Adam Hanlon's web journal-underwater and adventure photography

Macro Slideshow

2011-04-01T13:37:00.000+01:00

Triggerfish article

2011-03-11T19:06:00.000Z

I've been testing a new optical slave trigger called the Triggerfish for about 10 days, for a review that was published on Wetpixel today. It is an excellent addition to me creative arsenal! Below is a picture of the Capernwray aircraft. I put two remote strobes in the cockpit and post-processing was done in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

We join Team Chester!

2011-02-24T14:14:00.001Z

Caron and I have joined Team Chester. My brother and sister in law (Robert and Caroline Chester)have planned and enlisted us in a hectic series of fund-raising events over the summer this year. They are all in aid of excellent causes so please head on over to the blog, check it out and if you are interested, sponsor us!

More D7000 pictures

2011-02-24T12:02:00.000Z

I was able to get underwater with the camera again this week. Over on Wetpixel, I posted an excellent review of the camera and housing by Keri Wilk. In it, he points out the ability of the camera to shoot in 14 bit format-extending and increasing the tonal range of the image. In conjunction with the high pixel count, I'm starting to see the smooth tonal gradients, especially when compared to the D2Xs.

Another plus with the camera is the 1/320 flash sync speed. This makes for much more pleasing sunburests, even when the sun is quite strong.

Shark finning in California

2011-02-24T11:50:00.001Z

There is currently a proposal in the Californian legislature to ban the shark fin trade and practice of shark finning. Seantor Leland Yee has opposed the bill as he feels that it impinges on a cultural right to shark fin. He proposes that fins from sharks of "sustainable" populations should be allowed to continue.

Senator Yee's assistant, Dan Lieberman replied to my email asking him to change his mind thus:

Thank you for contacting our office regarding the proposed ban on shark fins in the State of California. In reading the many emails our office has received regarding this matter, the Senator felt that his remarks needed further clarification as some news outlets did not reflect the full scope of his arguments. Below is a letter the Senator wrote covering his views on the practice of shark finning and the best way to regulate it effectively.

“I wanted to write to you personally to make sure you understood my full position on the recent proposal to ban shark fin soup in California.

I am extremely concerned about the plight of sharks and the ecological impact to the oceans caused by the depletion of certain species. I am a strong supporter of the 2000 federal law, recently strengthened by President Obama, against shark “finning.” It’s a horrendous and cruel practice.

The seriousness with which I take environmental issues is evidenced by the 100% rating I recently received from Clean Water Action, the California League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club – one of only two Senators in California to receive this distinction.

That’s why, while I oppose a complete ban on shark fin soup, I strongly support efforts to protect endangered sharks and stop the practice of shark finning.

I believe we can both protect sharks and preserve the 1,800-year cultural heritage of shark fin soup through the following actions:

* A complete ban on any importation of shark fin to California that does not comply with the federal law against shark “finning” and a ban on the use of shark fins from endangered species of sharks;

* Adoption by California of the federal prohibition against shark “finning;”

* Imposition of strict penalties for breaking these laws;

* Use of such resources collected through penalties for regulation and education about sharks and ocean ecology.

While I do feel that we should find a way to protect a cultural staple, I made a mistake by indiscriminately labeling those who support the ban as “culturally insensitive.” That is neither accurate nor constructive, and I deeply regret offending those who were hurt by my comments.

Those who have labeled my position as one of disregard for the environment and the plight of sharks are making a similar mistake.

My commitment is to seek common ground and pass meaningful legislation that protects endangered species and our oceans.”

The Senator ended by asking people to email him if they had any further questions, and I will extend the same offer. While the vast majority of people writing in on this matter have done so, I would ask that you try to keep the tone of this discussion civil and respectful as I honestly don’t believe that our stances are as far apart as they have been made to seem. I look forward to hearing from you and hope that the Senator’s answer addresses your concerns.

I have just replied:

Many thanks to you and the Senator for taking the time to reply.

I accept and applaud the Senator's record on environmental issues. However I cannot help but feel that he is being politically cynical on this issue. His current stance is flawed in two areas:

1. There is currently no method nor desire in the shark fishing industry to land a sustainable catch. In it's very essence, the industry is not sustainable. Fisheries conservation is a complicated business, but the length of time that sharks take to reach reproductive maturity makes them far more vulnerable to over-fishing than any other fish species.

To state that policy would be to only use fins from sustainable sharks or to ban the use of fins from endangered shark species is disingenuous at best. There are no "sustainable" shark populations, and the monitoring of which fin comes from which type of shark is impossible in practice.

2. The long cultural tradition of shark fin soup dates from an era when it was a scarce and unique foodstuff. As such it was sustainable as the numbers of shark caught were tiny. Now however, we have commercial fishing methods supplying a vast demand. This demand is in itself the problem. Shark fin is no longer scarce nor unique!

Whilst I support the theory that all cultures should be free to maintain traditions, this cannot be at the expense of a global environmental catastrophe. If we continue to decimate the apex predator of a complex ecosystem, that is what we as a human race will face, directly due to a culture's "right" to it's tradition. History serves us with many examples of when cultures haven't acted to correct or modify traditions that have become out-moded in a modern world.

