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The two main ideas I exploited this year.
Half-water and long exposure.
Philippines. Balicasag.

Thailnd. Sail Rock.

[vimeohd]56187603[/vimeohd]
I've been lucky to dive a lot of amazing place this year.
This is short compilation of footage from 2012 trips.
Shot on Canon 7D and 5D Mark III in Nauticam.
happy holidays everyone!
EJ.

Not just a favorite image also a favorite first time underwater experience for 2012; the sheer chaos and excitement of sailfish in a bait ball. Hopefully I will get to experience it again next month.

I love this thread - Pam Murph, your image is lovely, and I love the humor of the model's Mickey ears!

This year, after 20 years of diving open circuit, I got certified to dive on a closed-circuit rebreather.  My class was at the beginning of July, and I had to put aside my camera for a while afterwards so I could become comfortable with new buoyancy and other skills.  The first day I took my camera back out, I was pretty nervous; I could hardly shoot for constantly checking my pO2.  That dive day coincided with what we in Southern California see as a nearly annual event - an influx of jellyfish that come in briefly, then disappear.  This year's jelly was a pretty uncommon one, the black sea nettle.  (I had only seen one of these before, years ago, and it was pretty beaten up.)  Seeing tens of them in the water column on this day was incredible.  We brought some friends out to shoot them 2 days later, and the vis and jelly numbers had dropped precipitously.

This image was my favorite of the year because it was the first real encounter I'd had with these creatures...and most of all because it was my first day getting used to diving a rebreather with my camera in hand.  I didn't take many photos, but because there weren't a bunch of exhalation bubbles, I got a few keepers anyways.

Here's to great diving and successful shooting in 2013!!

I love this thread... so much inspirational.

Last week in the Maldives.


But I also like very much this one taken last June during Alex's workshop in the Red Sea.

Here are two of my favourites. The first is from Turks and Caicos and the second from a trip with Alex Mustard to Isla Mujeres.

The best way to make a small fortune from underwater photography is to start with a large fortune!

This year was good, not stellar. I spent more time thinking about my equipment than actually using it :-(

Two favorite pictures, one for its esthetics and the other for capturing an amazing moment.

Happy New Year!

-Nir

here is my picture reminder of my best dive of 2012....and i didn't have to travel far for it...backyard NC on a world class day

Great pictures everyone...have a great and safe 2013

Paul

Wow, there are some great images in this post.

Alex the slow shutter Jacks is just amazing, love it.

It is extremely hard to pick a favourite but this is the one I came up with Silver Lustre. It is special for me as the model is my beautiful girlfriend.

Hi all,

I’m running a trip through Divequest next September to La Paz, Sea of Cortez. We decided to go and check it out beforehand and had some nice encounters with the sealions and whalesharks there.

After reading Alex M’s most recent article on models and the saleability of images with people in them, I went for some of that.

D800, Sigma 15mm, Zen 200mm dome





Then tried to get a bit of animal with animal interaction

D800, Sigma 15mm, Zen 200mm dome




Brawling bulls, Olympus OMD, 8mm Panasonic FIsheye, Fit Pro optical glass minidome





Some portraits


D800, Sigma 15mm





60mm macro instead of the FIsheye


Cute female, D800, 60mm macro, 2x INON Z240





Baby, D800, 60mm macro





With sunburst, D800, Sigma 15mm, 2x INON Z240





and some other animals:


Yellowtail Surgeonfish, D800, Sigma 15mm





Whaleshark, D800, Sigma 15mm





and some colours of Mexico


D800, Sigma 15mm





Hope you enjoy




Alex

I've posted my anti Shark Week video on YouTube.  It's entitled "In Search of a Man Eating Shark," and was shown at the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition this year.  

Narration and statistics state that sharks have more to fear from humans than humans from sharks.

Here's the link:

All right, so they are laying on the reef.
BFD !!!
All those who are crying about this should also get on your horse and whine about Doubilet's movement of nudies several years ago in the Geographic article.
Considering the contribution of all named in this thread, including Cousin Jones, I feel if they want to lay on the reef, then let them!

Let those without sin cast the first stone!

WTF! ... thats no excuse, considering their jobs they should have more thought to that environment... I supposed you would let Gary Glitter perform at a kids party because of his contribution to music during the 70's...

Dean

I can see points from both sides of the argument, and you could argue them all day long. My only concern is you dived to 70m on those two small tanks.
Your balls (which are obvoiusly steel and very large) must be resting on/ crushing the coral!!


Safe diving

Lee

For DX the Tokina 10-17 would be my favourite lens. Nowadays I use the Sigma 15 on FX. You gotta hold your nerve and "wait until you see the whites of their eyes".

It's been ages since I've posted in Wetpixel (but I do regularly enjoy this forum for the awesome images that get posted), but the images I took yesterday have moved me to share them. I'm still getting to know my new Olympus E-PL5 having upgraded from the E-PL1 two months ago, and yesterday showed me just how good the dynamic range of this little marvel really is.

 

These are self portraits in my local river in Dartmoor national park, it's a wooded valley so you actually get more sun in the water during the winter while there are no leaves on the trees.

 

For light I used a single, YS-D1 with a custom snoot.

 

Enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

It depends on format as well.

 

My vote would be

DX => 60mm

FX=> 105mm

 

/Erik

One of my pictures was published on the Smithsonian Institution's website. The title of the article was

 

   Surprising Science: The Ten Best Ocean Stories of 2012

 

and the picture that they included was the one shown below.

 

 

- Erwin

I believe that you are judged by the final image and also how that image was taken in accordance with the rules of that competition. If it only judged by the final image the competition would be open to all sorts of unethical forms of trying to capture an images, like staged shots and harrassing wildlife to get that winning shot.

 

I personnaly think it takes more skill to fill 100% of a frame with a great shot, compared to using 50% of the frame of a ordinary shot to make a great shot. 

 

Regards Mark

My wife and I took a 14 night trip on the Seven Seas through Raja Ampat. It was our third trip to Raja Ampat, and the diving was excellent, as was the boat. The crew on the Seven Seas was uniformly good. The dive guides were helpful and knowledgeable, and the rest of the crew were also good at their jobs. There were 14 passengers on our trip, 12 divers, and surprisingly, 2 snorkelers (who also had a great time). The boat was comfortable and the food was very good. I would strongly recommend going on this boat. We did three or four dives per day, which is less than some liveaboards, but just right for me. Basically, the schedule alternated with eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, etc., starting with a pre-breakfast between 6 and 7:30am and the first dive typically starting at 7:45am. One bit of interesting information that we learned is that this is the last season (for the time being) that the boat is going to cruise Raja Ampat. They feel, justifiably, that the region is getting crowded with liveaboards, so they are going to substitute a new dive region into their plans starting next year. Specifically, they will dive the South Komodo region, and they are confident it will be a great area to dive, with aspects similar to Raja Ampat diving. Should be interesting.

 

Here are some pics from the trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the whole set can be found here: 2013 Raja Ampat photos on Flickr

 

-Erwin