Which dive/photography forums do you frequent

[bmyates 3]

I'm curious as to which internet sites/forums others find useful...and why. For uw photography, I don't think anything comes close to Wetpixel, but that doesn't mean other sites don't have nice folks and offer value (as well as a sense of community).

 

I'll start, in order of the frequency with which I visit them:

 

1. Wetpixel.com (uw photo/video, esp. for high level users)

2. DigitalDiver.net (also uw photo/video, but slightly more "folksy")

3. Dgrin.com (Digital Grin - created for users of Smugmug.com, but with lots of photographers - not uw oriented)

4. DPReview.com (my primary source for equipment reviews, although I don't participate in their forums)

Edited February 21, 2009 by bmyates

[TheRealDrew 0]

I'm curious as to which internet sites/forums others find useful...and why. For uw photography, I don't think anything comes close to Wetpixel, but that doesn't mean other sites don't have nice folks and offer value (as well as a sense of community).

 

I'll start, in order of the frequency with which I visit them:

 

1. Wetpixel.com (uw photo/video, esp. for high level users)

2. DigitalDiver.net (also uw photo/video, but slightly more "folksy")

3. Dgrin.com (Digital Grin - created for users of Smugmug.com, but with lots of photographers - not uw oriented)

 

Just here and digideep.com in terms of UW photo and video...cannot remember which was which but back in 2002 I found one of them and they are affiliated/friends/share links so signed up to both within a hour and after that really have not wandered off

[photovan 0]

.....

1. Wetpixel.com (uw photo/video, esp. for high level users)

....

are there others?

[vazuw 1]

I find the luminous landscape .com, very useful for general technical info, altho not uw

Edited February 21, 2009 by vazuw

[davephdv 0]

DPReview

[bvanant 172]

DPReview

Luminous Lint, run by a very good friend. Not underwater but encyclopedic about photography. Luminous Landscape on occasion. DigiDeep if I need to find out about a European Housing. For local stuff ladiving.org

Cheers

Bill

[John Bantin 101]

I like this site because few of its members seem to have chips on their shoulders about others spending their money on what they want and no-one appears to feel that the site is their personal fiefdom - not even you (You know who you are). Maybe it's because by the time we've spent a great deal of money on a camera system then realised that we could lose it all in a moment when we jump into the water with it, we've developed a sense of humour!

 

I rarely get attacked by the mob on Wetpixel. (I've learned to refrain from mentioning the names of US politicians the hard way!) Other sites seem to get taken over by small cliques that believe they have the only answers. An example that brought this home to me was when someone posted a question (NOT here - on another site) and a regular responded that he didn't know the answer! I'm glad all those that have no answer usually refrain from posting....

 

but then you probably think I'm waffling on. I've got to get out more...

 

(I'll go back to posting cryptic one-liners that no-one understands.)

 

Oh yes, my favourite site - BBC News.

Edited February 21, 2009 by John Bantin

[ornate_wrasse 0]

I'm curious as to which internet sites/forums others find useful...and why. For uw photography, I don't think anything comes close to Wetpixel,

 

In my former life:

 

1. www.scubadiving.com

 

I started posting on this site in 1998 when I first started diving and hardly knew the difference between a BC and a wetsuit

It's where I've learned a lot about diving and made a lot of friends. I've been on more than one trip with others that post on that site.

I have a sort of sentimental attachment to it.

 

In my current life:

 

1. Wetpixel

 

I find myself going here for answers to questions and to learn more about this world of uw photography. It's a great place to hang out.

Now I find I enjoy giving back and helping others who are new to uw photography. I hope I can contribute to the knowledge base of the newbies :-)

 

2. www.nikonians.org

 

It's a great place to learn about anything to do with Nikon cameras. Lately I've been hanging out at the Post Processing Forum a lot.

 

3. www.scubadiving.com

 

I still post here a lot, but find myself going more to Wetpixel as the uw photography forum at scubadiving pales in comparison to

wetpixel.

 

Ellen

[cor 0]

Wait..what? There are other sites?

