Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

Wetpixel South Komodo Expedition, Feb/Mar 2014

We can’t get enough of Indonesia. Wetpixel is headed to the lush waters of Komodo in Feb/Mar 2014 aboard the luxury live-aboard dive vessel, the Seven Seas. The southern sites of Komodo National Park offer a fantastic mix of healthy coral reefs, huge schools of fish, and interesting macro life. In February and March, the waters in the south are clear and warm—the right conditions for productive underwater photography. We will visit all of the well-known dive sites in southern Komodo, including Manta Alley, Cannibal Rock, Torpedo Point, The Three Sisters, Lankoi, plus many more productive sites, all during a time in which not many other boats frequent Komodo.

Wetpixel trips are designed to be photographically productive. We feature unlimited dive times and flexible itineraries, and target advanced divers. If an area is hot, we will sit there and take advantage of it, and you will never be dragged through a dive site by a dive guide. Wetpixel publisher Eric Cheng, editor Adam Hanlon, and photographer Jason Bradley will be available for photography advice and ad-hoc, informal workshops. Guests also frequently learn a lot from each other, and it isn’t unusual to make a life-long friend after spending weeks together on a boat!

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

Want to swim with 300 whale sharks this year?

Join Wetpixel editor Adam Hanlon and photographer Jason Bradley in Mexico this August 2013 to swim with and photograph the largest-known aggregation of the largest fish in the world! Each summer, hundreds of whale sharks congregate in the clear blue waters off of Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

Quoth me, from trip two years ago, “There’s no other way to put it: our first day of photographing the whale shark aggregation was absolutely epic. Within an hour of leaving port, we found a group of over 300 whale sharks”. See Eric’s photo gallery from two seasons at the aggregation, and then check out this page for full booking details.

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

January issue of DIVE available online

DIVE magazine has released its January 2013 issue online. It features articles about diving in Komodo, the Philippines, Dijbouti and Grenada as well as interactions with humpbacks in Polynesia, great whites in South Africa, tiger sharks in the Bahamas and manta rays in the Maldives. Douglas Seifert writes about crinoids and there are technique articles about night diving and diving in currents.

Current DIVE magazine online editions are free to download after a simple registration, and are available in versions for Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android device or Kindle Fire.

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

Plug-in allows display of histograms while web browsing

A new free plug-in for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers now lets the viewer look at most image’s histogram information whilst browsing. Image Histogram is an extension which allows the user to right-click on an image and view the histogram data. Histograms are useful for comparison between people’s images and for noting things like how far highlights and shadows are pushed in high-key and low-key images. Lastly, it gives a graphical idea of how compression has been applied to images across various upload interfaces.

Image Histogram is available as a free download from the Chrome Web Store and Mozilla Add-Ons.

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

DPReview announces its best cameras of 2012

DPReview has announced the results of its user poll into the best camera of 2012. The thread attracted almost 15,000 votes and nearly 1500 comments, with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 being voted as the best camera of 2012 (but surely the camera with the worst name!) The Nikon D800/D800E was beaten by one percentage point into second place, with the Canon 5d Mark III coming in third. Interestingly, sales figures from the Japanese market, show the Nikon 1 J1 as selling the most, followed by the Olympus E-PL3 and then the Sony NEX-5n.

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

UwP magazine January/February 2013 available

Underwater Photography magazine issue number 70 is now published and available to download. Articles include reviews of the Saga zoom filter and the Marseilles Festival by Phil Rudin, Fiji with the Nikon D7000 and D800 by Jack Connick, Scottish sea lochs by Jason Gregory and Belize by Lee Hutchins. Erik Oskarsson writes on Bunaken and Tammy Gibbs about Western Australia. As always, there is a large number of product, trip and competition announcements included too.

UwP magazine is a free download in pdf format.

Monday, December 31st, 2012

Happy New Year

For those celebrating the Gregorian New Year tonight, may we wish you happiest of evenings. 2012 has been a fantastic year for so many of us in the Wetpixel community and we hope that 2013 brings more happiness and joy to you and your loved ones.

May we all have safe diving, fantastic imagery and amazing encounters over the next year!

Sunday, December 30th, 2012

RecSea announces housing for GoPro HERO3

RecSea has announced the release of an aluminium housing for the GoPro HERO3 POV cam. The WHG-HERO3 accommodates the HERO3 cam with its LCD or battery BacPac and features a 200 meter (660 feet) depth rating, has a RecSea Secure-Latch locking mechanism with a double-wide silicon o ring and contact surface and provides access to all camera functions. Accessories include color correction filters and a variety of mounting adaptors.

RecSea has also recently announced housings for the Canon PowerShot S110 and PowerShot G15 compact cameras. Prices and availability for all the above housings are still to be confirmed.