I urge Senator Yee to reconsider his position. He holds the power to influence not only the law, but also attitudes towards this destructive and wasteful trade. In California, there is a unique opportunity to show that it's legislators value principle over political expediency. History is littered with examples of expedient politicians, but those who show strength of principle are the ones that achieve lasting legacies.

I'd like to once again thank you and the Senator for your responses, and would ask you to please please pass my above comments on to him.

Please write to the Senator (Leland@LelandYee.com) and/or his assistant Dan Lieberman (Dan.Lieberman@sen.ca.gov) to encourage him to reconsider his position.

Japanese whalers leave the Southern Ocean

2011-02-16T16:39:00.000Z

Reuters and the BBC have both reported today that the Japanese whaling fleet has now left the Southern Ocean. They have actually cited the harassment that they have received from Sea Shepherd as the reason for their early departure. I wrote a piece on Wetpixel earlier this week about the fleets failure this season, and now it seems they have given up.

Definitely cause for celebration. Massive kudos and congratulations to all those involved in Sea Shepherds Operation No Compromise.

Check out Support needed: California shark fin bill

2011-02-16T16:27:00.002Z

I want you to take a look at: Support needed: California shark fin bill

Senator Yee's inbox was hard to access. Sahraksavers have come up with an alternate email address. Please write and express your displeasure at him playing local politics with a global issue (You do not need to be from California to do this!)

D7000 underwater

2011-02-11T22:03:00.001Z

I have recently started using a Nikon D7000 and have now had the opportunity to take it underwater a couple of times. It is an amazing camera, especially considering it's price. It's rendering of sunbursts is spectacular, especially when compared to that of the Nikon D2Xs that I have been using up until now. It is also amazing to switch the strobes off, and dial in an ISO of 1600 and take ambient light shots that until now have just not been possible for me.

I don't think the AF is quite as good as it could be, I need to live with this a bit more to gain a more complete understanding of what is going on, but the jury is out.

Below are some underwater images taken using the camera:

I will be conducting a review of available housings for this camera on Wetpixel over the next month or so, so if you are interested in this camera for underwater use, please be sure to keep checking the site.

Animal voices!

2011-01-28T19:09:00.000Z

Chinese New Year-stop shark finning

2011-01-28T15:30:00.001Z

Join me in saying NO to shark fin soup this Chinese New Year! Set this picture as your Facebook profile picture from now till CNY on 18 Feb to show your support in the fight against shark finning.

Here's how: Right click on the picture of your choice below and save it to your computer. Upload the photo to your Facebook profile and set it as your profile picture! Or you can also tag yourself to this photo and set it as your profile picture!

Please get all your friends to do the same too!

For Sale-Fisheye Fix focus lights.

2011-01-20T15:24:00.000Z

I am selling two Fisheye Fix HG20DX focus/video lights.

Light one comes with two batteries, charger, spare bulb, light handle and blue filter. Also included is a ULCS ball adapter.

Price is £180.00

Light two comes with one battery, charger, spare bulb, light handle and ULCS ball adapter

Price is £160

I will ship worldwide, please contact me for prices.

2010-11-18T03:34:00.001Z

Wetpixe/DPG Cocktail Party at DEMA 2010

2010-11-11T16:22:00.001Z

Wetpixe/DPG Cocktail Party at DEMA 2010
Originally uploaded by Adam Hanlon

Slideshow from the Red Sea

2010-10-02T16:09:00.000+01:00

Sinking SS Murphy

2010-10-01T14:22:00.002+01:00

Scubazoo's behavioral video playlist

2010-08-20T07:18:00.001+01:00

Scubazoo has a behavioral playlist on their YouTube site:

Test Video with HVX200

2010-08-12T14:44:00.000+01:00

Defending the Vandenberg

2010-08-07T15:28:00.000+01:00

Amazing free diving chase scene made all the more remarkable by the fact that it was filmed in only 4 hours over two days.

Not 5 not 8 but 11 whale sharks in one shoot!

2010-08-07T15:22:00.000+01:00

Eric Cheng's amazing video footage from Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Horrendous video footage from Kesen-Numa City, Japan

2010-07-14T12:23:00.000+01:00

If you thought shark finning was exclusively a Chinese problem, think again. Welcome to Kesen-numa City, Japan's shark fin capital.

Here, six days a week, small teams of Japanese workers go about the hushed business of industrial shark-finning.

By 6.30am, with piles arranged, the sharks are disemboweled first. Hearts are ripped efficiently from bodies by men wearing brightly coloured rubber boots and aprons. At 7am, shark corpses are cleaned of their blood by workers wielding water hoses. And by 8am, small teams are silently moving up and down aisles and rows like robots in a Japanese car factory, quickly slicing off every dorsal, pectoral and tail fin from the lifeless, grey lumps. Big hungry black crows squawk in the shadows, looking for bloody morsels. And shark fins plop with regularity into small yellow plastic baskets. The baskets fill up fast, are then weighed, and finally carried to a nearby truck, where a man with a notepad strikes a deal. At 9.30am, it's all over for another day. Fork lift trucks scoop up tons of limbless carcasses, then dump them into a high-sided truck. The process is a brutal sight to behold, and not for the faint-hearted.

