Tazzie Blowing Bubbles

Recent trip to Guilin, China

2010-05-11T10:33:00.003+01:00

I spent a fantastic week on one of Jonathan Critchley's landscape photography workshops in Guilin province of China. Unfortuantely despite getting up around 4 am every day for sunrise we never actually saw the sun! This shot was taken on the Li River. More images on www.seelifethroughthelens.com

New beginnings

2010-05-10T16:07:00.002+01:00

It's been over 2 years since I used this blog and boy so much has changed. I am no longer working in recruitment and have set up a business offering landscpae and underwater photography workshops to people looking to learn how to create stunning landscape images. Check my website out http://www.seelifethroughthelens.com/

Check out my new WEBSITE

2008-04-30T08:48:00.004+01:00

www.sealifethroughthelens.com

WOW - the most amazing discovery, Wide angle MACRO!!

2008-04-09T19:49:00.012+01:00

Well ok, not a discovery in the sense of I've come across something no one else knows about, more a case of understanding the equipment and the effect that has!

Whilst in Cebu chatting to Shannon Conway about photographing the Weedy and Leafy Seadragons I asked what lens to use, (these animals are about 45 cm long so both a 60mm and 100mm macro wont be able to get them full frame and still be close enough to photograph the beautiful detail these creatures have) he told me he uses a wide angle lens with a diopter on.

I for some reason (am gonna blame the San Miguel Lights ;o)) decided that this meant the diopter magnified the subject making it fill more of the wide angle frame... Oh how wrong I was!!

After a discussion on www.digigreen.net I started to understand, the primary reason for using a diopter on a wide angle lens is infact to allow you to get CLOSER to the subject enabling you to fill the frame that way

DOH!

So I had a bit of practice last night (excuse the shadows, I was unable to use the camera's flash as it was reflecting too much on the page!) here are the results...

No diopter, 22mm

+ 2 Diopter, 22mm

+ 4 Diopter, 22mm

And even more obvious how close I can get:

No Diopter, 10mm

+ 2 Diopter, 10mm

+ 4 Diopter, 10mm

This is basically allowing me to focus on soemthing about 4cm away from the end of the lens... By the time the camera is in it's housing that *should* mean I can almost touch a subject with the port and still focus.... Great news!... Only there is another problem to overcome first - for some reason I'm struggling to focus on subjects that close when underwater, now I have the diopters and the practise the next step is getting in the water and seeing if I can achieve the same results

Please note the image I used was a photo in Martin Edge's book: www.edgeunderwaterphotography.co.uk/pages/myBook

Sylvia, the perfect model!

2008-04-04T20:02:00.003+01:00

I can't believe I missed uploading this one, it's one of my faves! I was playing around trying to light the beautiful orange and red corals when in came Sylv with her torch - I think she'd been waiting until I was ready!!! Thanks Sylv, you rock! :o)

Cebu March 2008 with Martin Edge

2008-04-03T20:25:00.014+01:00

Japanese Plane Wreck

Purple Anenome

The outrigger dive bouts as seen through Snell's window

The outrigger boats - look at the anchor line!

Long nosed Hawkfish

Goby on a whip coral

Green whip coral

Orangutan Crab

Pink Scorpianfish

Pipefish

Eastern Skunk Anenomefish

Green Featherstar

baby lionfish

Long nosed Hawkfish

Panda Clown Anenomefish

Absract Anenome

Black / red featherstar

As usual there is always something i can't find in the reference books! I *think* this could be an Imperator commensal shrimp although the colouring is very different to that which is in the book! Any ideas anyone?

Dusk dappled light

2 divers in the cave mouth

Again - not really sure but it's the same one as before, just with a lower sutter speed!

3 types of coral on a Dawn dive

Coral on a Dawn dive

Diver in the cave mouth

Western clown anenomefish?

Japanese plane wreck

Erm... coral!

Short hand commensal shrimp

Western clown anenomefish

Starfish

I spent a fantastic 10 days diving from Kasai Village Resort in Cebu (Philipines) with 14 other divers (mainly DSLR photographers) lead by Martin Edge.

We had a stunning house reef to dive on as well as up to 3 boat trips (on outriggers, large enough for up to 8 people comfotably) a day and our evenings were spent either in Workshops led by Martin or critiquing our photos taken that day.

