January/February 2011 "Winter..."

Hello Bloggers!

Whether anyone else does, I thought it time to do another blogpost.  So here goes:

For those living in the Florida Keys, we are all painfully aware that winter is here.  This year winter arrived early (for us) and at the beginning of December.  For those reading this that do not live in the Florida Keys, I am sure I am not receiving any sympathy.  I suppose it does not matter where I , or anyone, lives, it is safe to say none of us scuba divers are fond of winter. 

It is not all bad and could be worse.  Attached is a photograph sent to me by one of my 'guyz', Michael Fulayter of what winter can be and is like in climes further north of the Florida Keys.

Obviously not all bad because we don't have the 'white stuff' here in Key Largo.  Also not all bad because I had the great pleasure of working with both some new 'guys' and a 'couple-three' of my regular 'guyz'.  And shared the reef with some of my local friends and peers.  Pictured below are Alan and Anne who came to work with me on their photography before their trips to Belize and Wakatobi. 

Connie, one of my most frequent 'fliers' was back and as usual, shooting the eyes outta everything!

One of my most favorite and fellow instructor, Louis, was on the boat working with his student and treating us to his pineapple after our dives.

 Another regular shooter of mine, Susanne, was also escaping the northern winter (in South Dakota) and came down with her new Macro lens and gave it a go:

We also had some unexpected visitors on our reefs, the Portuguese Man-O-Wars, and to the extend they carpeted the reefs so densely there were times when we could not dive.  As such they became part of each day's reef report.

Year after year, I am the most viscious of complainers about winter.   Yet without it, I suppose I would not meet or see the people that I do meet and see.  For another example, each winter one of my 'heros' Dr Morgan Wells shows up down here.  He is among the pioneers of diving and was a diver on the Sea Lab projects back in the early and mid 1960s.  I was a teen-ager then and totally engrossed by that project.  How thrilling for me, decades later, then to meet and become friends with one of those divers.

So, while I hate winter, I suppose without it, what would I have to blog about today?  I am still diving with my guyz, new and long time, diving with my friends, hanging out with mentors, taking my photographs and all in good health.  Getting that dry suit that I blogged about earlier has made a huge difference in how happy I am these days on the boats during this time of year.

I am thankfull and thank you all for reading my blog and being part of what I do.  Here is a parting shot, until next time. lg

   

If you want to leave a comment; 'mouse- curse- and- click' over the time stamp below and it will open this post in a new window enabling you to do so.

the DRY SUIT

Hello Everyone! 

I could and probably will ramble on (and on) in this blogpost, but, hopefully you will bear with me.  This post will somewhat detail my (little) experience to date about dry suit diving and some early observations about dry suit diving.

A confluence of events occurred in November which were:  my birthday, my wetsuit needed to be replaced with a new one, and I had in mind the past few years to buy a dry suit, and winter came a month early.  Whether my wetsuit was new and un-crushed or needing to be replaced, I have always been cold in it during the months of January and February.  Cold during the dives and cold between and after the dives.   I think the reason for this is a combination of my age and that I am well acclimated to the water temps here in the Key Largo area.

So I placed a call to my friend Sasha who owns SoBe Divers (http://www.southbeachdivers.com/) and is a Bare dealer and Bare makes both wet and drysuits.   Sasha quoted me a heck of a price (ask me personally as he said he would do the same for any of 'my guyz') so I went ahead with the purchase and called it my birthday present to myself.   For anyone curious the cost was around $800 yet the suit retails for over $1100.

Ordinarly I buy some piece of UW photography equipment, lens or camera.... 

So, I had this dry suit coming and never having dove one, I put the study cap on and read the PADI Dry Suit Specialty course instructor's manual, trying to be a good student of SCUBA.  Did that homework and then counselled with several PADI instructors who both dive Dry Suits and teach dry suit diving.  Thanx Pam Wooten , Georgia Hausserman, Tom Witmer, Mike Waters,  Joe Thomas for all your tips, pointers, advice and suggestions.

