Introductions (original thread, now closed)

[herbko 0]

Moved the "Who are we?" thread to the "Introductions" sticky to keep all this stuff in one easy-to-find place.

[herbko 0]

I guess now that I'm a moderator I should put in a word or two about myself here. For over a year it's been one of these things that I tell myself that I shoud do in a day or two. Some of this is in the Wetpixel About page.

 

My entry into underwater photography was unplanned. I bought an Olympus C2020 for above water use with no idea that there's an underwater housing for it sold in Japan. They didn't sell them in the US at the time. I learned about it and the problems with strobes and pre-flash from Dave Breitigam on Wetpixels. I've since owned every generation of Olympus Cx0x0 cameras and their housings up to the 5050. Currently, I'm gathering the parts to switch to the Canon Digital Rebel.

 

For a day job I work as an electrical engineer. It's a constant struggle since my education background is Physics and I hardly took any EE courses in school.

 

I spend most winter weekends cruising down the frozen water up at the mountains near Lake Tahoe, CA. instead of diving the very slightly warmer waters off Monterery, CA.

[Kelpfish 15]

Hey James, Eric et.all.

 

Thanks for allowing this thread to happen...it really spells out how diverse the work of "US" is.

 

Nice job.

 

Joe Belanger

[Giles 1]

Giles here,

 

I am British, and 26 years old (and a half)

I have been diving for 13 or so years now, working as a Dive Instructor on and off for the last 9ish (mainly in Cayman with Bob Sotos and Fisheye). 5 years in Grand Cayman and a few months in Australia Cairns. I also offer to work for places when I am on Vacation to get diving for free .. I hate paying for diving, although I am going to have to very soon as I am getting out of the game.

 

I went to college in the UK and studied Industrial management which led me to a job in purchasing. I worked for a Canaduian company who manufactured prototype equipment for Cell Phone base units and satelite units, mostly just the RF side of things. I was good at it but longed to be back in hte tropics while I was still young, so have been back in Cayman my favourite place in the whole world .. not just for diving but for life in general, if you havent been you should try it, and dont just be a dive geek, live a little too.

The job I took here was at Fisheye an underwater photography and Video School, the first here in Cayman I was mainly a boat captain and diver but obviously the love of photography soon took hold of me in the underwater world as I used to love taking photos back home especially of motorsports.

I soon started using Nikonos' but my tech sided mind which has had a digital camera for as long as I can remember (must be since olympus brought out the C2000z) so u tell me how long that is.

After having learnt mainly by self about underwater photography (as all my colleagues were too busy to give me anything other than quick hints) I soon found myself setting up the digital photo department at Fisheye, which did very well for the rest of my time there. I also wrote a very basic introduction to Underwater Digital Photography based upon the Nikonos Video's by Martin J Sutton with a digital orientation. I need to update that a little now as techniques and cameras have changed, but not working there anymore there is not much point as I dont have all that much time.

 

I currently drive a great big Semi Submarine which is 80ft long and 100tonnes, we take 100 people max out 6 times a day on undersea tours which are fun and educational.

I also look after 3 personal websites which always evolve very slowly and badly thanks to me always living a typical caribbean life of working hard and playing harder. Right now working as hard as I can technologically on the new YUP site www.yup.org.uk

 

I am leaving Cayman this year with hopes of setting up my own company with my Good friend Elliot, in the Greek Islands where scuba and photography can continue to be my hobby and I will have more time and hopefully money to travel and dive and take photos.

 

Im sure I have met a few people who frequent this site, Alex Mustard is a good buddy and i love seeing him when I can,I know Stephen Frink came diving with me a few times when the D1X housings from SeaCam came out, any other Rodales guys have prolly had the delight of being on my boat at some point and a few other people here I have just started spotting through floods of names flying around this site.

 

and thats an awefull lot about me !

[Mobula 1]

Hi Folks,

Great website and forum. I'm based in Ireland and have been making pics underwater since 1987, Nik V's, Subals 801, 90 and 100. Recently had the film prised from my fingers and housed a D100. Have been amazed by results.

[Marjo 8]

I'm Marjo the Finn, who loves water, the frozen powdery kind and the liquid clear stuff, but not any kind of slush. Grew up on skis a a skiresort in Finland, but later moved to the Tropics, first South East Asia for a few years and have now spent last 7 years on St. Croix USVI. Have an education in economic sciences, but am currently working as IT mngr at tropical resort. Relaxing from the puters in the weekends by sailing the carbbean sea in small 27 ft sailboat and diving the on the most beautiful reefs and most breathtaking walls to be found in the Caribbean, which are located right here on St. Croix (if you can say "on" whne you mean besides and beneath...). Have always been enjoying regular photography but only recently made investment in a "real" underwater system and have found this wetpixel site enormously useful in getting started. So thanks for upkeeing such a fantastic resource!