The resort is quite small with I think c20 very nice double / twin rooms set around a pool and overlooking the house reef. There is a bar and restaurant on site along with the dive centre and well equiped dive shop.

I cannot begin to explain how much I learnt over the trip, from composition (which i thought I was ok at until we started discussing contrasting colours, accessability of subjects, leading lines, surface texture to mention but a few), working with models (and Sylvia (Martin's wife) and Amanda (Shannon Conway's wife), experienced models and fantastic spotters (and photographers!!) through to the think and consider system Martin talks about in his book. The critique sessions were brilliant and gave us a real opportunity to look at what we were producing followed by the opportunity to return to the same reef / part of the reef and improve on what we'd already done.

Down time was spent in the well stocked bar with yet more opportunity to talk about photography and get some great ideas from not only the other photographers in the group but also Shannon Conway, one of Martin's proteges who is a professional photographer in his own right! I met a fantastic group of people who all shared the same passion - perfect!

I can't wait for the next opportunity to go on one of these trips, Martin is an incredibly insightful and knowledgeable chap whose encouragement and eternal optimism of your own ability is to be commended! If you get the chance to go on one of these trips then I can highly recommend them, pretty much regardless of the location! (Although I did love Kasai!)

PS I have to admit not all of these photographs are fantastically brilliant technically but i had to include many of the ones i just really liked!

The Hugyfot underwater housing system

2008-03-24T13:27:00.002Z

I am currently using a Canon 400D in a Hugyfot housing, chosen mainly for it's size as most housing's were too large to allow me to use all the controls on the Canon. With no UK retailers for the system I have to import everything I need from Europe.

I have a range of lenses including a 100mm and 60mm Macro lenses, along with a 10-22mm wide angle and 10 - 17mm Tokina Fish eye.

Fortunately the Hugyfot port system means I don't need to buy new ports for every lens as the extension rings are all the same - small savings though!!

Martin Edge Workshop

2008-02-16T19:59:00.004Z

After such a successful day the first time around I decided I needed to spend some more time with Martin looking at how to add the WOW! factor to my photos... this time around we were going to spend some time in the pool working on the theory I'd learned... Although slightly bizarre subjects here are a couple of images I came up with using varying light and background techniques

Bahamas - A WINNER!

2008-01-04T19:18:00.000Z

I finally plucked up the courage to enter a photo competition and low and behold I WON!! Thanks to all the people who voted for me, I just hope the nutters in the crew vote for my pic in the annual competition so I can go out and play with them all again!! He he he

Bahamas - Wide angle and misc

2008-01-04T19:12:00.001Z

Few other shots from beneath the waves that I like

Bahamas Shark diving

2008-01-04T19:04:00.000Z

I'm still not convinced that chumming is a good idea as the effects on the sharks in the environment was quite obvious (frantic!) after the Aquacat hadn't visited for 2 weeks whilst they were undergoing annual maintenance in the yard.

HOWEVER, it was an amazing experience, especially the dive following the shark feed as all the sharks will still around and I took in my macro lens (pic four) to have a play around

Bahamas for christmas - Macro shots

2008-01-04T18:53:00.000Z

Well what a fantastic week on board the Aquacat out of Nassau, you couldn't wish to meet a more fun crew or be on board a more comfortable and well maintained boat. The food was fantastic, the beer / rum / you name it was free and the diving different to any I have done before.

A surprising lack of fish (in terms of Bali / Red Sea) was made up by some cracking dives with sharks (pics in next post) some amazing soft corals and a chance to dive with Kate in our normal relaxed style

Which one?

2007-11-03T13:08:00.000Z

Oshima's porcelain Crab

I love both of these photos, the crab was about 18mm across, the anenome was swaying in the small current so he quickly found himself protected but not before I managed to fire off a number of shots!

He's obviously moved from the edge of the anenome to the back - which one do you prefer?

Bali October 2007

2007-11-03T12:04:00.000Z

Mixed emotions run through my head when wanting to describe Bali!

There is no doubt that some of the diving is absolutely superb and exactly what I needed to get into the groove with my underwater photography. In the first 3 days in Tulamben I took near on 300 photos! We experienced the famous Liberty wreck, muck diving in Sereya, a whale shark in 12m of water (guess who had a macro lense on ;o))and probably the most stunning coral gardens I've ever been lucky enough to dive. We all had a bit of a moan about the shore entry - over volcanic rocks it's not the easiest of ways to get in and out of the water whilst carrying scuba gear and an underwater camera set up but we were richly rewarded in the diving once in.

