Optical Ocean: Above and Below.

Optical Ocean Sales Guides to UW Photography Available

2012-01-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

Martin Heyn and I have put together a couple of free .pdf guides that gives new underwater photographers a starting place, and more experienced photographers gain basic knowledge of strobe positioning and usage.

Basic Tips for UW Photographers: Is a 17-page guide that gives you a number of ways to work on improving your phoots. Brief descriptions of ideas are illustrated with example photos. Basic rules on shooting angles, composition, lighting and much more are presented.

Basic Principles of Strobe Positioning: Is a 14-page guide that gives practical approaches to positioning and use of one or two strobes for more successful lighting solutions. Macro and wide angle setups are shown with photos and tips on strobe usage.

We hope you'll enjoy these brief guides as a starting place for your own creative images to take off!

New Retail Sales Center for Optical Ocean Sales

2011-09-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Optical Ocean Sales, LLC is proud to announce it has expanded into a retail sales center conveniently located on Lake Union at 1800 Westlake Ave North, Suite 201 in Seattle, thus continuing it's 8 years of service to the diving community. We are the only dedicated underwater photography equipment store in the northwest. Optical Ocean’s new retail location gives the community the opportunity to put their hands on the most popular brands. In addition we strive to be a center for continuing education, travel information and first-rate personal service, crucial when dealing with such complicated systems.

Jack Connick, owner, has been a life-long photographer "ever since I owned my first Exacta". His experience includes a combination of 25 years of experience as a professional graphic designer and art director, along with developing his underwater photo portfolio during trips to 10 countries around the world. He has extensive Pacific Northwest cold water diving and photography experience with extensive ties to the Seattle diving community.

Martin Heyn has joined the Optical Ocean Sales team as Business Development Manager. Martin brings 30 years of diving, photography, and sales experience to the Ocean Optical team. He has traveled much of world enjoying the hobby and is founder of the website www.aquabluedreams.com.

Optical Ocean are stocking dealers for Nauticam, Olympus, Ikelite, Fix, Zen, Athena, Sea & Sea, Light & Motion, 10Bar, i-torch/i-DAS, Seahorse, Fantasea, Big Blue, MAHA Power, and are adding new products all the time. In fact, they are the largest dealer in the northwest for many of those lines.

There is a great selection of underwater photo equipment available through the store; cameras, housings, ports, gears, strobes, focus/video lights, arms and trays. Also included are Seahorse cases and many other accessories. Optical Ocean Sales has many unique packages that are ready-to-go. They also stock many of the parts photographers need such as o-rings, manufacturer specific silicone grease, strobe diffusers, dedicated batteries and more.

All items are also available online at OpticalOceanSales.com at it’s easy-to-use and informative web store. Orders are shipped promptly both domestically and internationally, or available for in-store pickup.

Classes and trips will be starting soon for all levels of divers and underwater photo enthusiasts.

Map here. Open 10-6 M-F and 11-5 on Saturday, unless they're off diving.

For the most up to date store information “like” us on Facebook.

Optical Ocean Sales, LLC
1800 Westlake Ave N., Suite 201
Seattle, WA 98119
1-800-359-1295/ +1 206-284-1142
Email: Sales@OpticalOceanSales.com

Three Ways to Get Your LX5 Wet

2011-09-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

Optical Ocean Sales has the new Ikelite, 10Bar housings and Nauticam housings in stock for the popular Panasonic high-quality LX-5 point and shoot camera. This camera has great features, with excellent control and a high-end lens and processor. It features a wide 24mm lens and leading edge video capabilities, in a small easy-to-use format. This article will review some of the differences between the housings available. All are rated to 200’. In the end it is up to each diver to find which best fits them.

The Ikelite housing is the largest physically, but that can be an advantage in cold water with gloves. The controls are standard Ikelite bent rods that you jiggle the switches with. With practice, they work pretty well, but they take some getting used to. The Ikelite housing is clear acyrlic, so you can see the entire camera. The knobs are large and are easy to use with gloves. It uses two non-standard screws to mount to a tray. It has built-in TTL with Ikelite strobes, which works well with all their DS strobes. It's hard to rig with optical sync strobes though. There is no method of mounting a focus light to it.

It's the most economical, at $549.95. The Ike housing relies on external wide angle lenses like their WP-20 - the problem is that the LX-5 has a 24mm lens and has to be zoomed in a fair bit to avoid vignette, thus negating the field of view with that lens. However, the new Nauticam wet mount wide-angle lens works fine, giving you back the 24mm that you have above water. It's small and light as well, but it doesn't really give you true wide angle.

With the Olympus PTWC-01 lens you can get a greatly increased 100+ degree field of view, although you do still need to zoom in. That lens is fairly heavy and large, not something you'd want to take on/off underwater.

Macro is no problem. The Ike housing (as do all it's competitors) has a 67mm threaded port to screw on an external diopter macro lens.

The 10Bar housing is redesigned from the their popular LX3 version and has the history of a year's run to work out any bugs. It is made from rugged aluminum, smaller, probably a little bit heavier in the water with a clear back. It's a step up in price at $709. Due to its design it is easier to grip than the Ikelite, but both will probably be used with a tray and handle. It uses a standard tripod mount screw. It has both hardwire and optical sync. It works great with a strobe like the Sea & Sea YS-01 or 110a, which have built-in optical D-TTL. The electrical sync bulkhead is a 5 pin nikonos style and supports legacy strobes like the Sea & Sea YS-90, or a Nikon SB-105, but only with the manual power settings on the back of the strobe. The controls are pretty good, dedicated, but you need a sense of feel with them. The knobs are small and close together, a problem if you are wearing gloves. All features of the camera are supported, including flash up and down. It uses a standard single mounting screw and fits most trays on the market.

Both the 10Bar and the Ikelite will have some issues with the LX-5's rear dial control. It can be pushed and turned and is quite tricky to make a control for. You can use other controls if necessary, or just use fine motions with it.

Probably the biggest advantage of the 10Bar is that it has several wide angle options, including the above "wet mount" 67mm lenses (with the same vignette issues); or unscrewing the port and using the Panasonic add-on wide angle lens with the 10Bar replacement wide angle port and dome (dry mount). The later can give one of the widest fields of view and can focus closely and sharply. These port replacements do not vignette and give very high quality results.

The Nauticam NA-LX5 has probably the finest build quality and design. Although more expensive at $950, it is aluminum and very well thought out, with excellent, ergonomic controls. It sits in your hand very nicely and controls are under your fingertips. All camera features are supported. The best feature is that they broke out the push and the turn function of the "joystick" rear dial on the camera into two distinct controls, making it positive and direct to use. This is much better than having one control that you try to turn without pushing. Buttons are fairly close together, as they are on the camera itself, but better than the other housings. Gloves can be problematic. There is a handstrap option for the right side, but it isn't big enough to fit a glove for cold water use. There is both a "coldshoe" mount and a threaded port for a ball mount on top of the housing to support a focus light.

The Nauticam housing is smaller as well. It does rely on external wide angle lenses, like the previously mentioned Nauticam wet mount replacement lens, or the Olympus PTWC-01 and Inon offerings. There are several tray options available for it, and it too uses two mounting screws.

Hopefully this article can help divers to compare the available housings. These are three excellent housings and only Optical Ocean Sales has all three in stock. Come on in so you can see them side-by-side and see what works best for you and your budget.

Oly E-PL1: A Tale of Two Housings...

2010-07-19T13:00:00.001-07:00

Wolf Eel
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch

For those who want a smaller camera and housing to dive and travel with the new Micro Four-Thirds format may be the answer. Micro 4/3rds format cameras combine a DSLR sensor in a point & shoot-sized body with DSLR features like interchangeable lenses, HD video, etc. Cameras and lenses are available from both Olympus & Panasonic. While Panasonic lead the way with the GF and GH series cameras - the GF-1 has been very popular (along with the 10Bar GF-1 Housing). I like the Olympus E-PL1 micro 4/3rds DSLR as it has less fussy controls to house than the Panasonic GF-1, and offers a good value for it's $599 cost.

The sensor is about 6 times larger than even high-end point and shoots and the camera has many more features and better responsiveness. It does rely on push-buttons and s/w for control, no dials, which does take some getting used to from a full-sized DSLR. The trade off is size and weight. As it is software-driven, and is sort of “dumbed down” as it comes from the factory, it does take some time to set up and get used to. Turning on the super control panel really helps, as it offers one push menu performance for most common camera functions. Another trick is that you can set up both the “my modes” and the function buttons to switch multiple operations at once. You should budget for the Olympus 9-18 wide angle lens which is considerably better in quality and speed than the kit 14-42 lens. DPReview's camera review here

Here’s some info on the available housings:

Olympus E-PL1 Housing + Zen WA-100 dome = $1100, plus gears + spare orings, etc.

Not a bad housing, but not up to the standards of the PT-E06 either. Lightweight. Only 135' depth rating, plastic construction that's not all that robust, but should be quite serviceable. Single o-ring, voluminous construction due to inclusion of VF-2 viewfinder, which is pretty near worthless underwater (has less pixel density than the view screen). Controls are ok, well labeled, ranked in height. Zoom control is poor for use with gloves - indented into the side of the housing too far. Zoom gearing not all that smooth, but ok, better than the 10Bar. Not all controls accessible - ie you have to remember to open the flash before loading - no way to pop it later if you forget. Port is removable, but so far only one on market. No support for 17mm, Panasonic 45mm macro, although more third party ports will be forth coming I'm quite sure. Macro port adapter a little less than robust, if not clipped in perfectly it can fall off. Fiber optic sync only. One year international warranty.

The WA-100-EP Zen Dome looks to be very high quality glass and optics, better than the 10Bar. Customer Christine Kornylak took some great shots with it in the Channel Islands.

10Bar EPl-1 $1069 (fob Seattle). Includes 17mm pancake port & 14-42/9-18 semi dome port + 14-42 gears (9-18 gears coming $85). Includes spare orings, spare control tips, cleaning kit, carrying bag, etc.

Very rugged aluminum construction, working depth up to 200', tested to 300'. Aluminum screw thread ports. Decent build quality, but Chinese construction (much improved over earlier housings). Dual oring construction throughout (housing back, ports and controls). Metal controls, 2 ranked (menu & ok buttons). ALL controls are supported - you can bring the flash up and down. Zoom control is a push in and turn method, a little less than easy to get used to. Both manual focus and zoom supported. Supports lenses from both Olympus and Panasonic. Macro lens support with extension tube, no manual focus. 67mm macro screw thread on 17mm port and 14-42 flat port. Small, but negative in water by about 2# or so. Fiber optic or electrical Nikonos strobe connections. 2 year warranty, but out of HK, although I handle bad-out-of-box, and you are provided with control parts, etc.

Semi dome is good quality, but plastic. Probably not as good of corner sharpness and optics as the Zen, but the shots I took with the lens at 9mm turned out fine, view below.

I think there's good and bad points for both, and I've had customers who liked either for various reasons.

Lighting
Either will need a Lighting Package. I like the Sea & Sea YS-01 strobe with this, although the YS-110a is also a good choice. The YS-01 is powerful, has TTL and a target light and has a 100x100 degree beam angle. For those on a budget, the YS-02 is also available for $110 less, but it lacks auto TTL operation and a target light, both very valuable features. Two strobes are preferred, especially with the 9mm lens. A focus light is necessary, as it is with any DSLR system, the Big Blue 1x5AFO would be my choice or for better video capabilities, the Fix LED500 or LED1000. The S-Tray fits these very well and is adjustable for various diving conditions. See "Light My Fire" for more information.

While I personally still prefer a full-scale DSLR for photography due to ease of use, speed, and available lenses, these smaller MicroFour Thirds camera systems seem to be the wave of the future, especially for use under the waves!

Shots taken with Olympus E-PL1 in 10Bar Housing with 9-18mm lens and 2 Sea & Sea YS-110a strobes.

Race Rocks Blow Up

2010-04-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well, Eight Marker Buoy Dive Club members dove West Race at Race Rocks near Victoria, BC on a nice morning with 8-10 kts of north wind blowing when we got in...and 25kts with 6 foot seas when we got out!!

We were a little early for the slack when we got in on the west end, but it dropped off and we all had a good dive in somewhat murky viz. I hit 85' for a bit right at slack, but moved back up the wall to 70' for most of the dive. Tons of invertebrates, soft and hard coral in technicolor was the rule, not too many fish.

Upon surfacing, half the group drifted down the channel east, so 4 of us "hung" out in pretty big rollers and high wind for a while by the rocks. Rob saved my a**, telling me to swim forward, as I had drifted backwards too close to the rocks and almost go rolled onto it. The boat had a heck of a time getting all of us back on board, but we managed it. But what a rodeo.

There was no way to do a second dive. Normally placid Main Race was a maelstrom. So then we had to "beat" our way back to Victoria slowly working our way along shore and working the speed up and down with the waves pounding us. Everyone was pretty sore and cold when we got back.

Half of us were done for the day, but Rob & Kirby along with Karin and Doug did a dive off the breakwater in the lee and had good conditions.

On to Sydney tomorrow.

Dolphin Encounter

2010-02-25T22:00:00.001-08:00

Dolphin Encounter
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch

I was the lucky winner of a discount voucher towards a dive trip on the Nautilus Explorer liveaboard at my dive club’s banquet. After debating about an Alaskan itinerary, I decided on the January 4th trip to the Revillagigedos Islands, 300 miles SW of Cabo San Lucas. This would be my second visit, having gone on a club trip 5 years ago with Judy Brooks on the Solmar V. It would also be a longer trip - 10 days with 8 days of diving.

Boarding the boat early Tuesday morning, I found that I was only one of two Americans on board with the majority being a dive club from the UK, and the rest a mixture of manta ray researchers and support divers.

Dr. Bob Rubin from Pacific Manta Ray Research and Guy Stevens, a biologist from the Maldives Manta Ray Research Project led the team. They are amongst the top researchers in the world, even shown on BBC specials, so we were in for a treat - having lectures and slide shows from the experts each night on various aspects of these huge pelagics.

We would learn that there are now two distinct species of manta rays. The Reef Mantas, smaller and usually more numerous, that frequent the inner islands of places like Hawaii, Palau, Yap and the Maldives. The Giant Manta Rays found in Mexico, are true pelagics, believed to travel great distances in the open ocean before showing up at sea mounts near deep water in places like the Revillagigedos Islands and the Cocos. These fish are much larger - up to 22’ in wingspan. Scientists have now found physiological evidence of to separate these species like the remnants of a stinger in the Giants. All Mantas are filter feeders, only about 200,000 years old as a species, with advanced physiology like warm-blooded brains for faster brain activity in the cold 350-meter depths they dive at night.

“But would we see many rays?” was the question in our minds on the 26-hour ride out to the islands.

Arriving at San Benedicto, our warm up dive at The Canyons was so-so, a few folks saw some hammerheads in the distance and I saw only one Silky shark. Our next site was El Boiler, probably the most famous spot on San Benedicto Island, and certainly the best spot in the islands for interacting with Giant Manta Rays. We were not disappointed. Each dive had up to four at a time playing with us, delighting in “bubble baths”, and letting us pet their bellies.

It’s truly one of the most awesome experiences of my life to come eye-to-eye with large animals like this and have them literally stop, lift a wing, and wait for us to come tickle them. All of the 36 different mantas we would see on the trip were females and the scientists confirmed that most that are seen in shallow waters are female. Nobody knows why. The scientists were busy, retrieving their recorders and tagging new mantas with sonic pingers.

The weather was with us and after debating about making a break for Roca Partida, a rock another 50 miles out to sea, we dove most of the next day with large numbers of mantas and a few dolphins around us.

It was a bit windy as we arrived at Roca Partida, but the currents were pretty reasonable (by blue water standards anyway) and we ended up spending two days there, doing eight dives. Although visibility was a bit limited at times, we saw nearly every large animal you can imagine (except a Whale Shark, damn it). More mantas, dolphins, white tip reef sharks, schools of oceanic white tips, schools of scalloped hammerheads, huge schools of tuna, trevaly, and every imaginable bait fish came by. If there wasn’t action looking out into the blue, there were green morays, small octos and other animals on the rock.

Though the currents had most of us clinging to it’s sides, I found a spot I dubbed Jack’s Nook, just a narrow cut in the rocky wall on the south end that I could duck in and watch the world go by. We saw large schools of oceanic white tips, and once a hammerhead got so close that I had to kick it with my fin (they are normally very shy). One manta followed us around like a puppy dog, until we’d go around the rock (it was possible to do three loops on a dive), and then swam up with a big greeting when it saw us again.

After diving Roca Partida, we were afraid that Socorro Island would be a let down. Boy, were we wrong. Punta Tosca had tough conditions, very strong currents, real mask rippers, strong surge and so-so viz. However, on the first dive hunkered on the rocky ledge at 100’, we were surrounded by a couple of hundred hammerheads, literally swimming through our group! There were also silky sharks, a pod of curious dolphins and more. I left that vantage spot to swim back up into the bay and saw a pod of dolphins swim overhead a bit in front of me, with a huge shark following them. It paused behind for a few seconds, just long enough for me to make out the blunt head of a 16’ Tiger Shark. It was at least twice as big as the dolphins, which were totally unconcerned. I, however, decided to become one with the rocks.

After they swam off, ok long after they swam off, I headed up to the point. Seeing breaking surf above me, I turned to spot a very curious silky shark behind me. Even after I turned towards it, it kept coming, making me take a defensive position again in the rocks. Damn, I hate being on the bottom of the food chain. After it left, I swam all the way back to the boat, alternatingly happy that I left my large DSLR rig in the boat, and pissed that I hadn’t taken a shot during one of the best dives I’ve ever experienced.

Cabo Pearce also on Socorro would be yet another great site, with amazing encounters, over two days, with a school of dolphins. One female was delighted to spot us, and 250 miles from civilization, swam up to us and presented her belly for a good rub and even a close hug. She would not leave until everyone had petted and rubbed her, completely taken with us. They repeated this behavior the next day, and even drove off a large silky shark as it swam by chasing a bait ball. She came back and invited us to rub her tummy some more. This was again a life-changing dive for me. There was most definitely communication going on, on a mammal-to-mammal basis, and I will never forget it.

The last day we went back to San Benedicto and El Boiler for another 3-4 dives with the mantas. The last dive, in the last 10 minutes of a setting sun, proved to provide me the best photo opportunities of the trip, as I inverted the contents of my tank and refused to come up.

My thanks to the Nautilus Explorer, it’s great crew and guides, and my new dive buddies in the UK and elsewhere!

Photos were taken with a D300 in a Nauticam housing with Tokina 10-17, Sigma 17-70 and Nikon 60mm lenses, and two YS-110a strobes.

Four Thirds for UW!

2010-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

Olympus's new 4/3rds camera the EPL1 is here (or nearly so). I met with my Olympus reps today and got a through briefing.

The camera is awesome, but is very "dumbed down" out of the box. It has some great features, many of which are more easily accessible from their Super Control Panel. It works much better after a good tune-up.

Auto focus is very reasonable, and can be sped up by limiting it to spot focus. It is much, much faster than a P&S, a little slower than a DSLR. The 14-42 kit lens that ships with it, is ok, and will work for a variety of shots. It close focuses to about 4", better uw, but it will need a 2x macro diopter. The 9-18 is much better, is an internal focus lens (the barrel doesn't extend) but still an f4 lens - it seemed to focus faster and would focus to 15cm.

I think that this camera would benefit from some better quality lenses - the Oly 17mm is awesome, but is not compatible with the housing, it will vignette. I think I might look at some of the Panasonic oferings. Like the Zeiss 45mm macro - a whopping $899. I've asked them to try to see what other lenses will fit the housing and they said they would. Be prepared with your biggest c.c. Good glass costs cash.

A couple of cool things. Two "My Modes", switch the whole camera around at a flick of a button. A programmable function button. One button movies and this is really cool - it will continuously auto focus while filming - something that the DSLRs can't do in video mode.

The PT-EPL-1 is budget housing, no doubt, but still is quite functional. They were after a price point and I think hit it. The package for $1200 street price is awesome for the quality it will do, but it's best for macro and wide angle. All functions are accessible, it's compact and easy to handle. I have to question adding in the electronic viewfinder, we'll have to see how usable it is uw.

Ship dates are still up in the air a bit. Some cameras may get here earlier for pre-orders, but housings and most of the line probably won't hit until late March.

But all-in-all I think Oly has a real winner.

Gone Divin'

2010-01-02T22:52:00.001-08:00

Manta Ray
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch

I'm on my way down to Cabo to catch a 10 day liveaboard trip to the Revillagigedos (aka Socorros) Islands on the Nautilus Explorer. I'll return to the office on Jan 16th.

During that time Optical Ocean Sales will be in the good hands of my new assistant Kalen. Orders and estimates will be happening, but shipping may be slowed a bit. Limited technical advise will be available. There will be No phone orders taken, but emails will be returned by her.

I look forward to a renewed energy (I need a vacation!!) and having lots of photos to share in the New Year!

Light My Fire!

2010-01-02T21:25:00.001-08:00

I often get asked "What strobe should I get for my camera and housing". Here's a rundown on all the current strobes that Optical Ocean Sales carrys right now.

The Fantasea NanoFlash is a small, light and easy-to-use strobe. It has a guide number (power) of 12, so ii is fairly low power. Many people like them for tropical diving and for close up shots. It is a strobe-in-a-box with 3 power settings and several diffusers of varying strength. It will work with all digital cameras. Uses 2 AAA batteries that last about 2 dives.

I used to sell the UltraMax Strobe as a good value for a beginning diver. Unfortunately, recently we experiencing quite a few failures and I've discontinued selling it.

Next up is the new Fantasea Remora strobe, actually has the same flash tube and power as the UltraMax, different electronics and design. Much better power control; 10 to 100% dial and a very good lens and diffuser that spreads the light better. Much faster recycle time than the UltraMax. Still a 60 degree beam angle and also narrow vertically. Has a mount for a small NanoFocus light for aiming. However it does not have a sealed battery compartment, although a good seal on the door. It is floaty in the water, but not as much as the UltraMax. It’s a good step up for newer photographers with point and shoot cameras. I’ve been test shooting it with a Fuji F200, photos are here.

Probably the best small strobe is the brand new Sea & Sea YS-01. Sea & Sea has done their homework and come out with a less expnsive, smaller version of the popular YS-110a. Like it's big brother the YS-01 has D-TTL, automatically adjusting the light duration, as well as 10 steps of manual power. It also has a target light which will shut off during exposure. It's beam angle is the same 110x110 degrees and it has a very fast recycle time of 1.5 secs with NiMh batteries. This unit gets my vote as one of the best uw photo products to come out this year.

Up from that is the Sea & Sea YS110a, guide number of 22, 13 steps of power control, bright target light, 105x105 degree beam angle, D-TTL auto control operation. Legendary Sea & Sea quality, with a sealed battery compartment and lighting fast 1-2 sec recycle time. It also has a hardwired sync port and can be used in conjunction with Sea & Sea's TLL converter. This is an excellent strobe with automatic operation and is a great companion for advanced point and shoots and DSLRs. I shoot tow of these with my Nauticam D-300s housing.

Sea & Sea also offers the awesome YS-250PRO which delivers a whalloping guide number 32 of power, and instant recyle with it's integrated battery pack. It has TTL with a light and audible signal and also has 12 steps of manual power.

Olympus offers two strobes; the UFL-1 and the UFL-2. The UFL-1 is older and basically a rebranded Sea & Sea YS-17. Although well- built with a sealed battery compartment, it is weaker than other competitively priced strobes (guide number of 14) and over-priced for it’s feature set. But it is popular with Olympus point and shoot owners.

The Olympus UFL-2 is designed to work well with their PT-E05 & PT-E06 DSLR housing systems. It has TTL automatic operation that can be controlled from the camera and a target light. It isn’t as powerful as the YS-110a, but is well integrated into the Olympus system with fairly rapid recycle time.

We also carry all the Ikelite strobes; The DS-51, DS-160, DS-161 and DS-200. These are powerful, generally well built with good recycle times. They have sealed battery compartments or battery packs, and some manual control. The DS-160, 161 and 200 have target lights. They are ideal companions for Ikelite housings that have built-in TTL including all their DSLR housings and many of their compact housings. Other housings with hard wired Nikonos ports work well with them, but there is no TTL.