[Thalasoma 0]

Hi people! Wetpixel.com is good place to learn something and to find info about UW photography that you are interested to.

I am from Serbia but diving in Montenegro and doing scuba diving from 1987. but I started to do UW photos just recently (last year) and that's why my

gear is not that sophisticated as most of you are using. Any way, since UW photography is not well known in my

country (even if we have quite developed scuba diving centres), I am trying to be well informed by visiting this forum.

I don't want to write you now about difficulties when I wanted to by some housing, strobe etc. but it was horrible, believe me.

BTW, Adriatic Sea is quite rich with the wrecks and vis is good but of course, not comparable with Red Sea or some other tropical sea.

You should visit it one day.

[footlooseii 0]

Hi all,

 

My name is John. My SO, Mary, and I are semi-retired and live aboard our sailboat Footloose II. We spend several months each year cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean. We are presently in St Maarten and will be going out on the Caribbean Explorer liveaboard dive boat next week - sort of busman's holiday for us.

 

On our trip last year I used a Nikon 990 in an Ikelite housing with pretty good results. This year I upgraded to a D100 in a L&M housing. The improvement in our pictures has been dramatic. I do most of the shooting and Mary processes the results with Nikon Capture and Photoshop.

 

We've really enjoyed all the great information available on this board. It has definitely shortened the learning curve for us. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for listening

 

John Durden & Mary Tripp

[Blaze 0]

Hi there everyone, greetings from paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean

 

My name is Karen (aka Blaze) and I consider myself to be one lucky person living on a remote coral atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Cocos (Keeling) Islands has been my home for nearly 5 years. During this time I have learnt to dive - otherwise I would have had to stay on the boat and over the past 12 months I have been dabbling with a digital camera.

 

My first little "darling" was strictly a point 'n shoot Canon IXUS V3, however I managed to snap some amazing photos. Dive "buddy" number 2 is an Oly C750 . It took a while to have the courage to use only manual settings.... since doing so the photos have improved in leaps and bounds.

 

My ever-suffering hubby runs the local dive business and after each dive I subject him to a slide show of the days dive!!!! :oops: (Thank goodness he has patience!!)

 

Wetpixel has certainly helped me with even the most simpliest challenges (I am digitally inept, but trying).

 

Thanks guys!!!

 

Happy fishes & sunny Cocos smiles

Blaze!!!

[Steve Douglas 16]

It has been suggested that I introduce myself to the members of this site. My name is Steve Douglas and I live in San Diego. I serve as one of the 5 core organizers of the San Diego UnderSea Film Festival, have been a dive shop owner and instructor and member of the Sheriffs Search and Recovery Dive Unit. The dive team and shop are in the past. I also write editing software reviews for the www.kenstone.net editing site for Final Cut Pro as well as other editing sites.

Two or three times a year my friends and I go on international dive trips of which I posted in the travel section on this site. Always happy to meet new divers and friends

Hope this serves as a good intro. Glad to meet you all.

Steve

[james 0]

Steve,

 

Welcome to Wetpixel! I just gave a presentation to my local club about diving in San Diego, my home town. I now live in Houston and am active in HUPS, but I try to get back home as often as I can.

 

Blaze, thanks for chiming in - it truly does sound like you live in paradise.

 

Cheers

James

[Steve Douglas 16]

Steve,

 

Welcome to Wetpixel! I just gave a presentation to my local club about diving in San Diego, my home town.  I now live in Houston and am active in HUPS, but I try to get back home as often as I can.

 

Blaze, thanks for chiming in - it truly does sound like you live in paradise.

 

Cheers

James

Hey James,

Thanks for the welcome. Perhaps I will meet you at the Dema show this year in Houston. Is there anything to do there other than the convention?

Steve

[james 0]

Yes! Maybe I should have a Wetpixel party at my place. There are also a number of local dive shops that have scheduled dive trips that week.

 

Cheers

James

[Andi Voeltz 0]

Well, I think I should now mention that DEMA will finally the chance to meet James for us. And the second time to hang out with Eric (after Antibes). The digideep-team from Europe (that's Aline, Lars and Andi) would love to have a nice community gathering with our friends from wetpixel.com ... Meetchu at DEMA

[Steve Douglas 16]

James,

A wetpixal party sounds like a solid idea. Go for it.

Steve

[lovells19 0]

hi,

 

Im Jim, from Singapore,

 

im very new to the diving scene, so hopefully i can pick up some pointers from your guys just got my DM certification

 

i just started underwater photography this year. with a Oly C5050 and PT-15 Housing, will be getting a strobe soon, but have not decided which one to get.