The fishing port of Kesen-numa City is located in Miyagi Prefecture in North East Japan, and is the country's only port dedicated to catching sharks.

Over two days in early July this year, I saw 119 tons of blue shark (Prionace glaucaof), ten tons of salmon shark (Lamna ditropis), and three tons of short fin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) landed on the dock at Kesen-numa. Not to mention several tons of endangered bluefin tuna, (Thunnus thynnus), but that's a whole other story. Taking government transparency to another level, landed shark tonnage numbers are provided daily by the port of Kesen-numa's Japanese only website, which is publicly, (and apparently unashamedly), available.

Could a new battle between marine conservationists battling to save the sharks and the Japanese fishing lobby be on the horizon? First there was the annual showdown in the Southern Ocean between the Japanese whaling fleet and the environmental groups Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd to save the whale. Then there was the runaway success of the Oscar-winning documentary 'The Cove'. One would think the tide is slowly turning. Is it not time Kesen-numa City, Japan's dirty little shark secret, was shut down next?

Guillame Nery's amazing BASE jumping free dive video

2010-06-26T16:46:00.000+01:00

This is quite simply amazing!

Please watch with an open mind-it is a delight and testament to the videographers art, rather than a factual piece!

Mike Elliot's Escape video

2010-06-24T16:21:00.000+01:00

The Maldives (shot by Howard Hall on a RED camera!)

2010-06-24T09:17:00.000+01:00

Smile!

2010-06-24T09:06:00.000+01:00

Howard Hall shooting RED in the Cocos

2010-06-16T21:21:00.000+01:00

Cocos 2010 from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

Late availability, week live aboard trip 4-11 July

2010-06-15T07:16:00.001+01:00

Red Sea Schooling fish safari 4-11 July 2010

I have some late availability for a week-long live aboard trip, concentrating on following the large schools that form around Ras Mohamed. The boat is Snapdragon-I have just spent two weeks on her, and she is excellent! The itinerary will be flexible, allowing the option of going where the action is! The boat will depart/return to Sharm el Sheikh, and the cost is £750. Please contact me for more details!

BP Deals with a coffee spill

2010-06-13T17:21:00.003+01:00

Image slide show from the Red Sea

2010-06-12T20:59:00.002+01:00

Underwater photography slideshow from the Red Sea from Adam Hanlon on Vimeo.

Back from the Red Sea

2010-06-10T07:44:00.000+01:00

I'm just adjusting back to normal life after two weeks in the Red Sea, on board Snapdragon with Red Sea Snapper Safaris. It was an amazing two weeks! Lots of great diving and amazing photographic opportunities. I have narrowed the 2000 or so images down, and plan to start getting some of them on-line over the next week or so.

Many thanks to Pete, Duncan and all the Snapdragon crew. We have spaces for our July trip still and it promises to be even better! Please contact me if you are interested.

Tony Wu's Eastern Fields video

2010-06-10T07:39:00.000+01:00

Video taken by Tony Wu in the Eastern Fields, Papua New Guinea. I've got to go!

Captain Craig from Tony Wu on Vimeo.

Amazing sail fish video

2010-05-13T09:58:00.000+01:00

Simply amazing footage of sailfish hunting a school of sardines from Howard Hall. Filmed at Isla Mujeres, Mexico in February this year.

Sailfish Drama from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

Freediving record

2010-04-25T22:15:00.000+01:00

Great video of William Trubridge's world record to 92m.

You need to watch this video!

2010-04-18T15:09:00.000+01:00

This video puts it in perspective-in the last fifty years, we have extracted from the sea with no regard for the consequences.

Today 90% of the big fish are gone

By 2048, the forecast is that we will have exterminated all fish

Timelapse video from Capernwray Diving

2010-04-18T13:14:00.000+01:00

Timelapse from Capernwray Diving center from Adam Hanlon on Vimeo.

Schooling Fish Safari July 2010

2010-04-14T07:55:00.000+01:00

I have three spaces left on a charter scheduled from the 4th-11th July from Sharm el Sheikh. The idea behind this safari is to catch up with the large aggregations of schooling fish off Fisherman's Shoal (near Jackfish Alley) and try and pick up some of the action with the Oceanic blacktip sharks that come in to harry these shoals. Saying all this, this charter is not running to any "conventional" itinerary. Unlike the major operators, we will go where the action is-we aren't tied in to any package tour like schedule, so where it is good-we'll be there!

We will be using MV Orchid, and are planning to only put 10 people on a boat that normally charters with 16-so there will be plenty of room! If you are interested, please get in touch soon!

More aeroplane pictures

2010-04-04T16:39:00.002+01:00

I shot some more pictures of the 'plane this morning early. The visibility was improved compared to last Monday, but the ambient light was still a little too dark to get the whole thing in

Shot in ambient light with a green water Magic filter. The pictures were processed in Lightroom 3 beta 2-the noise reduction features are amazing!

Sinking aeroplane slideshow!

2010-04-03T07:40:00.000+01:00

Capernwray sinks an aeroplane slideshow from Adam Hanlon on Vimeo.