When the suit arrived the first step after unpacking it was to read its manual.  I bought Bare's NexGen Dry Suit and substituted its built in boots with ankle seals.  The suit is bilaminate suit rather than any of the neoprene versions of dry suits.  The next step was trimming the seals with the neck seal being the most critical.   Thanx to Dan at Horizon Divers, http://www.horizondivers.com/ for his help in getting my neck seal properly trimmed.

Book work done and seals trimmed, the next phase in this grand expirement was the pool training.  Armed with the Dry Suit and an instructor slate full of performance requirements, off to the pool I went, where I spent the better parts of two mornings getting acclimated to the suit and diving in it.  Tom W was pool side and keeping an eye on me and for my safety :)   Friend Mischa was there with a camera to photograph any comedy or tragedy that may have arisen while I sort out diving in this type of suit.  

Finally, got the weather and opportunity to do (now) 7 dives in the open water in the dry suit.  Including a staff dive with Ocean Divers, thanx OD, http://www.oceandivers.com/ for the invite  Obviously it is 'different' (than diving in a wetsuit).  The DS itself does not keep you warm, only dry.  So undergarments are worn and enough to keep you warm.  The kind, numbers of layers, of these you wear affects how much weight you need to wear when diving in the DS.  I normally wear around 8 to 10#s of weight diving in my wetsuit and wear anywhere between 16 and 22 #s of weight diving in the DS.  I dive with a minimal amount of air inside the suit.  Just enough to keep the 'squeeze' off.  More on this later.

I use my BCD for buoyancy control both on the surface and UW.  The suit that I bought was not so bulky as to require me to buy a larger BCD than the one I own.  And because I ordered ankle seals I can still wear my full foot fins when diving 'dry'.

A person can buy undergarments made specifically for dry suits.  I chose not to for a number of reasons, and one was cost.  I have a 'darlex' dive skin made by Body Glove that I wear and when necessary I layer tee-shirts, fleecies, or polartech underwear, depending upon the water temps.  Most of the DS specific undergarments that I have seen are thick and therefore hold a lot of air and therefore require additional weights to be added to my weight system.  Although these undergarments are more comfortable insofar as displacing suit squeeze.

Some observations:  While I do not yet have a routine or system down pat yet, donning and doffing the DS is no more or less problematic or work than my donning/doffing my two piece FJ with hooded vest.

There is a saying:   'There are two kinds of divers- divers that pee in their wetsuits and liars'.  I am not a liar and this urge was a concern of mine when  contemplating diving in a DS.  So far I have not had the urge, and this was told to me by other DS divers (that I would not have), and that is the truth!

Given my limited experience, the suit is somewhat restrictive to move in compared to my wetsuit.  The water pressure helps squeeze the air from the suit thru its vent valve(good thing insofar as less weight being needed) but once that is done, the thick, sturdy material of the suit wraps around me.  It does not pinch me because of the layers of undergarments I have, but it does make moving in it more of an effort.  I still have full range of motion and can contort myself any way I need to do take UW photographs, but, it is still a bit cumbersome.  This is hard to explain, and, it is getting to be more comfortable with each dive I do.  I suspect then, that this is something a diver 'gets used to'.   The suit does create more drag in the water column and on the surface, so my movements are slower to prevent over-excertion.  I would not want to do a long surface swim in my DS in any substantial waves or current.  (well for that matter I could say the same thing about my wetsuit)  I am more agile, so far, when diving my wetsuit. 

I thought or expected buoyancy control to be a lot harder for me to gain some mastery of than it turned out to be.  The suit, in this regard, was much easier than I expected, to learn to dive.  Figuring out and dealing with the nuances of the DS's buoyancy was actually a lotta fun and I did a lot of laughing at myself.  

