NEWSLETTER February 2006

NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2006

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME

MARCH 14th: Annual Print Competition

Alan James presentation - Maldives Camera Test

APRIL 11th: Dr Alex Mustard presentation - Fish Photography

COMPETITION PROGRAMME

MARCH: Fish

APRIL: Macro

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

March Meeting

The Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue (click here for how to find us).

Please try and be on time as we have to keep the main doors locked while we are using the building. However, there is an intercom entry system so you should be able to get in if running late.

The main feature of the night is our Annual Print competition. Please note that the rules have changed as regards maximum size, and prints are to be unmounted - a backing card is ok, as are borders (click for link to Rules).

There will also be a presentation by Alan james on the recent trip to the Maldives where Alan and Heather put the Nikon D50 and Sea & Sea DX 750g through their paces.

The monthly competition theme is 'Fish' so that's a tricky one! Send digital files to Bob Anthony ( anthonyrez30@tiscali.co.uk ) or bring your slides on the night (let Bob know if you will require a slide projector and screen).

The results of our Image of the Year 2005 competition will be announced - this being the best of our monthly winners, as judged by Charles Hood.

RECENT EVENTS

February Meeting

British 2005 - Alan James

Alan treated us to a feast of images, taken during 2005, portraying underwater life around our coast. If anyone ever thought that the UK underwater scene would not be very colourful, then Alan's images would dispel the myth. The images were shown on a Toshiba 38" led screen which produced vibrant colours with plenty of contrast. Other than being smaller than our normal screen, this was a marked improvement over the inaccurate colours that usually result from digital projectors.

Alan used many of his images to illustrate various techniques that he tends to favour these days:

The seal, for example, illustrates the use of 'thirds', where the image has been divided into three ie. sea bed, mid water with subject, and the surface detail.

The two images above illustrate the technique of shooting upwards towards the subject to give some dominance to the portrait. Alan confessed that he had failed to notice a flaw with the squat lobster whilst he was photographing it - it was only when he opened the images on the computer he noticed it only had one eye! Some work with Photoshop was required.

When selecting images for the presentation, Alan had catered for a variety of audiences, including those who may not be familiar with the underwater world - small subjects, such as the jewel anemone above, were preceded by a wide angle shot, usually with a diver in the frame, to give an impression of scale. A technique frequently used by videographers but which was very effective in this type of presentation.

The cuckoo wrasse above, illustrates several of Alan's techniques eg. use of f32 to give maximum depth of field plus a black background, a diagonal composition and taking the shot as the subject turns away to make the picture more dynamic, rather than the straight, side on shot.

There were compass jellyfish and tiny cuttlefish from Ireland, wolf fish and flatfish (with a background of brittlestars as above) from Scotland, among the many images Alan showed.

As would be expected, there were plenty of shots from Babbacombe, especially cuttlefish. Alan gave a good description of the behaviour of these beautiful creatures but went on to give a graphic and gruesome account of how their numbers have been decimated by local fishermen. By targeting the breeding grounds during the mating season, the fishermen cannot fail to catch large quantities. Pots, separated from their marker buoys, contained heaps of dead and dying cuttlefish. A clear case of man's greed with no regard for future stocks.

Overall, this was a very professional presentation with many stunning images and lots of technical tips to help the rest of us.

Digital Jam, Grand Cayman, 8th to13th Jan 2006 - Arthur Kingdon

Arthur gave a presentation based on the following report:

The inaugural Digijam was held in 2005 and proved a great success. It was an island wide event with three resorts taking part and comprised of a week of underwater photography (geared towards digital), with seminars,equipment to try out, and a competition (with great prizes). Having read reports of the 2005 event, I was keen to take part this year.

Flying with British Airways, after a short stop at Nassau, it was not very long before we were touching down at Owen Roberts, Grand Cayman. We were booked into the Cobalt Coast resort in the West Bay area of the island which is a twenty minute drive from the tourist Mecca of Seven Mile Beach. This is a small, comfortable hotel with a good restaurant and extremely helpful and friendly staff. However, for divers, the main attraction would be the on-site dive centre, Dive Tech. This is a very professionally run dive centre who cater for all levels of diver from the absolute beginner, through to rebreathers and mixed gas diving ( www.divetech.com )

One advantage of Grand Cayman is that, regardless of wind strength and direction, there is always somewhere to dive. This might mean a short trip in a minibus to pick up the boat but the diving is rarely blown out - hurricanes excepted. However, it can affect the shore diving and this was the case this time, with pretty rough conditions ruling out shore diving from Cobalt Coast for much of the stay. Fortunately, Dive Tech have another centre around the corner at Turtle Reef and this was diveable from the shore most days. They even provided free transport,

The Digijam package included two tank dives in the morning, unlimited shore diving in the afternoon plus optional night dives. Grand Cayman is an expensive place but the diving package with Dive Tech was very good value and they even offered nitrox for no extra charge. They use two boats and the 'digijammers' were on AtaTude, the larger boat. There were fourteen of us, plus several Dive Tech staff and our 'photo guru' Courtney Platt. In addition, we were often joined by Brad Nolan of Dive Chronicles magazine www.divechronicles.com the sponsor of the event, plus one of a number of equipment suppliers who brought along items for us to try out. There were underwater MP3 players, some very smart Suunto computers with built in compass, and Richard Perry of Reef Photo & Video brought along a couple of housed slr's and a focus light. This was a great opportunity for the compact users to try a digital slr and I really appreciated using the Fix Light HG20DX - a wonderful piece of kit. Despite the numbers on board, there was plenty of room plus a large table for cameras and a dedicated rinse tank.