Underwater video of Capernwray Aeroplane-straight after sinking!

2010-03-31T16:39:00.002+01:00

This is a rough cut of actual footage of G-BVOV underwater at Capernwray. It was shot on Monday 29th March 2010. The crane strops are still in place, and in actual fact, it was still being lowered onto the bottom of the quarry!

Some of this footage was used by Grenada and BBC North West on their evening bulletins.

Capernwray Diving sinks an aeroplane! from Adam Hanlon on Vimeo.

We sunk an aeroplane!

2010-03-29T17:08:00.004+01:00

Capernwray sinks an aeroplane

2010-03-25T12:48:00.003Z

On Monday 29th, my place of work, Capernwray Diving plan to sink the largest object in a inland dive site in the UK. G-BVOV a Hawker Siddley HS748 passenger airliner will slip (!) under the water. She has a 35m wingspan, and a 30m fuselage and weighs about 9 tons. We have hired the largest crane available in the area to lift her in!

I'll be on hand and in the water to catch this, both on still and video. Non diving spectators are welcome to come and see her last flight-the site will open at 10.00am and the plan is to start the lift at midday.

Sensational Seas DVD 2

2010-03-23T16:08:00.002Z

REEF have just announced that they are taking pre-orders for the second DVD in the Sensational Seas series It is available to order here Shipping is expected on April 1st.

All proceeds from the DVD (which has been made using donated clips) go the Reef foundation-which supports Ocean conservation efforts.

The trailer looks amazing!

Eric Cheng's show reel of Sperm Whales in Dominica

2010-03-13T14:48:00.001Z

Julian Cohen's Slideshow from Lembeh

2010-03-06T20:29:00.003Z

A fantastic slide show from Julian Cohen

These were taken over a week (?) during which the participants gave up diving during daylight-diving solely at night. They were based at the "home" of macro -Lembeh These are some of the fantastic images that resulted!

Hitler buys a dive center!

2010-03-06T20:11:00.001Z

Zen dome macro shots

2010-02-26T21:05:00.003Z

After reading a post on wetpixel by Stephen Frink (see the post here) on using a small dome with macro lenses, I thought I'd give the Zen dome a try.

I used with a Nikon 60mm f2.8, on a very dark and gloomy day. For reference purposes, the water temp was 4 degrees, and I lost all sensation in my hands for most of the dive (despite dry gloves!) The port gives really nice results-sharp and it corrects the parallax that you get with conventional flat ports. I will definitely try it some more

Amazing footage of feeding sailfish

2010-02-26T09:17:00.001Z

Sailfish - House of Sailing Daggers from Blue Sphere Media on Vimeo.

Wintery walk in the Lake District

2010-02-22T18:30:00.002Z

Caron and I loaded up the dogs and went off for a walk around the Walna Scar Road, Coniston. It was a fantastic snowy cleat day, with awesome views back towards home and the coast. The dogs had a great time playing in the snow!

Fergus Kennedy's Red Sea video

2010-02-19T19:02:00.004Z

A great piece of video, made all the more remarkable by the fact that some of it was shot using a Canon 5D MkII digital SLR. Apart from showing the skill of the film maker, it also shows how far along these cameras have come in terms of video output.

I wish Nikon would get their offerings sorted out to compete!

Under the Red Sea from Fergus Kennedy on Vimeo.

Nauticam UK site is up

2010-02-18T07:40:00.004Z

Alex Tattersall's Underwater Visions site is now up here This brings Nauticam housings officially to the UK. They are certainly the most talked about new housings for a long time, and seem to offer a plethora of features. I like the idea of being able to use existing ports on them, a solid locking port system, and the idea that misaligned controls will "mesh" themselves. Neat engineering!

More Smugmug greatness

2010-02-11T16:00:00.002Z

I mentioned in a post earlier that I had been playing and trying to get my head around integrate all the social media that I seem to be involved with. I have twitter, facebook, blogger and my web site, and to update all of them separately could take hours!

Smugmug, where my site (adamhanlon.com)is hosted have just launched a tool known as smart galleries. By adding keywords to images, it gathers these together in a gallery for you-as virtual images. They also have a "show off" facility that allows you to generate slideshows like the one below automatically!

I've used twitterfeed to gather the feed from this blog, and hopefully to publish it to twitter and facebook.

Zen 100mm dome comparison

2010-02-09T14:55:00.003Z

I'm using it for close focus wide angle (CFWA) and wide angle macro (WAM) to get round the problems of trying to light things that are very close to the dome port. I'm shooting DX with my D2Xs in a subal Housing and have been using a Tokina 10-17 for some time. I've set the dome up with a 30mm extender, which seems OK, but this may well need additional adjustment.

My first impression of the dome was quite how small it is! When compared with an 8" dome it seems really tiny! It also seems very well made and finished.

In use, for CFWA, with a Kenko 1.4x converter, you can really feel the magnification working! You can get the front of the dome so close to the subject that you really can feel the magnification "pulling" the subject in:

Practically, this means as long as you can physically get the strobes in close enough, that lighting is fairly easy! With dry gloves, the strobes want to be where my hands are! The reduction in distance between the front of the dome and the subject helps with colour and sharpness.