The DS is more maintenance intensive than is the wetsuit.  There is a rigid protocol involving its care and the care of the zipper and seals.  Every two or three years or so, the seals need to be replaced and this is not without cost.  I calculate replacing the seals in my suit will equal the cost of my buying a wetsuit, which I do every three years. 


The dry suit has been a joy for me to own and dive in.  It does, as advertized, keep me dry.  And I am not as cold, if at all, underwater diving it as I am in a wetsuit.  Equally important, I am warm, not freezing cold, when back on the boat between dives and after dives.  So, the trade off seems to be for now, I am warm and dry with less mobility, comfort, and agility during my dives.  I expect that with more dives I will become more comfortable, mobile and agile in the DS.  These are very early impressions and observations.

So:  For me a great trade!!  Thanx Sasha, and Everyone who had a hand in making it possible for me to dive dry. If you are diver who gets cold during dives and freezes on the boat after dives, I highly reco the dry suit.   Pics below for the fun of it:  





    

 

A special thanx to my buddies:  Rich R and Connie Z. 

Warm and safe diving to you all in 2011.  lg

If you want to leave a comment; 'mouse- curse- and- click' over the time stamp below and it will open this post in a new window enabling you to do so.

Birthdays, Scuba Diving, Underwater Photography, old and new friends

When I started this blog couple of years ago, I did so in part for the pure enjoyment of it. It sounded kinda fun.  Blogging about what I do. Quite a bit, well, to me at least, has occurred these past 'couple-three' weeks. I have been in the midst of my life's work, providing my diving and underwater photographic services to a wonderfull mother/daughter team of scuba divers, Joan and daughter Margo. They seemed to me to be among the epitome of those who can personify the spirit and fun of scuba diving. I've included some photographs of them in this blog as examples of what I write about. 

Since my last blog I also had the opportunity to work with an underwater photographer, Denise, who in a past life of hers engaged in the profession of underwater photography in the Bahamas. She moved away from that, becoming an attorney, but, recently acquired a housed dSLR camera system. Her fiance engaged me to help her learn these new ropes and as a birthday gift to her. Denise arrived as both an accomplished photographer and scuba diver, as she was an instructor in the aforementioned other life. My 'job' more or less, was to help her transition into her new camera system. I have included some of her images and hope you enjoy them.

During the course of my dives with Joan, Margo and Denise, an old friend appeared on the scene, Capt. Mike Brooks. Lots of water has passed under the keels of dive boats with he and I on their decks and it was a pure joy to have him as Captain again. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and delivers among the best of dive briefings when on board. Mike is truely one of the old timers here having been raised here and living his life as a scuba instructor, dive boat captain, and now engaged in the boat survey business. Mike is pictured in this blog with Denise.

A few days ago my birthday arrived, and I will excercise discretion and not divulge which one it was. Within a day or two of my birthday, another, friend and diving legend, Dick Rutkowski, had his birthday. Dick is not sitting beside me, as I write this, so discretion is tossed aside and it was his 80th. Dick was literally the first person I met when I arrived in Key Largo 16-17 years ago and he, in my eye and mind, has not changed one bit. A nice party was held for him on the 13th. In addition to many other of his character attributes, Dick has a lot of charm and a photograph of this portrayed is below. Thank you Jennifer for the pose.

I received lots of well-wishes around and for my birthday from many friends, students, dive clients, and family. One example is what I characterise as a work of art, sent to me by Connie Z, one of my very best 'guyz'. She is continually taking her diving and underwater photography to newer and higher levels and is engaged in an extensive Photoshop for photographers course. She crafted a birthday 'card' for me while practicing some of her newly learned skills. I could not resist not displaying her work in this blog.