The new DS-161 is the first strobe to include an integrated 15 watt video light as well as a target light.

For the Ikelite Ultra-compact housings we recommend one of the other strobes we carry like the Remora, or Sea & Sea YS-01 or 110a. We do not recommend the Ikelite AF-35 as it is weak and underpowered. Ikelite makes light controllers that work with point and shoot cameras to see their flash and sync with the Ikelite strobes. The controllers work fairly well, but are awkward and outdated, They are just another electrical connection to fail in our experience.

All strobes are available with whatever tray and arms package you like. All tripod screw mount point and shoot housings (most all have this mount) will fit all the trays we carry. Ikelite Compact and UltraCompact housings will only fit our flat tray. Olympus and Sea & Sea RDX housings will only fit our DSLR Tray. See Optical Ocean Sales Lighting Packages.

You can check out this earlier blog article on strobes and lighting.

Article updated April 2010

Clearing the Fog About Fantasea Big Eye Wide Angle Lenses

2009-10-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

Although I am a dealer for Fanatsea, I'm first of all a diver and photographer. I care a lot that my customers have a good experience with the products I sell. There have been some reports on dive forums as to reported "fogging" of the inside of the Fantasea Line Big Eye lenses.

Fantasea is concerned with the quality of their products and do stand behind them, to the extent of pulling bad ones off the market, or testing and retesting until they are sure there are no problems. Case in fact is that the Remora strobe was held off the market for nearly 7 months due to some very minor issues. That gets expensive. But it is a better strobe now.

I contacted Howard Rosenstein, the president of Fantasea about their manufacturing process. According to his engineers the lenses ARE manufactured in a completely humidity controlled environment, aka clean room conditions. He will have more information posted soon. They are taking steps to improve the mounting skirt on the G10 model and looking at the shock cord attachments to see how they could improve them. I think some small Fastec quick release buckles would help.

After ascertaining that they were unable to do true cold water dive tests in Eliat (!), Howard readily agreed to my taking a lens out of stock (nothing special about the unit), and doing some dives with it. I used a Fuji mount, but this is exactly the same lens and came from the same as other early adopters according to him. I told him I would give him my results first, but that they would be published on ScubaBoard and my blog unedited.

I tried to the best of our local conditions here in Seattle to recreate the issues surrounding this lens. I am not a trained engineer/product tester, my approach was to basically punish the lens and use it under local conditions like any other diver would.

Temperature & Fogging
Not having 80F days here, I gave it some temperature bath tests and couldn’t recreate any fogging.

I repeatedly plunged the lens into my hot tub at 104F for 10 mins and then a cold ice bath of 50 degrees. I didn’t see any immediate problem or when I left it in the cold bath. Tried 3x times. No fogging on the inside of the lens at all. Yes, definite fogging on the outside, which immediately is removed upon immersion. No other problems.

Dive Testing
I did a total of 3 dives with the lens and Fuji F200. Again not empirical, but enough to see if there are defects in the design.

First dive was at the Seattle Aquarium where I'm a volunteer science diver. They have an open-system 400,000 gal tank we get to feed the fish in. It has filtered water, but otherwise is directly linked to Puget Sound.

I set up the Fuji F200, FXF-200 housing with the Big Eye lens and one Remora strobe.

Air temps were mid-60s+ warmer in the sun, and water about 52F. I warmed the lens again over a hot air duct as much as I could and then left it in the sun on a cement pool surround for 30 mins. I brought it into the tank, cleared it and observed it on the surface, then again at the bottom at 25'. Took shots for 20 mins and again observed the lens. No fogging, or other problems in rather bright conditions were found.

I would say that the Remora's beam coverage horizontally was quite good, but vertically I observed a rather sharp fall-off with this lens, even after swiveling it upwards considerably.

Second and Third Dives, were off my friend's boat out on Puget Sound. Air temps were about the same and water was bout 52F on the surface and 48F at depths not exceeding 65'.

I took about 120 shots with the Fuji and two Inon z240 strobes, which I used for their much broader power and coverage to see if I could induce the light flare artifacts noted by users.

I again observed the lens at the surface, and throughout the dive for fogging and found none.

I was finally able to recreate the issue of lens flare and by adjusting the strobes and swiveling the camera very slightly format he sun, I was able to eliminate it. Lens flare with any dome is always a problem and for best results you should use longer arms and move your lights behind the camera and swivel them outwards to use edge lighting. This also reduces backscatter.

Here's a series:

Pronounced flare

A "fog" looking flare

No flare

Conclusions
By in large, I found the lens to be a ball to shoot with. As you set the camera in macro mode for focus, you can get extremely close and have amazing depth of field with the lens.

It also is ideal for close-focus, wide angle shots. There is a lack of corner sharpness, but this is to be expected with a point and shoot set up. I have shot the Inon dome and yes, I would say it is sharper, but it is also about 1.5x the cost. By my eye I think many users would enjoy the sharpness and coverage offered by the lens. It adds a big tool to the average P&S'ers toolbox.

If you definitely are seeing moistureinside the lens, you have a service issue and Fantasea will repair or replace the lens under their one-year warranty.
See: Fantasea Customer Service

More photos can be found here:Fuji F200 Shots (the Big Eye are the last 12 shots in this set - Note, all photos are directly from the camera with no retouching, etc.)

I hope this clears up some issues with this product, they are very popular and remain in short supply.

Test Dive: Fuji F200EXR & Fantasea Remora Strobe

2009-08-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Test shooting the F200EXR in Fuji's WP-FXF-200 housing and two of the new Fantasea Remora strobes has led me to believe that it's a good uw photo rig, not perfect, but quite capable of wonderful shots at a reasonable price - if you shoot within it's limitations.

The Fuji F200EXR camera is Fuji's foray to using innovative Extended Definition and Range in a point and shoot camera. But underwater I've found little value to this technology, mainly because they've crippled many of the controls to make them simpler for the "average" user. This leads to the camera getting confused. For instance set to EXR mode, you cannot fire the strobe in DR D-Range Priority sub mode. You are limited to Resolution Priority, fine, but then it uses too slow a shutter speed. Setting it on EXR Auto picks the low-light, Hi-ISO SN sub-mode, as it thinks (rightly so) you are shooting in low light. Which is sort of ok for available light shots, but gets grainy and worthless with an external strobe.

But not all is lost. There is a manual mode that works pretty well. You can access the extended range if you set the ISO to 200 or above. Then you get extra Dynamic Range, which is cool. But again, under the "what was Japan thinking" they crippled the manual mode, you can select shutter speeds, but are limited to f/3 or f/9 at wide angle, (and higher f/stops at greater telephoto extension of the lens)! Ok, so set it to f/9 and use the shutter speeds and strobes to control your shots, it's not a bad situation, just annoying. There is also a "P" mode that has an "Auto" setting, a not-so-good idea underwater (as it is on nearly all cameras) and an Aperature priority mode. which is ok, except that once again it picks too slow a shutter speed uw when you use a flash. There is a dedicated underwater scene available, and it did ok on available light shots. It might do better in bluewater (filtering cyan cast) if you weren't using an external flash, but I couldn't test that.

You can generate up to 12MB images, depending on which mode you are using. I wish the camera manufacturers would bring back RAW output, it costs them nothing to do so, the F200 does a nice job with JPEGS however.

The WP-FXF-200 is a decent, $170 housing, small and with all camera controls available. I did remove the large flash diffuser to attach the sync cord, it didn't work well when just put on the front of it. I taped off he inside of the housing to remove any light leaks from the internal flash. The housing is depth rated to 40 meters (132'), and I tested it to 95 feet in cold water without any incident. About the only problem I had was hitting the mode dial on the back of the housing with my thumb.

Several really good good features make this camera very responsive and easy to use underwater.

One is "Dual IS Mode", it's built-in image stabilization mode. I found this worked pretty well, steadying some shots at the lower shutter speeds it selects on some of the auto modes, but again it only seems to kick in when you zoom. The second is sort of a sleeper; located under Power Management is a "Quick AF" mode, speeding up auto focus and supposedly using more power. In my test shooting, it made the F200 respond much faster, with very little shutter lag, a bane to most P&S photographers. BTW, "Face Detection" also works on fishes - kind of cool, moving the auto focus around as the fish moves.

Speaking of power management, I found on an hour or more of fairly steady shooting that I only used 1/4 of the lithion battery, much better than older Fuji models. Shooting movies will use it much faster.

The F200 focuses quite well in low-light, and if you don't mind grainier shots, can take good available light photos and hold both the highs and lows in a (flatter looking) shot using DR. A focus light makes it work that much faster.

Another high point of the camera is it's built in macro mode, simply awesome, most of the time I can touch the housing to the subject and it is exceedingly sharp. Coupled with Fuji's rich, saturated colors from it's great sensor, I personally think it's amongst the best P&S cameras, especially for macro, even without additional lenses. You just need to be aware of it's design limitations, they may be deal-breakers for you.

Fantasea Line has developed a range of available wide angle and mcro lenses, red filters and adapters to fit the Fuji housing. Their Big Eye FXF-100/200 restores the refraction you loose underwater, not truly super wide, but still gives a very nice result. They will have an adapter to take 67mm lenses as well, which opens a whole range of accessory lenses from a variety of manufacturers.

Settings I gravitated to are using Manual mode, f/9, ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/60th for W/A and moving the shutter speed way up to 1/1000th and ISO 100-200 for macro, for the sharpest shots.

The Remora is a new product for Fantasea and represents their first true amphibious strobe. It has a guide number (power) of 18, which seems to be true in my experience. The recycle time is quite fast and the strobe features a 10-100% varible output, usually found on more expensive strobes. Although it uses nearly the same flash tube as the UltraMax UDXS strobe, they have a better lens and diffuser that gives off a nice quality of light. The color temp is daylight balanced.

About my only two complains, ok 3, are:

No sealed battery compartment, if it floods, it's toast. Most other competing strobes have a separate compartment. It does have a curved back that leads water away from the opening very well. They held this product off the market for quite some time to improve the seals, but even my prototypes worked fine down to 90'.

A rectangular flash output, you have to watch which way you spin them, I use mine upside down/angled pretty often. This gets a bit annoying.

Controls on the side. Again depending on their orientation you have to really bring the whole rig down to see the adjustment. You can turn them without looking, but a couple of times I adjusted them the wrong way.

With use, you'd get used to some of these quirks.

All that said, it is a decent strobe for the money, and you can mount a focus light for targeting it. It needs a sync cord, and my testing shows that for best operation with two you should use two sync cords.

Street price of the Remora is about $200, plus a $30 cord. The next strobe up from it price-wise, is the Sea & Sea YS27DX which has a GN of 20, a much wider beam and 8 steps of adjustment. It is smaller physically and has a better build quality and sealed battery compartment. I'd definitely pick this strobe if you can afford it's $350 cost. But for it's value the Remora looks like it has a nice niche.

I used a prototype of the new Optical Ocean Sales Flat Tray (available in early September), along with handles and arms to hold the strobes. It makes for nice control of the rig and the balance overall was just slightly negative.

DP Review's extensive review of the Fuji F-200FXF is pretty fair I think, and has great in-depth information on all the modes.

The below shots are straight from the camera, no manipulations.

Compact DSLR Systems; Comparing the Olympus PT-E06 and Sea & Sea RDX Systems

2009-08-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

I get quite a few emails asking about the Olympus PT-E06 and Sea & Sea RDX systems, as they are light, compact and relatively inexpensive. Sea & Sea's RDX housing has a received a recent upgrade for the Canon T1i 500 camera which has video, 15MP, and a lot of other new technology. It also has a more expandable lens base than the Olympus E620 or Nikon D60. Lets look at a comparison, keeping in mind that both are systems and you really need to figure lenses, ports and strobes into the picture.

Both the Sea & Sea and Olympus housings are reasonably small and lightweight, quite neutral in the water, and easy to swim. This is due to their plastic polycarbonate construction. The S&S has a 200’ depth rating, (the Oly is 140’), has metal latches, beefier build quality and controls. The Oly is a bit lighter in build quality and its overall look and feel, but both work well and fit your hands easily. You can substitute a different viewfinder to the Sea & Sea.

The S&S has two hardwire strobe ports in addition to the dual optical sync ports that both feature. You can add a TTL converter and it uses a better, industry standard bulkhead (plug) - more choices on strobes down the line. The Oly has one bulkhead and it is proprietary, only hooks to Oly strobes. Both are easy to load; camera goes on a tray that slides in and locks down.

But most people use fiber optic sync anyway as it is cheaper, easier and the Olympus UFL-2 strobe provides nice TTL, controllable from the camera, but it is a less powerful strobe than the Sea & Sea YS110a (same price for both strobes). In my experience its recycle time is also slower. The YS-110a allows for D-TTL with the fiber optic connection. Some have used this strobe on the Olympus system with good success. There is also the less expensive, manually controlled YS-27DX strobe. It's less powerful, but you can buy two of them for about the price of one YS-110a, and it’s not a bad product.

The ports are quite different. The Oly uses a screw on port. Each lens pretty much requires a different port and they are a bit limited to working with Olympus lenses. The dome port for wide angle is high quality glass, but pricey. Their ports include a focus gear to drive the zoom. There are third party ports that offer different options.

The S&S uses a bayonet mount. The RDX system has a standard port that accommodates the “kit lens” as well as the 60mm macro! You can buy an adapter ring and then you have access to a very extensive array of NX S&S ports. You have choices on dome ports, etc. for various wide angle lenses Third party lenses are supported to an extent. Focus gears are sold separately.

Sea & Sea supports a pretty expansive list of lenses and more are being added all the time. You can piece together different rings and adapters with various ports to work with other lenses, which you can’t do with the Olympus. This also becomes a factor when traveling, as you have to take several ports for the Oly, but maybe only a couple of ports plus adapters for the S&S.

As far as trays and arms, Sea & Sea sells the excellent, but again pricey Grip Stay-L RDX tray that will fit either the Oly or S&S housings. It has pistol grips and lots of adjustment with a cool quick release clamp. However, Optical Ocean sales will be offering a new DSLR tray with taller rubber grip handles for about half the cost of the Sea & Sea offering. It will also fit both housings and is lighter weight but sturdy. It should be available in a couple of weeks.

So overall, the S&S is more expensive going in, by about $7-800 more, but you’ll cover more lenses and get a higher quality, and more flexible, system overall. Like all DSLR systems, you want to put your money into lenses, ports and strobes, as these can be used over and over as you progress with new bodies and housings.

If I was to be buying a system at this level, the S&S RDX-500/Canon t1i 500 with the YS-110a strobe is what I’d get. It’s a better camera than the Nikon D-60 or the Oly E-620, albeit more expensive.

Sea & Sea Links
Here’s a product press release page:
RDX-500D

Here’s the product page for the RDX-450, they are very similar in feature sets.
RDX-450D

Here’s the system port chart to show supported lenses;
RDX-450D system Chart for Canon

Olympus Links
Olympus E620 Accessories

First Look: Olympus PT-E06 (Sea & Sea RDX Tray)

2009-06-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

The new Olympus PT-E06 housing is now shipping for the (also new) E-620 DSLR. Features are identical to the PT-E05 with a few controls moved. Includes cam-lock closure, dual rear o-rings, slide out mounting tray, etc. Dual optical sync ports along with one Olympus hard-wired bulkhead. Previous Olympus ports are compatible. 40 meter/140' depth rating.

I also tested it's fit on the Sea & Sea RDX Grip Stay-L Tray. Olympus doesn't have a decent 2 handle solution (or certainly one that is available in the US). It fits very well with lots of room for adjustment. (On the photos I've moved the handles in quite a bit.) Although it is expensive (MSRP $335) it does have a quick release that's a very nice feature. It's about 2.5#, and I believe that it will make the Oly system a bit negative, but not more than a pound or so. I've added Optical Ocean Sales Ball to Base adapters, the tray only comes with the standard S&S slide-on mounts.

Junkyard Dogs

2009-03-14T23:09:00.001-07:00

Flabelina vericosa
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch

Dusted off the fins and got back into the water today.

Jim and Stan met me under cloudy and wet skies. However the rain held off enough for us to get into the water, with even a trace of light from the sun.

After taking off an ACB weight pouch packet to get it sewed, I managed to leave it at Fisheries Supply last night. So I went with one pouch and stuck 10# of weight in my drysuit pocket. Not very comfortable, but enough to get me down.

We swam out and dropped down. I saw Jim for a bit and then he was gone. Stan apparently aborted due to a suit leak, and after Jim checked on him he couldn't find me. I was shooting some of the 3/4" red flabelina nudis I seem to find there. It's funny I never see any larger ones, just the itty bitty ones. But good foil for the 50mm macro on my demo Oly E520 rig.

I shot them, some fairly large golden dironas and a painted greenling hiding under an anemone, along with some other critters. Very few fish around at all. I was also shooting some environmental shots of eelgrass for a state job I'm working on. Not a real exciting dive, but it sure was great to be back in the water.

The Olympus E520 shot pretty well, with the UFL-2 strobe's TTL pretty well spot on in exposure. The light was a bit contrasty as I didn't have a diffuser supplied.

The Live View was very slow to shoot, almost unusable, and I reverted to using the viewfinder. That worked fine. My only other complaint is that the strap on the right side is a bit small for dry glove use, need to be longer. The rig overall was very light, easy-to-use and nice to handle compared to my Nikon D80, but the D80 is much more responsive with a relatively huge viewfinder. Not a fair comparison, as the Oly E520 is about 1/3 less expensive. They are coming out with a new model, the E620 in a couple of months that is more responsive and more of a mid-range camera. I also shot with one of the Big Blue 1x5AF focus lights and it was great, nice wide, even beam, with good brightness.

I thought the 50mm macro was ok, certainly sharp, a bit slow on auto focus, even against my older 60 Nikor without an AFS lens motor. But with a little use, I got accustomed to it. I used the S-AF-M setting and could auto focus then dial in manual focus, without missing a beat, no switches needed and the setting can be changed with a push of the button.

New Olympus PT-045 & PT-047 Underwater Housings

2009-02-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

Olympus Imaging has recently reved it's 2009 Stylus lineup with new rebranded "Tough" cameras and now the new PT-045 and PT-047 housings.

The T-8000 now sports 12MP, with the T-6000 at 10MP. Both cameras are practically indestructible feature a shock, crush, freeze and water-proof design. The T-6000 is depth-rated to 10' and the T-8000 to 33'. Both have a great 3.6x lens with a 35mm equivalent of 28-102mm and dual image stabilization for blur-free photos, first seen on the 1030sw. Built-in macro can shoot down to .8 of an inch. New is a "Tap" control where you can access certain camera features simply by tapping the side of the camera case, even with gloves on.

Besides their durability and depth rating, what makes these cameras ideal for underwater photographers is their four built-in underwater settings to adjust the camera for different types of shots. These include Underwater Snapshot, Wideangle 1 & 2, and Macro. This is great for new users to capture different shots right out of the box. More advanced users will enjoy Programmed Auto and other modes. Much more information is available from Olympus.

As nice as these upgraded cameras are, what makes their release for underwater photographers even better are the sexy new black housings the PT-045 (T-8000) and PT-47 (T-6000). Olympus has copied features from their run-away best-selling PT-EO5 housing for the Olympus E-520 DSLR camera and brought them to point and shoot simplicity.

Features of both the PT-045 and PT-047 housings are nearly identical.

New is a locked twist cam closure, that along with simple drop-in alignment, makes this a plug and play housing, no trays, screws or other internal mounting is necessary.

But the black isn't just there for looks, divers that use an external strobe have for years blocked off all the light coming from the camera's flash, except for a small area where a fiber optic sync cord is mounted to fire an external strobe. The trend today is for manufacturers to include a plug-in port for an optical sync cord on many DSLRs. Olympus now extends that idea with a black slide-in plug mount that replaces the strobe diffuser. The plug fits the standard Olympus, Sea & Sea, Fantasea and other plug-in cords.

Other intelligent features of the Olympus housings include a "hotshoe" style mount for a small strobe or focus light and ranked, labeled, camera controls that are separated both by position and height, so that use with gloves is much easier. Ports have 55mm screw-in threads and accept external wide and macro angle lenses from Fantasea and others.

The cameras and housings are available separately or in bundles together.

Besides the above cameras, Olympus also released the value-priced PT-046 housing for the new FE-3010.

Decorated Warbonnets at Seacrest

2008-10-09T10:30:00.001-07:00

Decorated Warbonnet-6
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

We've been spotting these guys now again this summer. They are rare to see and very shy, usually hiding away deep in a nook or cranny. They seem to like the wood pilings at Seacrest Park, our local after work divesite here in Seattle and do tend to come out a bit at night.

A few weeks ago, while testing my drysuit (and without camera, of course) we found 5 of them on one log!
I had to go back with my camera and see if I could hunt them down. There is one very large Warbonnet, maybe 12-15' (and they are only supposed to get to 10") at the end of the log. I call him "Big Daddy". Then there are usually a few smaller ones around. I found Big Daddy ok, and he was playing his usual games of diving into the interior of the log. But as I was swimming away, I saw another freely swimming down the log. But quickly lost it (her?) in the growth. I swam around for a while hoping they'd poke out again and searching the log I found it amongst the tunicates, sponge and anemones.

Having a clear go, I cranked off a huge amount of shots, as the D80 and z240 strobes can shoot very quickly. Shot with/without my woody diopter and between f/14-f/16 at 100th sec.

I was quite pleased with the results and on the way back almost missed one of the largest octopus I've ever seen. Apparently there are 3 of them hanging around, keeping the crab population in check. Macro to wide angle; Seacrest is an amazing site.

Long Island, San Juans

2008-10-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

I spent the day with my friend Dave Hancock, aka "DiveAlert Dave" out on his boat on Sunday. We went to Lopez Island in the San Juans, north of Seattle to dive a couple of sites.

Long Island is a high current area and has lots of color and life. We also dove a nearby rock off the south end of Lopez Island that turned out to be pretty good, once we found the sweet spot. Weather and seas were calm after a huge storm the day before.

Shot with Nikon D80 Sigma 17-70 and Nikon 60mm macro, a Woody at times and 2x Inon 240z.

Boeing Creek & the 2 ATM Kill Switch

2008-09-07T22:05:00.001-07:00

Brown Rockfish
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Four of us went out on my friend Doc Kay's boat yesterday. The goal was to get Denise comfortable and the Carl Baird & I more comfortable with our new DUI suits. Doc was also fiddling with new equipment configurations, or course, what else is new? ;-)

The day was perfect for diving, a bit overcast to keep the heat down with just a bit of a northerly blowing. We got through the locks after a dog & man overboard incident (guy was letting his dog pee and fell off from another boat..!). We headed north to Boeing Creek and motored around to find the slope of the reef (we thought) and dropped anchor with little current showing.

Denise and I dropped in and went down a stern anchor to 30'. She had no problems clearing and seemed to do well. We swam out west thinking to find the reef, but after a circle I decided we'd missed it and after swimming quite a ways north we found it's edge. Carl found it ok as well.

The water was very clear, viz about 35'+ and the reef teamed with life. Lots of fish, and I was very excited to see a huge school of black rockfish going all the way to the surface. A few browns and olives as well. Most were smaller, obviously coming of age since the recent order protecting them in Puget Sound. There were a few larger Quilbacks and Canaries as well as an assortment of lings, C-O sole, even one larger Cabazon. Nudibranchs and other small invertebrates dotted the rocks along with kelp and plumose. The reef in such clear conditions was really beautiful.

Denise did quite well, seeming to be comfortable, until she got a bad leg cramp. So I helped her back up the slope and back to the boat, then continued my dive. I dropped down the anchor to find the scooter tied off, Doc was going to use it, but it seemed inoperable. I saw him, and then did a rather determined spiney lumpsucker search n the shallows to no avail.

Doc had a frustrating dive missing the reef, and while the scooter seemed to work ok on the surface, it didn't work on the bottom for long. Battery was fine and there were no floods, etc. I haven't used it for a while, as I'm usually carrying a large camera, so I thought I'd see what was going on.

