170 replies to this topic

[t-bohn]

Hi all,

Torben Bohn here,
Manila, Philippines based.

I'm the importer of Subal for the Philippines.

PADI MSDT, CMAS ** Instructor
CMAS Freediving Instructor (not diving for free....)
Rebreather and Nitrox Instructor etc.

Organize trips and logistic locally and inbound for foreign travel agents, groups and productions.

Accasionally I'm able to sell some of my pictures direct and via agencies.

Sell and service compressors, dive gear, build nitrox membrane systems, customize gas systems for yachts and dive shops in the Philippines and in Micronesia...

Cheers from Manila
Torben

[MikeVeitch]

Well, if anyone hasn't figured it out, my name is Mike Veitch..

I currently run the Photo/Video department at the Manta Ray Bay Hotel in Yap, Micronesia after more than 5 years as the Photo Pro on Aggressor Liveaboards in Palau 99-02, Fiji briefly in 02, and the first crew in Tahiti from 02-04.

I work with different magazines in the way of writing and photography in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. More would be nice...

[JamesWood]

Greetings Wetpixel,

I’m a marine biologist working at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research in St. George’s, Bermuda and am the moderator for Scientific Photography here at Wetpixel. My research focus is cephalopods (octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus). In addition to my normal classes, I teach a summer course on Scientific Photography which has both a strong underwater and strong digital bias. I’ve been dabbling in Stock photography and writing for marine related magazines since 89 and would like to expand and organize this as it gets me away form my desk and back into the water.

James

[John Bantin]

Ike is what I would call an old-fashioned gentleman.

I, on the other hand, am a scurrilous hack. I got to be this way after making enough money as an advertising-film director and photographer, so that I never needed to worry about losing the job as a scurrilous hack. I call it the FO Fund. (If you have enough in it, you can tell people to FO.) Alas, the diving industry has now got used to me. This was the first DEMA when no-one shouted abuse at me nor threatened to sue me. (Life is getting boring!) I relished the days when people shouted "You told the TRUTH and we're not used to that!"

Digital photography? I know everything that Paul Kay has told me. I have never been afraid to ask. Computers? Thank goodness my son is a technical engineer in R&D for Yamaha Music and uses a Mac.


PS I am also Technical Editor and full-time diving-holidaymaker for Diver Magazine in the UK. (Now the tacky ad - see:www.divernet.com)

[mikedive]

Hi all ,

I am a compleet newcomer in the sceen I began diveing in 1990 and fist take pics with my oly C3000 in a PC housing ..... caus I am an RC model freak I build my own tray and strobe arms and get in contakt to Matthias Heinrichs in 2001 by adding a stobe to my oly cam ..... I noticed there is no special equipment for the new low kost pc housings comeing from Olympus, Sony and Canon so I changed my profession from a carpenter ( done for about 20 years ) to a manufacturer of special digital uw equipment. Here in Germany I am a well known brand for the Olympus UW photographers . my intention is : nothing is imposible. I am always interested in news and try to get one of the first to test and add new housings fitting to my system . I am a wet and dry diver and I try to optimice my pic quality
to show the coustomers what is posible with the ( my ) equipment.


Cause of o lot of work to earn money there is less time to dive and my Homelocation is nearly the middle of Germany If you may have a lock at :
( use google earth : 49 42,1398 N / 8 15,2031 E ) I noticed that sometimes a little difference is in placing you have to control the real dates in the GPS dates

an nice tool ( toy ) to see all around the world.


I am planing a english version of my page next year....... a lot of work for one guy

Michael Finger ( alias mikedive )

[Snappy]

Having cruised this site for some time I suppose it's time for me to introduce myself too. Especially as I am about to solicit some contributions from the very talented people here!

I am freelance photojournalist who brings his camera into the water every now and then. I have also started something called Felix Features, an agency that specialize in photo documentaries and features (as the name implies), selling to Norwegian media. London based photo agency Panso Pictures represent me elswhere in the world, and Felix Features in turn represent them in Norway.

For the moment there isn't very much in English at our site, but you are welcome to have a look at this introduction: http://www.felixfeat...glish/home.html

Fredrik Naumann

[Hman]

Hi, I am Howard Rosenstein from Fantaea Line.
I have been in the diving industry for over 35 years, most of them as the owner of diving operations (land based and live aboards) in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

The past 4 years have dedicated myself to my main passion of underwater photography which I have been doing as long as I can remember.

Thanks to Eric and James for this great platform.