For more general wide angle, I took the following series of shots. These were all shot at 1/60th which may be a bit slow, and I am getting used to the set up-so please don't take them as anything like definitive! The full image looks like this:

I've then taken crops of the left hand bottom corner, and zoomed them to 100%

1/60th at f5

1/60th at f6.3

1/60th at f7.1

1/60th at f8

1/60th at f9

1/60th at f10

Corner sharpness seems to suffer at large apertures!

I'll do some more playing-please note that these aren't definitive.

New Zen 100mm Dome port

2010-02-04T19:24:00.004Z

Today I was lucky enough to be using the new Zen 100mm dome port today. It is definately softer in the corners than a big dome, but it's small size lets you get real close! Thanks to Alex for all his help with this

I teamed it up with a Tokina 10-17mm lens and a Kenko 1.4 x teleconverter, and could really see the magnification's effect on the subject. Lighting is critical though-my Inon strobes when correctly placed, didn't really leave enough room for my dry gloves!

The ability to get the subject so close is a definate advantage in terms of colour in green water. The subjects are much more vibrant out of the camera than they would be with a bigger dome etc.

While I was shooting, the sun went in, and I found that as I stopped down, the corner sharpness got worse!

Water temp was a cool 4 degrees!

Red Sea-Schooling fish safari

2010-01-31T15:08:00.001Z

I'm putting together a photography specific liveaboard trip to the Northern Red Sea in July this year.

At this time of year, large schools are forming around Ras Mohamed, which should provide some fantastic opportunities! It is at about this time that the fish move from Fisherman’s bank (off Jackfish Alley) to Shark Reef, Ras Mohamed. It is also when the pelagic blacktip sharks can turn up to add a bit of extra excitement! We have chartered the boat MV Orchid, and are planning for a maximum of 10 people on board. As it is our charter, we will operate on a reactive itinerary, basically going where the action is!

Orchid is re-fitting, and should have camera rinse tanks and camera tables installed by this trip.

The dates are 4th-11th July, 6 nights on board, with the last night in a hotel. The trip is from and to Sharm el Sheikh, which is well served with flights from Europe and further afield.

The trip cost is £(UKP)750, excluding flights. This will include all accommodation, all food and drink (non alcoholic) on board the boat, transfers to and from the airport and all diving. I can also organize flights if people would like me to do so. For those of you in the Northern UK, flights ex Manchester are £399.

If you are interested, would like more information, or to book(!) please let me know.

Embedding slideshows

2010-01-29T14:55:00.009Z

I've been doing a lot of looking, reading and hopefully learning about the ways that you can integrate blogs, twitter and in this case, my Smugmug web site at adamhanlon.com In particular, wetpixel publisher, Eric Cheng (www.echeng.com) and contributors Cor Bosman (underwa.ter.net/) and Tony Wu (www.tonywublog.com) have unwittingly provided me with ideas and inspiration! Now all I need is time!

Cor has embedded a slideshow of one of his Smugmug galleries, and seeing the results, it looks great. So I thought I would try and do the same! This is a slideshow of a fantastic underwater adventure at the Farne Islands last September, when we were the center of attention for some very rowdy seals! I hope you enjoy it!

Peek a boo!

2010-01-26T07:32:00.000Z

Smile for the camera!

2010-01-19T13:37:00.001Z

Disney's Oceans trailer

2010-01-19T13:34:00.001Z

Due in theatres April 22 2010-can't wait!

Picture of the day on Flickr Fins Group

2010-01-15T08:57:00.002Z

This picture was made picture of the day on the Flickr FINS group.

It was shot at Capernwray on a sunny day, with an air temperature of -7 degrees celsius, and a water temperature of 3/4 degrees. There was some ice on the surface!

My article in UWP magazine

2010-01-13T15:22:00.003Z

I was very happy to have had an article published in UWP mag in the December/January issue. UWP is a free on line magazine that is published by Peter Rowlands. It is a great specific resource for underwater photographers, and the quality of the articles is often quite high.

Thanks to Alex Mustard for suggesting the idea!

It is available as a download from here

Clear water in the UK

2010-01-13T15:17:00.002Z

The cold weather and cold water combination has really cleared out the visibility at Capernwray. These were taken last Friday, water temperature was 3 degrees, air temperature -7!

Happy Christmas!

2009-12-23T12:23:00.002Z

Great viz!

2009-12-11T16:04:00.000Z

Hitler gets turned away from the Diveboat

2009-12-11T15:59:00.003Z

This made me laugh!

Red Sea Pictures

2009-11-21T07:47:00.004Z

I've managed to scale back my images from the trip to a more manageable number, and done the preliminary editing on them. I've put a gallery up here

Please bear in mind that there are still too many, and the quality on some of them is not as high as I would wish, but I felt I should get something out rather than nothing! The gallery will be changing and shrinking(!) with time. Any comments/feedback or likes and dislikes would be very welcome.