I will conclude this blogpost, written early this morning, over coffee, by thanking Everyone. Including my new friends, Joan, Margo, Denise, my long time friends, like Mike and Connie, and all others who wished me well during my birthday. I had a good birthday. I was scuba diving, with my camera, and with people I liked! I even managed a couple lucky grab shots (pictured below). I hope the images in this blog depict the good times to be had when scuba diving, engaged in underwater photography and with friends both new and old. To me, it is always an incredible experience!  Thank You.  lg

 
 
If you want to leave a comment; 'mouse- curse- and- click' over the time stamp below and it will open this post in a new window enabling you to do so.

musings...

Living on island time, I believe we are in the fall of our year.  It has been almost a month since I last blogged, and amazing how time, even island time, flies.  So, for what it's worth here are some dive and photo related musings!  Enjoy:

Business typically slows down a bit after Labor day and this year was, for me, no exception.  However it went from slow to slammed when October began and this was my first (though unobserved at the time) instance of some bipolar events to come.  The next was our weather during much of October.  While we have so far been mercifully spared any hurricanes, our weather has none the less been psycho-like.

We experienced periods of dry, calm summer-like conditions to dark, windy, rainy and dreary conditions atypical of our climate.  Both above and below the water.  And this shift occurred on a daily basis.  Pictured are four examples, two topside and two underwater of what I am writing about.

I've heard it said that Key Largo is where 'weird turns pro' and if true we are pretty good at dealing with it!  One way is to simply have a party and one was held by our local Divers Direct in appreciation of and for their customers (to my customers- don't get any ideas, I appreciate ya but...).  Pictured below is the food laid out for us one Friday evening.  Thank you Brenda, Pam and Mike, who speared, grilled and shared with us hogfish snapper and grouper.

The new month of October brought me new students of scuba and underwater photography.  I am a consumate tourist myself and when I have my camera am always snapping away.  Below are my 'new guys' hard at 'work'! 

It wasn't all work and we had some fun along the way, the psychoman-like weather notwithstanding.  I even learned a new trick or two and about trick photography.   We came across the usual subjects and one not so usual subject.  Pictured below is a rare sighting of a great Hammerhead shark.  Is it real or is it Memorex.  I'll let you decide :)

 

I am a wide angle guy at heart.  So, even I went a bit psycho when I flippantly abandoned my WA lens and descended to the depths in quest of the smaller subjects to shoot or shoot the usual subjects with my Macro lens.  Below is what I came up with: 

Don't worry, later I returned to normal (if there is such a thing) and reverted back to my old workhorse and familiar friend, my wide angle lens.  I've always loved the corals and their colours which inspired me to learn to dive.  I still do and never pass up a chance to photograph them.

 

I can't end this blogpost without saying a special thanx to my new guys, Donna, Cameron and Al.  We made the most and the best of the conditions during our time here.  I also think we were most successfull! We got to know each other and had some fun. Congrats to you 'guyz'.  One more parting shot, until the next time I blog my musings, lg

  If you want to leave a comment; 'mouse- curse- and- click' over the time stamp below and it will open this post in a new window enabling you to do so. 

SCUBA Diving Mega-Course!

 I am very happy and proud to write this blogpost.  I and several students of mine and of scuba recently completed what I coined as a scuba diving mega-course.  I doubt you will find that defined anywhere else, but, what it means (to me) is that several students participated in multiple scuba diving courses.   This 'mega-course' began about a year ago.  It involved students participating in their Open Water course, their Advanced course, their Rescue Diver course and their Divemaster course.  During these courses, students were oftentimes working toward their completion of their course with other students working toward completing a different course.  For example, Kelli worked on her DM course by working with Brandon and Angie.

This was some feat for this scuba instructor.  Only one student participating lives in Key Largo.  So, everything thing was planned from afar and it all came together during this past year. 

Students participating were:  Brandon G, Angie Z, Jenn M, at the Open Water Diver level.   Tara S, Steve W at the Advanced level, Tara S, Steve W at the Rescue Diver level, Tara S, Jeff F and Kelli Z at the Divemaster level. 