Howard

[drafahl]

Hi we are Jack and Sue Drafahl and we have working in the scuba industry for over 30 years. Our specialties are photographic education and audiovisual presentations. Over the years we have worked for Skin Diver, Sport Diver, Diver and Dive Training as well as Petersen's Photographic and Rangefinder magainzes. We founded the Oregon Coast Digital Center where we offer intense Photoshop classes for up to four students. We have authored several books: Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography, Digital Imaging for the Underwater Photographer, Photo Salvage with Adobe Photoshop, Step-by-Step Digital Photography, Advance Digital Camera Techniques and Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop. We have a new one called Adobe Photoshop for the Underwater Photographer that will be available in August 2006. We lead photo dive trips and conduct workshops worldwide on photographic topics, both topside and underwater.

Jack and Sue Drafahl
digitalduo@jackandsuedrafahl.com
www.jackandsuedrafahl.com

[WaterWorks]

Mr. Cheng,

Sorry to find this thread so late.......

Christopher East & Kaesaraporn Samsen (Gak - is easier to say!)

We own WaterWorks Productions Co., Ltd.
Thailand's (and probably SE Asia's) only Dedicated Adventure Video Specialists.

Pros. Yep...... Our officially registered Adventure Video Production House is proof of that.....

Gak is Thailand's first proffessional underwater camerawoman.

Promo video production and original soundtrack production for names which you know and love........

Ocean Rover Jan. 2005
Minahasa Lagoon June 2005
Wakatobi July 2005

Ocean Rover you can view online. Same with Wakatobi - it's the first video on the page.

Um...........

There you go!

Look forward to meeting you at some show, sometime, somewhere..... Antibes maybe?

[Barrett Heywood]

Barrett Heywood here, CEO of Light & Motion. I've been scanning these pages for years, but have always held back posting for fear of "commercializing" the forum. I aspire to attain Ike's standing so I can just blast away at will.

Barrett

[divegypsy]

Hi Gang,

My name is Fred Bavendam. I have been a full-time underwater photographer for over twenty years. Just take pictures, do not sell gear, lead trips, etc. All I do is travel, dive, and shoot. My main interest is the behavior of underwater animals - biology. My favorite subjects in the ocean are the cephalopods and especially octopuses. My photos are represented by several leading photo agencies and I sell my work directly, particularly full story topics, to magazines. My customers are primarily non-diving magazines have included National Geographic (5 stories - Manatees, Giant Octopus, Giant Cuttlefish, Crinoids, and Frogfish), German and French GEO's, Terre Suavage. Quite recently I've started working with Germany's Unterwasser Magazine on a regular basis.

I am still one of those dinosaurs who shoot primarily film, especially underwater. I own three complete SeaCam housings for the Nikon F5 and feel they are the best camera ever for underwater photography. I use Hartenberger TTL flashes on TTL for all my shooting, with every lens I use from 16mm fisheye up to 200 Micro-nikkor. Usually get 10-20 technically excellent shots, meaning OK for any magazine I sell to, per roll. Weed those twenty out on basis of focus, composition, subject positioning and emotional content.

I tried a Fuji S2 for a while but just didn't take to it. Felt the S2 was the Stephen Hawking of cameras - a brilliant mind (the digital capability) in an almost non-functioning body (built on Nikon's N-80). Bought a D2X about nine months ago and still haven't had the time to do more than shoot a couple hundred topside frames with it. Prefer to be in the water shooting instead of implanted in front of a computer screen.

Will probably be much more interested in digital for underwater shooting when we finally get some reliable professional quality i-ttl strobes. And when Nikon finally announces their full-frame digital camera so all the lenses I use now can be used and covedr the same image area in digital as film and megapixel content is up at about 24 Mp uninterpolated.

I believe Nikon does have a full frame camera in the works and coming soon. Their most recent professional lenses like the new 105mm and the year-old 200-400 f4 make absolutely no economic sense for a camera company that has only the F6 for film. Why do these and other recent lenses still cover the full frame size when there is very little buying of any camera gear for just film use. Logically, for the APC digital chip size the new 105mm should have been 70mm. And why not a pro wide-angle zoom equivalent to 17-35 f2.8 which 12-24 just isn't?

But the D2X will be a fun toy until the serious Nikon digital camera appears.