Amazing footage of a Leopard Seal

2009-11-18T09:19:00.002Z

Check out this short video interview of Paul Nicklen, who describes a four-day encounter with a large leopard seal in Antarctica. A leopard seal befriends Paul and presents penguins to him, presumably trying to feed what it thinks is a truly incompetent predator. The story is an incredible one—truly the once-in-a-lifetime encounter that every serious wildlife photographer hopes to have one day.

Red Sea holiday

2009-11-18T07:23:00.003Z

I've just returned from a week long trip to Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. We spent a week diving and chilling out in the sun!

I took over 900 photos, so as I get them organised, I'll start putting them up on here. Many thanks to Pete Leathley, our "photo-friendly" dive guide!

Sturgeon

2009-11-07T09:35:00.001Z

Capernwray has 4 of these pre historic looking fish!

I think sometimes sci-fi is based on reality!

Weedy sea dragons on BBC life

2009-10-31T14:44:00.001Z

Hi all,

There is a preview of the next episode of this excellent series here

It is featuring the courtship ritual of the weedy sea dragon-and shows how fanastic this series has been. BBC natural History unit at the top of their game again.

For those of us in the UK, the next episode goes to air on Monday 2nd Nov at 2100.

Eric Cheng's Pigs in the Bahamas

2009-10-31T14:11:00.003Z

Eric, owner and founder of Wetpixel, has just put these pictures up on his Flickr page

Great, different underwater photography!

Lightroom 3 beta released

2009-10-26T09:15:00.000Z

Adobe released the latest beta version of Lightroom last week.

It is available for free download at Adobe labs here

My initial impressions are that the major changes over 2.5 are "under the hood". In terms of usability, there is a much improved import interface, the ability to export to Flickr etc direct from the library, and much beefed up noise reduvtion (for all thes new high ISO camers!)

I notice that Jeff Friedl is re-writing his excellent export plug ins-this should improve 3's functionality.

I know lots of people use LR on here, it would be great if we could share impressions and ideas on the new release.

Adam

Moody black and white macro shots

2009-10-20T09:10:00.003+01:00

I was lucky enough to be diving at Capernwray last Sunday. Congratualtions to Darryl Leaning on completing five PADI Instructor Specialities. It was a very busy day, that ensured limited visibility, together with rain and cloud making underwater conditions very gloomy.

I used the conditions to experiment with black background macro shots-by keeping my aperture small, and using only the light from my strobe to illuminate the subject. I then converted these into mono, using Lightroom.

I quite like the result-the perch loook like boxers to me! Kind of bruised but still with attitude!

Taking the bow!

2009-10-09T14:07:00.002+01:00

Wetpixel Flikr Group

2009-10-09T13:56:00.002+01:00

I am an administrator of Wetpixels Flickr group, and have been spending some time recently adding and inviting images to it. It is a spin off from the Wetpixel site, which to me mind is the best source for info on underwater photography available on the web. It now has 1462 members, and is one of the largest underwater photography groups on Flickr. Probabaly more telling, the group's pool now has some 23754 images!

A friend who has recently go into underwater photography was bemoaning the fact that he had a lot of great images, but never got to show them to anyone. Groups like this on Flickr are a great way of showcasing your pictures, and getting them to a wide audience! Best of all they are absolutely free! Even if you don't take pictures underwater yourself, the quality and variety of images on the group make for a fascinating visual feast! Join up today!

Walking in Eskdale, Lake District

2009-10-09T13:24:00.003+01:00

I have been lucky to have had a week off, travelling first down to North Devon to visit my parents. They have moved and run a fantastic Bed and Breakfast, at Chittlehamholt, very close to the fantastic beaches and scenery of the North Devon coast. Their www site is here. Caron and I took the dogs down with us and had fantastic walks along the beach at Saunton and at Instow

We then travelled up and spebnt a few nights in Eskdale, close to Wastwater, in the Lake District. Again, we travelled with the dogs, so spent our time walking with them. Caron's sister and brother in law (Caroline and Rob) joined us with their dogs too-so we had quite a pack. I took these pictures while we were walking up around Irton Pike, one of the view towards the coast (as a panorama) and the other looking up into Wasdale

Seth playing in the sea (and Jacob looking cute!)

2009-09-26T16:23:00.003+01:00

I've added some pictures from earlier this summer to my pets and animals page on my web site We went down the the slipway at high tide on a sunny day and messed about! Seth enjoyed fetching his ball out of the waves an Jacob just chilled out being cute!

More 60mm f2.8 pictures

2009-09-18T11:53:00.003+01:00

Some more shots from yesterday. The bokeh on this lens really impresses me

Gnarly old trout!

2009-09-18T11:36:00.007+01:00

Congratulations to Scott Evans for completing his PADI Digital Underwater Photography and EANx specialities yesterday. DUP is of course an excellent excuse for me to get my camera in the water at the same time! I was trying out my "new" Nikkor 60mm f2.8. I got it at the same time as my 105mm VR and it has played second fiddle to the longer lens for a while. I have found that it is a REALLY sharp lens, that focuses fast and is a great length for fish portaits.

While diving with it yesterday here at Capernwray, I found this battered old brown trout. Trout, when they reach a certain age, develop a pronounced hook jaw (when they are called a kype), and in the last stages of their lives, darken in colour.