Carl and I were up for a second dive, he was working out his weighting and trim. I am pretty comfortable in my new DUI CF200 suit, nice not to have to patch a suit every time I dive. Doc moved the boat north and Carl and I dropped in.

We swam around for a while finally coming upon a large anchor block and old buoy line. I did find a rather large Heart Crab there, with it's triangular body covered in thorns. We swam slowly back until Carl signaled he was low on gas and we came up and safety stopped and swam to the boat. I still had 1600#, so I took the scooter to do some testing. After going along just fine for a ways, I headed down the slope, at 33' it stopped. I swam it back up a bit and then it went off again fine. I scootered along in 15-20' for a long time, buzzing ling cod and generally making a pest of myself. Then I went back down the slope. 33' it stopped again. OK, depth related, I swam it up and at 30' it worked ok. Hmmm, depth is shorting the "kill switch". I tested it 3 more times and it was very consistent. Scooter is rated for like 200' and I've had it down to 120' for quite a while at times, so something is amiss. The guys at UWS will sort it out.

We headed back to the locks in the sun, and got home after a long wait, as they are only using the large locks this summer.

A great day of diving and testing gear!

The Eagle Has Landed!

2008-07-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last week as part of the 4th of July festivities there was a tall ships festival. For the first time in 20 years the Coast Guard cadet training ship "Eagle" came to town. This ship was originally built as a Nazi training ship and was taken over as part of war reparations.

The Eagle is a three-masted sailing barque with 21,350 square feet of sail. It is home ported at the CG Academy, New London, Connecticut. It is the only active commissioned sailing vessel in the U.S. maritime services. She is one of five such training barques in world. Remarkably, her surviving sister ships include the Mircea of Romania, Sagres II of Portugal, Gorch Fock of Germany, and Tovarich of Russia.

Today's Eagle, the seventh in a long line of proud cutters to bear the name, was built in 1936 by the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg, Germany, as a training vessel for German Navy cadets. It was commissioned Horst Wessel and served as a training ship for the Kriegsmarine throughout World War II.

Horst Wessel (1907-1930) was a Nazi party member, SA Stormtrooper and purported pimp who was killed fighting German Communists in 1930. Some months before he died, Wessel had written the verses to what would become the "Horst Wessel Lied" but it first gained popular currency when a choir of Stormtroopers performed it at his funeral. It was later recorded, and in 1931 it became the official anthem of the Nazi Party, played alongside Deutschland über Alles at all official occasions.

Much more info here

I do some work of the the coasties and they asked me to shoot some stuff for fun. Might sell a few shots for their office walls. Their guys were up in helos, I'm angling for that the next time... These were shot with my Nikon D80, using a Sigma 17-70 and 70-300. I used a polarizing lens on most of them, it was very hazy, hot and and humid.

Many more photos here

Big Fish Big Fun!

2008-03-06T21:27:00.001-08:00

Did a couple of boat dives up to South Whidbey island in Puget Sound yesterday. Had perfect conditions and quite good viz. Site is called "Big Fish", I'd tell you where it is, but I'd have to kill you. We're keeping it under wraps so the hunters can't find it. OK, it's our favorite scalloping site as well.

Lots of large rockfish, schools of rare blacks; "Old School" Puget Sound. Of course we had perfect wide angle conditions with 35' viz, and I'm loaded for macro with my 60mm and Woody's...

I tried to work on getting black backgrounds with varying success. What's easy on a digicam with 1/2000th shutter sync is much harder on a DSLR with 1/200th. Lighting placement is critical, and I'm beginning to think about a shade or something to keep light off the background...anyone have ideas? I also tried shooting at my normal f/14-f/16 and then at f/20. I've noticed there is a noticeable lack of sharpness above about f/18 with the Nikkor 60mm macro.

We had a great day, my friend Steve tried an exploration dive off of Foul Weather Bluff to no avail. Then we went over to dive the ferry wreck, except i missed the wreck and swam around on the sand and concrete rip-rap that's there. WSDFG has put up a new "Artificial Reef" buoy, but it looks to be under construction; you can't tie up to it.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

No Spark of the Low-heeled Boy

2008-03-04T15:39:00.001-08:00

AT4 Marine engine
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Gees, I think there ought to be a weekly award for dumb-a**ed mistakes, weird problems and frustration for the Atomic 4 marine engine community.
We're a weird bunch of boaters who like these old gas engines, which for their size have lots of power, are quiet and generally fairly dependable if kept up. Don Moyer at Moyer Marine is a great resource and have bought stuff from him for years now. I have his original newsletters for 1994! What a nice guy, happy to talk to his customers and help them, he has an on-line forum as well.

Anyway, I humbly submit myself for this week's dumb a** award.

I've been busy this winter doing a bit of an overhaul on my AT4 in my Islander 28 sailboat. Replaced a cracked head, head studs, put in studs on the water jacket plate, r/r the carb, etc. Still need to replace the rear seal. The engine was running fine prior to my work.

I replaced the coil as part of the process, even thought the old one was working fine. I have an Ignitor magnetic ignition and consider it probably the best engine upgrade I've put in.

After replacing the wiring, I couldn't get it to start. Checked the plugs and have lots of fuel. Found that I had inadvertently put the main ignition + source on the neg terminal of the coil. Switched it and still wouldn't start. Checked the spark and there wasn't any at the plug, nor from the coil to ground or distributor cap. Hmm, must of fried the $60 magnetic ignition. Drove home to buy part. (I keep it in Blaine, WA, about 120 miles north of my home in Seattle.)

To continue the above saga of woe. I drove back up to the boat. Jump on the boat with a new Ignitor part. Pull off the distributor cap and install it. Replace the rotor, but didn't put it FIRMLY into the camshaft. Tried to start, but of course the rotor was free spinning. Scratched my head for 1/2 hours, then found the rotor problem. Ha!

Except that in replacing the cap I managed to get the @#**& red wire stuck under it and shorted out another Ignitor. Poof, smoke, $60 gone.

OK, I'm gonna get this beast going one way or another. I pull out the old (like 10 years) distributor plate with points and condenser. Install it. Cannot get it to start. Move wires around on the distributor clockwise one hole, and she starts!! Whoohoo happy dance! Runs great, idles great. Warm it it up, stop it, torque the head bolts. Restart and warm up agian.

Shift into power and it stalls. Restart, apply some gas, shift and she runs, but it has a rhythmic power up and down, doesn't change when I adjust timing, etc. Shut it down and re-torque bolts again. Pour whiskey and scratch head.

Next morning I put in some new fuel and dryer. Check carb bowl, gas very clean, no problems (the carb was just cleaned). Check compression, and its fine (95-110). Plugs look ok, except #3 has some dirt on it.

Call Don. He thinks I have the distributor in wrong. OK, tells me how to make a TDC timing mark, align the distributor, etc. I do so, find that it's 90 degrees off, makes sense, even find an old timing mark. All's good.

Go to start and nada. Nada damn spark. Nada off coil wire, etc. Numerous calls to Don, VU meter tests, try to trace it down, etc. I show juice to coil, from coil, juice and continuity at the distributor, good ground everywhere, etc. I even tried another coil and replaced the condenser. I get juice up to the points, can even get a spark from them to the breaker plate, but no spark when I push the points apart, with ignition on, or when I crank. No spark from main coil wire either when I crank while holding the wire to the head (although I did get a spark from neg terminal to head when cranked).

I worked on it for hours yesterday, wore poor Don's ear off and gave up. I have no idea why it would run one time and not the next, again all wires are fine, new coil, new plugs, new condenser, points (they looked ok, and I got continuity). Wires checked for continuity.

I guess my plan is to go back up with yet another Ignitor system and install it. But I'm not sure why I'm still not getting a spark from the coil. Some little thing is not making contact or acting intermittent, I think, but damned if I can find it.

Your humbled mechanic of sorts...

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

2008-02-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

Went out on my dive buddy Doc Kay's boat Saturday for a couple of dives across the sound on Blakely Rock. We finally have been getting some nice weather and Saturday was fairly warm and sunny, with calm seas. Of course we Northwesterners break out the shorts and sun-tan oil when it hits the 50's these days...

We knew it was going to be a rough morning as the tide exchange was like 12' with a 3kt current out in the middle of the sound at max. Blakely Rock has several dive sites and I knew that China Wall is quite doable on the ebb as the current runs south from the mouth of Winslow Harbor and is blocked by the rock and wall for the most part. We maneuvered in and set a stern and bow hook, as the last time we tried it the wind veered and we almost swung into the rock.

Denise had to sit this day out having had both drysuit problems and a sinus block the week before on a training dive. So it was good to know she could come get us in the inflatable if we got blown off the wall.

I was diving with Phil and Doc was going to scooter around. Unfortunately the scooter died at 20' (switch issue) and we lost track of him when he went to return it and check the hooks.

I had briefed everyone on the site, cautioning them to go due west at 60' to hit the top of the wall, any shallower and you miss it (which also happened last time). I swam down and over and hit it right on the money thank you very much.

The viz was fairly crappy with the large exchange stirring things up and raining silt down on us from the top. Which suited my purposes as I was bound and determined to figure out lighting for wide angle in these conditions. I had just read an article in the new [i]Scuba Diving[/i] by Steven Frink on various lighting techniques. As I am bound for Bonaire in a month I wanted to get some practice with my Sigma 17-70 macro in a dome port. I feel I pretty much have the 60 macro down, but don't usually shoot with the Sigma much due to conditions.

Most of his advice in reducing backscatter gets boiled down to getting close and wide, having your strobes at 45 degrees (or more oblique) and lighting your subject matter - not the water column. This is one case where shooting up is not always the best idea.

There wasn't a lot of subjects, a few agitated Ling Cod on eggs, so I shot some starfish, as there was a great variety and they were colorful. One of the nice things about this lens is that you can shoot moderate macro and wide angle all on the same dive.

The second dive was at just past slack out on the outside of the rock. Even at slack there was a lot of current. Strangely it slacked as the dive went on, instead of building, leading me to believe that some sort of backeddy sets up an hour past slack.

These were all shot at about 1/60th f/7.1 with the Sigma 17-70 Macro in my Fantasea FD80 housing with 5" dome and ext ring. Two Inon 240z strobes on manual.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Choosing an Underwater Strobe for Point & Shoot Cameras

2008-01-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Jack,

I have a Fuji E900 and Ikelite housing. What strobe would you suggest for this set-up and what price range am I looking at? I would appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Laurel

The E900 is a great little camera, I shot mine for 1.5 years with good results. I get asked this same question by many underwater photographers looking for an external strobe to use with various cameras. The below information is derived from my experience and pertains to most point & shoot cameras and housings.

An external strobe is a way for photographers to add more light to bring out colors and detail that would otherwise be lost and creatively light their subjects, to emphasize, or de-emphasize subject matter. Also by angling the light away from the subject directly, you can you can reduce backscatter; particles in the water that reflect light directly into the camera lens.

When buying a strobe, you pretty much get what you pay for in terms of features, power, coverage and speed. It's important to consider what subject matter and shooting conditions you will be diving in. Wide angle photography requires much more powerful strobes, really 2 strobes, for success. You have to light a wide swath of reef or larger subjects. For macro and fish portraits, you can get by with much less. In turbid conditions the same applies. I'm making some generalizations; it is quite possible to do close-focus wide angle photography and use only one strobe. It's good to also consider your long-range photography goals as well; if you eventually want to upgrade to a DSLR for instance.

There's lots of manufactures and options for strobes. Remember that you will also need a tray, handles, arms and sync cord to use it. Here's a few that I'm familiar with.

I've used a variety of Inon strobes, they are very good, physically small, but sort of expensive. They also tend to be a bit negatively weighted in the water. The Inon z240 & 2000 have S-TTL and an external auto mode (works ok for close-up stuff), as well as 13 steps of manual control. The S-TTL mode will work with most any camera, measuring the light output automatically, but as it makes the camera do a full dump of light (instead of what's necessary for exposure), it can be slow to use, around 11 secs between shots on the E900!

I've used an Ikelite DS-51 with an external manual controller as well (the auto TTL controller is not compatible with the E900). Again, its very slow to work with that camera, due to making it do a full dump. It was better with the Fuji F810. I had problems with the manual controller flooding and it's another piece of gear to mount and swim with, although a fairly powerful little strobe. I think overall the setup is bulky and not as full featured, when compared to other strobes on the market at a similar price point.

The Ikelite DS-160 is a great wide angle TTL strobe when used with their housings, with a Nikon TTL converter, or in manual with other housings. It has a nice warm cast to it and plenty of power. It has a rechargeable battery, but the charger is sold separately.I don't recommend the DS-161 Movie strobe, as the internal video light is quite weak and uneven. A separate video light is much more powerful.

Ikelite has come out with a Fiber Optic Converter that works with their strobes, but it only works in manual mode.

I sell the Fantasea NanoFlash ($99), the best-selling Sea & Sea YS-01 ($429) and the Sea & Sea YS-110a ($634). If you want a huge reef-lighter the Sea & Sea YS-250Pro is also available at $1069.

The Fantasea NanoFlash is a small starter strobe. It's pretty good in clearer waters for macro, or close-in fish portrait photography. It is very small and light, making it easy to swim with. But it's not suitable for wide angle photos, or "lighting up the reef".

The Sea & Sea YS-01 is probably my most popular strobe. It has a guide number of about 20, a wide 100x100 beam angle, targeting light and TTL. It also has 10 steps of manual adjustment. There is also the YS-02 that is the same stobe, but without the TTL or targeting light, and it sells for $109 less.

With most M4/3rds or DSLR cameras, I'd recommend any of the Sea & Sea strobes, leaning toward the YS-110a. It is more powerful at a guide number of 22, has a wider beam angle, and has 13 steps of manual control. It also has a target light, and can be used with a DSLR that has electrical sync should you upgrade in the future. It does have a D-TTL mode (like Inon's S-TTL) that works with most cameras, depending if it uses multiple pre-flashes or single. However some cameras, notably the Olympus XZ-1, and the Nikon D7000 do not work in TTL mode with Sea & Sea D-TTL. I do think they much easier to use with gloves than the Inons, as the knobs are a bit larger, and there's less knobs to deal with to operate it. They are considerably cheaper than the Inon strobes, and tend to be lighter in the water.

All of these strobes work with a fiber optic sync cord, with one end of the cord velcroed on the outside of the camera housing and the other plugged into the light sensor of the strobe. You should black out the camera's internal flash on the inside of the housing with some electrical tape, except for a small area under the connector to trigger the external strobe. This will reduce backscatter and let you control the light.

To control backscatter, you have to have your strobes pointed away from your subject and use only the edge of the light to light it. Basically you have the lights pointing forward and away from the center. This allows the light to reflect away from the camera lens for particulates in the water column.

A focus light is very necessary for you to see to frame and your camera to lock auto focus. They are particularly convenient for night diving. Many users are also including video lighting or a more powerful focus/video light in the systems, like the new iTorch Pro-mini.

We sell all of these strobes in various lighting packages of trays, arms, handles, sync cord and choices of focus lights on my website at reasonable prices. The Optical Ocean packages are modular and work with most any housing; you can add different components to each package to customize to your desires. I especially like the Wide S-Tray that adjusts in and out to fit various sized-hands and housings. It can be configured for either ball & joint or flex arms.

Another low-cost option is to consider using a red filter on the port of your housing, it will reduce the cyan cast and give a much more natural color, especially when used with manual white balance.

Please also see our free guide "Basic Principles of Strobe Positioning" for more information.

(This article has been updated as of 1/12).

Got a Light?

2008-01-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

New underwater lighting packages offered by OpticalOceansales.com include a line of reasonably priced modular trays, handles, arms and clamps. Unique, thin but strong, "bar-bell" style arms are available in two styles; ball-to-ball and ball-to-strobe YS mount in 3.3, 4, 6 and 8” sizes. Handles feature rubber grips with a ball mount that allows for precise control of the camera system.

Made from high quality, black anodized aluminum, these lighting parts can be purchased separately or together in many different single or dual lighting packages. Choices include Fantasea or Sea & Sea strobes, sync cord, focus lights and more. Shown at left is the OpticalOcean Ultimate Lighting System with the Sea & Sea YS-110 strobe. Adapters are available for other strobe brands. They can also be optionally bundled with a choice of Fantasea Nikon CoolPix housings, including the popular FP5000 housing (shown) for the CoolPix P5100 camera at attractive savings.

OpticalOceanSales.com is a Fantasea Line dealer and ships worldwide.

More information:
Lighting Packages
CoolPix Housing Systems
Trays and Arms

ExperienceWA - Scuba Diving in Washington State

2008-01-17T13:52:00.001-08:00

Sunset at Three Tree
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Last summer I was hired to write, photograph and organize the Scuba section of Washington State Tourism’s ExperienceWA website. I had previously licensed photos to them through their advertising agency EverybodyWeKnow, and they became aware of my writing the Optical Ocean blog. So it was a perfect fit!

The site is at ExperienceWA/Activities/ScubaDiving. I wrote and took photos for 15 shore diving sites as a start. They were selected for their accessibility and user-friendliness for visiting divers, as well as trying to cover a fairly broad area from South Puget Sound to the San Juans. I also tried to have a selection of sites that appealed to different interests and experience levels. Everyone has their favorite site, but not all of them are accessible easily, nor are they places for divers who are new to the area.

Site locations are described, as well as a dive briefing included, so that a diver can find important geographic features, as well as look for the usual marine animals inhabiting the sites. Hazards and conditions, and on many sites tidal conditions and weather, were discussed. Nearby facilities are also listed.

Obviously in the space available on a web page, the information is brief, and is not a substitute for divers researching and developing their own dive plans. But the website should prove to be a good place to plan a trip, or visit new locations within the state.

This is just a fraction of the diving available in Puget Sound, specifically boat dives are not covered, but it is a start, and divers should be able to make a few dives and explore more on their own.

We are now working on expanding the web area, possibly adding more sites, boat dives, linking from it to video, photos, marine animal information, safe diving practices, state, city and private facilities and other points of interest like Aquariums, charters and more.

This should prove of interest not only to divers, but also to the general public, so that everyone can learn more about the waters beneath Washington State.
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I have many more photos available
ExperienceWA dive sites (and others)
Diving in Puget Sound

Underwater Camera Floods: Avoiding the High Water Mark

2007-12-12T13:54:00.001-08:00

No subject scares underwater photographers more than having an expensive housed camera turn into an aquarium. Even a bit of water can turn electronics into a corroded mess.

Here are a few general tips on maintenance that should help you avoid finding Nemo in your housing:

1) Read the manufacturer’s instructions. Yeah, that little pamphlet you put your beer on while you unpacked your new baby. Wipe it off and carefully read through it. Housings all vary in care and feeding. For example, some housings use silicone gaskets that don't need silicone grease. Some o-rings are not removable but need to be wiped off. Some housings have controls that are user-serviceable, some don't. Just read it.

2) O-rings are probably the most important and miss-serviced parts. There are lots of the little buggers on uw cases. In addition to the large, noticeable o-ring on the back cover, every control has one or two, as well as the ports or strobe bulkheads. Some are black, some are blue, some should be serviced, and many should not.

Following rule #1, you can generally service the rear, port and bulkhead o-rings as follows. Remove them carefully by pinching the o-ring at the corner and pulling it out/off. If it sticks, use the corner of a credit card to gently pry it up. Your credit card will work great, since it won’t be of much use for anything else anyway after buying all of your photo gear. A blunted wooden cuticle remover also can also be useful, but do NOT use tweezers, screwdrivers, needle-nose pliers, vise grips or any other sharp, medieval devices.

Then just wash the o-ring in warm water with a bit of soap. Pat it dry completely with a lint-free dishtowel; NOT a paper towel or used Kleenex. Try not to stretch it as you dry it.

Examine the o-ring in a bright light. Use a magnifying glass if you're as old as I am. Look for dirt, cuts, dog, cat, rat, weasel and hamster hair. Be picky and meticulous; even the smallest hamster hair can ruin your day, and then you'll want to put the hamster in the housing and ruin his day. It really can get out of hand.

O-rings can get cut or abraded fairly easily as salt crystals form and slice them with their sharp edges. Replace them from your spares as necessary, and order replacements.

You do have fresh spares don't you? O-rings need to be stored in an air-tight bag away from strong sunlight. They get brittle with age, and should be periodically replaced.

If an o-ring is clean and in good shape, lubricate it with just a drop or two of the proper silicone grease. Do NOT use anything other than the grease that is from your housing manufacturer. For instance, using black o-ring grease on blue o-rings has been known to melt them, which generally results in you melting down when your housing floods.
Put a couple of drops on your fingertips and gently pull the o-ring through them to apply.

Now repeat the mantra; OMMM... "MORE IS NOT BETTER...MORE IS NOT BETTER...". Do NOT over grease. Silicone grease is ONLY a lubricant, NOT a sealant. All you want to see is sheen on the o-ring, not globs of grease. If you apply too much, all it will do is act as glue for sand and dirt to stick to.

3) Carefully clean the flanges and grooves where they contact the o-rings. Use foam swabs, or a cotton swab with a piece of lens tissue wrapped around the tip. Blowing them off carefully with a can of compressed air is ok, but try to blow the dirt OUT of the housing. Again examine all these surfaces carefully, they should not resemble "Beach Blanket Bingo" with sand everywhere, nor should there be any deep cuts or warping that would result in a bad seal. Do NOT apply grease to the flat surfaces.

4) Now carefully install the clean, greased o-rings, making sure they are not twisted and lay flat in their intended spots. If it seems out of shape, let it sit there for a minute, then try pressing it into place again. They can get heated and misshapen from your sweaty fingertips and enlarge slightly.

5) Install your camera with fresh batteries and carefully close your housing. Be sure that there's not a sync cord or the edge of a silica gel bag stuck in between the surfaces. If you have a clear housing, check to see that there is a solid line where the o-ring seals. Breaks in color usually mean hamster hair.

6) I wipe off copper electronic sync cord contacts with rubbing alcohol, and even use a bit of silicone grease on the threads when I install them. Then I leave the cord connected for the whole trip. The contacts are fragile and if it's working, it does not need to be serviced between dives. Covers need to be immediately put on sync cord ends; copper and salt air is a bad combination.

7) Be sure to try your installed camera with the strobe before you go diving. It’s easy to get something a little out of kilter, and nobody likes to hear bad words underwater.

8) A piece of thin sanitary pad usually fits in most housings and provides a bit of "oops a few drops got in" insurance. It’s a good idea to tape it and any silica gel packets in place with a bit of electrical tape. It’s really a bummer to see the words “Dry-z-Air” when you are trying to focus on a whale shark.

9) Always test your housing in the dunk tank on the boat. That's a plunge, swish-swish, watch for bubbles dunk...NOT a toss it in until I'm ready to dive dunk.

NEVER leave your camera in the rinse tank between dives, or for longer than a couple of minutes. MOST floods happen in the rinse tank. Cameras get dropped in on top of each other and latches get sprung, etc. Scratched ports are the least of your worries. Also, during your dive the housing and controls get compressed. Coming up from the bottom and then putting the camera in a non-pressurized tank of water can allow some controls to weep a bit. So just rinse it well, take it out and leave it under a towel between dives.

NEVER let anyone clean their mask out in the camera rinse tank. Anti-fog solutions have been known to be hard on o-rings. Gently prod the offender with your dive knife as you inform him of this fact, it’s usually effective.

10) Dried salt water is your housing’s enemy. Salt crystals form in the controls and they can cause leaks. If you don't have access to a fresh water rinse, leave it in salt water. As long as it doesn't dry, it's fine. Soak it thoroughly at home in warm fresh water.

Once a year or so you should send your housing into the manufacturer's repair center for servicing. Those small o-rings in the controls generally are not user-serviceable and need periodic replacement. Springs and controls get worn as well. Don't just pack the housing and take it on a long trip without checking the system on a test dive first.

The above doesn't have to take a long time, and a complete cleaning is not necessary every dive, but take your time and examine your housing carefully before you get in the water.

And watch out for those pesky hamsters.