 

http://wetpixel.com

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ (a blog obviously)

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3...81.0iCLhgonGMn@ (adobe lightroom forums)

http://www.outbackphoto.com/ (once in a while i catch up)

http://www.duikforum.nl (dutch, and i mostly lurk)

[scorpio_fish 5]

1. Wetpixel

2. Dpreview - best forums, gear reviews, slow on breaking news

3. Imaging-Resource - best breaking news, lousy forums

4. Photo.net - best collection of photos, amateur and pro

5. Rob Galbraith - Best links to current big media gallerias

6. Luminous Landscape - Occasional decent artice

7. Ken Rockwell - Good for a laugh. He gets worse over time.

8. Bythom, Tom Hogan - my former mentor, techno-geek who takes good photos

9. echeng.com - find out where in the world is Eric Cheng

[Paul Kay 31]

For uw photography, I don't think anything comes close to Wetpixel...

 

1. Wetpixel (uw photo/video, esp. for high level users)

2. Leica user forum (not bad if you are into rangefinders!)

3. Luminous Landscape (but to be honest its rather too full of itself at times and too much note is sometimes take of what is said on it)

 

IMHO Wetpixel remains well above any other forum for underwater photography and gives many photo fora a run for their money. I'd say that this is because unlike many other photo sites, the people on wetpixel are genuinely operating in difficult conditions and trying to deal with problems which would make above water photographers give up. Being underwater levels the playing field amazingly well, and the information produced as a result is shared freely on wetpixel, and without the bias shown elsewhere, to a great extent. Wetpixel gets my vote.

[ce4jesus 1]

1. Wetpixel

2. Digitaldiver.net

3. Scubaboard Photography Forum

4. Flickr group called FINS

5. Underwaterphotography.com

 

.... Guess I don't really have a life

[s mermaid 0]

NY Underwater Photographic Society.org and their monthly meetings.

[Timmoranuk 10]

Occasionally, I take a look at digigreen. Its a very slow forum so monthly is enough...

[Stephen Colquitt 0]

Most of my underwater photography time here (its the best!) but also spend some time on

 

http://underwater.com.au/

 

and I host this group on red bubble

http://www.redbubble.com/groups/underwater...ographers-guild

[widiver 0]

Hi all

 

Wetpixel.com

digitaldiver.net

scubaboard.com

uwpmag.com

 

John

[rbailey 0]

Great question / thread. Ones I love (and normally look at daily).

 

 

http://www.rebreatherworld.com/

Rebreather World.

Great for info on RB's but can be a bit caty, political and full of cliques (but just changed management so will see).

 

 

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

Home of the strobist movement, great for portable light / strobe photgraphy.

Saw that your a strobist Cor, nice one :-)

 

 

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/

Amazing portrait photog, also all about working with light and thinking outside off the box.

 

 

http://www.uae-photo.com/index.php

Local photo forum, nothing fantastic but nice to keep up with the local scene.

 

 

Flikr NOT :-(

I'd be so lucky. We have goverment proxies here which ban all "content not compatible with values and morals of the country". I.e. no nudity / gambling, flickr has the odd nude photo so banned completely as are there sub forums :-(

 

 

While Strobist and JoeMcNally aren't anything to do with diving thier use of off camera mutiple flashes and the control and use of light is similar to what we do underwater. Mutiple strobe rigs off camera (i.e. not splat on top of camera in the hot shoe) , as well as using strobes to control ambient light etc..

 

 

Cheers,

Richard B.

Edited February 25, 2009 by rbailey

[Damo 4]

hmmmm........anyone try http://www.underwaterphotography.com ???

 

what do you think??

[scubaseven 1]

divernet.com

is not bad for articles and such

videohelp and videomaker for editing/dvds etc

videoforums.co.uk for similar video tips/tricks

[PRC 2]

Hey,

 

That strobist site is pretty cool.

 

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

 

Thanks,

 

Paul C

[bmyates 3]

hmmmm........anyone try http://www.underwaterphotography.com ???

 

what do you think??

 

I tried that site, but its forums seem somewhat awkward (e.g., to quickly see which posts have been made since last visit) - it really seems mostly geared towards selling stuff.

 

I'll add my kudos to the strobist site, which I somehow neglected to include in my list. While much of the discussion there is over my head, I find it fascinating, and I have learned some practical stuff about lighting and photography in general!

[writepic 0]

the naturephotographers.net sites (there are regional forums), or at least the one i frequent (UK)

is probably the best natural world based photo site that i've come across, from the point of view

of constructive critique.

 

many critique forums seem to suffer from comments along the lines of "great shot!!!" or no critique at all

if the images need improvement.

 

UKNP i think has a great balance of really constructive commentary going on, and a great mix of skills.

although perhaps an overabundance of avian images.

 

regards,

 

mark.

Edited February 26, 2009 by writepic