randapex

When a competition "stretches" the category, it's leaving those who play strictly by the rules at a disadvantage. Perhaps another great Blennie shot could have won but wasn't entered by someone who understands the difference. FWIW. Rand

Lembeh is a great destination. It's, as mentioned, critter diving but there's plenty there, more so really than most dive destinations. I've been several times and will be back in September. Since it is your anniversary, I'd suggest routing through Bali. Spend some time there relax, catch up on sleep, wait for your luggage....lol, then catch a flight to Menado. I've gotten fairly decent rates from Lion air to Menado. As I recall, the airfare was about 1/2 of Silk air via Sing. I route on Cathay Pacific. Sea-Lax-Hkg-Dps.

Eric, I received an email from Club Cantamar in La Paz a few weeks ago. They have a new (I'm not sure the boat itself is new) LA and part of one itinerary is diving with the Humbolt squid. FWIW. Rand

Alex, Getty doesn't normally consider wildlife photos in the same context as everything else. You can license to Getty version 1 of the Lionfish/glass fish shot and then sell the version 2 to a magazine etc. There comission for RM is 30% RF 20%. I'm not advocating joining one way or the other but my thought is your exposure to clients is magnified significantly with Getty.

Awesome. I've got to get over there some year. Thanks for sharing them.

The field is being leveled. The photographic result distincton, ie: publishable images, between "Pro" and amateur underwater photographers continues to shrink as the technology improves. To me, it's simply moving toward an objective of perfection through technology. The goal, seemingly, is to produce the perfect photo with the least amount of input, (Dare I say: Thought?) from the photographer. This leaves the photo itself, the vision & story behind it, as the last remaining element that distinguises one photographer from the next. So, embrace these new technologies Alex, for someone who makes a living by the camera, anything that lightens the workload has to be seen as a plus. But you're brain's still on the hook for the final creativity of the image... Rand

Beautiful photo Don. I dove the Zero about 5 years ago. It had such an aura around it. So many questions in my mind. I begged to go back on a second dive as I realized that after shooting every angle on the first one, that I hadn't taken the time to actually "look" at it. Thanks for the info as well. Rand

That's pretty darn cool. Thanks for sharing the video. Something to look for. Looks like it just hatched?

Indeed!! We head down Thursday. Thanks for the teaser! Rand

It's really nice to see video of that wall. I spend so much time shooting and neglecting to take a step back and see the whole thing. Thanks for sharing and I'm envious you saw the Dolphins. Very cool. Rand

Yea, the second one is nice.

I used that combo a few years back. It was quite the macro setup at the time if you used two diopters. Some very good super macro came from that Oly5050.

It's not the best system for sure. I also lightly grease the inside of the cap where it meets the o ring. After years of using these strobes, one flooded the battery compartment, and I'm sure it was due to the o ring not properly seated. Good news is, after rinsing with rubbing alcohol and light scrubbing with steel wool, it still works.

He's got a jellyfish shot of mine up. When I google that photo title, (Rand McMeins Transparent jelly), I get 44,000 hits. Sounds like I've got my work cut out for me...

Nice shots Tom. What a great place to spend your birthday. There was a Denise on the house reef earlier last year fairly shallow as I recall. Tough to shoot as there's always some current. Is it gone?