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Want to Make Sure? Considering a new housing? Just a thought (ok, shameless plug ;-) ). Fantasea housings come with 1 year of free flood insurance. When a customer has a problem, DEPP replaces their camera and Fantasea fixes or replaces the housing. Doesn't make up for a lost vacation, but it helps. The FP5000 for the CoolPix P5100 is an awesome combo.
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Jack Connick is a Seattle diver and graphic designer who always wanted to be a photographer. He has traveled extensively around the world, logging over 800 dives in ten countries.

His company Optical Ocean Sales.com, is an authorized dealer for Fantasea Line and other underwater photography products.

Visit and join his free Cold Water Diving Flickr photo group.

Optical Ocean Sales Has a New E-Commerce Website!

2007-12-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

OpticalOceanSales.com has greatly expanded it's website with over 100 products being offered. Full Search is available, and all products have multiple larger photos and full product listings. You can Tell a Friend or Ask a Question for each product listing as well. Both Visa/MC and Paypal checkout are now available. I can now process your phone orders (800-359-1295) and take payments via fax or email. Look for more improvements in the coming months, including more bundles and discounts. Visit the new site today!

New OpticalOceanSales.com Lighting Systems!

We've brought in a whole new line of Trays, Handles; B&J Arms, Clamps, and much more. The products are high quality, machined, black-anodized aluminum. All are available individually, as well as in several packages, both with housings and strobes The parts are modular; you can expand them as your system grows. These are direct from the manufacturer and we've passed the savings on to you!

Look Honey! It's Diver Jack!

2007-04-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

My aquarium dive buddy Tim and I were walking back to our cars after "performing" our feeding show at the Seattle Aquarium today. I worked comms and topside support as I had wanged my eye with a strobe cord yesterday (don't ask), nothing serious, but no diving for a couple of days.

Tired and laden with wet gear I suddenly heard a woman in very excited tones say, "Oh look, it's Diver Jack! Honey, it's Diver Jack. May we take your picture?" Huh? Me??? What'd I do??

Diver Jack is my stage name. We now do feeding shows, talking to the audience, taking questions and showing off the wolf eels and animals when we feed them. The wolfies are my pets and will sit on my head to eat squid. We use full-face Aga masks and comms with surface-supplied air. As part of that, we wave to the crowd, talk to kids, and get people involved, so that we can impart a conservation message.

But I never thought I'd have groupies!

My groupie was cute as a bug, pretty in pink, and about 3 years old. Very excited, Mom asked to take my picture with her daughter Gretchen. I taught Gretchen how to make an "ok" sign. She was so excited she could hardly talk. So was I.

They promised to come to other shows, and it seemed we had both made our afternoons.

The DigiDivers Do Keystone!

2007-04-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

I had the great pleasure of finally meeting and diving with Jan Kocian, aka "Honza" at his favorite local spot, Keystone Jetty, where one of the ferries comes in on Whidbey island, here in Puget Sound.

Our club dives there on and off as conditions can be tricky, it is very open to the wind and currents can be strong and un-predictable, even at slack. Even so, it is a very popular state park with great facilities, hot showers even. So I was very surprised when we pulled into the parking lot at 10am and found it completely empty on a Saturday morning. Usually it is jammed up with student divers.

Winds were light and off-shore. Overcast, but no rain. The currents were settling down and as we started to get ready, Jan pulled in and we greeted each other, having had long mutual admiration for each other's work on the various boards including DigiDiver.net. We've traded emails on and off, but never quite connected for a dive.

We looked each other's rigs over and got in the water. Of course the first thing that DigiDivers do is to take pictures. Not of marine-life, but of each other!

Swimming out along the jetty, there was a very slight current pushing us out and then once we kicked through it's back-eddy we were completely out of the current at the end of the jetty. It is usually very strong and can even be somewhat dangerous, as it can sweep un-wary divers around to the other side underneath where the ferry comes in. Not fun, and a long walk back.

I've never seen the conditions so nice and Jan said it had been that way all week. The critters weren't too cooperative, but we shot a few fish and nudis.

All-in-all, a great dive and I enjoyed meeting Jan. I've invited he and his family down for a tour at the Seattle Aquarium and i hope to dive with him again soon!

Here's his commemoration of the event:

Here's a link to some of Jan's other work and a bit more about him: REEF - Jan's Creations

More photos: Keystone

Willy Volk Surfaces

2007-03-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

My good friend Willy Volk late of Divester fame has surfaced again in a new diving blog that everyone should bookmark a feed from.

The new X-Ray Magazine blog is tied to the equally excellent e-magazine to which I was a contributor of a section on PNW diving (they don't seem to publish me anymore, sniff).

X-Ray Magazine, "is an awesome magazine about scuba diving with a truly international focus. This blog is designed to complement the magazine. Check in often for interesting scuba news from around the world. If you've got a news tip, we'd love to get it. Send tips to: willy@xray-magDOTcom." according to the blog.

Divester was killed by AOL, but Willy remains on staff now writing for the travel blog Gadling, which is also worth bookmarking.

Five Tips for Better Underwater Photography

2007-03-29T08:56:00.001-07:00

This is the second monthly column written for NW Dive News Previous column: Getting Started in UW Photography

Have a Conversation!
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Got a new underwater camera? Photos not quite up to snuff? Here are 5 quick tips to help you out.

Tip #1. Get close, have a conversation. If you think you are close, get closer. Two to four feet away is where most digicams shine. Many have a macro setting that can focus the lens from 1" to 4'. That’s the setting to use most of the time, as it is the perfect range for your strobe and for best sharpness. Remember that the more water you have between the camera and the subject, the less sharp and vivid your shots. But be careful in getting too close, there is a point where cameras cannot focus, check your manual.

Try to capture the head and eyes of your critters. Have a conversation with them, just like when you meet someone and shake hands.

Tip #2. Shoot up. Use the available light to help light your backgrounds for "reefscapes".

Tip #3. You can't light everything. In combination with Rule #1 & 2, try a type of shot called a close-focus, wide-angle.

Get close to say one fish, a nice outcropping of coral, or an anemone. Light that with your strobe. Point at an upwards angle, setting your camera on auto, or meter the water column and select a slower shutter speed (not any lower than 1/60th) to let the available light open up the background. Center the subject and take a half squeeze on the trigger to focus. With your finger still holding the half-press, re-compose with the subject close and to the side, maybe lower in the frame. Hold your camera steady and squeeze the trigger the rest of the way. Now you have a nice shot of a subject and it's environment giving greater depth and drama.

Tip #4. Macro. To get a nice black background, use your strobe in TTL, or auto, and increase your shutter speed. Set it as fast as possible, with a low ISO for sharpness and the strobe as close as possible to the subject for the best color saturation. You may have to turn the power down and use a diffuser to soften the light.

The background is always controlled with shutter speed. Want to open it up? Shoot slower. Want it blacker? Shoot faster. Can't get what you want? Adjust strobe power or position so you can work with it. Close in is where TTL usually shines. If you’re shooting in mid-water, you'll do better with manual strobe settings.

Tip #5. In-between. What about fish portraits and buddy shots? Set your camera to manual, or on program mode. Set an aperture somewhere in the middle (maybe f4) and shutter speed to as slow as you can hold, usually about 1/60th. Increase the strobe power or use TTL/auto.

Set the ISO as slow as possible. Remember, higher ISO means more noise, seen as fuzziness. Set it at ISO 100, or lower, for macro. For other shots, try to not go above 200 to 400.

On digicams where you don't need the depth of field, the middle aperture setting (f4) gives the best sharpness. This is due to the very small actual apertures on these lenses and the way light waves pass through them.

Tip #6. Break the rules! Hey, you said 5 tips. Well, the sixth is simply to break the rules. Try things out. Experiment. Many times the best shots come from bending, breaking, and creating your own rules. Look at your mistakes carefully, learn from them and try another variation.

Have fun with underwater photography, the more you shoot, the better your shots will get!

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Jack Connick is a Seattle diver and graphic designer who always wanted to be a photographer. He writes a blog, Optical Ocean on diving, sailing and underwater photography, and has traveled extensively around the world, logging around 700 dives in ten countries.

His company Optical Ocean Sales.com, is an authorized dealer for Fantasea Line and other underwater photography products.

Visit and join his free Cold Water Diving Flickr photo group.

Junkyard Dogs

2007-03-11T11:46:00.001-07:00

Red Flabellina
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Randy, Jim and I dove the wickedly tricky Alki Junkyard on a photo op yesterday around 4pm. The rain had let up and conditions were quite easy. Parking even became available as we pulled up.

An easy swim out to the white buoy with a blue stripe landed us in junkyard central. I have to say this is one of the best macro sites I've seen around here. It was loaded with small fish, anenomes and most of all - nudibranchs!

I quickly spotted Janolus fuscus, Flabellina trophina, and found a very cool Armina californica out on the sand. Or; a clear one with yellow dots, red with white dots and a striped nudibranch. The later is one I'd never seen before, mostly because it is a burrowing nudibranch that feeds on sea pens. Even stranger is that it has no external gills on its behind like most do.

Everything was pretty small though; many the size of a quarter or half dollar. I could of used a 100mm macro lens as opposed to my new 60mm I was trying out on the new D80/Fantasea rig.

The current picked up while we were out and shooting out on the flat became hard. Everything wanted to go into the current and I couldn't get ahead of it to get "face" shots. But there were a few piles of junk that you could hide behind, and I found some scaly-headed sculphins there, always a crowd pleaser with their green eyes.

We spotted lots of crabs and shell middens, but no octos, but they sure looked like they'd been around recently. Also spotted "dinner" several large male dungeness crabs up in the shallows.

We didn't go far up into the current, staying at 50' or so the entire dive as a result we had a long hour dive, Randy did 70 mins.

This is a great photo friendly site with easy access, no rocks to trip over and a wall to set your rig on after the dive.

Photos are here.

iNova DSLR E-Books

2007-02-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

I recently bought the iNova E-Book for the Nikon D-80. Even though I thought I knew a fair amount about color and digital technology, the book gave me a much better, up-to-date understanding. It then went over the camera, how to use it, tips and techniques and lens and strobes - in much greater detail and clarity than the user guide.
I think these are some of the best manuals/instruction books available for any photographer, advanced or beginner. The content is stunning, easy to use, and uses Acrobat technology to show you in much greater detail and interactivity how to utilize your camera. They are available for the Nikon D70, D80, D200 (soon D40) and the Canon 350 and 20. Get up to speed much faster without dealing with a OEM manual written in 4 languages, none of which you speak!
They include both high and low rez files, a printed instruction book, plus 624 iNovaFX Actions, that are in themselves enough to pay for the cd.

The DSLR series of eBooks was born of a necessity. The majority of photography books are basics, expansions on manuals, dry, procedural, technical and generalized. As a group, they don't give you the understanding and immediate tools to better your images with your particular camera and lens, highlighting the unique opportunities, qualities, controls, menu items and synergistic combinations that were there for you, if only you had known.
What we really need is a knowledgeable friend looking over our shoulders as we shoot, advising, chiding, challenging and bantering in creative ways, but after some research, we found that providing this as a service would be cost-prohibitive. So we made digital photography's first eBooks.
Photography can be technical. Pixels and photons, hyperfocal distance and guide numbers. It's enough to make you scream. But all that stuff is worth knowing about -- or skimming through -- so we make sure it's in there in a form that is easy to digest, or dig into if you feel like a meal. Animated examples, interactive illustrations and embedded movies bring the most opaque subjects into clarity. We feel it's our job to lift your eyebrows with interesting things on every page.

Click for more info. Get free shipping when you order!

Getting Started in Underwater Photography

2007-01-30T13:26:00.001-08:00

Buoyancy control is important

I’ll be writing a monthly column for Northwest Dive News on underwater photography, one of the most popular activities in diving today . I’ll be concentrating on cold-water dive photography which has it's own set of skills and equipment. Tips, tricks, gear and local dive sites, I’ll try to touch on them all and more.

I’ll re-print them here monthly in my blog, with a little more room for explanations and photos.

Your Experience Level and Guarding Against Task-Loading
Before we "dive" in, lets do a quick review of dive skills and experience necessary for your safety and the protection of the natural environment that you want to photograph. You need to have excellent buoyancy skills with intuitive, well-practiced, abilities as a diver to get into dive photography. I feel that it takes most new divers between 50-100 cold-water dives, because you will be adding a lot of task-loading and additional skills.

Not having this experience can result in damaging a reef, or more dangerously, an unsafe situation for you. You should feel that diving is intuitive to you and not have to think about it too much.

That doesn't mean that you can't buy your camera and become just as intuitive with your camera skills while you gain diving experience. It's a little tough to read a manual when you're 60 feet under water, so knowing your camera well really helps.

A hidden danger to a dive photographer, particularly in cold-water, is task loading beyond your experience level, or what the diving conditions can dictate. If in doubt, leave the camera topside, explore and shoot another time. Dive safety and protection of the underwater environment must come first!

Getting Started
Diver-photographers are faced with a bewildering assortment of cameras and options when it comes to buying a camera. Digital camera technology seems to change every day. Rather than just buying something that looks cool, or that a salesman recommends, I’d suggest a more methodical approach.

What do you want to do with your photos?
Use them on a website or in emails? Print snapshots, or large wall-prints? Maybe see your work published?
How much do you want to grow your system? Are you starting out with a digicam and thinking about growing into a DSLR system later, or is your use more casual, capturing a few shots from a dive trip for fun?
Where are you going to be shooting? Tropical or cold water? Working controls with gloves on, strong strobes and having durable equipment is important here in the Pacific Northwest. In tropical waters a lighter, smaller system may work fine for you and be easier to pack and carry.
What do you like to shoot?Macro? Fish-portraits, maybe a close up of your buddy? Or do you want to “shoot up the reef” and do wide-angle shots?
Do you want a camera for above-water, as well as underwater, use? How well supported is it, can it take good top-side photos as well?
How much are you planning on upgrading in the near future?What strobes will it connect to? External lenses and other add-ons? Can they be used with other cameras and systems?
And, oh yeah, how much are you able to spend? This is not a cheap hobby, and you pretty much get what you pay for.

My Recommendations
I generally recommend a camera and housing as opposed to an amphibious camera, or dedicated camera/housing solution. Canon, Olympus, Fuji and Nikon build an amazing amount of cameras and many can be used very successfully underwater in a housing. The competition between these companies means that their feature-sets and technical advances are changing much faster than dedicated underwater cameras. Plus, there are more housings, external equipment and third-party solutions available, that can be moved to an upgraded system later. Simply put, they are a better value and can be used well above water too.

There are some very good, dedicated amphibious cameras; some have good controls and a sharp lens. They are smaller to carry and simpler to use, but you'll be at the higher price range to get the control and quality you want. I think housed systems offer more quality for less money.

My company Optical Ocean Sales.com, is an authorized dealer for Fantasea Line underwater photography products, which makes housings for Nikon CoolPix digicams and DSLR housings for Nikon, Canon and Olympus. I really like the CoolPix P3 and the Nikon D80 or Canon xTi 400 for underwater use.

Make sure whatever camera you buy, that you have as much manual control as possible. Why? Because most automatic camera features are not designed for the low light conditions you find underwater. Also with an external strobe, you’ll need to use manual or aperture/shutter priority modes to adjust your strobe exposure.

Whatever camera you have, my best advice is to get out there and shoot! Practice does make perfect!

Next Column: 5 Tips for Better UW photos

Seattle Aquarium Expansion Construction

2007-01-24T19:24:00.001-08:00

Windows on Washington tank

I was privileged today to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the expansion and renovation project at the Seattle Aquarium where I am a volunteer diver. Because of safety issues, it's been a closed door to all, but the director John Baden led some of us through so we could get a better idea of how things were progressing, and what the $42 million project was going to look like when it opens in June. Here's a description from their website:

The impact of the New Currents Campaign will expand the Aquarium by 18,000 square feet to include a fresh new exterior, new Alaskan Way entrance and exhibit hall. At the heart of the expansion will be the Puget Sound Great Hall, a three story, light-filled building with interactive educational kiosks, sea life art and thought-provoking conservation exhibits focused on Puget Sound ’s ecosystems. Visitors will immediately be drawn to the end of Puget Sound Hall by the Window on Washington Waters, a 17-foot by 39-foot, 120,000 gallon showcase exhibit evoking Neah Bay’s rock blades filled with salmon, colorful rockfish, vibrant sea anemones and other marine life swimming amid a kelp-filled sea. New visitor amenities will include a full-service café and gift store, member entrance, additional ticketing stations and second floor viewing platforms for a three-dimensional look into Window on Washington Waters. A separate school group entrance will provide quick access for the increasing number of students and teachers who visit the Aquarium. The transition hall between the Windows on Washington Water exhibit to the tidal waters of the Life on the Edge exhibit will feature an open 40-foot by 8-foot Wave Tank allowing visitors the opportunity to hear the surging waves and observe how marine animals and plants survive in swirling, rough water.

Yes, we're going to dive in that tank!
See photos: Seattle Aquarium Expansion Construction

Rusty? Nah, Not Us!

2007-01-22T10:57:00.001-08:00

My Dive buddy Ed "Doc" Kay rounded up the six of us for a boat dive last Saturday to Waterman Wall on the west entrance to Rich Passage, near Port Orchard and Bremerton. We loaded up and got underway at about 10am and made quick time in calming conditions across the sound. The cloud cover came over us, but it was pretty nice overall, considering we'd had snow as late as last Monday. Definately "wait-a-minute" northwest weather.

Waterman Wall a very nice dive, but has some strong currents and can have a downdraft on the ebb, so it's an advanced+ dive. One story goes that a guy was lost there and the only thing they found was an empty "spare air" on one of the rocky shelves. Normally I've dove it from the east side on the end of the flood, this time we were diving on the end ebb, so we anchored on the west side of the light.

We got suited up "and waited just a bit for the tide to turn. I gave a quick brief, I knew the wall extended to the light from the east, but wasn't sure how far past it west it extends - turns out it keeps going for a while. We probably could of gotten in a little earlier, but "DiveAlert" Dave got in with his rebreather and scooter first, followed by another team of Kevin and Delores. I was being a good guide to the site and had helped Delores not to forget her drysuit inflator hose connection.

But Paul, Ed and I were just a bit rusty getting into our gear, not having really dove in a couple of months. The best was Paul; he jumped in without his fins on, then after getting them on we turned around to find him trying to hand up his tank, as the BC dump hose had gotten cross-threaded and wouldn't hold air. That was corrected and he was finally ready for his second attempt to dive. Ed fussed around for quite a while with crossed hoses and lights, while I found that my canister light had been left at home. Luckily Ed had a good spare on board.

Now it was my turn to jump off, everything seemed fine, but as I descended I kept punching my chest inflator to find that I had left my inflator hose disconnected. I put it on after a good squeeze at 35' with Paul's help. Gees, the 3 Stooges Go Diving...

Our team shared a scooter and I easily pulled the 3 of us out to the wall making up for some lost time. It was completely slack. Paul peeled off and Doc and I continued our dive, enjoying the craggy wall. Vis, while pretty good up shallower, was very poor at 70' on down, probably because of the big mornign tide exchange. We hit 98 feet for a few minutes and made our way back up to 70-80' for most of the rest of the dive.There were lots of huge male Lingcod on eggs, some easily in the 5' range. We saw one bright vermilion one in a hole. Lot of rockfish and invertebrates. The other teams found the one resident old wolf eel at 85', but we missed him.

The tide had turned and I again pulled us up-current for a while with the scooter, then we drifted back. Ed and I shared the scooter and he found out the hard way that it's easy to get task loaded with the bulky device, as he floated away from me and didn't stop his ascent until 20'.

I continued solo back up to the east bay where we had anchored and spotted a very nice Bay Pipefish and a few nudibranchs in the shallows.

Back on board we found that while we had dove the sun broke out and we sat on the boat enjoying a few beers with our lunch while a pair of eagles stood guard. What a treat, after the awful winter we've had!

Photos at: Wall Surface Shots

New Flickr Group: Cold Water Diving

2007-01-08T10:00:00.001-08:00

Tube Worms & Ed
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

I've started a Flickr group to discuss and post photos taken in temperate to cold water conditions. Dealing with a dry suit and shooting photos can be tricky. What are your tips and tricks? Post your best shots!

It is public, but you have to be a Flickr member to join.

Flickr: Cold Water Diving Group

Jack

Now For Something Completely Different

2006-12-27T11:22:00.001-08:00

Red Rock Canyon
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Decided to take a break from Seattle drizzle and cold and go to the desert for the holidays to see some friends. Took along my new Nikon D80 system and have been having fun shooting some scenery.

We went up to Sedona for Christmas and was able to go out to shoot some of the beautiful red rock formations for which the area is famous.

I've been shooting with my new lenses; Sigma 17-70mm f/3.5 Macro, 70-300 f4.5 APO Macro and Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I bought a polarizing filter for the 17-70 and was quite pleased with the dramatic skies and color. The only bummer was when i somehow got a watterspot onthe filter and didn't see it on the last day's shooting. I'm hoping I can fix the spot in Photoshop.

More photos: Arizona - Sedona

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

2006-12-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Truk Trek, Part 3

2006-12-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

Final part of my dive journal from a recent trip to Truk Lagoon, see Part 1 and Part 2.

Day 5- Dive 15
San Francisco Maru. This is the deep, big-time "money" wreck here in Truk. The Odyssey is much more organized in diving it now, as before Capt. Lenny only took a few of us out to do it in the skiff. Now they have just put in a mooring and with enough DM's in the water, they are able to lead groups of 6-8 down to it's decks at 165'. Called the "million-dollar wreck" for it's wealth of cargo and relatively un-touched state, it's a very interesting dive with lots of see.

After a through briefing, we split into two groups and gear up. We are diving 23% EAN, really actually air, with a 15 min (or 1500 # of gas) bottom time starting on our descent that takes around 2-3 mins. Time is very short and I have a pre-visualized dive plan to take pictures of the tank, deck gun and hold one where land mines, artillery shells and cordite are stacked to the ceiling. Things go pretty much according to plan, I'm not too narced, concentrating on my dive plan helps. I get some good shots and enjoy shooting up out of the ammunition holds with no one around. I'm sort of amused at myself directing Paul a little higher and lower over the deck gun, art direction at 170'...once an A.D., always an A.D.

I have one minute left of bottom time and motion Paul that I'm going back for a couple of quick shots of the tank, after which I get turned around, but sort myself out and head quickly for the mast and start up. In the one minute or so, I burned 300# of gas!

We ascend slowly, taking lots of time up the mast and switching to the line at 100' then back to the boat. I clear my 30' stop on the way up and move up to 20' to do 3-4 mins there, only to find that the line is loose and I bob up towards 13'. Charlie comes over and motions us to the mooring ball and line that is fixed better and I clear, wait a bit for Paul and then take off for the hang bar at the back of the Odyssey, finding a bit of a swim in the current and with the boat swinging away from me. I make it there and have another 4-5 mins or so of final deco at 10', but Paul comes up and his Suunto has him slammed with 12 mins. During the week, we're finding that his computer is much more conservative than my Oceanic, and I consider it to be a fairly conservative computer.

The second group also enjoys their dive and all are back on deck after doing a fairly difficult planned deco dive.

Dive 16
Rio de Janero Maru. This is one of my favorite wrecks here in Truk. It lies on it's starboard side with the bottom at around 140' and the top, or port side, at an easy 45'. It is massive at 360' in length, a converted freighter/cruise liner that was fairly well-known before the war and infamous during the war as a coastal raider and transport. The US was quite happy to put ships like her and the Heian Maru on the bottom. I guess I like it because of it's history and that it really looks like a wreck as depicted in the movies.

Only in Truk can you dive wrecks like the SF Maru and the Rio in one day and it's a real treat. We drop in and swim down, enjoying decent viz to start that seems to diminish as the dive progresses. The scale of the wreck is awesome, huge stack on it's side, holds and bomb damage twisting plates and making for interesting views. Our plan is to make for the props and take a few shots of Paul, myself, as well as out friends Carol and Greg. The props are massive and make for a good frame. After the others leave, I drop down over the huge rudder and enjoy shooting the lower prop and rudder. I even sit on one blade and take in the vista, dwarfed by the looming wreck. We swim back around and poke around the various spaces, spying s small eagle ray circling about. There's not a lot of growth on this wreck, mostly small mounds of hard coral on the side of the hull. I shoot a porthole on the side that still has it's glass in it. The Odyssey is swinging on it's mooring in a wide arc and after swimming up to the hang bar we enjoy and E-ticket ride swinging back and forth above the massive wreck doing our deco stop.

