Santa Cruz, Channel Islands Dive Report

photos from the 1st Underwater Photography Guide trip of 2010

24 of us set sail on the Peace boat to Santa Cruz Island for some Channel Islands diving, with camera and video recorders in hand. We left at 3AM, and the 3 1/2 hour journey to Gull Island, at the southwest corner of Santa Cruz, was fairly smooth except for an hour of bumps as we crossed the channel from Ventura to Anacapa Island.

As we arrived at Gull island, Santa Cruz - The sun was out, and California Grey whales surrounded the boat! They were all over the place.

Photo by Carl Gwinn. F11, 1/1250th, 300mm

Careful Composition in your Underwater Photos

A lesson on underwater composition

With a little bit of work, you can get good compositions in your underwater photography. Very good compositions, however, can be very difficult. 

No matter if you are using a compact camera or a dSLR, sometimes the slightest movement of the camera can throw off a composition. Such is the case for a composition like this 3-inch long Coralline Sculpin, taken at Santa Cruz island in the northern Channel Islands.

Underwater Images - are they being stolen?

The other day I was doing a search on twitter for "underwater photography", and I noticed something interesting. The most popular results were for titles like "10 amazing underwater photos", "50 best underwater photographs", and "20 stunning underwater images".

New Instructional Underwater Photography Video Tutorials

Video series to help beginner underwater photographers

The Underwater Photography Guide has added a series of free instructional underwater photography videos.

Topics covered in the videos include strobe positions, avoiding backscatter, adding wet lenses, basic composition and avoiding hotspots. Check back often for new videos, which will be added every couple weeks.

PMA 2010 cameras, lenses, other new stuff

I visited PMA 2010 as press today, which got me free wireless, coffee and bagels. I also checked out some new cameras and lenses. Here's a quick run-down of the stops I made and what I saw:

Sigma 8-16mm wide-angle lens announced

Sigma 8-16mm ultrawide lens is widest focal length available for APS-C sensor dSLRs

Sigma announced on Feb 20th it's new Sigma 8-16mm F4.5-5.6 DC HSM lens. This ultra-wide lens gives cropped sensor (APS-C) dSLR users a new wide-angle lens to consider for both landscape photography and underwater photography. 

I've owned a sigma 10-20mm for quite a while, it is an excellent lens for the price, and I consider that lens a must-have for all of my nature photography trips, so I have high expectations when I review the Sigma 8-16mm.

Famous Photography Phrase "F8 and be there"

History, explanation and common uses 

When I was driving Ridlon Kiphart to an LAUPS meeting, we were discussing underwater photography and I mentioned the phrase "F8 and be there". His eyes lit up and he mentioned how underwater photographer David Doubilet used to say that, and he attributed the phrase to David.

Tony Wu's Underwater Photography Blog

Recently I caught up with professional underwater photographer Tony Wu, to discuss his underwater photography blog. I say "caught up" because it seems like Tony travels often. When he is back from a dive trip, he's back for a just a couple days, and then back on a plane. Well that's the impression I got!

Underwater Photoshop Lesson - Gaussian Blur

Editing underwater photos in photoshop is very much a matter of taste. Some people may like the results of a change in photoshop, while another may not. In this series of lessons, I will simply share the tools that I've used to manipulate various underwater photographs.

Original Underwater Photo before photoshop

Underwater Photo before post-processing, jpeg generated from RAW file.

Catalina Dive Report & Underwater Photos

Jan 30th, 2010

We had some excellent diving and underwater photography at Catalina Island in the Channel Islands, Southern California yesterday in Jan 2010.

Good photo subjects for macro and wide-angle, great friends on the boat and decent visibility all made for a great day in and out of the water.