whatever reason, I would be happy with the collection of images I had already acquired. This is the factor that allowed me to go for the unusual, the softshell turtle. I also knew that I had the right equipment to create a turtle image. If I hadn’t, I would not have pursued that opportunity because a disappointing image of a softshell turtle would serve no purpose.
Allowing the turtle to become comfortable with my presence, I moved very slowly as I approached. With the turtle in a shaded area, I set my camera to the manual mode knowing that my exposure would be predicated upon my shooting distance, ISO, aperture size and the power settings of my strobes. Ultimately I was able to get to a camera-to-turtle distance of about two feet (0.6 m), and that gave me the opportunity to create my first images of a Florida softshell turtle.
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