Dive 17
After hearing good things about the engine room, Paul and I ask guide Kent to take us there. We quickly swim down to a doorway and into the pitch dark wreck at 80', ducking over and under gangways and pipes. We make it into the engineers' space with walls covered with gauges and valves, engine telegraphs gleaming in the dark. A small clock lies hangs upside down stopped at 7:20 am, presumably when the ship sunk. Kent leads Paul further into the tight spaces while I take some pictures. The strobes are firing intermittently now and it's driving me crazy. Seems like a bad sync cord.

We exit the engine room and go to the aft hold that is about half full with beer and sake bottles and boxes. Again I see deterioration in the wrecks and although there's still thousands of bottles and cases, much of it has fallen down to the bottom. This is mostly the result of natural deterioration of the wood cases.

We come up on top and it's now too dark to shoot much, so I decide to swim up to the caved in bow. Four years ago I got turned around in the blown apart forward magazine and I had a personal ghost to exhume to see it again. I thought it was just along the edge, but I forgot that the whole bow had partially collapsed because of the explosion. It seemed that it too has fallen down further from deterioration as well, but I can't quantify it in my mind.

I swam on down to 95' and looked for what was left of the magazine. All I could find was a twisted opening and it didn't look like where I had been on the earlier trip. But I stuck my head in and it started to look a bit familiar, however I couldn't find the unexploded 6" shells that I found before. I looked it over, wondering what the hell I was thinking when I went in there at night with limited air the other time. I guess I found my peace and thanked some higher being for my good luck in finding my way out. Coming up over the edge of the hull, I found the name on the bow and brought Paul down to see it as well. I was into a few minutes of deco, so we went up, found the Odyssey on it's swing over the wreck, went up to the hang bar and paid our dues to the deco god.

Day 6 - Dive 18
Nippo Maru. Another nice wreck, a water carrier, a bit deeper than some, but with a particularly good wheelhouse and deck cargo of cannons, tanks and munitions. We jammed down to the wheelhouse and got in there before the viz got spoiled. I took a few shots, now really fighting the strobes and ten continued down to the aft deck at 135' to shoot the deck cannons and have a look around. As we came back, Paul found a nice pair of mating nudibranchs and I switched over to macro to shoot them. Lying at 125' trying to get them in focus and having the strobes first over-expose, then not fire was frustrating. I finished the shot and swam up with about 1100# of gas left and into 6 mins of deco and made for the bow and up line. I couldn't find Paul, he went into the cabins apparently and racked up a long deco stop, so that I was on the boat before I saw him again.

I shot a few quick shots and a couple of natural lighted bow shots on the way up. Back on board I determined that the optical sync cord had broken at the strobe connector and I was able to strip off a new end to fix my lighting problems.

Dive 19. Feeling that I hadn't done the best job in the wheelhouse, with its wheel and telegraph still standing there, I went back and got better shots. We also went down into the forward hold and I shot some large piles of artillery shells there, as well as some nice bow shots and finally captured the anchor lines I was looking for with the ship anchored for eternity. we finished up on the mast I shot a small moray eel without much success.

Dive 20
Kensho Maru. This was the only wreck I hadn't dove on before. Located back in the repair anchorage where we started our cruise. It was a smallish freighter without a great deal of interesting cargo, but with a very open wheelhouse, cabin and engine room.

When we got in we were greeted by very cloudy viz and huge numbers of jellyfish that made it difficult to find see much of anything at first. Following a line down to the ship, we swam around the cabin and I amused myself shooting some artifacts, not really seeing much else. I had wanted to find the radio room and while looking I saw both guides swim quickly through a skylight down into the center of the wreck. Swimming though I found a massive, wide-open engine room with huge pistons, boiler and valves that I played around shooting. Coming up Paul pointed me to the radio room, now just a rack of old gear. Poking my head up through the cabin roof I found a very nice telegraph that I also shot.

We came up the forward mast and found some nice anemones with their resident clownfish to finish the dive shooting. Making our way back forward and to the Odyssey in the murk and jellyfish, I felt that it had been a very good week rediscovering some great South Pacific diving in Truk lagoon.

Epilogue
We spent a night packing and eating leftover food and drink on the boat. Sunday, we were delivered to the Blue Lagoon Resort for dayrooms until our flights.

After everyone rested a bit we met for lunch at around noon. The restaurant is an exercise in patience, futility and exhaustion. It took nearly 2.5 hrs to get a burger and meals ordered and eaten. The food is ok, or mediocre if you guessed wrong.

After that, we decided we needed a drink. Several folks had bought booze for the boat, only to find that it was included. So there was a spontaneous cocktail party starting in our room and quickly spreading to the lawn. Lawn chairs, coconut palms and a stunning sunset to enjoy. 151 rum is dangerous stuff and by the time our dinner reservations were ready, a few members of the group had to be carried to the table. They had plenty of time to sober up, as dinner again took 2 hours+, with repeated trips to the kitchen to beg water, silverware or "service". The waitresses are locals and really, they just don't get it. Not their fault, cultural I think, but the hotel needs to spend much more time training them to work in a touristic environment. Although the hotel is nice, and their in-house dive op good, trying to get fed in the place is enough to drive you nuts.

After getting onto the Guam/Hawaii flight we had an ugly incident with a man having a heart attack in mid-Pacific, three to four hours from anywhere. Luckily there were two docs and three nurses on board who worked very hard under difficult circumstances to give CPR and resuscitate him. Unfortunately he didn't make it and died. After guiding his poor wife to first class, they wrapped the body up and left it in about row 40 for the duration. Pretty surreal. We were met by the coroner and sheriffs in Honolulu, and after a brief investigation were were allowed to continue our way home.

Photo notes: Truk requires lots of strobe power and wide angle lenses. I was shooting two Inon strobes and I really missed my old S&S 120 at times. Buy the biggest dome lens you can find and long strobe arms. It's a pain to take into the wreck, and I would figure out some sort of dome cover that you can take on and off uw, but it's the right gear for the job. There's some macro life, but it's not prolific. Visibility is up and down there, I think the Spring may be better than Fall. It varies, as you get out to the outer anchorages it can improve, but the amount of junk in the water can be frustrating to deal with.

Photos: Truk - Part 3, Truk Scenics and Truk Portraits

Holiday Fantasea

2006-12-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

As you may know from my previous posts, I am now running a new underwater photography equipment business as a sister site to this blog called Optical Ocean Sales, specializing in Fantasea Line products. I match mail order prices but am available to help you with your questions and advice as to set ups, shooting, other help you might need. Something that you can't get from a discount mail order place that doesn't dive.

New in my lineup are the various digicam sets that include a Coolpix housing for your choice of camera (I like the Coolpix P3 for the FP4 housing), tray, NanoFlash strobe, sync cord, and arm. They start at only $339 for the Set 2, but I really recommend Set 1 with the LED44 focus light, arm and larger tray. similar sets are also available for as little as $174 that fit any digicam.

DSLR housing sales are picking up. We currently have in stock the FD-50N ($845) for the Nikon D50 and the FE-330 ($985) for the Olympus 330. Both cameras have been seeing large mark downs lately and with my housings priced so low, you can easily get a starter setup for around $12-1500, unheard of for cameras of this quality. Fantasea also has newly-redesigned housings for the Nikon D70 and Canon 350XL due in stock any day now. Our housings for the Nikon D80 and Canon 400 xTi should now be out in early January, having been slightly delayed to some some changes on the new semi-dome port that will allow much better use of kit, and similar lenses. I've purchased a new Nikon D80 system and am looking forward to housing it soon!

Also new are Fantasea's line of Lightweight Arms. They are very nice as are all of the new arm sets and adapters.

If you enjoy this site, I'd appreciate your taking a look at Optical Ocean Sales and giving me an opportunity to help you get involved with underwater photography!

Truk Trek, Part 2

2006-12-06T13:31:00.001-08:00

A continuation of my dive journal, see also: Truk Trek, Part 1

Nov 15th Day 3
Dive 8
Hoki Maru. Gene and Judy, Paul and myself boogie into the water and down to the aft hold where there is a bulldozer, paver, trucks and other equipment. I missed the hold at first and drop over the side, but realize that at 128' I'm alongside the rudder. Oops. Back up and into the small littered hold, squeezing through the girders and drop down to the between decks where the equipment is. We manage to get our shots just before the thundering herd of fellow divers descends on us. Out and back aft I follow Gene into the steering station where the remains of the rudder gears and lines are. After that we break up and cruise around the wreck, not seeing anything too remarkable. Viz is much better here, maybe 80-100'. Finished the dive up the mast where the color is wonderful, I try to frame some divers in the structure to not much avail.

Dive 9
Fujikama Maru. This is a "money wreck" (what I call a dive site that you spend the money on a trip to see), lots to see and at a decent depth so there's lots of time. Sam, olur guide, leads Paul and myself on a tour of the engine room and machine shop. The wreck is more open then I remembered from last time, but still some tight squeezes, especially with the camera. We luck out and are the first to get to the machine shop and I get some good shots of the air compressor, nicknamed R2D2 that's pretty famous. After that I shoot the lathe and then back out to the engine room as the herd descends and spoils the viz.

We continue out into the superstructure and I frame some shots in the openings, definitely deteriorated since 4 years ago, with more marine growth as a result as the light hits it more. We duck out a window and then decide to go to the hold with the zero airplane fuselages. Dropping back into it there's lots to look at and I'm able to get some nice shots with he dome lens, still having some weird light flare issues, even pulling the strobe back and out.

Back out and I've used up my camera card, but linger a bit on the king posts, where there's very nice growth. I go into a couple mins deco, but clear by the time I get to 20'.

Dive 10
Paul and I head for the bow as I thought this wreck had some nice anchor lines going out that were covered with soft coral. This wasn't the case, but there was an interesting anchor still on the starboard side and as I shot it I spied a couple of grey reef sharks out in the gloom, as well as the school of snapper and jacks that the sharks were interested in. They circled around a bit, but never really came close, especially after a guide tried swimming out after them....no comment.

We poked around on both sides of the bow, it wasn't that interesting, but coming up to the top of the bow, the deck gun was pretty large and I took a few shots, waiting quite a while for others to leave the area...

Took a few deckscapes and then dropped over the side again after I saw a small school of tuna down near the bottom. Thought I might be able to drop down on them quietly, bu they were aware of me and lazily swam off. Likewise a few snapper wearily kept their distance.

I swam around the bottom at around 90' and thought I might wake up a large fish or something, but nobody was home. Came back up and swam around the deck, finishing the dive trying my luck shooting macro of some pink anemone fish, with about the same results as the rest of the dive...mediocre.

Came up, downloaded the pics to find that on the previous dive I had marred the dome lens enough that it was causing the camera to loose focus or for the marrs to show up on the shots...ARRRGH.

Dive 11
Evening night dive. Paul and I splash about 6 pm again and make for the aft of the Fujikawa, as we haven't toured it yet. Paul drops into the last hold and I follow after making sure it is pretty open and easy to find my way out of. It seems to be filled with saki bottles and other assorted cooking gear as well and what looks like a canoe or something.

We come out and find a few artifacts on deck and then I drop over the stern to see if anything is lurking there to shoot. Nothing but some nice small coral displays. We look around for a while, then at 1650 pounds of remaining gas, start to head back up towards the aft king posts as was our plan after hearing that the corals were nice there.

They are indeed, it's much more pristine, as most divers don't use it for a safety stop and haven't kicked it all to hell, as is the forward king post. I shoot some soft corals and small bright yellow tubestra tube coral. We motor back up to the forward king posts and find we each have a fair amount of deco obligation to clear. I wish they'd have set down a half rack of beer instead of an extra air tank there...

I think the Fujikawa Maru is in danger of being over-loved and dove. There is a lot there and everyone enjoys poking around in the moderate depths, but it's looking pretty beat up to my eyes. Broken coral, scraped areas and trashed holds seem to be the norm. Even then, it's still a great dive.

Nov 16, Day 4
Dive 12
Unikai Maru. The morning dive is on a freighter that has heavy bomb damage forward, actually splitting the ship in two. It's at moderate depths, so we start towards the stern, duck in a shoot up towards a missing skylight. I swim around the stern shooting heavily encrusted depth charges on the rails and some gangways and so forth. I then see some nudibranchs, and as it is the first I've seen and had time to shoot, I switch to macro mode and blaze away, lying on the deck at 100'.

Swimming alongside the cabin I see a small school of jacks going after some small fry excitedly. Continuing along towards where the bow was, I see another nudibranch in some green growth, and then a neat flat worm out in the open. It pays to look small sometimes, and most of the trip has been w/a.

I also shoot some artistically arranged gas masks and then play around shooting some sun balls behind the masts, but am unable to get Paul in the position that I want.

Sort of a "more of the same" dive, but a nice little wreck.

Dive 13
Pizion Reef Shark Feeding dive. We've been warned that we might not be able to do this, but skipper Nick is pleased to tell us at the morning brief that the weather is quite good and the trades are finally filling in to hold us off the reef while we dive. We motor about 1.5 hrs out of the lagoon and swing south to the low lying reef where they have put in a mooring. After chumming up the sharks a bit and briefing us on what to expect, we all get into the water and sit in a natural amphitheater around a tethered wire and when the fill a lift bag it brings down a large chunk of frozen tuna.

We are surrounded by lots of 5-6' grey reef sharks, a few smaller black tips and a large school of snapper as well. They go after it a bit at first, then in a huge ball of fish excitedly trying to tear chunks out of it. It's frozen very hard and each of the two chunks takes 15 mins to be fought over and disappear.

When the first chunk is being fought over they are able to pull the line over a bit practically in my lap. I gamely keep taking pictures, finally switching to a w/a lens. After my strobe arms are hit repeatedly and I have to punch several away from me, I decide to move over a bit, which is hard to do on the rocks. I also find that guide Charlie is riding herd on me, keeping them from hitting me in the head from the rear. I actually am fairly non-plussed, as after feeding the fish in the Seattle Aquarium it's not unlike the big king salmon bashing me around. Ok, these fish have teeth, but they are only after the food, and really don't concern me much.

Towards the end of the feeding a few much larger silver tips come in, including about a 11-12' female that the guides think is pregnant. She's the queen of the reef and takes no guff from the reef sharks. They are very elegant animals and even after the feeding is done I go down the wall a bit to 90' and watch them all swim back and forth. There was a huge temperature thermocline there, with the water 10-15 degrees cooler, and I think the larger animals like it.

I meander up to the shallows and pick up Paul and we poke around seeing some little reef fish that are all to shy to shoot. Four years ago this area was a very pretty shallow dive with lots more fish and hard corals, but apparently a couple of typhoons have hit it hard and it's pretty dead, with only a few small bits of coral alive amongst mostly dead rock.

We finish the dive sitting on the hang bar at 12' with the boat stern in 200' of water watching sharks go past in the crystal blue warm water.

Dive 14
Shankisan Maru. Coming back into the lagoon we anchor over the blown apart stern of this ammunition freighter. Swimming over the melted remains of the stern we find the middle section of the ship and continue to the holds. Once again I find that the ship's cargo has been scattered around or taken. Before there were huge mounds of bullets in the aft hold, with lots of untouched cases stacked around. Now they are a fine layer along the bottom, with just a few cases left along with some detonators. While they've enforced taking anything from the wrecks, they haven't enforced a no-touch rule and I think it's a shame to see such deterioration in the impact of the cargo to see.

We continue along checking out some airplane engines and so forth and then swim up to the bow for a look to see if there's any interesting growth off the bow. Turning back, I swim up amidships and find a cleaning station with a couple of jacks or small tuna being cleaned by small colorful wrasses. As the wrasses pick off parasites, the jacks shiver with delight, quite amusing to watch.

I loose Paul about that time and later find he ascended up the mast and then back to the boat. I continue on down the starboard rail, or what's left of it, and am rewarded with some large schools of black turbans and even quite a large, bump-headed parrotfish. I finish the dive shooting some nice soft coral and in the dusky light swim back trying to find the anchor line in blue water and after discerning the Odyssey, I see the anchor line which makes it easy to ascend and do deco. To cap the dive, I swim past a large barracuda hovering under the boat in near dark, as I make my way to the hang bar. I'm a bit worried about Paul, but they spot his bubbles just behind me and he's on deck a couple of mins later.

Continued on Truk Trek, part 3
Photos: Truk Trek - Part 2 photo set

Underwater Shooting Tips for Digicams

2006-12-05T12:21:00.001-08:00

Diver from Fujikawa Maru

From questions I've gotten in my mail, here's some general tips for shooting with most digicams.

From my point of view the bigger the wreck, the more difficult it is to get a overall shot without strobe.

If there's a foreground object, light it and expose for the background with a slow shutter speed as you can hold (around 1/60th if you haven't had too much coffee). Except if you're trying to include a sunspot, then use a fast shutter speed, open up your aperture and silhouette your background, you can still light the foreground object with your strobe. For a long shot, don't bother with the strobe, it's like people trying to light the grand canyon from a train. If it's visible, pump up your ISO, use a slow shutter speed. Also shoot it in Camera RAW and correct exposure and white balance later. Or shoot with one of Alex Mustard's great Magic Filters.

btw are there general rules what settings you have to use when shooting? I could f.e. imagine that best macro setting would be the highest aperture (for the E900 i think it is 8) and as long exposure time as possible, isn't it?
With which settings you get these nice black backgrounds?

I shoot macro with the Inon lenses at f8 and 1/2000 sec. Very fast for sharpness with the strobe as close as possible to the subject for the best color saturation.
You always control the background with shutter speed. Want to open it up? Shoot slower. Want it blacker? Shoot faster. Can't get what you want? Adjust strobe power or position so you can work with it. Close in is where TTL usually shines and gives nice backgrounds too.

How is it with portraits and wideangle/fisheye shots? I would say an aperture somewhere in the middle (maybe 5.6?) and relative short exposure time?
Did you all your shots with ISO 100 or are you using also higher ISO value? I think higher ISO value means also more image noise, isn`t it?

Yes, actually on digicams at more moderate distances where you don't need the depth of field around f4.5 is the best sharpness, due to the very small actual apertures.

I shoot the lowest ISO I can. ISO 80-100. Gives the best detail and color. I always shoot in Camera RAW and post process the images, as you can 'save' many shots and or improve them greatly later.

Also use manual or shutter priority settings. Get close. If you think you are close, get closer. 2 to '4' away is where most digicams can shoot well without external lenses. You camera may well be able to get pretty close by switching to it's macro setting. Generally shoot up and use the available light to help light your backgrounds on wide angle.

Truk Trek - Truk Lagoon Dive Trip - Part 1

2006-11-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

This was my second trip in four years on the Truk Odyssey. Over the course of the week we would do 20 dives. For a very detailed look at the history and diving there look at my first Truk Trip Report

Travel days Fri-Sunday morning.
Uneventful, but long. We flew down to LA and stayed at my cousins, then out again the next morning early. On to Honolulu, lunch on a 3 hr layover and on to Guam, another 5.5 hrs. Walked quickly to the next flight and arrived in Chuuk around 9:30 pm. Got through customs and had to wait until the last bag (mine) got taken from the plane. We were on board by 10:30.

Truk Odyssey Boat
There have been some fairly major changes in personnel on the Odyssey. Besides the crew Captains Lenny and Cara weren't on board. They are off building a new house in Colorado. Lenny will be back in March, but Cara has moved on to dry land it seems. The boat felt a little strange without their strong presence, but they had left it in the capable hands of young Capt Nick and crew. Overall, there was no difference in the diving or overall experience on board. The boat is aging and needs some new furnishings, I think the same bedspreads (and it felt that the same mattresses) were there four years ago. Still it's a huge, comfortable boat and one of the few liveaboards that you can dive from directly, without having to load into a dive skiff or inflatable. Great food and knowledgeable, good natured guides complete the picture.

Chuuk
The island state remains very poor and run down. Probably worse than a few years ago. The airport is still being worked on four years later. At least the waiting room has a/c and they have a back-up generator now. The people just don't seem to have much initiative and are upset that the western powers aren't giving them much of a handout now that they are independent. We learn that incest is fairly common-place. On the whole it has never recovered from the loss of pre-war prosperity they enjoyed while a large Japanese military base.

Nov 13 - Day 1
Dive 1 & 2. After a fitful 4-5 hrs sleep we were up, had breakfast, a dive brief and dove the Heian Maru. It's a very large cruise ship turned sub tender. I dove with guide Andy and we made it down to the huge screws, took a couple of shots and the camera battery died. Toured the periscopes and made the best out of a frustrating situation. Similar problems on the second dive this time with the strobes. It seems that all the batteries I charged in Seattle had gone flat. The Heian is large and has some interesting torpedoes to see, etc. but not much growth. Viz is poor, maybe 40' at most

Dive 3. We move onto the Yamaguri Maru and I finally get all the devices working and take some nice w/a with the dome lens, even in bad viz. The viz is worse so far this week than the last time, 30-50 feet at best. Paul and I ditch the guide and do a 70 min dive with brief deco. Some very nice soft coral and growth.

Nov 14 - Day 2
Dive 4. We move to the Fumitzuki, a destroyer and the only real warship to dive here that's in recreational depths. Paul and I split forward as the group goes aft, which works well and we avoid the herd. Coming back a giant stingray flaps past and I blow off some bottom time waiting for him to settle in and take a couple of shots. Having a hard time figuring out lighting with the dome lens, either too tight or not enough on the subject. By in large the photos go ok, conditions aren't best for the dome though.

We tour aft passing the group and take some interesting angles amid the wreckage. I turn and go up with 5 mins of deco, Paul stays a bit longer and amasses 20 mins. Killeen runs almost out of air and the guide shares air with her as he brings her back to the extra tank on the hang bar. I stop her buddy from going up too fast. These divers don't dive that often and the depths are stressing their experience. Everyone is ok, and a lesson is learned.

Dive 5
Shinkoko Maru. Paul and I wait and let the group go ahead of us, then drop down and tour the shallower bow area and main cabin areas a bit. Very nice growth on this wreck and interesting angles. Lots of beautiful soft coral and large gorgonians. I mostly continue to shoot w/a with the dome lens. Again the viz is quite disappointing, as it was very nice here the last trip. I experience a weird problem with the left 240z strobe either not firing, or not firing at full power. I finally recycle the power and it seems to work ok. Later I find that the full power setting is only giving out a very weak flash. A very large school of batfish entertains us eating jellyfish to our delight.

Dive 6
Decide to go smaller with the normal lens and we make it to the stern area. I shoot some great lionfish shots, maybe the best of the trip so far. They are around here, but not as prevalent as the Red Sea or Sulawesi where they are considered pests. Found the stern telegraph and take some shots of it, see a large puffer but couldn't get it to stand still. Checked out the king posts covered in beautiful corals. Many more soft coral colors here than Indonesia.

Dive 7
Night dive at 6 pm. Paul and I avoid the group again and drop on the wreck. I had remembered the night dives as the best thing here, and am not disappointed with all the coral open and covered in bright hues. I lose track of Paul and get turned around and never quite make it to the king posts. I found out later he had his lights fail. I putz around mostly just looking at all the colors and after thinking I'd shoot macro, and wishing I'd brought the w/a dome for the colors. Got attacked by a school of friendly batfish on the way up in the dark.

Continued to: Part 2

Photos: Truk Trek, part 1

Seacrest Park – What’s the Bigger Picture?

2006-11-07T18:11:00.001-08:00

Seacrest04.jpg
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

The installation of the rope barrier and cove buoys have finally been completed in Seacrest Park in West Seattle after years of delays due to the permitting process. While that long process was frustrating, it does have a bigger meaning in my opinion.