From Tulamben we moved down to Candi Dasa and a beautiful hotel to boat dive off Nusa Penida, the "gili"s and Blue lagoon. A stark contrast to Tulamben, we were regularly guided into fast and unpredictable currents, something none of us were happy with and resulted in many abandoned dives as we left the guides to do safe ascents. Manta Point was another diappointment with the camera, diving in 4m surge in about 5m viz - I ended up taken a maximum of 50 photos in the last 4 days compared to the previous location. Even in the Blue lagoon we experienced too much surge to spend any time composing shots comfortably.

Throughout the whole trip I was diving with Steve, a fantastic spotter and diver with the patience of a saint - I think I've identified all his critters correctly(Steve pioneered the new addition of bamboo pointing stick (satay stick!) and home made shaker (shampoo bottle that needs some more work!!)) Thanks Steve :o)

Big thanks to Rick from Yoyo Divers for organsing the trip - nice one dude! :o)

Striped Eel Catfish

Chromodoris Hintuanensis

Blue Ribbon Eel

Orange mouth thorny oyster

Cleaner shrimp

Eastern skunk anenome fish

Durban Hingebeak Shrimps

pink Squat lobster - not the kind you'd ever find on a menu, he's tiny!

Ornate ghost pipefish

Gorgonian fan with feather stars

Inside the Liberty wreck

Schooling jacks on the Liberty

Manta Point

Lionfish - look at his "skin", looks more like a snake!

Orange spearer mantis shrimp

Purple blotched smasher mantis shrimp

Orange spotted pipe fish?? Closest description I could find...

Phidiana Indica

Pink Leaf Scorpian fish

Pygmy Sea horse - not the best pic in the world but i had to include it given the teeny tiny size of these things!!

Risbecian Tryoni

Yello Striped Goat fish

I cannot find this anywhere - does anyone have any ideas? I've called it a Steve Shrimp cos he found it!!

Practise practise practise!

2007-10-07T18:51:00.000+01:00

Unable to get into the water with a self imposed Dive ban to try and sort out my neck before I go to Bali, I took the camera out for some above water practise this afternoon.

A bright but cloudy day my theme was to be Autumn leaves - unfortunately many of the leaves wouldn't play and I ended up just playing around with anything that caught my eye!

Test upload

2007-10-03T15:19:00.000+01:00

Am trying to see whether I have to get photos hosted before adding them to my blog

Any yey! You don't have to, can just upload from file :o)

200th Dive at Littlehampton

2007-09-16T12:34:00.001+01:00

2 fantastic dives from Our Joy in Littlehampton yesterday. First dive was a 28m wreck the Ramsgarth which was stunning! I have never seen such large schools of bib before, shame I had the macro lens on!!

I've been having problems with the camera not being able to change F stops when in manual mode meaning I either had to shoot in AV mode and over here most of my shots were coming out blurred where the shutter speeds were too slow or shoot in manual on just one F stop setting (usually the wrong one too!) So last week I spent some time playing around with the camera and housing after getting some advice from various people and was fairly sure, as a result, that i'd sorted the selction process.

I wouldn't have usually taken the camera on a dive when diving as a buddy three but I was desperate to see if I'd sorted the problem so made a plan with my buddies to shoot only a couple of pics to see the results.

And I'm pleased to say I think I have sorted the problem which is really exciting! I only took 10 quick shots in total but am pretty pleased with the results :o) I can't wait to get back down to Swanage pier or another dive where I can mooch around to give some serious shots a go.

Second dive was a fairly rapid drift which I didn't have my camera for - typical, first time I saw mermaids purses, a couple of large dogfish and a beautiful undulate ray - awesome diving!

