NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2008

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME

Feb 12th: Monthly Theme Competition - Divers, plus Annual Print Competition.
                   Photo Forum - Fish - Alan James

Mar 11th: Monthly Theme Competition - Fish
                   Presentation by Dr Alex Mustard
                  
Apr 8th: Monthly Theme Competition - Wrecks
                Presentation by Alan James
                Photo Forum - Close Up - Alan James

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Feb 12: Monthly Meeting

Please note that the Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our new  venue - The Casson Centre, Rodway Road, Patchway, BS34 5DQ (map)  It is  easiest to access it via Durban Road, off Highwood Road - you can turn right at the traffic lights if coming from the Gloucester Road direction. The Casson Centre is the left hand part of the Patchway Community Centre, immediately next door to the Patchway Town Council Offices. There is off road parking adjacent to the Centre and further spaces along Rodway Road, near to the local Spa shop.

The Photo Forum will be led by Alan James and will focus on 'Fish'.

The monthly competition theme is 'Divers'.  Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback.  Send your digital files to our new Competitions Member - Kathryn Rosling (kathryn.rosling@blueyonder.co.uk) and send a copy to Arthur (akdiver48@hotmail.com). A word of caution - Kathryn's email has played up a couple of times recently, so do not leave your submission to the very last minute.

The Annual Print Competition for the BUPG trophy will also take place, so bring along your prints - one British, one Overseas. Check the Competition Rules first.

RECENT EVENTS

January Meeting

Monthly Competition - Open

Our 2008 Meetings got off to a chilly start due to there being no heating in the building - it seems like the Town Council forgot about us. However, our hardy members were able to survive and enjoy the evening.

The Competition proved to be very much a success for Martin Bailey who took First Place, as well as equal Second Place along with Tamsin Eyles.

Martin's colourful anemone shrimp was the clear winner.

Whilst this striking fish portrait took Second Place for Martin

Tamsin's shark tied for Second Place.

Bringing up the rear, with one vote apiece were the following:

Table coral by Pam Murphy

Bahamas shark silhouette by Tamsin Eyles

Finally, a monochrome image from Grand Cayman by Arthur Kingdon

French Polynesia - Cathy Lewis

If you can measure a holiday’s value for money in terms of extraordinary experiences and lasting memories, our trip to French Polynesia last September was worth every penny and more. We went for two weeks, staying for the first week in Rurutu, some 600km south ofTahiti, snorkelling with humpback whales. Few tourists venture to these remote islands meaning there were only 8 of us on the whale watching boat, and never more than two boats out at any time. With the help of our expert guide, we had some excellent encounters including humpbacks at play with a large pod of pilot whales, mother and calf interactions, courting males and plenty of above-water action with breaching, lobtailing and flipper slapping.

Photographically it was challenging with very vivid blue water which, although clear, gave little contrast with the whales. And with cloud cover it got pretty dark too - at times I had the aperture wide open with the shutter as slow as I dared go. Snorkelling to get close to the whales was exhausting but a great way to get fit but, as someone who gets seasick, the heavy swell made it pretty uncomfortable at times! For speed in the water I found it worthwhile keeping my D200 camera as compact and streamlined as possible. I took a fisheye and 20mm lens – the 20 proved fine, although a 12-24 or for Canon users a 14-70 would have been ideal. The pro photographer there was using a Nikonos camera with prime 15mm lens.

            Our second week was spent on a lagoon island north ofTahiti – Fakarava – diving with sharks and huge shoals of fish on near pristine hard coral reefs. The two inlets into the massive lagoon provided fast-moving drift dives and ideal conditions for seeing tuna, wahoo, barracuda, grey reef and white tip reef sharks, although they do get larger sharks and dolphins there fairly regularly. Photographically the fast-moving water and strict, somewhat temperamental dive guides meant you were limited  to snapping as you drifted along at breakneck speed, bunched together as a dive group. It’s well worth the trip though to swim through the huge shoals of big eyes and snappers, completely unfazed by divers, and to see upwards of 50 to 60 sharks circling around you within touching distance. Again, most shots were taken with 20mm or fisheye. There is macro life there but why bother with macro when you’ve fantastic shoals of fish and sharks to photograph.

            The trip was organised by DiveQuest, we flew with AirFrance via London and LA toTahiti and stayed at Rurutu Lodge and Pension Havaiki in Fakarava. The best time to go is between July to October and, unless you’re very hardy, you will need at least a 5mm wetsuit for the whale watching trips.

 Pic captions:

1. It was worth keeping camera gear as streamlined as possible – the faster you swam the better your encounters with the whales

2. I found that turning my pictures into black and white helped bring out the contrast between the whales and bright blue sea water.

3. Three humpback whales were having a fine time interacting with a school of pilot whales. They were somersaulting and circling around each other and the sea was filled with their excited high pitched squeaks.

4. The pilot whales’ calves swam perched on their mother’s backs.

5. Mothers and calves were what we were really hoping to see. The calves came up to the surface every 4 minutes or so to breathe and would often have a close look at the strange  creatures snorkelling on the surface.

6. The hard coral reefs in Fakarava were almost pristine.

7. These soldier fish were sheltering under an overhang away from the fast-moving currents in Fakarava.

8. We were able to get pretty close to large numbers of sharks at the current points in the entrances to the lagoon in Fakarava.

Photo Forum - Shooting Divers - Alan James

This was the first of what will be a regular monthly presentation/discussion, led by Alan, focusing on the theme for the following month's Competition. This time it was 'Divers' and Alan projected some twenty images or so, inviting the audience to discuss each image and to establish some guidelines as to what constitutes a 'diver' image and what separates the good from the bad. The emphasis was very much on making the diver prominent in the image, rather than a tiny silhouette in a reefscape.

The forum was very well received and we all look forward to having this as a regular slot each month.

Wetpixel - Picture of the Week

Congratulations are due to Tamsin Eyles who has just won the Silhouettes competition in the well regarded wetpixel POTW Contest. See http://www.wetpixel.com/competition/index.php?view=competition&id=123

Her winning image was from her Bahamas Shark Trip.

Miscellaneous

Keep Bubbling,

Arthur