In year’s past when the city brought in the Water Taxi or made policy decisions regarding park use they didn’t consult the dive community. That changed when they were going to make a 300’ no-diving area around the pier and effectively block access to Cove 2. The dive community, usually polarized came together and made themselves heard, due to the efforts of JD Roe and others. We formed some groups and began talking with the city about how we could continue to use the park. From that came the idea of the rope barrier and buoy system.

Without divers respecting these boundaries, we would not have the access to the park that we continue to enjoy today. We also asked for a rinse shower and installation of benches in the restroom while the iron was hot and they were put in.

The white dive buoys are about the closest thing we could legally install as a “permanent dive flag” as divers use the coves nearly 360/24/7. BUT they should not be confused with proper dive flag usage – dive flags are still required. Use the white buoys to tie your flags to and use as down lines; they are in about 40-60’ of water.

Getting back to the bigger picture I alluded to? By going through the formal permit process we have made all the applicable bodies; State DNR, Army Corp of Engineers, US Coast Guard, and the City of Seattle formally recognize the park and coves as official dive areas. That is a sea change in policy and an important “moral” victory for the dive community that may weigh heavily in our favor in years to come.

Others and myself are continuing efforts in behalf of divers to ask the city for additional site improvements, access and facilities. I feel that we have done our share of “Quid pro” and now it’s our turn for some “Quo”! Some will cost something, some are policy and access issues that won’t. Dollars are very tight, but we have been offered some donations and will try to push some ideas forward. It’s a slow process, but one I take a good deal of satisfaction from.

What can you do? We will continue to have work parties to maintain the buoys and rope barrier system. Most importantly, we need divers, and particularly classes, to please be good neighbors; it greatly affects our relationship with the city and makes negotiations much easier for future improvements.

Dive Area Buoy Project at Seacrest Park Completed

2006-11-07T18:10:00.001-08:00

Seacrest01.jpg
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

From the City of Seattle: To help increase diver safety at the popular Seacrest Boathouse and Pier in West Seattle, the City of Seattle has installed a series of new marine navigation buoys. The purposes are to help increase safety awareness by boaters and to further separate divers from nearby activities, including the Elliott Bay Water Taxi.

This effort began in 2004, when Seattle Parks and Recreation first applied for a permit from the US Coast Guard. That permit application also required endorsements from Army Corps of Engineers, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, and others. Review and discussions continued and finally resulted in a permit to install three navigation buoys, white with orange markings and clearly labeled “WARNING – Watch for Divers.”

Seattle Police Harbor Patrol took the lead on installation of the buoys. Sgt Kevin Haistings partnered with the US Coast Guard to put the anchors in place. Harbor Patrol attached the chains and completed the installation. To protect natural plants or animals along the bottom surface by keeping the chain off the bottom even at the lowest tide, secondary “cantenary” buoys were installed. Parks provided all of the materials for the project.

The City has also installed a series of smaller yellow buoys as a reference point for divers, fishermen, and boaters. These are set along the line that defines the area around the Seacrest pier that is closed to divers. This line and buoys are being maintained by the dive community through an on-going work dives as needed.

Behind the scenes, a small core group of volunteers provided ongoing assistance with these projects. Their expertise, information, and advice helped guide the projects and keep them on track.

“Thanks are due to all of the volunteers who have helped with litter control and used their creativity to find a way to clean the underwater line,” said Parks Aquatics Manager Kathy Whitman. “Their outstanding work has improved safety for all divers. Special recognition is due to Jack Connick of Marker Buoy Dive Club and JD Rowe of the Boeing Seahorses, who have been solid contributors to numerous efforts at Seacrest.”

Seacrest is a heavily used park that offers a combination of active and passive recreation activities. Seattle Parks strives constantly for a balance that ensures that other activities are not affected by changes as they take place at the park. Please be aware of the need to focus on the issues of overuse and increased popularity. Ms. Whitman indicates “We are grateful for the efforts of many recreational divers to educate other divers; these positive contributions help to reduce problems at this popular park.”

Buy a Canon Rebel 350XL or 400xTi & Fantasea Housing?

2006-10-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

Mail call:

Recently I have felt "limited" by some of the capabilities of (my digicam) system, and am seriously considering upgrading. The Canon Digital Rebel Xt (with the Canon kit lens 15 - 55?) (350D) looks like something that I can afford, but I am having a hard time picking a housing/port to suit.

The 350XT Rebel and housing is a great set up and is very affordable as the new 400xTi is coming online.

I'd recommend the 580EX strobe housing for Canon's strobe as a great option that includes TTL and in-camera control. The big advantage is that you also have an awesome topside strobe as well.

I sold a complete F350D setup to a lady in Canada and she likes it quite well, except for a few small things and the lack of an optical viewfinder in that housing.

"The housing itself is a joy - small, light, just enough positive buoyancy in salt water with the Canon 580EX in its housing to be no worries.
The three snaps are great, and I can even open and close all at once. The camera slides into the housing beautifully on its plastic base, no fiddling needed. I even found the little gap under the plate useful for stuffing silica (pouches) They also weren't needed - no moisture (from sweating) in the case - whoopie!" — Jennifer R, Ontario Canada

The good news is that Fantasea is greatly improving their housings for current models, like the 350 XT, the new 400 xTi and Nikon D50, D70 & new D80. They will have an embedded optical viewfinder, better port system, improved trigger/shutter control system and many more improvements. All come standard with a port and flood insurance. The standard Canon port fits the kit lens with zoom gear, but also the 60mm macro lens, which would be my first lens choice. The FD50N & FD70N housing with those features is currently in stock. The other housings are going to be available by early January. I'm promised a Nikon D80 housing and will do a no-BS review.

Bottom line advice? For whatever housing line you choose, I would buy a current camera and housing. You will enjoy all the new features and have a better return on your investment when you go to upgrade. The small difference in cost between a Canon 350XT and a 400xTi is well worth the features. The housings cost about the same for most cameras (around $849 on my site). I haven't seen pricing on the new 400 or Nikon D80 housings, but they tell me it's no more than a $50 or so increase.

OR, buy used. Enjoy the depreciation, use and learn the system, spend the extra money on lenses.

Ike Compact Housing with LED44 & Port Mount

2006-10-19T10:28:00.001-07:00

Ike Compact Housing with LED44
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Having a decent focus light can greatly improve your photography, particularly when shooting macro. The camera locks focus much more quickly and yo can see the critter and frame faster and see your focus point. If you're just using one strobe, then using another arm works fine to hold a light. But if you use two strobes, how can you mount a light, if your housing doesn't have a built-in mount?

Enter Fantasea Line's Port Mount Bracket. Available in three sizes (92, 101 & 104mm) to fit the ports on their DSLR housings, I've adapted it pretty easily to fit my Ikelite Fuji F810/E900 and similar compact housings that use the Ike lens adapter for Inon external lenses. Other housings that have a port with a wider, round shape probably would work as well.

The mount justs fits nicely over the lens mount. You do have to cut it down and re-drill about a 5/16" hole carefully. Clamp the strap down on both sides to a piece of scrap and drill a pilot hole first. Not hard.

The LED44 is a great LED light with a soft, white wide beam. It uses 5 alkaline batteries (I don't recommend rechargeables) and lasts for several days of shooting, like 12-15 dives.

I don't use the Ikelite flash blocker. It is very awkward and falls off. I use a Fantasea optic cable that velcros on the front. Then I just tape off the inside of the housing with tape except for a small area where the cable attaches. You cannot use the internal flash with the lens adapter it results in a big shadow.

There's a few more photos here.
I have the parts for sale as a package:
Fantasea Line LED44 and Port Mount Bracket Package.

Big Fish, Little Fish - Gulf Islands, Day 2

2006-10-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday greeted us with wet, cold, but fortunately, moderate winds. We met down at the Cape Able and loaded our gear, and after a short wait for Erin and the tanks, we got underway. Plan A was to do the wall at Turn Point and the then the McKenzie wreck. But as we motored out Erin was checking with his other boat and decided we'd be best to to do the wreck first, right after the other boat.

We all got in, and dropped on the 366' destroyer in almost no current, descending on the wheelhouse in the middle. Viz was pretty good, maybe 40', at least until the crowd got it silted up.

The wreck is covered in barnacles and white plumose annenomes and although impressive, I couldn't find much to shoot except him in a few poses, so he became the Cosmo Girl for the dive; Ed on the bow, Ed on the guns, etc. I wanted to shoot some available light, but couldn't seem to get the ISO on the camera to change (#@*&%!) and with the silt, it was hard to get much except backscatter.

We poked around, with Paul zooming by us on my scooter having a good time circling the wreck. I shot a few on the accumulations of tube worms and right when we were about to go up a large Cabazon swam by and conveniently lay down next to the rail so i could shoot him from underneath and I got some good shots of the monster. We managed to get back up to the surface of, even with the moderate surface currents that had kicked in.

The second dive was supposed to be the 500' deep wall at Turn Point on Stuart island, back just over the US border, but when got there Erin asked if we'd just as soon do the north side. I took a vote and nobody had any feelings one way or the other so i opted to do the easier dive, being that we were a bit tired. With 20-20 hindsight I wish now we'd done the wall as it is spectacular, but as it turned out several of us had great dives among the ridges and smaller wall on that side, some seeing basket stars, octos, nudibranchs and more. Definitely more photo-friendly.

I was shooting some of the D. albus nudis in several shades of coloration and spotted Greg shooting something below me that looked like a barnacle with fins. Aha, a juvenile Grunt Sculphin, and one fish I haven't shot much, as they are very reclusive. He was all of an inch long soaking wet. My Sulawesi macro diving kicked in, and after a few shots with one macro lens, I stacked another, lay down on the bottom and took some great shots of just his head. Did you know they have bright green eyes?

We motored back to Sidney as the weather finally started clearing off, packed up and took the ferry back to Vancouver enjoying the beauty of the typical PNW "wait-a-minute" weather.

A great weekend with my club dive buddies, and I think we'll do more Gulf Island Getaways next year.

Gulf Islands Getaway - Day 1

2006-10-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm back in the hotel room after along day and dinner. Just did a quick pass through the pics, batteries charging, tired and full of pizza.

Doc Kay is snoring up a storm and I have the Dixie Chicks on my headphones drowning him out.

The day went well, despite missing summer by a day. It's been beautiful for the last 2 weeks, sunny, crisp and clear. Of course today it was thick fog, then wind and rain tonight. More of the same for tomorrow. Ah well, typical PNW weather, we're at home in it.

The boat is excellent and Ogden Pt Dive Centre is doing their usual superb job - by far and away one of the best operators and shops in the area. Erin, the owner, knows these waters well and always is easy to solve a problem, or come up with options. And a really nice guy to boot.

The Cape Able is 45' steel re-designed for diving completely, including a ramp entry, huge stern grate and two easy ladders. A bit snug for 12, but no huge problem once we got organized. Full galley, with a small dinette and propane fireplace, but the wheelhouse is where most of us spent the day watching the scenery (ok - gray water) slip by swapping stories. Comfy, cozy and powerful, everything you want around here.

Dive 1 was at Race Point in Portier Pass, quite a nice wall, we were a bit late getting in and fought the current a bit, but no big deal. Covered with all the usual PNW invertebrates from top to bottom.

Dive 2 was to the SE entrance to Active Pass, Grace Point and this one is going in my log for a place to dive even when a good ebb is running, as even with 4-5 knots out in the pass, we were in an eddy and enjoyed little current and lots of small stuff, capped by a whole herd of Puget Sound King Crabs.

Hope to do the King Kong wall at Turn Point thats 300' deep and the wreck of the HMCS McKenzie, an artificial reef destroyer tomorrow.

Day 2

Low & Dry in Blaine Marina

2006-09-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

Blaine Marina Entrance, Semiahmoo in background

Blaine and Semiahmoo Marina boaters have been left low and dry by recent events. Trillium Corp, a developer and land owner over at Semiahmoo Resort, has decided to not renew Blaine Marine Services lease for their boatyard and gas dock. The land has gotten to be more valuable for condos with even the area for the gas storage tanks in too prime an area. From what I've heard the gas lines are pretty old and corroded as well.

This leaves area recreational boaters pretty much without a gas dock and yard. Blaine Marine Services does have a small yard, but it is limited and you can't DIY your boat there. There is a more commercial yard and gas dock at the end of the peninsula, but they are oriented to larger fishing boats and vessels.

Large power boats that need several hundred gallons of fuel at a time probably won't have too much trouble. But I fill up Maggie May's 20 gallon tank about 3 times a year whether it needs it or not. They aren't going to be very interested in passing down a small line to pump 10 gallons of gas.

There are several yards in Bellingham, one, Padden Creek is changing hands. Point Roberts has a small yard, again you can't do you own work. More distant are some up in the South Fraiser River, Sidney or Anacortes.

So what's a poor boater to do? It's all well and good to make the most of the land, but the recreational attractions that make it valuable in the first place need infrastructure. I guess the developers just want the boats to sit there and look pretty.

Scuttlebutt and a conversation with Blaine Marina office workers revealed a couple of interesting goings-on. The first is that the Port of Bellingham, who runs Blaine Marina, is conducting meetings and starting to work the problem. The second is that all of the tenants out on the end of the peninsula, mostly warehouses and seasonal crab processing plants, want out of their leases. That would open up a lot of land for the port to develop. So there may be space available in the future and an obvious business opportunity for someone to open a yard and fuel dock oriented to recreational boaters with smaller wallets. This is all a new problem and the port understands boaters' concerns and is doing their best to get a handle on the problem.

Hopefully the port can come up with quick ideas to deal with the immediate fuel issue, while they work a more long-term solution. The closing of yards, gas docks and other services, is hurting the marine industry and traditional recreational opportunities.

Have you lost a marine service in your area? Leave a comment below.

Flying on Boeing 125' Down

2006-09-15T00:46:00.000-07:00

Makushila

Four of us went out on Steve Lodge's boat out of Edmonds this evening for a dive out on Puget Sound. The other two guys who joined us are sort of new to the dive club, Eric and Carl. I got up there at 5:45 and we departed shortly thereafter for Boeing Creek Reef just south of Pt Wells. Steve dives here pretty often, it was my second time, although lord knows I've spun my sailboat over it as a race mark about a million times. It was a beautiful evening with the sun out and very calm. Almost no current to speak of.

We let the other guys get in and then the three of us, Steve, Scooter and myself, jumped in and descended in rather good viz conditions. Steve and my dive plan was to scooter over to the south reef area that's deeper. We played around with the scooter for a few minutes then mounted up and I drug Steve along behind over towards the other reef. Problem was that I forgot my compass, as I was using a backup computer, my Oceanic is fried. So we sort of went in a loop out into deeper water a ways. Ok quite a ways. Lot of nice sand, and actually some nice Snakelock anemones and a couple of other deep varieties I hadn't seen before, as normally I don't go about a mile along 125' deep contour.

We stopped and figured out what direction the slope was. Ok, Steve figured out where the slope was. I'm just the driver. Then we motored back up shallower to 75' and found the deeper wall of the reef for a while, and continued back up and enjoyed the fish life at the top. Most of the fish were juvenile rock fish, and we did see 3-4 larger vermillion rockfish, and the other guys they saw some too.

We continued back along the shallow slope north towards the boat, and after doing a mid water safety stop, we surfaced and found the boat a short distance away, very short in scooter distance. So all in all, an adventurous dive that covered a lot of distance. Would of been better if I'd had some idea of where I was going, but why start now.

We pulled the hook and motored back to Edmonds, enjoying the light show put on by distant lightening over the San Juans, and were packed up and in our cars by 9 pm.

it was really nice to get out on the water mid-week and enjoy an evening boat dive.

OpticalOcean Offers Discounted Fantasea Line Products

2006-09-11T14:22:00.001-07:00

I get a lot of email asking what P&S camera people should buy and how to put it together and use. Or they'd like to get into a DSLR system at a reasonable price.

When I tell people I use a fairly cheap Fuji camera, but relatively expensive Inon lenses and strobes, they usually can't afford them. Fantasea Line seems to be the answer for those folks wanting to improve their photography at a reasonable price.

I am branching the OpticalOcean.com site into new areas to help support my habit and help others to afford and enjoy underwater photography. I have been an authorized dealer for Fantasea Line photography products for a few months. They have greatly improved and expanded their products recently and added some cool new accessories.

Fantasea products seem to fill a gap in what's available today and have some innovative accessories as well. I am happy to offer these to my readers at dicounted pricing (around 10-15% off on most, but not all, items). You'll notice a new link on the right to OpticalOcean.JackConnick.com for directly ordering a few items that I think people might be interested in.

As well please feel free to peruse the Fantasea Line website and then email me a list of what items you need, or what system you are interested in for my recommendations and advice. Note, that I have a $99 minimum order, and flat rate postal shipping of $25 per order. You probably will do better going to one of the mail order houses for 1 or 2 small items, I'm more into selling systems and helping people with their questions.

A few new products that we have:
New Olympus 330 DSLR housing, MSRP: $1099, Opticalocean.com: Only $965
Nano Strobe Set 1, cool, small adjustable strobe, tray, fiber optic cord and flex arm. MSRP: $206, OpticalOcean.com: $174
New aluminum B&J arm sets, various lengths of arms are available, as well as connectors, etc. Order individually, or as a set. Medium B&J Arm set MSRP: $117.60, OpticalOcean.com: $101
. Prices subject to change.
I am also interested in hearing what things you'd like me to carry on the website, I will be expanding my direct offerings as time permits and reviewing them here. Please add your comments below.

Inon Artist of the Month

2006-09-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Jack Connick

InonAmerica, the US distributor of Inon (Japan) underwater photo gear, invited me to be their Artist of the Month for September. It's actually quite a nice honor as the roster of past artists includes some pretty good shooters.

From their site:

"I enjoy any type of photography and find it very relaxing, but in shooting underwater I have found my art. The ocean’s ever-changing mystery and colorful life forms are a constant challenge to capture.

After making the switch to digital 2 years ago, I wasn’t ready to give up being able to switch lenses underwater. Inon’s great range of external lenses; stackable macro, wide angle and ultra wide angle dome, combined with my Fuji E900, gives me a complete range to capture the wide variety of subjects I enjoy shooting.

Having shot 3 different companies’ strobes extensively, I have found that the compact Inon Z-240 and D-2000 are powerful and high-tech lighting solutions, allowing much faster camera cycling and several automatic functions that work with my compact digital camera very well.

Overall, I have found Inon products to be extremely well engineered, rugged and very reliable, whether shooting in the warm waters of Indonesia or cold waters of the Pacific Northwest."

See: InonAmerica
Inon Gallery: Jack Connick - Artist of the Month

Graceful Diving

2006-08-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

Oil Rig Grace

Oil Rig Grace
Drifting down in the clear, blue, calm waters under Oil Rig Grace, I couldn't believe how lucky we were to have such great conditions. As we went down I kept having to put more and more air into my drysuit and thought I was overweighted, until I glanced at my depth gauge that was reading 97 feet. Huh, it felt like 67 feet. The blue water was a surprise, as conditions while warmer (65F+), generally are very similar to the Pacific Northwest. My dive buddy Margaret leveled off at our agreed upon 100' depth, and we marveled at the pilings and structure completely covered in strawberry and white Metridium anemones, sponge and many other invertebrates.

I came down to California from Seattle to visit my Mom and as always, worked in a couple of days diving with some friends from DigitalDiver.net. We dove off The Peace, one of my favorite boats. Eric and his crew always are wonderful to dive with, and their Wednesday specials are a great deal; usually going out to San Miguel or the Oil Rigs with tons of great food all day long.

Oil platform Grace has had a checkered history and was the source of a large oil spill in it's early years. Now the company that owns it has opened it to divers for PR purposes and to publicize that environmentalists that want complete removal of the platforms are actually destroying large amounts of underwater habitat. It is covered in it's entire 320' depth with life of all kinds, is also home to sea lions and the occasional pelagic as it is in blue water. We did not see large amounts of fish, just a few Rockfish and smaller Greenlings.

We enjoyed perfect conditions all day with just a little current and poorer visibility on the third dive. The 26 divers on the boat were divided into 2 groups and it made for a fairly relaxed day. I was diving an E119 with EAN32 which gave me long bottom times and a small nitrogen load. When I overstayed the rest of my group on the last dive, The Peace simply dropped the second group and picked me up when I was done. No fuss, no muss. On the way home, Capt. Eric found a nice pod of dolphins to play with for a while, putting a capper on a great day.

Rushing around Santa Cruz
The second day Robin, Ron and myself dove off The Spectre and older (nee ancient) charter boat from Ventura, as The Peace was booked. What a contrast, although it's a larger boat, they crowd up to 40 divers on The Spectre. Many are newer divers it seemed, a few instructors with students in tow.

We were lucky to only have 28 that day and took off in calm conditions to do 3 dives on the north side of Santa Cruz island. Before getting into the water at the first site (Lobster Spot) I asked how long I could stay out and was told an hour. Coming back after 65 mins I was yelled at by the DM for staying out 1:20 after the gate had been opened, which was BS, as I was the first one out the other gate, when the captain had opened it across from the DM. This set the tone for the day, as after we zoomed to another site (Potato Rock) the gates were opened with only a 35 min surface interval.

I cut my dives to 45-50 mins the second two times, and as I was diving the equivalent of a 100cf in 50' of water I came back with nearly half my air. Again a rushed 35 min surface interval, this time while wolfing down (a decent) lunch and changing camera batteries. Rush, rush, rush. Overall the diving was so-so, no kelp and the critters a little hard to find after the first site. We did see some cool little Decorator Crabs, Spanish Shawl nudis, a lobster, and at the last site an array of a few fish. But in my experience they were very mediocre compared to sites I've dove on Anacapa, Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands (See Diving Miguel). Suffice to say I won't dive on The Spectre again, and don't recommend it to more experienced divers or photographers.

See Photos at: Channel Islands Photo Set

Flying & Diving in 3/4's Time

2006-08-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Scooter

Finally got back to do some diving this weekend at Sucia Island. Chip, Paul and I took off on my boat from Blaine on Saturday morning with a load of scuba gear, tanks and even my new scooter. During the off-season I had found a decent older 10' Zodac inflatable that with a little gluing back together of the transom and floor, was in great shape. Paul came up with the wonderful idea of putting our bcs on one set of tanks, inflating them and then lashing them down, so that even in the event the boat flipped, the tanks would still be buoyant and tied down. We actually had plenty of room for the rest of the gear in my 28' sailboat, putting the scooter at night in the cockpit.

Making good time in the ebb to Sucia we anchored, had lunch and slowly got ready to dive the outside of Ewing Island at the end of Echo Bay. I had calculated that we didn't want to start the first dive until at least 4-4:30 pm, with slack at 7 pm. We filled up a load of gear in the Zodiac and motored over to see where we could find a spot to stage a shore dive from. I like the east end best, but there has been a large pod of harbor seals there, and in one spot a small seal was sleeping, so we came back to the middle and found a perfect spot, with a sort of boat harbor that allowed us to pull the dink into the rocks to unload.

With the heat of the day upon us, we decided to suit up in our drysuits in the shade of the island, and after another trip back and forth to the boat, we were able to get in the water on time with little difficulty.

The wall there is a jumble of boulders small, large and house-sized, with quite a few fish and invertebrates and a nice kelp forest along the shallower edge. But it does drop-off to 100' sharply, and slightly further out to 150-180'.

I was trying my Apollo dive scooter out for the second time and thought that maybe I could take some video with my Fuji E900. Unfortunately, I had left the handle for my HID light at home and had to deal with it too. Along with being overweighted with all this stuff by at least 4#, I was task-loaded to the max. I scootered along uncomfortably for a while, but decided to come back and leave off the camera to simplify things.

I had seen Paul and Chip drifting quite a ways in the mild current, and when I went back I found them swimming back against the current. I stopped, flipped out the towing handles and gestured to them to grab hold. We weren't well-balanced, but that little scooter did a great job of motoring the three of us in bulky drysuits and gear back to where we started. They decided since they had plenty of air, they would continue the other direction again with the current, as it split along the wall, going in two directions. So I zoomed around for a while, took one long loop down to 100', checked out the house-sized boulders there, and came back up, grabbed them and took them back again. Talk about a taxi service.