Divegypsy

[CheungyDiver]

Hello all, I am David Cheung …. owner of Scubacam in Singapore….. I have been monitoring on and off Wetpixel forum for a few years now….only occasionally would I be brave enough to stick my neck out and share my experiences. The last one I believe was the Scubacam Strobe Test with Gazza, my business associate. The wealth of expertise and knowledge shared in this website is amazing and humbling. I am a PADI Divemaster and have been a diver for 9 years.

A wannabe UW photographer/videographer but spend most of my time tinkering and fixing other peoples UW equipment….I service Seacam, Gates and Amphibico housings to name a few.

My other job as an Architect and designer naturally leads me to design and make things........my shop is a serious hobby and hope to keep it that way. I enjoy helping divers customize and do last minute fixes on their rigs…. I was very encouraged to see Wetpixellers deliberately look us up in Singapore…..I better stop this self promotion now…. Hope to meet some of you at this side of the pond……

Cheers

David

[gonetobaja]

Hello everyone!

Just found this thread so here goes,

Baja CA dive operator, diving cert 1986.

websites
http://www.gonetobaja.com (Northern Sea of Cortez Dive guide)
http://www.sea-wolves.com (diving team expedition specialist)

specialize in diving with Humboldt Squid.

Make my money on dive trips and videos.

I post up trip reports when I can.

[indigo]

Ladies and Gentlemen, (I know that I haven't met most of you, so I hope that you will forgive my politeness! )

Please allow me to introduce my self, my name is Kay Wilson, and I would assume Industry Status as I own and operate a dive shop in St. Vincent. (Does this count?!).

I'm not a professional photographer, but taking UW photos helps me to better understand the needs of my clientele.

St. Vincent is such a beautiful island both above and below the water, and I feel very lucky to be able to live and dive here. As a former 'dry' photographer I have found the challenges of UW photography to be very frustrating at times, but thats what makes it interesting!

I will be at DEMA this year, and I look forward to meeting those of you that will be there!

[pmooney]

David , does this mean that we will see you in Orlando ?

[h2opictures]

OK, its a stretch...but here goes...

<standing up>...I'm Marc, and I'm an A......oh wait, wrong forum?!

Alright, so much for the ice breaker...I'm Marc Ellis. I've been in diving industry for about 20 years now. Originally from So. Cal., then Washing St. and now Florida. I've been fortunate enought to have been published...or at least seen in Skin Diver twice, owned an operated a ambient pressure submerible manufacturing company (or it owned me...never quite figured that one out!), and now I reside myself to promoting education and awareness for the marine world. My latest endevor has been trying and assist the 3 local aquariums...Tampa, Clearwater and Mote Marine. But unless you know someone on the inside, they are hard nuts to break....but I'll keep at it!

About the sub, if anyone was at DEMA in Orlando back in 98 and you talked to the guy standing in front of the submarine at the Dive Rite booth...yup, it was me!

Edited by h2opictures, 24 September 2006 - 11:38 AM.

[Divervision]

Hi all,

I am Abby, the head-honcho if you like of Divervision, a Taiwan based supplier of UW photographic equiment. We have been active in Taiwan for some five years now and mostly deal with Asian brands (INON, Anthis, Epoque, Patima) although we have recently started spreading into other markets through internet sales. We love diving, love photography and are keen to make any likeminded people's experience as effective, pleasurable and economical as possible.

Nice to meet you all, and thanks to Wetpixel for producing such a great resource for everybody with an interest in UW photography.

Abby

www.divervision.com

[belizediversity]

My name is Martin Spragg, I co own a dive operation in Hopkins, Southern Belize. I moved full time to Belize in 1993 and somehow ended up in the south which is the less developed end of the country. I have been a dive instructor since 1991, been diving since 1980.

Our area has seen a rapid increase in the pace of development: paved roads, phones, and now we all have satellite internet service. The down side of all this is that construction is on the rise.

Underwater digital photography has given me a chance to reatart my underwater hobby (couldn't process the film before).

I don't sell many photos but may start doing so as a small part of our business.

If anyone is in Hopkins, Sittee River Village or Dangriga Town drop by for a beer, just ask for me someone will be able direct you where I am, it's a small and funky place to live but I'll never go back!

[Nick.Lucey]

Hello all,

Nick Lucey here from Scuba Diving Magazine, where I'm Editor at Large and also site manager of ScubaDiving.com. Feel free to drop me a line at nlucey@staff.scubadiving.com if you have suggestions or comments for the magazine or web site.

Nick

[james]

Hi Nick and welcome to Wetpixel.

Cheers
James Wiseman