Wetpixel/Under The Jungle Cenote Workshop 2021
Articles
Wetpixel Quarterly Issue 8 is at the printer!
We have just received the first few copies of Wetpixel Quarterly #8 to roll off of the presses, and it looks great! WPQ8 features Jason Bradley’s photos of deep-sea creatures, photos from last year’s Ultimate Indonesia expedition, a sperm whale feature, and more.
In about a week, WPQ8 should arrive at our mailing facility in Maine to be shipped off to subscribers — you should have your copies soon. If you are not a subscriber, you can pre-order a copy online!
New online underwater photography tutorials
Well known underwater photographers, authors and educators Jack and Sue Drafahl have launched a new online underwater photography tutorial site.
The subscription service will give access to training in underwater photographic composition, shooting macro photos, using RAW files, presenting your images professionally, and much more. The courses will also feature training in using Adobe photo editing software, including Photoshop and Lightroom. In addition, subscribers will also have advanced access to Adobe tutorials covering new content whenever Adobe releases software.
Lastly, there will be tutorials from additional well known underwater photographers including Ernie Brooks, Stan Waterman, Carl Roessler and Geri Murphy.
Guillaume Nery underwater base jump at Dean’s Blue Hole
Someone forwarded me a beautiful free-diving video of Guillaume Nery doing an underwater “base jump” at Dean’s Blue Hole. In the video, it is made to look like Nery reaches the bottom, but Dean’s Blue Hole is 202m deep, and the world record for constant weight free-diving without fins is supposed to only be 83m.
It’s a beautiful movie, and underwater image makers should be doing more work like this (although divers and conservationists will have a problem with the way Nery is shown getting back up to the surface).
Seahorn snoots launched
Seahorn has launched a range of snoots to suit many popular strobes. The snoot’s function is to diffuse your strobe light into a significantly smaller area, hence creating various interesting macro lighting effects. For more info on “snooting” please see Keri Wilk’s excellent article.
Please read on for details.
Amphibico housing for Sony HDR XR550V AND CX550V
Amphibico has introduced the Dive Buddy EVO HD Elite II for the Sony HDR XR550V and HDR CX550V video recorders.
The Dive Buddy has full electronic controls with mechanical white balance. It features a 3.5” LCD viewfinder and a built in moisture alarm. It is sold without ports, with flat or wide angle options available. It has a FOV of 69°, identical to that of the camera. It has been pressure tested to 330 feet, and is constructed of marine grade aluminum.
Underwater Festival 2011
The 5th Underwater Festival, ‘The Australasia Challenge’, will incorporate a unique Australasia-wide simultaneous photo and video shootout competition with over U$100,000 available in prizes. It will be held from 2 to 11 September 2011.
The shootout competition will happen simultaneously at dive sites all over Australasia - in over 20 countries and spanning both hemispheres. The perceived advantage of this is that every dive site could be a shootout location and every dive center, liveaboard or resort in the area can facilitate the event. Please read on for more information.
Lightroom 3 arrives
After more than 600,00 downloads of the trial version, Adobe has released the full version of Lightroom 3. After an extended beta period with two versions, Lightroom 3 features an improved RAW processing engine, as well as support for video files, and a much improved noise reduction logarithm. Many people have found that the “under the hood” changes in the beta versions have significantly benefited their workflows.
Please read on for full details of the changes
Fish in a Bottle
Underwater videographer Mike Elliott recently posted an underwater video featuring some absolutely tiny critters:
“I never tire doing these fun little shorts. This one features the +7 again… all the closeups were shot with it. I took my mentors advice and added more wide & medium shots to help my audience appreciate just how small some of the critters are.”
If you’re into strange underwater critters found in muck, check out the video!