The second dive I left the scooter and just did a mellow dive, showing the guys the ruble down deep and taking photos. Highlights included a school of Yellow-tail rockfish, a rare Tiger rockfish, a Mossy-headed Warbonnet, nudibranchs and even a juvenile Puget Sound King crab hiding in a deep hole the small width as it!

Surfacing, we got out of our gear as a beautiful twilight descended, went back to the boat for a couple of rib-eyes and lots of beer.
View Video Here
View Photos here

I won a Freakin' Scooter!

2006-07-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Holy prop blades batman! I got sucked into sticking around Dive Fair at Underwater Sports annual sale today. Worked our Marker Buoy Dive Club booth and figured I might as well stay for the final drawings. Imagine my surprise as they counted down the ticket numbers..."6...0...5" huh? That's me!!!

I was offered either the new Apollo AV-2 scooter, a brand-new model that lists for $2500, (at the fair for $1600), or a mystery envelope. The crowd said stay with the scooter and I'm glad I did, as in the envelope was only a certificate for a new DUI drysuit. Already got a couple of them... :-)

Anyway, I now have a whole new way to get myself into lots of trouble...100 mins at 230 feet; gee, will I go into deco?

Wow cool toy, can't wait to dive off my boat with it. Think I'll rig it James Bond style with spearguns and torpedoes...Now how do I mount my HID light and camera....hmmm

It comes with a sort of an odd side-saddle, you actually ride it between your legs and even tow buddies. Not quite sure how that's going to work in drysuits, but it'll be fun to see if we can figure it out. I found some video on the Apollo International site: Steering the AV1 (It takes a min or so to load on broadband, probably much longer if you have a modem. Hit the little blue arrow when it becomes lit to view.) This is of the older AV1 unit, the new AV2 has variable speed, longer life and faster speed, amongst a host of improved features.

That's gonna be me, gliding along! Watch out for the rock!!!!

Thanks again to our club sponsor Underwater Sports and to Apollo for their donation!

Puget Sound on the Rocks

2006-07-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Dirona w/Feather worm.1

I was able to get out yesterday and enjoy the great weather on my friend's boat. We did a couple of local sites; China Wall off Blakely Rock and KVI Tower Reef on Vashon Isand. The first was pretty ho-hum, I managed to find it ok, but my friend (who's dove it "dozens" of times), lead his group over the top of it and never went deep enough. Then when they surfaced to figure things out they found that the wind had changed and the boat's rudders were a foot away from the rocks! We did find some nice rockfish, sponge formations and other assorted critters.

The second dive was much better at KVI Reef, a man-made boulder garden off a small harbor on Vashon Island, southwest of Seattle. It's loaded with critters large and small. Viz was pretty good, as it has been cleaning up lately all over the sound. We saw lots of fish, nudibranchs, nice sponge and feather worms. My dive buddy spotted a large octopus, but I was too far away to see her waving her light at me.

These were the first few dives with my new Inon 240z strobe as well as the D2000, and it worked out pretty well. I tried shooting with it close-in in AE mode with the D2000 in manual. I was concentrating on trying to use the left for a key light and the right as fill, so as to not have flat lighting.

I don't know, the more I try the auto modes, the more I just go back to wanting manual mode and knowing where I'm at. I hate when devices think they're smarter than I (of course they usually are...).

The Optical Ocean Blog is Now at OpticalOcean.com!

2006-07-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've re-pointed the OpicalOcean.com url to here as the blog will now be the central point of my focus and link to trip reports, photo galleries, slide shows and the like. It will also help search engines find it and be easier to remember.

I've had that url pointing to my .Mac gallery for many years, picking up over 10,500 hits. Most of what's on there are older galleries and film work. I will probably be reorganizing it, reformatting some of the material and eliminating some junk. But it's not going away. There's a link to it and the longer Trip Reports to the right, or see Older Optical Ocean Web Gallery.

My most current photo work will be on Flickr. I have also already moved some of the best of what's on the .Mac site to Flickr.

For right now, I will continue to have Blogger host the blog and the url (http://opticalocean.blogspot.com/) will remain the same, but in the future I may have the blog hosted elsewhere, so you'd be best to change url links to here to http://OpticalOcean.com.

What's upcoming? Reports from my 13 day dive trip to North Sulawesi, two upcoming trips to dive in California (in Aug. and Dec.), a trip up to the Gulf Islands in British Columbia in October, a return trip to the Truk Odyssey, Seattle Aquarium dives, sailing trip reports and tips, photo tips, as well as lots of local reports and photos. Bookmark, subscribe to the RSS feed and check back! Oh, if you enjoy the blog consider sending a small Paypal donation to the camera fund, gear is expensive...

Optical Ocean Photos in NW Dive News

2006-07-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

White-spotted Anenome

Some of my photos of the Straits and Cape Flattery were used in an article in NW Dive News this month. Thought you might enjoy a peek.

See:NW Dive News also see my original trip report at: Road Trip! and Cape Fattery Flickr Set

Best 20' Dive in Puget Sound

2006-06-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Seattle Aquarium dome tank

I have been training and volunteering at the Seattle Aquarium the last few months.

We had the 5 session "boot camp" and then have been working around the exhibits, as well as taking an additional 5-6 "Aquaversity" classes on different animals, giving presentations, infrastructure, etc. Maybe 50 hrs of training or more. We were supposed to work 100 hours in the exhibits before moving on to other things if we wanted to.

But as they are short of divers, they moved us up into the dive program a lot sooner. We provided some documentation and had our open water check out dives. Safety drill review and basic skills assessment.

Mine was interesting as the Diving Safety Officer Jeff not only had me do buddy breathing (as well as air sharing), but had me do a buddy breathing ascent. Said since I was an old timer I had that training and he wanted to see me use it. Yeah right, about 30 years ago...My buddy's skills weren't the best and he had a us rocketing up from 40' and I had to ask him for air twice on the way up! Oh well, we passed, and it was a good skill review. Glad I didn't go pop!

So now I had my orientation dive in the dome tank this morning. Of course, I can't just go in with scuba. No, Jeff has me train up on an Aga full face mask (in 15 mins), surface supplied air and comms. Also their new backpack, bc, etc. So I have to figure out a weight belt, best way to work my hood with the mask, etc. as well as where everything is and how the system works. How to clear my nose and all that good stuff. Not to mention all the dome stuff and watch out for the sturgeon! And don't forget to breathe deeply and fully, so you don't get a CO2 build-up and pass out! Intense!

I think Jeff just throws stuff at you and you literally sink or swim with it! He does gauge his trainees ability to learn pretty well though.

The first attempt he had me put my hood inside out (skin side out) and the mask cinched over it. OK, except I was an instant cone head with air inside the hood. So then we just put the hood on like normal and the mask on, then peeled the hood over the lip of the mask. Golden.

I was paired with Eric, who was an excellent teacher and professional diver. Great, patient guy who took me through all of the above. Using the Aga went away quickly and after raising the tank on the backpack (to the delight of the crowd inside watching), my trim and weighting was fine. Having comms was amazing - to be able to talk and discuss situations and dome infrastructure was very cool. Nice to have your face out of the water and the visibility from the Aga was very good. We will also be able to talk to the crowd and have them ask questions too. He showed me around and went over a few basic tasks around the tank.

It was all too fun and I am totally psyched to do the Tues afternoon feedings every other week. Hell, I might do something every week if I have the time.

Of course I'm totally trying to get on the 6 gill shark tagging dive team, but i've gotta walk before I can run (swim before we can dive?)...I wanna shoot some of them 12' sharkies with my dome lens! Being a photographer helps my cause.

Volunteering at the Seattle Aquarium, while a big time commitment, it is truly a lot of fun.

Low Profile Keystone Dive

2006-05-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hermissenda crassicornis-03

Wow, what a nice morning for a dive at Keystone Ferry Jetty. Sunny skies and small ferry lines greeted us. Hiller was nice enough to drive and we made easy time up to the park. There was a class going on, but we timed our entry to their exit and had most of the jetty to ourselves until the very end when the thundering herd and clouds of newby divers came by.

One instructor even kneeled on my fin as I took a shot, so I decided to use him as a foot stop and levered myself up! We could of shared our dive with fellow club members, but no one else showed up. Too bad!

Current was very low, we were near slck, so we went out to the end and even slightly around. I really was (trying to) focused on my camera and Hiller had better situational awareness of where we were. Viz was cloudy and up and down, maybe 10-15' - I've seen much better and worse. Certainly ok for a good poking around, and I found many Janolus fiscus nudis and one other Hermessenda crassicornis to shoot. Lots of the usual big Lings and Kelp Greenlings, which seemed happy the kelp was growing in so quickly. Hiller spotted only on octo and it blew a cloud of sand in his face and scooted back further into it's hole. We had a long hour dive to around 55' maybe.

We grabbed some food and had only a one boat wait back off the island.

Racing the Tide

2006-04-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

Puget Sound King Crab

Last weekend, April 7-9th, I ran a drive trip up to Victoria, BC Canada to dive with Ogden Point Dive Centre at the famous Race Rocks in the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

There were 8 divers, plus one non-diving shopper, along. Four of us drove up early enough on Friday to get in a shore dive at the Ogden Point breakwater, right out the back door of the shop. You just walked out on the cement seawall and went in at the marked site of your choosing. It was a pretty good dive and we saw lots of huge ling cod. Nice setup with rinse tanks, showers and lockers afterwards at the shop.

We stayed the weekend at Hotel Douglas, an older hotel downtown that was centrally located a couple of blocks up from Swan's Pub and brewery, our home away from home.

Normally groups do one day at Race Rocks and one day diving the wrecks on the other side of the Saanich Peninsula. But as we had great tides most of the weekend, the group had opted to stay on the straits side. Personally I'm not all that enamored with a lot of the artificial reefs up there. They're too clean, no bones to pick over.

The weather was ok, although we had rain Saturday night, both days it was fairly calm and dry, which was great, as a couple of folks on board suffer from mal de mer easily and it can get very rough.

Saturday's dive at West Race wall was very memorable. We had about a .43 max current that day, and we were diving at slack! We had just a little surface current that let up about 20' down, other than that it was completely still. This is a site where currents top 11 knots at times! I went down and came back up at the same spot.

Incredible color and invertebrates everywhere. Walls covered in large, pink Snakelock Anemones, sponge, tunicates, barnacles and more. Saw a huge Puget Sound King Crab, as well as a small one just after it had molted, and an unusually colored Cabazon that was mostly white on it's back. Basket Starfish and large formations of purple coral were another favorite of mine. After a pleasant break in nearby Pedder Bay, we did a second dive at Main Race. it was a nice boulder field, not as good as West Race, but I did get some great shots of a totally tame, female Kelp Greenling that posed for my camera, then turned around to give me her better profile.

Sunday we dove West Race again, getting in a little early, as the tide was about 15 mins late. That had us clinging to the rocks, and huddling under some outcroppings, until it turned and we could enjoy a gentle ride. I was on a mission to photograph some Crackback Shrimp, which only live under Snakelock Anemones. The one time previously I had photographed them they were tiny about 1/2" long. I poked amongst the anemones for most of the dive, shot some small Fabellina verrucosa nudibranchs. Paul found a large Mossyhead Warbonnet and Ed found a small Wolf Eel, just having turned into it's intermediate size. Finally at the end of the dive, I found a giant Crackback, about 2", which is huge for them! Got so excited I almost ran out of air shooting it. It was very satisfying to find a fairly obscure animal by knowing it's habitat.

The last dive we did was at Pt Albert on the way back, but other than shooting one Hudson's yellow Margin nudibranch, I had a bad dive in the silty area. With my mask leaking buckets, I aborted early. But that's diving and the dives at Race Rocks left me with great memories of unbelievable color and life.

Photos at: Ogden Point Breakwater, West Race Wall, Main Race.

Fuji F810 to E900 Camera. The Upgrade Rocks!

2006-03-31T22:20:00.000-08:00

EMP walls

I got my new Fuji E900 and I couldn't be more pleased with the upgrade from my trusty F810.

Although the lens system is the same and the sensor isn't radically different, somehow Fuji did a lot of fine-tuning behind the scenes. it is now a 9MP camera and shoots 18MP RAW files (I shoot almost exclusively in RAW). I'm noticing that the images are noticeably sharper, have even richer color and come out of Camera RAW with little needed corrections, or just auto corrections. And that's off the first "roll" today.

The camera usability is much improved. First off I like the grip, at least for a guy it's much better, I can really wrap my hand around it and the rubber on it feels secure. Much of the camera can be worked with the right hand (don't know how south-paws are going to like it). Gone is the slide switch and roller for adjusting exposure, everything is push-buttons, which should also translate to easier use uw. Hit a button as you bring it up to your face and it's ready to roll.

The screen is a vast improvement, although slightly bigger, it is much, much easier to see in the sun and has larger numbers for us old folks. There is now a real-time histogram that you can actually see. Better feedback from the ready light, also lets you know when focus is achieved.

Why anyone makes a camera that uses other than AA batteries, I don't know. I now have an endless supply and can standardize my batteries to all my uses. As technology improves with larger capacity batteries, so will my camera. write times are pretty good, I did notice that the flash is a bit slower to recharge.

A few new features in the software; one I like is that the continual auto focus can now be switched on, and doesn't require two hands to depress the button while also shooting, like the F810. Nice feature for action shots. ISO 800 is now available in all MP settings, as well as RAW. The later might be interesting to play with for some deep available light shots using a magic filter perhaps.

They put the photometry into the menu, instead of on the 4-way button, which I preferred and I really did like the auto close of the flash on the F810, as well as the durable metal body. The RAW setting is even more buried, the setting menus now have layers, so it's like down 4, over 1, down 3, over 1 and adjust. Why they won't put it under the "f" button is beyond me. Chroma issues remain about the same, although I need to do some more testing.

But man, for $300 this is a sweet camera! Now to buy the Ike housing and Inon strobe, etc and get it wet!

Behrens Helps Me Identify Doris montereyensis

2006-03-26T23:49:00.000-08:00

I wrote to the Sea Slug Forum:

"Looking for an id on this guy. About the closest I can find is Diaulula sandiegensis, and Dave Behrens notes that the spots can be different or missing."

Behrens replies: "Actually this is the white variation of Doris montereyensis (previously Archidoris montereyensis). This white variation always confuses folks, so don't sweat it. Diaulula has a velvety looking dorsal surface due to the spicules protruding from tiny tubercles. Doris has much larger, rounded tubercles like in your photo. Just like the common yellow form of this species, the black spots extend over some of the tubercles."

Best wishes,
Dave Behrens
Behrens, D.W., 2006 (Mar 27). Comment on Diaulula sandiegensis? from Puget Sound by Jack Connick. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Locality: Rosario Beach - Urchin Rocks, Deception Pass State Park, 30', Washington, USA, Rosario Strait, Puget sound, Pacific ocean, 18 March 2006, Rocky crevice. Length: 3.5". Photographer: Jack Connick.

Posession Point Redeux

2006-03-26T12:05:00.000-08:00

I'm between strobes, etc due to upgrading, but took some above water shots from our club boat dive trip yesterday off Possession Point at the south end of Whidbey island in Puget Sound.

We dove our favorite site, the sunken ferry there, and then did a second dive at "The Fingers" around the corner.

Posession Point Diving

Topside support personnel got fairly seasick in the chop and my dive buddy Dr. Kay had a runaway regulator at the surface, so I dove solo. Had a great dive on the wreck, no current and decent vis. Saw two Giant Red Dendronotid nudis, one was laying eggs. They are about 10" long and look like soft coral. Lots of large ling cod, but I didn't see Big Bertha, who is as big as I am. Had a couple of fouled anchors.

We managed to drag into another boat and get their anchor snagged on our prop. Had to set another anchor, tension it and then unsnag ourselves. Of course then we'd missed the current window and most on our boat scotched a second (or third) dive. But all had a good time.

More at: Possession Point Boat dive

Rosy Rosario

2006-03-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Urchin Rocks

The Marker Buoy dive club held a shore dive at Rosario Beach, in Deception Pass State Park on Saturday.
I was able to get a ride with friends, and we arrived right at the meet time of 9 am, unlike our trip organizer, Carl, who arrived about 45 mins late, wondering why he had scheduled it so early. No problem, as we weren't hitting slack anyway. Others had had their dog chew their dive under-garments, or had a run-in with the State Police as regards the speed limit. So we moved pretty slowly, but got ready and hiked the fair distance on a good path to enter the water close to Urchin Rocks. I had a few problems getting in (like forgetting to turn on my air), but one of my buddies, Matt, got me straightened out and we swam out to begin the dive.
When we went down the visibility was terrible, like diving in 2% milk, apparently a fairly common occurrence at this site, due to the river run-off from the Skagit. We lost track of each other pretty quickly. As depths were quite shallow (around 30-35'), and I had previously told Matt and Mary Alice not to worry about me as I was taking pictures, there wasn't any problem. Most dive teams had the same problems and got lost and separated as well, swimming out too far on the shallow flats and loosing track of the rocks. Some made it to Rosario Head and reported a nice wall and better depths, but only two made it around the head to Sharpe Cove on the other side, due to adverse currents.
I fiddled around the rocks trying to find critters to shoot - not having too much luck as even with macro the vis was so bad I couldn't really see the focus and exposure of my shots.

I kept the rocks to my left and ended up going through the middle slot and after finding the rocks then to my right, I gave up and surfaced to get some bearings. Funny, I could see a sea of divers' heads poking up in the distance like otters looking around for a meal!
I dove back down as I had lots of gas left, and swam around the north end of the rocks and ended up back with Mary Alice to swim back in. At least we started and ended the dive together!
Most divers agreed that the rocks and particularly Rosario Head would be a good dive in better conditions, and would like to try it again. The best comment I heard was; "My buddy kept pointing things out, but I couldn't see his hand!"
The best part of the day for all was having a picnic and hiking around park to enjoy the views and sunshine.
Photos are at: Rosario Beach shore dive

Bonfire of the Boathouse

2006-03-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

Burned Trojan - Aft

I came up Saturday to my sailboat that I keep at Blaine Harbor Marina. My mission was to dive on my, and Jim's boat to replace the zincs and check them out. Not a fun job and one that I've put off for better weather. Zinc anodes are placed underwater on boats as sacrificial anodes that corrode faster than brass. Otherwise props, thru-hull valves and other fittings will rot.

I was amazed to see that my zincs we're in decent shape, even after a year. Jim's were even better. I cleanned up the props and shafts of barnacles and crud. Surfacing, I found two other boat owners talking to Jim and asking if I could check out their nearby boats. Oh well, make a friend.

One was a mess, but the bottom paint looked ok, so I advised an in-out haul and pressure wash to change his zincs. Jim's friend Bob had a trawler whose zinc also had about 4 months left on it, so I left well enough alone. Seems like Blaine Marina has got excellent electrical characteristics. Not so at some marinas where zincs only last 4 months. Out of the water, throw my gear in my dingy, and on to the 5th (!) boat, a Cruise-a-Home.

It's props and rudders were the worst of the lot, looked like a seafood buffet; barnacles, mussels, sponge, tunicates and lots of crud. Scraping it filled the water with a huge cloud of crud, so I had to work blind. Again, after a year, he still had some zincs left, maybe 25%. I started in adding and changing the 2 shaft zincs and hull plate. All went well until I dropped one screw and he didn't have a spare. But I left it in a lot better order, and will finish the job in a couple of months.

Hauling myself out of the water, I was cold and tired. After motoring back to my boat, and cleaning up my gear, my new friend Bob invited us back over to his trawler for a drink. Jim doesn't drink, but Bob and I tucked into a fifth of Jack Daniels and left it half empty in a couple of hours, swapping racing and boating "stories".

After we went out to dinner, I retired to my boat and was reading at around 11 pm when a boat in the boathouse across from me blew up and caught fire.

I heard shouts and stuck my head out my hatch to see sparks and flames shooting out from a fairly new 37' Trojan powerboat down the slipway from me. It wasn't a huge fire, but was very smokey. I heard sirens, but called 911 anyway. After that, I ran down the dock to get anyone else up and alert, so they could move their boats, or get out if it got worse. My friends Alan and Tammy soon joined me to watch the fire and ponder our options on moving our boats.

Not a good move, as we would of had to go past the fire. There was a sprinkler system and it was keeping the fire from spreading, thank god. About then, after maybe 20-25 minutes or so, the fire department got down to the boat, put a hose on it and vented the boathouse.

The Canadian-owned Trojan was pretty much destroyed on it's aft-end, but wasn't causing a spill, so the USCG wasn't called. One other man who lives aboard a boat a few slips down was taken to the hospital for a checkup after inhaling some smoke. Other boats were sooty, but undamaged for the most part. No question that had there not been a sprinkler system, the whole boathouse would of gone up. It would of been very hard to put out with the limited fire resources that Blaine has.

Still, a sad sight, I hope the owners didn't loose too much that can't be replaced.

Rocking Out on Puget Sound

2006-02-25T22:35:00.000-08:00

Got to do a day of diving at Possession Point on the south end of Whidbey Island today on my dive buddy Doc Kay's Carver 37 powerboat.

The weather was mild, but quite cold this morning with a frigid breeze blowing off snow covered mountains. We were eager to jump in the 43F water and warm up!

We had 6 divers on our boat and another "hanger on", Steve Lodge in his small powerboat rafted to our side. After waiting for the current to slack, we split into 2 groups to dive. Doc and I got in after the first group came up and descended on the old ferry wreck there, really the only large wreck in Puget Sound within recreational limits. Viz was murky around 20' at best. The wreck is one of my favorite dives here, covered with Plumose Anenomes and teaming with rockfish, lingcod, perch and invertibrates. Many of the rockfish here are huge and very old, large ones are 80-90 years old!

We did a second dive nearby but the surface current was ripping pretty hard and I decided that safety was more important that taking pictures. Of course, once down on the bottom, it wouldn't of been a problem and we saw even more life there. Oh well, we're going back next month.

Don’t Scratch the Octopus Between the Eyes!

2006-02-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

Note: this is an older story, but a good one, from an encounter a couple of years ago...
My good friend Doc Kay has been busy retaking his diving medicine boards, family, and like, and readily agreed to my suggestion we take the good boat Komokwa (a beautiful Carver 37’) out for some scuba diving recently.

Seven of us showed up at 8:30 am; Ed Kay, Randy Williams and Randi Weinstein, Steve Lacey, Paul Riggs, my girlfriend and myself. After loading the usual ton of gear, we got underway and through the locks quickly.

Reaching Blakely Rocks, the tide was starting to slack, so we got ready to dive taking a while for each buddy pair to get dressed and into the water. Going down the buoy line we ran into stronger than expected currents and poor visability, maybe 15' or so. I gave my girlfriend the 10-cent tour, taking her to the wolf eel den, where they surprised us with a large egg mass that they were tending. We enjoyed some of the small anemones, sponge and nudibranchs as we went back over the top of the ridge to go back down the slope to the deeper part of the dive. We reached 70' or so and started to swim through the boulder garden down there and look for other critters. Swimming along, I saw one of the boulders had eyes.

Huh? Yup, we did a double take. Here was one of the largest Giant Pacific Octopus I had ever seen, out in the open, sitting on a rock, blending into it with a brown and white mottling. It was just humongous, with a head about 2.5 basketballs large. It was about the size of my girlfriend and when it stretched out its arms to examine us, it was probably 12-15' arm to arm and least 80-100#. And it was in no way scared. Quite the opposite, it was looking at us for, or to be, food or a sexual partner.

We shook hands with it and we started to examine each other. Even with us both hitting the Octo with our powerful HID lights, it was just curious. It was pretty aggressive and we kept backing off and then petting it when it turned its attention on the other diver. It tried to put an arm over my friend's mask and she wasn't too happy with that idea, nor was I when it grabbed my gauge console. Tina got on the other side of me, as I cavalierly patted it on the head and scratched it between the eyes. Well, my cats like it…

Note: DO NOT DO THIS TO 100#, 15' MOLLUSKS WITH 8 ARMS.