Courtney Platt (www.courtneyplatt.com) has lived in Grand Cayman for many years and knows the dive sites like the back of his hand. He was always able to supplement the dive guide's briefing with information particularly relevant to photographers. Underwater, he was in great demand as critter spotter or model. There were quite a few envious glances at his equipment (!) comprising of a Nikon D2x in a Subal housing with twin Ikelite 400 strobes.

The first dive of the day was usually a wall dive and this offered plenty of wide angle photo opportunities. Turtles are relatively common and eagle rays can be spotted - of course I had the 105mm macro lens on when I spotted one.

Second dives were on shallower sites such as the wreck of the Oro Verde. This well broken up wreck is home to lots of angelfish and snappers, who are all well used to divers.

Most sites had plenty of subjects regardless of whether you chose a wide angle or macro set up - not a problem for the compact camera users although I never had the right lens (typical slr whinger)

Cleaning stations were common and tiger groupers were often the main customers. Several of the group captured excellent shots of these using compact cameras (better than my effort below using a 12-24mm).

Other popular sites visited included Tarpon Alley and Sting Ray City.

Sting Ray City is often quoted as being 'the best fifteen foot dive in the world'. Well, I would probably agree - it's great fun with lots of stingrays and, on our dive, a large green moray, all looking for a handout.

It does get very busy, although it is possible to get shots of the rays away from the main crowd.

However, if you are hoping to get some really great shots of stingrays, perhaps in the style of Alex Mustard (www.amustard.com), then an early morning visit is probably needed. Another site, the Sandbar, offers stingrays in only four feet of water and probably even better photo opportunities.

In the afternoons, there was the option of shore diving or classroom sessions with Courtney. The latter was a great opportunity to learn how to take better pictures and also how to get the best out of those pictures using Photoshop.

By the Friday lunchtime, it was time to hand in our entries to the Digijam Competition. Categories were: Wide Angle, Close Up, Creative, Sting Ray City and Above Water. Most of the categories were sub divided into compact cameras or slr's. Pictures could be cropped, adjusted with 'levels' or 'curves', and sharpened but all changes had to done globally. No other manipulation was allowed, unless it was entered in the 'Creative' category. A maximum of three entries per category per person.

The week culminated in the Awards Dinner, held at Cobalt Coast. We were joined by the other digijammers, mainly from Sunset House Resort where Cathy Church was the photo guru. The winners were announced and my efforts were well rewarded (far too well - some would say!):

This shot of a Pedersen cleaning shrimp won third place in the SLR Creative category.

This group of snappers won second place in the SLR Wide Angle category.

This tiny shrimp in a pink tipped anemone took first place in the SLR Macro category.

There were some incredible prizes on offer and, although this was not my reason for taking part, I was very pleased with my haul - a $25 clothing voucher, a return ticket on Cayman Airways and, the big one, a week on a liveaboard out of Wakatobi (see it here) This was the perfect finish to an excellent week's diving, with some great people, in a great location.

Next year's Digital Jam is planned for the 13th - 20th January and I would thoroughly recommend it. A holiday on Grand Cayman will never be cheap but this is a great week for underwater photographers. Any prizes will lessen the financial pain but, even if you don't win a prize, you will learn a lot and have a great time.

Monthly Competition

The theme this month was 'Divers' and the entries included a good mix of cold and warm water images. However, it was the warm(er) water images that won with Trevor Rees taking First place with a shot of divers in Menorca.

Trevor also took Second place with another shot from the same location.

Third place went to Alan James with a shot from Sardinia:

MISCELLANEOUS

New Website for Underwater Photographers

A new website, full of good stuff for underwater photographers, can be found at http://www.divephotoguide.com Check it out - it requires registration but could be very useful.

Nikon Battery Recall - Update

Nikon have released serial numbers of another batch of faulty batteries. If you are using a D100, D70 or D50, you may wish to check out the recall information on the following link; http://www.europe-nikon.com/default.aspx?countryId=20&languageId=22

BSoUP Competitions

There is no excuse now for not entering the BSoUP competitions as they are now accepting entries via email. Also, our monthly competition programme mirrors and precedes that of BSoUP, so you can try out your images the month before. We have a great deal of talent within the group so why not give it a go? Let's show the London lot what we can do in the provinces! Check out www.bsoup.org for further details.

Arthur