Anyway, please let me know what you think of the photos in "comments" :o)

Bank Holiday in Falmouth

2007-08-30T08:16:00.001+01:00

We had a fantastic weekend's diving in Falmouth diving with Kate, Pete, Wal and Stu. It was great being back in the water with Kate who shares a very similar outlook to diving as me and is so laid back never uses air! We quickly tuned back into each others underwater signals and enjoyed the Mohegan down in the Manacles and a fantastic dive with Wal in the Narrows doing the three walls. Sunday saw us shore diving and Kate and I did two 60 minute dives - something I just didn't think I'd ever do in the UK. I saw not only my first ever cuttlefish (Kate wondering why I'm excitedly pointing at a large kelp leaf!) but 3 other cuttlefishes on the same dive - so they do exist! Finally we had one more dive on Wal's boat Monday morning and went east out of the channel. Another great dive to end the weekend, watching Wal's party tricks and seeing the largest ever urchins I've seen!! A fantastic weekend catching up with old friends and meeting new and some of the best UK diving I've done!

Unfortuantely I was struggling again with my camera, where I was getting so close to what I wanted to photograph (model student me!) my strobe was burning out most of the images. I need to learn where and when to position the strobe next... Never ending this photgraphy lark!

2007-08-13T19:12:00.000+01:00

Some more wreck pics from the Red Sea

Diving the M2 Submarine

2007-08-13T08:04:00.001+01:00

Excitement and anxiety were building in equal amounts as yet again I was travelling down to the south coast at some ungodly hour!

I would be diving with Rick and Nobby, 2 Yoyo Instructors and Kev another Yoyo DM so a well experienced team where I would be the least experienced! It's a rollercoaster this diving lark, yesterday I was the 2nd highest experienced helping Rick out on a number of AOW and speciality courses in and around Swanage and now back to the bottom of the pecking order!!

The M2 sits in about 35m of water and is completely intact, she was sunk during routeine exercises in 1932.

We descended right on top of the conning tower and started our dive. The plan was to rack up a small amount of deco (gas permitting) and do a full tour of the sub. From the conning tower we went towards the bow (do subs have bows?!) every hole we looked in there were either HUGE conger eels (and I mean Huge, eyes like tennis balls! Ok eyes like 10 p peices!!), big lobsters or blennies or gobies resting. The wreck is absolutely teeming with life, large schools of pollock hang off the sides and as we dropped down at the nose I saw the largest ever edible crab which must have been at least 30cm across and a couple of bass! You can always tell they're bass as Rick makes lip smacking signs underwater - I think he likes to eat them!!

Back towards the stern we came back up towards the aircraft hangers (where nobby was seen off by a blennie guarding his territory!!) and out down to the keel and rudders. There is a huge amount of anenome growth on the sub, in one square metre I counted about 5 different species alone!

Just as I clicked into 1 minute deco, I signalled I had 80 bar and we started our ascent.

A great 45 minute dive, thanks to Rick, Nobby and Kev!

Deep South Red Sea Trip

2007-08-09T09:49:00.001+01:00

At the end of June I joined the lads and lasses from Sunderland Scuba Centre on the Blue Horizon where were dived at St Johns, Fury Shoals and Elphinestone.

We had a fantastic week of diving, usually 4 a day starting at dawn (*eek!*) and finishing with a night dive (when I didn't bottle it!)

The crew and guides, Dray, Chris and Karin were fantastic, Dray in particular giving me the heads up on which lens would be best for each of the dive sites I visited. They told me where I could try and find the interesting stuff I was looking for (although the rare sighting of a Chris Spanish Dancer wasn't quite what I had in mind!)

Jonathan turned from wreck head to fabulous photo subject spotter and HUGE thanks to him for his patience, especially at the Gorgonian Fans on Elphinstone when he was one side coaxing the Long Nosed Hawkfish through the otherside to me with my camera!!

I've posted one of the pics I took of the tugboat wreck at Fury Shoals, a great subject with masses of hard and soft corals growing.

Hola!

2007-08-09T09:26:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blogspot - my narcissistic place for posting what I am up to!

I have a dream *cue the moosic* to dive and photograph the worlds greatest underwater phenomenon, such as the coral spawing after the new moon in Bonnaire, the Sardine run in June / July time off South Africa.

Obviously whilst I have a full time job in the UK I'm spending most of my time researching locations and phenomenon and getting in the water at all and any opportunity trying to improve my photography skills - something that looks really easy but I'm finding pretty hard to get the results I am aiming for! If anyone has any comments or has a great dive experience to share, please post up your comments and experiences.

So for the time being this will probably (as long as it works and I can sort out the techmonology!) be a gallery of my learning process... So please, feel free to offer any comments on my photos and what you think would improve them.