I've added more pictures from the day to my www site here

Morecambe Bay sunset HDR

2009-09-15T09:32:00.002+01:00

Slave strobes at Capernwray

2009-09-07T21:21:00.003+01:00

A black and white shot from the shoot with Alex that I mentioned earlier!

More black and white seal shots from the Farne Islands

2009-09-05T08:06:00.003+01:00

Baitball bonanza

2009-09-01T09:04:00.001+01:00

Baitball bonanza

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Black and White seal

2009-08-31T19:05:00.003+01:00

Fantastic seal diving at the Farnes

2009-08-29T15:40:00.007+01:00

As a part of Alex Mustard's Northern tour(!) we went to Northumberland to dive on the Farne Islands. This island chain is well known for it's playful seals and we went with the express intention of trying to photograph them. We joined Paul Walker's excellent rib and spent an amazing hour and a half playing, interacting and photographing these wonderful creatures. The first dive was characterised by seals biting and tugging on our fins, biting my dome port shade and strobes and generally showing how poor our buoyancy control and propulsion techniques are! Photographically, the conditions were perfect. Bright sunshine and shallow water, with relatively calm water made for some great scenic shots. I found getting the exposure correct challenging, the brightness of the surface was too great a contrast with the bottom. Camera angle relative to the sun, and framing are the key though!

The picture above is one of Alex's of me taking the mouth picture below! I'll feed more pictures from the dive onto this blog over the next few weeks. It was an amazing dive-world class!

Off camera flash and underwater photography

2009-08-29T15:05:00.003+01:00

I've been involved in a project with Alex Mustard in using slave strobes to acheive an off camera type effect. We took some pictures at Capernwray last Wednesday, and I ws amazed at the results. We used a combination of a Heinrichs Weikamp slave strobe adaptor that triggered a Sea and Sea YS30 and in turn two big Subtronic strobes. In fact though I brought along a Firefly 1 slave set up, designed for use in dry caves, and put it into an Otter box. The results were excellent.I'll post some pictures here soon

Sepia tone in Lightroom

2009-08-20T19:39:00.011+01:00

I took some trout pictures in Capernwray yesterday and whilst downloading them, started playing with the greyscale conversion in Lightroom and using the split toning function. One comment I have had about my Capernwray is that the pictures are too blue, so Ithought adding some greenish tint back into the black and white may work.

I'm not sure what do you think?

Sardine Run footage

2009-08-14T07:40:00.004+01:00

Same more amazing footage from South Africas Sardine Run in 2007. I think this was taken from the BBC Natures Great Events series that aired here in the UK earlier this year. Stunning visuals, and narrated by Our Lord (!) David Attenborough.

My video on BBC

2009-08-13T20:41:00.003+01:00

I am quite ridiculously proud of the fact that BBC news and News 24 used some stock segments of underwater video that I had shot at Capernwray last Wednesday. They used them to illustrate a section on the impact of the banking crisis on small business! Thye sprung the request on me on Tuesday, and I had to let them have some footage that I keep here for illustrating some points on our PADI Open Water course. Given that the clips were not my best work, I was pleased that they got used, and they did actually look really good on the broadcast.

Rightly or wrongly, seeing my footage on a national broadcast has really made me very chuffed!

Discovery Channel-more sensational rubbish

2009-08-06T07:59:00.005+01:00

Discovery have launched another week of bad biology and sensationalist crap about sharks. Thay continue to vilify these apex predators in order to satisfy (or stoke) a perceived public need for gore on TV. Wolfang Leander makes an eloquent case-Discovery Channel

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Dusky Shark Emerges From Bait ball

2009-07-28T14:41:00.002+01:00

Dusky Shark Emerges From Bait ball
Originally uploaded by jason-heller

And another......

Dusky Shark & Bait Ball

2009-07-28T14:29:00.003+01:00

Dusky Shark & Bait Ball
Originally uploaded by jason-heller

Amazing sardine run pictures from this year by Jason Heller
Have a look at them all on his Flickr gallery here

Humpback whale by Jason Isley

2009-07-28T13:46:00.003+01:00

Humpback whale
Originally uploaded by Jason Isley

Amazing shot!

Whale wars-Sea Shepherd in the Antartic

2009-07-28T13:29:00.003+01:00

Disneys Oceans

2009-07-24T19:47:00.003+01:00

Check out the preview for Disneys Oceans, scheduled for release on Earth Day 2010
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93MT8VfDfk

The breeching whale sequence is awesome. If you would rather watch it in HD, check out here:

http://xrl.us/be48fv

The largest sardine run predator makes an appearance

2009-07-16T17:30:00.003+01:00

Amazing footage of this years Sardine Run from the Earth Touch crew

The largest sardine run predator makes an appearance

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Diving with the good doctor

2009-07-14T12:43:00.007+01:00

Last Friday, I was fortunate enough to go diving with Alex Mustard here at Capernwray. He was passing by on his way to a Scubapro event at Largs in Scotland. We did three dives-one of about and hour and ten minutes, a short one of 40 or so minutes and a final one of one hour twenty! It was a great experience to simply watch where he points his lens! I realise now that I have fallen into the classic trap of becoming too focused on the subject, and ignoring (to the pictures detriment) the light and scenery around it. Particularly with wide angle shots, and pretty clear shallow water, the light, sky and surroundings are as important for a good picture as is the subject being in focus!

