RickI

From The Gold Coast UW Grand Prix Dive Scooter Race.

  








Lots more images in full size and resolution at:
RACE DAY VIDEO & STILLS - Gold Coast UW Grand Prix - FKA Kiteboarding Forums


Good diving!
Rick


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The GoPro HD camera provides some interesting underwater video but I usually don't consider the UW still photos to be useable.  Just got an eyeofmine.com flat corrective port on a GoPro housing to try to manage this out of focus problem.   The still results are a major improvement.  Photoshopping to deal with viginetting seems to be indicated even with the camera set for 1080p (R5).  Comparative photos, more observations and a comparison video at:  Dania Erojacks AND Eyeofmine.com vs. Standard GoPro Housing Underwater - FKA Kiteboarding Forums

Coral reefs are being changed, degraded in major ways in many areas throughout the world at present.  Some have concluded the extensive reefs of healthy corals we saw commonly throughout the 1970's and before are being lost and are likely not to return in the foreseeable future.  Climate change seems to be a major factor in this among other causes.  The common lack of awareness today of the former incredible appearance of reefs is startling.  

Here is the concept, to create a publicly accessible Internet archive of coral reef images.  Images of formerly healthy reefs are fairly abundant in private collections at present.  Thing is celluloid and even prints are vulnerable to effects of time.  Also, the photographer may appreciate their significance but it is less likely that family members that follow may have the same awareness.  It would be necessary to scan in the images (still and movie) of course.  Might even video interviews with the photographers about recollections of the reefs and their images for inclusion in the archive.  Coral reef researchers and institutions also may possess large quantities of images and documentation to go with which could be a valuable addition.

The primary and most achievable goal would simply be to preserve for public viewing, images of healthy reefs.  They would be indexed along with what locational and time specifics could be collected along with credit for the photographer. You could go a lot further with collecting related documentation and archiving and perserving donated original images.  Have spoken briefly with some in regard to this concept at NOAA, Smithsonian, RSMAS, etc. receiving supportive comments.  Could make it large and housed at some large recognized institution, which it deserves or start small and get just it done.  Usually prefer the latter approach in most things.  This time though, it deserves some in depth coverage I think.  We're talking about unprecedented loss of unique resources over vast areas.  

Input, ideas?  

Rick Iossi

Here are some thumbnail images from a recent dive trip to the Red Sea.  Used available light and a small camera, a Canon G9 to cut down drag while free diving.








Click below to see full sized images:
Red Sea

Feel very lucky to have fallen into this video footage. Clear water, good light, shallow water, white sand reflective bottom ... oh, and a few dozen willing spinner dolphins on the move. Usually, a boat would drop the divers on the pod and they would just swim off into the distance out of visibility in short order. For whatever reason, curiosity they let me tag along for a while, likely related to the dive scooter on was on. Martin Stepanek suggested swimming on your back fast beneath the surface might bring them in. He said to try to impress or otherwise stimulate their curiosity. Martin said to avoid trying to impress them with normal free diving skills, breathholding as they will see what lame pollywogs we really are and dash off. So, I would motor along inverted and generally they allowed me to keep up or actually waited for me several times. They even circled back a couple of times. Accommodating cetaceans! They even had several young, calves with them but the moms and dads were ok with me swimming with and through the school. I understand they forage in the pelagic reaches around Sha'ab Sataya, then rest and play over the sands encompassed by the reef. More about the Long-Nosed Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris), below.* Fun stuff, checkout the video, (still learning editing so apologies for the busts) and you can see what I mean ...

http://fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=92

Have fun,
Rick