Archive for March, 2009
Going Full Frame…and video!
Its been an interesting couple of weeks here in Sydney.
To start, we had a dinner where OWUSS introduced the new Rolex Scholar for 2009/2010 to the main sponsor and volunteers. This years scholar is a Kiwi, Matt Carter. Matt is a really nice bloke with a keen interest in archaeology and I know he is going to be a great scholar.
The 2008/2009 US scholar was also in town. Jamie was due to spend a week out on Undersea Explorer but unfortunately UE has stopped sailing until the Minke season starts again, so big Kudos has to go out to Peter and Kevin at South West Rocks Dive Centre for taking Jamie for a week (they didn’t hesitate to say Yes when I rang). As expected he had a ball up there, I guess enhanced since he had limited expectations yet the main site at Fish Rock is arguably one of the best in NSW, certainly a must do. Thanks again Pete and Kev!
We then had the Oztek dive conference at the Technology Park in Redfern. I only attended the exhibiti0n but even that part was great and I heard nothing but praise about the speakers and presentations. I attended on the Saturday, went in for a couple of hours, left almost hoarse after 6 hours! Great to catch up with people and also meet some new people. Well done Stikie for a great show!
Ok..maybe I’ll have just a little bitch. The judging for the photo comp, I wasn’t impressed. Some great shots and all winners were deserved, but did the best win? Well in my opinion, not in a couple of categories. Take the Professional Open category. The winning shot was a head on Eel. It was a nice shot, but it had zero originality (everyone has a head on of an Eel), nothing special about the lighting, no display of any specific photographic skill, zero WOW factor. There was a comment made that what was cool about the shot was that it was taken with a compact camera. I’m not going to write anymore on the matter other than to say I believe the judging was not true to what it should have been.
The other big thing for me at Oztek was that in the days prior I decided to upgrade my camera to a Canon EOS 5D MkII, and at Oztek I ordered my Aquatica housing. Not sure of delivery date yet, probably 4 to 8 weeks. This camera will give me a full frame sensor and HD Video, more on it in the next few posts.
I actually purchased the camera and the EF 17-40 F4 lens yesterday, just after I came in from a dive off Peter Fields boat. Peter Fields is an OWUSS supporter and a legend in diving in this area, what a great boat he has and agreat bunch of divers, thanks for inviting me along Peter!
We dived the Apollo barge which was actually discovered / first dived by Peter and a mate of his. I don’t know if the real name of the barge is actually known, the guys called it the Apollo barge because at the time all their dive gear was Apollo.
I tried using my tripod on this dive, while it was a great dive compared to the last in that I had much improved equipment handling for deco, I did find the tripod too flimsy and I’m now keen to see how I’d go with a Monopod.
OK, I think thats it for the moment, until next time…see ya later.
Couple of cool pieces of video
Keith Loutit is a Sydney based photographer that does some very very cool stuff combining tilt-shift and time lapse photography, check out his site here but for watching the video’s follow his links to the high def versions on Vimeo.
And while your at it, check out this mad bit of video on YouTube. Its a bit long and not too nice in the middle..but in the end pure guts win!
No Sharks at Clifton!
Clifton Gardens is a popular dive site in Sydney Harbour and has recently featured in the press as a location where your guaranteed to be eaten (in one gulp) by a shark so you can imagine how nervous I was when on Sunday while driving to Bare Island, I got the call from my buddies to tell me dive site was now….CLIFTON GARDENS!!!!
I managed to pull a couple of keepers which I was very happy with since I hadn’t used my 50mm in a couple of months so here they are, hope you like.
It was also nice to get a few shots from one dive as my last few dives have been less fruitful. In particular I did a deep dives with a tripod to try some timed exposures. That dive was a great exercise and in particular I learned some valuable lessons about gear management on ascent and was lucky nothing went really bad as I struggled to handle all the gear….new pockets already purchased and new procedure in place for handling the camera and tripod.
My mate Damien has also been doing some deep tripod work and has come back with some great shots and valuable advise for me..Cheers Damien!