This is a bit of a revelation! I guess I knew it all along, but had forgotten it! To be honest, I have been becoming a bit jaded with my underwater photography over the past couple of weeks, as many of my images seem to have become quite similar and predictable. Alex has just nudged me into how can shoot better and different images.

Lastly, we attempted to set up a particular image, in this case with no success due to some technical issues. What is becoming obvious is that great images are in part at least created rather than just captured.

Fish portait

2009-07-11T16:10:00.001+01:00

Diving with free divers (and trying to photograph them!)

2009-07-11T15:55:00.003+01:00

Sorry for my poor record in keeping this blog up-we are very busy at Capernwray with courses runing just about every day-and my laptop refuses to work underwater!

On Friday 26th, David Hack and I went off for a photo dive. It was some time since David took his camera underwater, so the idea was to work out a few kinks and get some time in underwater. We were joined for the latter portion of the dive by Rosie Hancock, who I had been doing the AIDA course with. I have long wanted to get some good images of free divers underwater-they look so good! Anyway, I found that getting the shots was more dificult than I thought. The best angles seem to be straight up-which causes all sorts of problems with exposure! I was trying to use the strobes to light Rosie, and expose for the background, but with a 1.4 x teleconvertor on, was finding that I had to back off to far for the strobes to light her up, or if I turned the strobes power up too much, lots of backscatter. Ok so learning point is to shoot with the 10-17mm Tokina, without the convertor off!

AIDA 2 star free diving Part 2

2009-06-25T10:48:00.006+01:00

Rosie and I underwent the second part of our AIDA free diving course yesterday. We met Steve in the classroom at Capernwray, and sat the exam. Whilst it was not too taxing, it did check quite thoroughly whether I had been listening or not!

We then went into open water. We got weighted correctly and initially, it was just pulling down the line to 6m, and getting the feel for head first descents. Given my emphasis on good trim and body positioning on scuba, descending upside down and deliberately limiting my field of view felt very weird. We then progressed to 12m descents, I delayed equalising too long and had a few ear problems. These descents were "swimming" ones-not using the line to pull down, and duck diving from the surface. We both (I think) were finding that there was quite a bit of task loading. Trying to co-ordinate good diving style, finning technique, equalisation, "breathe ups" and body position during ascent and descent meant that I was unable to clear my mind and I think that this somewhat affected my performance.

Session 2 involved working up to some more depth. Rosie got down to over 17m, and I got to 15.5. I had a "good" learning experience when I tried to equalise, and some how managed to get some water in my mouth. Rather than do the obvious, and spit it out(!) I got a bit freaked out! Steve was with me (and actually supported my airway) so there was no risk as such, but it did spook me. It took a few dives for me to re-gain my confidence. Lastly, we looked at dealing with sambas (blackouts) at the surface-rescue techniques.

I was a little disapointed by my performance to be honest, and found that the clarity that came so easilly in the pool eluded. This may have been due to task loading, I don't think it was due to confidence in water. Once again though, Steve and team did a great job! Our final session is next Wednesday and am looking forward to it!

Free Diving AIDA 2 star

2009-06-23T15:00:00.003+01:00

Rosie Hancock and I started our AIDA 2 star freediving course with Steve Millard on Sunday. We did a theory session-looking at the different competition disciplines, anatomy and physiology, nutrition, mind set and equipment for free diving. I have always breathed out during breath hold, and I have now found out why this is way bad! The breathe out "full" sensation is your bodies response to elevated CO2-by breathing out you are effectively lowering the P02, which could cause black-outs. In the afternoon, it was off to the pool for static and dynamic apnea sessions.

This was the really interesting part! Contrary to my expectations, your breath hold improves with repeated attempts (well up to about 5) The mammalian diving reflex is activated by repeated submersion, and it actually gets easier once it has kicked in. Anyway, my fourth attempt gave me a time of just under 3 mins, and Rosie's fifth 3:27. We then did static apnea, having spent some time practising turns and starts. I had a go with a mono fin-which I found quite straightforward. In scuba we used to teach a technique called dolphin kick, and the monofin works pretty much the same.

While we were in the pool 2 of Steve' s students acheived PB's for static apnea of 5 minutes- so we have some way to go!

Tomorrow we are writing the exam and doing some dives in open water. If equalisation goes OK, the plan is to get to 20m I believe!

I wanted to do this course for interest, and also to try and use the techniques as a stealth method of interacting with marine life, particuarly for photography. I used to spear fish years ago, and there is no doubt that the lack of bubbles and noise make marine life easier to approach. I'll continue to add to my blog as the course progresses, but so far, it has been not only interesting, but also suprised me in how my performance can improve with skilled tutelage

Sea Kayaking today

2009-06-22T19:08:00.010+01:00

Caron and I went out for a paddle today. Force 5-6 winds limited our duration, but I actually managed to do some surfing in our new P&H Quest.