It had had enough of me playing with it, and suddenly flew up vertically so that all I was seeing was 15' feet of suckers and mouth flying at me. I'm not sure quite what I did, sort of a twisting, backwards half gainer. The Octo then swam off with a spurt and landed on a rock and glared at us in the gloom. We also had had enough, and swam the heck back up the slope. After circling around a bit (and seeing another Octo way back in the middle of a rock (where they should be), we spotted Randy and the others and found the buoy line, about an hour's dive to 70' max. This was certainly one of the most aggressive encounters I have had with these magnificent creatures. They usually are timid, or curious, but not aggressive.

Another great day on, and under, the water in Puget Sound.

Has my Ship Come in?

2006-02-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

On a busy day in Puget Sound, it seems like the freighters and tugs go by at 10 minute increments. As I look out the window I often wonder what the names of the ships are.

UAIS (Universal Automatic Identification system) is all the rage among geeky boat owners of any size in busy shipping lanes. With a system of a receiver, antenna, and a display or laptop computer with navigation software, you can see most of the large or passenger carrying vessels and a lot of information about them. If you have a GPS you can determine your closest approach, etc. This is in many ways much better than radar and a fraction of the cost. a system for a small sailboat like mine is maybe $3-400. The USCG has a section describing AIS and Panbo's Marine Electronics Blog has many articles on this new service.

Enter Sea Links. From their website; "SEALINKS operates the world's first live AIS-to-Web network and is currently tracking AIS activity with RADARPLUS SL161R units installed around Puget Sound, Washington, USA. The network is expanding to include additional ports throughout the United States and around the globe. It looks like they also have the upper east coast covered now.

By going to these websites you can get a chart display of the ship's names, tracks, and other info from the internet. So I can pull up a page and say to myself; "Hmm, that's the Hajin Copenhagen going by. I wonder why the Navios Aurora has been anchored out there for two days..."

I'll eventually add this equipment to my boat, although my home port of Blaine isn't in the busiest shipping area, most of the ships run to the west.

New Blog "Skin"

2006-02-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

I've redesigned the layout and look and feel of the site. I've also added slideshow links to many articles that have some, but not all, of the photos that are in the Flickr galleries. In addition, I've added some direct links to major trip reports over on the right-hand column.

The black background shows off the photos better, but I'm not sure how readers will like the legibility.

Let me know what you think, or any problems you encounter with different browsers. Please leave comments below.

Cruising at Cove Two

2006-02-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

Harbor Seal - NOAA
Each week my dive club does a Thursday night dive at a couple of different locations. Makes a nice break and keeps our skills current. Diving is a sport best practiced often.

Last night's dive at Seacrest Cove 2 in West Seattle, was a bit different in terms of what we didn't see and then what we did.

I was asked to lead our trio of divers on a tour of the I-beams and maybe back over to the rope barrier to see if we could spot some Giant Pacific Octopus there. There was a lot of fresh water on the surface of the cove and the tide was extremely low, making getting in the dark water hazardous due to broken pilings and cement slabs that are easy to trip on. But we managed and swam out in the milky green water to the white buoy.

Descending, I lead the group over to the large 3" hawser line (that I and a group of friends installed a couple of years ago). This leads down to the old I-beams, part of an old dory launching rig from the marina that was there for many years. Over time, white plumose anemones, sponge, other invertebrates and fish have claimed it as a home. It makes a good training dive as depths at the outer end are around 106'.

But not last night. It was only 86', so we could enjoy a good long look around. But there wasn't much to see.

Fuzzy Mouse Nudibranch
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

The two very pretty vermillion rockfish were cowering under a beam. No large Cabazon around, or Mossy-Headed Warbonnets that usually are tucked away there. I saw some eggs and one old, dead Fuzzy Mouse nudibranch.

Coming up a bit shallower, we swam over to the line to a group of old fish bins. Saw several ling cod egg masses, with no parent fish nearby. No octos. A silt cloud was present, but no lights indicating divers. Very strange.

Then a black shape went whizzing by over my shoulder. Can you jump under water? I did.

Cruising in and out of our lights were two large, spotted, harbor seals that were stirring up the bottom. These are fairly common place here and often become part of a dive "team". But these were quite large, looked like a mated pair, with the male around 8' long. It was like having a guided missile come blasting past your mask!

They chased fish to and fro, peering under the bins, and generally startled the heck out of us swimming out of the dark. But they were fun to watch and it always gets my heart thumping to be close to a big animal like them.

As I was doing my safety stop it occurred to me that these animals have been cleaning out the cove of fish, making everything hide, or risk becoming dinner!

Writers Cramp?

2006-02-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

I'll try to keep this blog from getting too camera tech-oriented. There's enough on the net on that.. But from time to time, I will touch on tech topics that affect UW photography.

One of these is write speed for digicams like my Fuji F810. If you're photographing fish, or using up your air supply waiting for a camera to write a file, it is frustrating to spend an extra 3-4 secs on each shot. Like a lot of photographers now, I shoot almost exclusively in RAW format so that I have the ability to post-process files. But RAW files are large, around 12MB on the F810 and 18MB on the E900.

Toshiba (branded by Olympus, Fuji and I'm sure Sandisk and Kodak) has started shipping a new format of xD cards called type H, as opposed to the Type M cards, released last year. Reports are that the newer 1 GB type H card is writing at around 5 secs on the F810. So I sold my type M and ordered one. But I also have two 512MB xD cards.

I decided to see what the difference in RAW write speed between the newer type M and an even older "no-type" 512MB card was. The answer surprised the heck out of me.

This was a decidedly un-scientific comparison. I did reinitialize the cards in the camera before timing, as this makes a difference of 10-15%. The cards were writing a 12.5MB RAW file.

I also wanted to see if it made a difference having Image View set to: on/off/preview.

It did:

With the type M card having the preview set to "On", it was ~8.5 secs. Having it "Off" it was ~8 secs. Having it set to "Preview" (where you ok the shot) it was ~6 secs.

With the older card having the preview set to on, it was ~6 secs. Having it off was ~6 secs. Having it set to preview it was only 3 secs! This is my preferred way of shooting, btw.

So the older xD card was 2x as fast! This seems astounding as both types of cards are supposed to write at 2.5MB/sec, which makes sense for the times on the type M one.

So guess I'll hang on to that older one. The type M sure wasn't much of an improvement overall.

Sure would like to see what the write times are for the type H 512MB cards, in both the F810 and the newer E900. I think it'd be similar to these. Please post any results you have as comments.

Update
I've now used the 1 GB Type H card in my Fuji F810 and am getting the same write speeds of around 5-6 secs with view on and around 3 secs write time when Preview is on. Or around 40% faster. There was a noticeable speed difference when shooting yesterday and I'm much happier with the camera and it's card capacity/speed now. A friend reports that the 512MB Type H cards are working at the same speed, they aren't any faster.

I'd definitely recommend upgrading/buying the much faster type H xD cards rather than the type M cards that are prevalent in the marketplace.

Puget Sound to Get Wrecked?

2006-02-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

Local divers here in Puget Sound have long looked wistfully to our northern cousins and wished we could convince our state government that artificial reefs and wrecks are a win-win-win for everyone and the environment.

We've been faced with a State Department of Natural Resources and State Department of Wildlife that are not only not in favor, but against the idea. Mainly their view is that "any action may be the wrong action". That was a quote from a speaker (a state biologist) at our dive club recently. The speaker's view was that any noticeable increase of fish populations are just fish moving from one area to another. That rockfish need to have reefs built that include shallower and deeper areas to be able to breed. Another underlying issue, not talked about too much, has been that they feel artificial reefs and wrecks may somehow create an impact to the salmon fishery. And salmon are gold, I mean god, here.

That thinking flies in the face of reality. One of the best, and really only, example, of a large wrecks to reefs is the Possession Point ferry wreck site off the south tip of Whidbey Island in central Puget Sound. This old wooden ferry, the Kehloken was sunk in the 1983 and is pretty well deteriorated except for her ribs and machinery. Current swept, it has become a perfect breeding ground for rockfish and ling cod. While the bottom is around 80', the top ribs of the wreck are at about 40', creating the shallower and deeper habitat. For many years we've seen many large populations of juvenile rockfish there and many fat, pregnant females also. Ling cod, scarce in many areas of the sound, have re-populated, probably from another artificial reef site at Edmonds UW Park. There are now many huge (like 5-6'!) lings there enjoying the many recesses of the hull.

This debate has been on-going with divers being frustrated at nearly every turn in trying to enhance their environment in Puget Sound. Most projects like these were done many years ago and have deteriorated or been fished-out.

Now The Pacific Northwest Aquatic Association - Wrecks to Reefs is having some success in sponsoring some state legislation that would require WA state governments to take another look at these projects in light of their impact for eco-tourism and recreation. This is a new tactic as it draws support from various tourism and economic groups not well-known for their support of lowly rockfish.

The bills (HB 2990 and SB 6610) would:

1. Amends various titles pertaining to the Dept. of Natural Resources, Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Department of Community, Trade, & Economic Development, Dept. of Ecology, and the WA Parks & Recreation Commission to include in their policies the need to consider the promotion of 'underwater viewing' in their decisions that affect eco-tourism.

2. Calls for a conference to be led by the Dept. of Community, Trade, and Economic Development in 2006 that will produce a plan to promote WA state scuba dive tourism. The conference would include participation by the following state agencies as well as other interested constituencies: Dept. of Natural Resources, WA Parks & Recreation Commission, and the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation.

3. Calls for an inter-agency study to examine the concept of driving job creation by placing clean vessels in Puget Sound as scuba diving tourism infrastructure. The study would be led the Dept. of Community, Trade, and Economic Development and include the Dept. of Natural Resources, the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, the Dept. of Ecology, the Dept. of Community, Trade, and Economic Development and the WA Parks & Recreation Commission.

SB 6610 was voted unanimously out of committee to the Senate Ways and Means committee (which votes on it next week). So a big first step has been taken! We'll see that if by linking eco-tourism to artificial reefs divers might finally have some success in Puget Sound in creating some decent wreck dive sites here.

Both resident and almost more importantly non-resident divers are urged to write WA State legislators in support of the bills.

Basic BC Maintenance

2006-01-24T18:03:00.000-08:00

As winter wears off and many of us get back in the water, it's good idea to check buoyancy compensators as well as regulators. Unlike regs, they are fairly simple to check yourself and a good thing to know in the long run.

Inflate the BC, check the dump hose for cracks and wear - replace as necessary (not usually). I would upgrade the assembly to a 1" diameter hose if possible, many of the smaller OEM dump assemblies are smaller (like 3/4") and don't dump air very quickly.

Leave it inflated over night. Loose air? You've got a problem, re-inflate and check in tub with suds for leaks. Some can be patched, some can't (bad seam, etc.), check with your dive store.

Replace the inflator valve on a regular basis. Just do it. They are the number one thing to go wrong. They aren't worth the money to service and can result in a catastrophic failure, with you making a rapid ascent if it sticks. Buy a good one (not the hard shiny plastic kind) for $30 and slap it on, takes a couple of minutes. There is a small pin that slides out to release the shoulder dump. You can use a small screwdriver or awl to slide it out. It does have one end that's thicker than the other, so take note. Be sure to double wire tie the new inflator on (double tie the dump hose onto the shoulder valve too).

Unscrew the valves, note assembly of washers, etc. Rinse inside with BC cleaner on a regular basis to kill bacteria. Check valve flaps for wear, replace as necessary (not usually). Squirt some silicone spray on the springs. Be sure they are reassembled correctly and are tight! While you're at it, spay some silicone on the low pressure inflator hose ends from the reg to your BC and drysuit. That is important to be done every few dives.

Check the tank bands for excessive wear and particularly the cams for cracks. If they are bad, upgrade to the metal cam kind, made by Scubapro, DiveRite etc.

Recheck by leaving air in it over night, and check again on a regular basis.

Always carry a spare inflator valve and some some ties. If you have a problem with it you can put one on in 5 mins while standing in your gear. I have saved many people's dives that way. I would also carry a spare tank cam band, if possible

Always check both the dump valves and inflator prior to diving. I have done 2-3 rescues of people whose valves were unscrewed, even slightly, particularly on the shoulder dump. Seaquest valves are notorious for it. (Note that I have a Seaquest BC and they are a good product, just watch the valves!

There, it took 30 minutes and now you know your gear!

Note: the above are general guidelines, your equipment may vary in what it needs. If in doubt, check with your local dealer.

See: ScubaDiving.com - BC care: What to do after every dive

Optical Ocean in the News!

2006-01-21T19:23:00.000-08:00

The jungle blogwaves have been busy with several stories and photos being picked up by large diving and travel blogs from here. Seems I have some fans out there!

Recent mentions in Divester include: Jack Connick's Excellent Optical Ocean as well as BC's Newest Artificial Reef: A Boeing 737 and HOW TO maintain your bc.

Optical ocean was also given a nice write up in ScubaGeek: Great Nudibranch Photos on Optical Ocean Blog.

And finally Gadling Travel blog has picked my photo for it's Picture of the Day: Photo-of-the-day-1-21-2006

Thanks, I guess I'm doing something right!

Why Blaine Marina?

2006-01-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Blaine Marina
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

I get asked a lot why I moved my boat north from Seattle to Blaine, WA, on the Canadian border. It seems a long way away from my home in Seattle to most people.

But that's part of it's charm. It actually takes the same amount of time to drive (1:45 hrs) as it does to drive to Anacortes. But I digress, why move away at all?

I had moored my Islander 28, Maggie May at Shilshole Marina for most of the time I owned her, around 12 years. Only 15 minutes from my home, it was very convenient and a great location in the middle of Puget Sound to go north or south. But after 12 years, I'd kind of been there and done that. I needed fresh horizons.

Shilshole Ex Pat
But one of the biggest reasons was the way the Port of Seattle was treating it's tenants at Shilshoe. There were the un-competitive, annual increases that were pushing rates into the nosebleed section. This for a poorly maintained, 40 year-old facility. Amenities included grass growing on the docks, 20 amp electrical service, lack of parking, old broken showers, and union workers who just sat in the office and smoked.

And management decreeing new policies on a regular basis that had no basis with reality. Just plain idiotic policies and snarly service.

Now they're rebuilding it, a project that will be going on for 6-8 years or so. Rates still going up despite the mess. Even less parking. Doing away with many of the smaller 30' slips and making it into the rich man's marina they've always envisioned.

The trouble is that it was built to be the opposite. The Army Corp of Engineers built the breakwater in the 1960's and gave in to the City of Seattle as blue-collar, recreational marina for people who actually used their boats. The city, not knowing any better, gave it to the Port. Who promptly drained over $2 mil a year from it for 30 years and then decreed that the tenants would have to pay to have it fixed up.

Many, many boats have voted with their keels and left. Many are up here in Blaine.

Why Blaine?

The Blaine Marina is new, about 4-5 years old. New docks, electrical. Free dinghy and kayak racks. All the amenities, including a lot of small things like a computer in the office to check email on for instance. Beautiful shower suites. Lots of parking, without any hassles about permits. Blaine Marine Park with pretty trails and fantastic views across the street. Semiahmoo Resort across the bay. Good places to bike, the Peace Arch and Birch Bay State Parks nearby. With a welcoming marina management, people who really care and enjoy their jobs.

Blaine is a friendly little border town, with most of what you need, a West Marine store within walking distance, Bellingham, Ferndale and Vancouver close by. In fact, about half the tenants are Canadians, who enjoy the easy access to the islands. There is also clearance through customs close by at White Rock into Canada, or in my own slip for US entry!

I love to go up there and just hang out. I feel like I'm at a resort.

All for a $100 a month less. And 17 miles away from Sucia Island or 20 miles to the Gulf Islands, to some of the best cruising and diving in the world! See more photos at Blaine Marina and: Sucia Island.

Blaine:

Sucia Island:

Chemainus, We Have Touchdown!

2006-01-16T13:03:00.001-08:00

CBC: A Boeing 737 made its final descent on Saturday – 20 metres deep into the waters off the east coast of Vancouver Island.

Cranes slowly lowered the decommissioned plane into the ocean off Chemainus, about 70 kilometres north of Victoria, slightly more than a month after Environment Canada gave final approval to a plan dreamed up by diving fans.

The sunk the plane to create an artificial reef in an area that doesn't have much marine life.

The society expects the new reef to be home to dozens of species of sea life within a couple of years, which it hopes will, in turn, lure more divers... More: CBC Story

Comments:
The Artificial Reef Society deserves congratulations for persevering on this project. They had to get a massive amount of government permissions and no less than eight "First Nations", aka tribal, permissions to do this sinking. It was delayed several times with political wrangling. They had hoped to avoid a lot of problems by sinking a rather clean plane that had never had very much in the way of oil or contaminants aboard. Didn't happen.

The plane and site are even named "Xihuw Reef" after the Sea Urchins they hope to promote the growth of.

The dive shops in the area now actually have a dive site to promote, and it may be an interesting stop over for divers on their way to the wonderful diving in Port Hardy and Campbell River, BC.

I know first-hand how frustratingly slow government bodies move on these ideas. I've been working with the City of Seattle on safety buoys and dive site markings for Seacrest Park in West Seattle. Now after nearly two years, we are still awaiting USCG approval for dive site marking buoys.

But as a PNW diver who's dove many of the ARSBC's projects, this one is dubious, and the site selection less so. Chemanius is is a backwater area, not subject to the good tidal flush that other projects in Nanaimo have. The smooth aluminum skin of the plane is not conductive to critters and plants taking hold. I'm beginning to work on an artificial reef utilizing Reef Balls for Seacrest that are much more scientifically engineered to promote growth, even down to certain additives in the cement and placement techniques to promote growth. I fail to see this as as an artificial reef, but more as a diving attraction, which is ok.

And while the ships they have sunk are interesting to explore (however a bit "clean" for me after Truk), I'm afraid I've spent too much time in the back of 737s to be that intrigued. But it's something new and should be fun for a dive at some point.

More: Chemanius Area 737 Project

Sailboat Tip: Replacement Plastic Frame Windows

2006-01-16T12:20:00.000-08:00

Many older production boats, like my Islander 28, have windows with their frames made of plastic. Frequently these frames, made from styrene, get brittle, crack and leak. Rebuilding them is possible, but I've tried it twice with little success, they seem to leak between the frame and plexiglas.

A few years ago I came across this boat window manufacturer:

Go Windows - Mark Plastics
369 E. Harrison St., Unit G, Corona, CA. 92879
Tel: 951 735-7705

Mark has molds of all the old production boat windows (like Cal, Columbia and Islander, etc.) and can make a new, better than OEM, window. He will drill them to match your trim rings, just mail him the old ones. They only come in dark or white plastic. I had him leave the masking on the windows and then just spray the frames with model airplane paint which comes in a wide range of colors that you should be able to match to your existing frames. It seems to stick well to the plastic frames also.

I'd put them in with a Boat Life "Life Clear" sealant. Don't use 3M 5200, you'll never get them out if they leak.

Red Tipped Dorid (Glossodoris sedna) in Sea Slug Forum

2006-01-11T00:41:00.000-08:00

Red Tipped Dorid (Glossodoris sedna)
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Whenever I get an nice, or unusual, shot of a nudibranch, I like to send it in to the Australian Natural History Museum's excellent Sea Slug Forum.

This is a database and forum to exchange information and identification of these interesting and photogenic invertebrates. Moderated by Dr. Bill Rudman, scientists, divers, students and researchers exchange information and photos to further their understanding of these critters.

Underwater photographers love to shoot these invertibrates, as they are unusual and are generally brightly colored. Best of all they move slowly! But identifying them can be a real challenge and scientists love to see photos of their behavior and what they eat, etc.

Here in the Pacific Northwest we have a huge range of nudibranchs in a large range of color, size and variety. I have a set of recent photos at: Flickr Nudibranchs.

I shot this dorid while in Mexico and sent it in. Bill enjoyed seeing it, as not many have been sent in from the Pacific, where they are native. Most have been found in the Atlantic, thought to be brought in ballast water from freighters. See: Glossodoris sedna from Revillagigedos Islands, Mexico.

A couple of my photos are being used as catalog images in the forum, of which I am most proud to played some small part in advancing science. See Dendronotus diversicolor and Dendronotus dalli.

Tips for Inon External Lenses & Ikelite Housings

2006-01-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

Some tips from my experiences using the Fuji F810 and Ikelite housing/strobes with Inon W/A and macro lenses. The same applies to other Fuji cameras like the newer E900.

1. Have a wonderful time first of all. Enjoy the great walls and drift diving, don't let the camera distract you.

2. Shooting while drift diving is difficult as you must shoot quickly while drifting with the currents. Use back-eddies downstream from rocks, etc. to slow down and shoot.

3. Forget about the black circle thing that comes with the lenses, doesn't really apply to the F810, IMHO.

4. I would use some tape to black out the front of the Ike housing, except for a little slit on the upper left corner for the adapter to see. The flash blocker just gets in the way.

5. One tip is to buy some steel fish leaders at Big 5. Using some wire ties on the groove in the lens you can attach the leader to make a leash for the lens and attach it to the tray. I also used some double back sticker tape to glue on a rear Inon lens cover to the top of the housing to hold my macro or WA lens vertically when not in use.

6. As far as using the W/A lens. I was a little less than pleased with some of my attempts in Nov. If you use ISO 100 and try to use a large aperture (f2.8) to get a reef scenic with the available light, you tend to get a lot of chromatic aberration. Try to stop down as much as possible, use a slower shutter speed if necessary. You may just have to forget a more sweeping shot or light the background more dramatically darker with a larger aperture setting. When using it I used shutter or aperture priority to speed up taking my shots. Shoot RAW and use the color picker to adjust the white balance later for truer colors.

I actually almost preferred the stock Fuji lens for W/A as I could get fish a little larger and have less chromatic aberration.

7. Using the macro lens I use the camera in normal, not macro, mode and shoot in manual at 1/2000th at f8. Get the strobe head as close as possible to the subject for more color saturation.

Update
When shopping for media be sure to buy the new type"H" xD cards. Testing by friends is showing the 1GB to be about 40%+ faster, so RAW write times for a 12MB file on an F810 were at around 4-5 secs! Not sure if the 512MB cards are proportionately faster yet. See also: Ike Housing for F810 and Writer's Cramp

Free NOAA Nautical Charts

2006-01-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

NOAA now has free downloads of it's raster and vector (ENC) nautical charts!

These can be used with various charting software and viewers (they have some links for these). All of the charts for the US are available and there is a free update service. Prior to this they were quite expensive to buy from licensed private parties.

See: Office of Coast Survey

Poking around on that site is fun, they have a wealth of data and information, including free downloads of Acrobat versions of the Coast Pilot, a database of wrecks, historical charts and much more.

Update:
Downloads directly from NOAA are easy, especially if you know the chart numbers. They have a check-box type text download page: BSB Raster Chart downloads. I found their graphical interface a bit wanting - the above is easier. I checked off charts from Vancouver through Oregon and it was a 140MB download, not all that long with DSL. Files come zipped so are easy to use with either Mac or PC.

I couldn't get MapTec's "Free Nautical Charts" to work at all and it was a very complex sign-on system/email confirmation/error message/approval loop. Forget it and go directly to NOAA.

Also not widely reported is that NOAA also has .pdf version of the Coast Pilot available. What's nice is that these are separated into chapters and usually one or two chapters is all you need.

Sunset from cliffs at Palos Verdes, CA

2005-12-29T22:14:00.000-08:00

PV-00010.jpg
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Got out of the rainy Seattle weather for a week at Christmas to visit my family. Went over to cousin's house and hiked along beach. Came back later to take a few shots of the sunset and surfers. More shots on Flickr Site at: Palos Verdes, CA

Have a Happy!

2005-12-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome!!

2005-12-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to The Optical Ocean blog.

I am an active diver, sailor and all-round water-baby. Anything to do with the ocean intrigues me. I live in Seattle and have been diving for 8 years actively, having logged over 500 dives in 9 countries.

I enjoy doing photography, particularly underwater photography. I also enjoy writing about my adventures for fellow divers' and travelers' information and enjoyment. This blog is an outgrowth of my dive log and a place to combine photos and more lengthy reports, other than a website which was taking too long to maintain.

I'll update this blog as I make dives and sailing trips and will put in a few past adventures also. Or whenever the mood strikes and I see something related to ponder.

Jack