My main purpose in this blogpost is to congratulate, whole-heartedly, all of these students.  They did an absolutely outstanding job while reaching their goals.  I hope they are as proud of their accomplishments as I am and I proudly herald them here.

Pictured below are some snapshots taken during the mega-course.  They depict the studying, the pool session the equipment piles, the boat, and a fun moment after the result of a lobster dive!  There are pictures of the students in the mega-course.

Kudos to you 'guyz'!!

   


If you want to leave a comment; 'mouse- curse- and- click' over the time stamp below and it will open this post in a new window enabling you to do so.

I've taken the pictures, now what!?

Dear Fellow Photographers and Bloggers,

I wished I would have asked (and answered) that question almost 20 years ago.  Or at least 7 years ago or so, when I moved from film photography to digital.  Because I ended up with tens of thousands of photos that I took, but had no real idea what I was going to do with them even though I saved them. Instead I asked this question a few years ago, and, while I came up with the answer it was not until just recently that I did something about it.

Namely, scour through my many folders full of photos and edit them.  This editing process ranged from dumping (deleting) photos that when I viewed them, wondered why I ever kept them to begin with, to, full-on edits to enhance and bring out the best in others.  And then find something to do with these survivors.  

I recommend in this post that you do not wait years before you ask and answer this question.  Unless of course you want to go through what I just did.  Which was to spend days upon days sorting through thousands upon thousands of images.  Sounds grueling but it was fun.

And the job was made easier by my use of two resources.  There are many photo editing programs out there, and, I became kean on and purchased Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom (now in its 3rd version- to show you how far behind the curve I can get).  This program has 99% of the organizing and editing power that I find necessary to work with my photographs.  Here is a link to it at Amazon:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 

I am still engaged in this process and thus far have worked with over 2400 of my photographs.  Those that I have finished beg the question- now what?  Well, I would at least like them presented so people could see them, and, even better, offer them for sale, and finally have an off-premises means of backing these up.  There are many services that offer these capabilities.  Over the years, I have now resolved to using Zenfolio as a repository for my stock of underwater photographs.  This is a subscription service (i.e 'not free') but, in my opinion, worth the annual subscription.  It costs $100 per year.  They offer a free trial period, so check it out.  If you use this link, you will get a $10 discount:  Zenfolio

As mentioned so far I reviewed over 2400 images and uploaded around 700 to my Zenfolio website.  While my task is not done, it has been made much easier and more efficient by my use of these two resources.  I guesstimate that I spent 90 hours in total and without Lightroom's power and speed, this task would have taken three times the amount of time.  There is a free plug-in for the program, that enabled me to upload direct to my Zenfolio account and into my web galleries there.  Zenfolio has themes that make it easy to get yourself set up, and, I was even able to build a custom theme to make my Zenfolio pages mirror those of my website.  

I am including two screen shots which show Lightroom on my computer's monitor and one of my photo pages on my site hosted by Zenfolio.

 

 

If you've used any of Adobe's editing programs in the past you will find Lightroom to be easy to adopt and adapt to, as it is very intuitive.
Similarly, if you've uploaded photos to any photo sharing site and created a photo page, Zenfolio is a snap to work with.  I can also vouch for the customer service at Zenfolio.   I had several 'dumb questions' and all were answered promptly in email.  

So, if you ever get around to making the above statement and asking the above question:  "I've taken the pictures, now what!?" remember these two helpfull resources in finding your answer!  I've also added links to both of these in my blog's sidebar for future reference.

Lightroom and Zenfolio are the best I've found.

Good luck with your photographs, both taken and those yet to be taken, and finding some thing to do with them afterwards!  I urge you to not let your photographs stack up on you as I did.  My goal now is to deal with my photos ASAP !!

lg

PS:  if you look hard enough at the screenshot of LR, you may see a reference to photos and 'book II' (but keep it a secret..)
PSS:  Oh yeah, check out some of the results here:

my Zenfolio collection of stock underwater photographs