[Rocha 0]

Hi all,

 

My name is Luiz, I am originally from Brazil but lived a long time in the US and I'm now based in Panama. I am a marine biologist and for now I work for the Smithsonian Institution. My specialty is reef fish, that's why I am interested in UW photo, to record new species, behaviours, etc. I dive since 1991 and seriously take pictures since 1998. I've had a few housings and I'm now settled and very satisfied with a Sea&Sea NX100 for the Nikon F100. Some of the fish pictures that I've taken over the years are at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

 

I'm thinking about buying a digital system by the end of the year, probably the D70. Too bad Sea&Sea is now making super-heavy monster housings, if they kept the compact design of the NX100 for the digitals I would certainly buy again from them, but I'm not buying those big, heavy boxes, so I will probably get a Subal or Nexus.

[RiverRat 0]

Hey All,

Chris here, new diver last year. I work as a Network Admin. Love diving, finishing up a Rescue course this week. Hoping to get some good shots on an upcoming wreck dive in the Keys and maybe a shark dive up here in the Northeast. Just recently bought an Oly C5050 and matching PT-015 case. Did some "drive by" stuff in Cayman with a rented camera and decided to get something decent. Boy were those shots BLUE :-) Photoshop saved a few of them. Now to get the new camera wet. Tons to learn, been shooting 35mm on land for years but underwater is going to be a challenge.

Happy Diving

[dbeedle 0]

New kid on the block. Just a note to say Hi! Been lurking for a week or so and thought I'd sign in. I live and work in Central Illinois and have been diving since 1988. Became an Instructor last year (PADI 84121). Have been intrested in Photography, on again and off again, since High School. Started shooting UW in November after a trip to Bonaire with a buddy who was shooting UW. I kept following him around saying "there's a good shot...there's a good shot...etc". I have a 1000 award winning shots in my head. :wink:

 

I have a Sea & Sea DX-3000G witha Ricoh Caplio G3s, Sea & Sea YS-25 strobe. Have been eyeing a Canon Digital Rebel and Sea & Sea housing.

 

Some pics online at: My Scuba Page

[divingmedic 0]

Hello all,

 

I'm Jeff, a land-locked MSDT from Calgary, Canada. I currently have a Canon G1 in an Ikelite housing with DS-50 strobe, but am in the process of upgrading to a D-SLR and am sponging all of the information from this site to help with all of my questions and decisions to be made.

[leonandclaudia 3]

hi there, we are a married couple, Leon and Claudia, all our info on our website; www.leonandclaudia.com

[james 0]

Hello you two and welcome to Wetpixel. It's great to have you all on-board.

 

Divingmedic: welcome as well. Hopefully you still get to dive often - even in the frigid North.

 

Cheers

James

[james 0]

PS, I thought I recognized Claudia's photo from the recent issue of Sport Diver...:-)

[amradron 0]

Hi,

I'm Justin, and I'm a diver. No, really. I have been diving off and on for the last 13 or so years, with most of that diving in the last 3 years or so. I dive locally here in Southern California as often as possible, and currently go on one to four dive trips per year. This year is/has been Fiji, Belize, Little Cayman, the Florida Keys, and the Socorro Islands. I am currently working on my PADI Divemaster cert, and am going after Instructor as soon as I finish that.

From a photography perspective, I am a total newbie. I have taken lots of pictures above water, but only in full auto mode. I took my first underwater photos <for all intents and purposes> last weekend, and am totally hooked. For those of you who want a good laugh as to what one can still consider "good" pictures, go to http://www.gid.net/gallery/Top25Wet .

 

Justin

[kcf955 1]

Hello,

 

This is late as I have been registered here for a few months. I stumbled onto this site late last year and have been very impressed with the level of participation in the forums from all corners of the digital U/W world and appreciate the time and effort that all the contributors make to the Wetpixel community.

 

My name is Keith and I have been diving since 1986. I work full time as a Firefighter in Northern California and do most of my diving off the coast here or in Hawaii where my Mom and several family members live. (Hey if you have to go and visit the relatives, it is nice having to go to Maui) :wink:

 

I spent 2 years on the Southern Marin Dive Rescue Team. Never did any real rescues but spent quite a bit of time diving in SF Bay. In case you thought that SF bay sounds like a nice place for underwater photography, it's not - 0 visablility. I also did some research diving for Cordell Expeditions at Farallon Islands and off the coast from Pt. Sur in Central California.

 

I have been shooting underwater since my first open water dives when I borrowed my fathers Motormarine II. I have been hooked on underwater photography since, working my way form the Motormarine to a Nikonos II, V and then to an Aquatica housed SLR.

 

I am now finally taking the plunge into digital and have found Wetpixel an indispensible resource for digital shooters. THANKS to all of you who participate!

 

Keith