Heading to Socorro??
reference our pre-departure checklist to prepare for your trip!
Pre-Departure Checklist:
Taking Good Photos
Taking Good Photos:
Our photo-ID work is entirely dependent on photo submission from folks like yourself, and we are so very appreciative of you sharing your work with us! Visual identification depends on information on the contours around the mantas' markings, rather than artistic images, and visual information is what we work with. A mantas' undersurface markings, or a good part of them, must be visible in order to compare it with images in our database, and thus to identify it. No need to process the images as we have scripts for that. Hopefully, you will be able to include the pelvic fins so that we can identify sex, and with black mantas this requires flash or close-up. Images of wounds or scars on identifiable animals are very useful- we hope you won't see many, but if you do, we would like to see these as well.
Manta Marking Regions
Manta Marking Regions:
The ideal photo would be a flat manta belly, with no fish or divers or bubbles obscuring its markings. We identify mantas by differentiating between the light and dark areas on the belly, so sharp contrast is appreciated. While we love those gorgeous silhouette pictures of the mantas, unless you can see the contrast on the belly they are not useful for photo identification.
Camera Settings
Camera:
High contrast between the markings and the rest of the body makes identification much easier. If you are shooting up at a bright sea surface, use spot metering, point at the center of the animal, and zoom in excluding as much of the sea surface as possible. A wide-angle lens permits you to be close to the manta for a clear image and to capture most of the animal's belly. Date stamping on the face of the image can obstruct identifiable markings. It is very important to note both date and location of your photographs. Setting your camera's internal clock to the correct local time (GMT-6 or -7 depending on the season) is very useful. If you use metadata from date, time, location, photographer, that's great! Metadata is retained when transferring images, however the file date shown in a computer filing system often is the transfer date. We are very grateful to each and every one of you for contributing to this project. Without you, the photographers, this entire study would be only a dream.
Good Manta Etiquette
Swimming with Mantas:
Importance of Metadata
Metadata:
The metadata (the date, location, and time) are very important to accurately track the movements of the individuals. This is why it is important to set your camera to the right settings before each dive and log the details of dive as soon as you finish that dive.