Digital Masters Seminar in Bonaire

I've just wrapped two weeks teaching my Digital Masters class in underwater photography in Bonaire. Special thanks to fellow Canon Explorer of Light Eddie Tapp for his wonderful contributions to Lightroom and Photoshop instruction, and to Divi Flamingo Beach and Captain Don's Habitat for hosting us. Here are some of my images from the past two weeks.  These were the last of the Digital Masters sessions for this year, but we are planning ahead for 2013, with a class in June in Key Largo and one in the very early stages of development in Dominica.

 Check out http://www.waterhousetours.com/instruction for more detail, and Eddie Tapp's video memories of our Habitat module at http://vimeo.com/46224995.

NEEMO - NASA astronauts train for Outer Space in Inner Space

NASA is convinced that many of the tasks they perform in the weightless environment of space can best be replicated, and practiced, in the weightless environment of underwater.  To that end, they recently wrapped a 12-day mission living in saturation at Aquarius Reef Base off Key Largo, Florida Keys.

To learn more about the NEEMO Mission, see NASA Extreme Missions Operations at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/index.html

To learn more about Aquarius Reef Base, a unique scientific outpost that enables living under the sea for extended periods of time, see http://aquarius.uncw.edu/

The Art of Swimming

Adam Hanlon of Wetpixel wrote a very nice article about my work photographing competitive swimmers at http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/the-art-of-swimming/

In that same realm, tonight I was gratified to see one of the swimmers I had photographed recently win the 100-meter backstroke at the Olympic Trials in Omaha. Missy Franklin is only 17 years old, but will be going to her first Olympics in London this summer.  Go Team USA!

Spiegel Grove 10th Anniversary Dive

I was asked by Andy Newman, Newman PR, to join a media dive commemorating the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the 510-foot Spiegel Grove shipwreck. Having been intimately involved with the acquisition and sinking of the ship as a dive attraction off Key Largo, of course I was happy to participate. A raging current that day and heavy overcast made the photography a bit more challenging, but all went well. Here is a bit of a visual chronology of what has become Key Largo's most famous dive attraction:

The photos above show when she was being prepared to sink, and then when the sinking went terribly wrong. She held an airpocket in the bow and actually turned turtle and sinking. It took a lot of work and another $250,000 (on top of the $1.25 million already spent) to get her finally sunk, resting on her starboard side in 130-feet of water off Key Largo.

Finally, the passing waves from Hurricane Dennis set the Spiegel Grove upright, and she has been an incredibly popular dive attraction ever since. They now speculate the wreck has brought $35 million to local economy in the 10-years on the bottom. As you can see from the images from the 10th anniversary, she has become colorfully sponge encrusted and a great environemnt for wide-angle photography. These are all shot with Canon 1DMKIV, 8-15mm zoom, Seacam housing.

Olympic hopefuls training in the Keys

As this is an Olympic year (London, summer 2012) we are beginning to see some world class swimmers coming to Key Largo and Islamorada to train. We are fortunate to have two really great facilities, a 25-meter short course pool at Jacobs Aquatic Center and 50-meter Long Course at Founder's Park. As always, it is inspiring for me to get in the water with these very dedicated athletes, and do what little I can to support their quest for the gold.

Pictured here are Missy Franklin, Kara Lynn Joyce, and George Bovell. I hope we hear lots from all three of them in London! To see more of the Missy Franklin story, in particular, follow http://touchthewall.com/.

Florida Keys dominates Penn Station!

If anyone passed through Penn Station recently, in New York City, they might have seen a nice treatment of my underwater photographs from the Florida Keys. Our Tourist Development Council was hoping the winter cold up north might inspire some tourism to the Fabulous Florida Keys, and built evocative Keys' images that were strategically scattered throughout the station. The centerpiece was stair-art, that led commuters up the stairway, from the depths of the coral reef to the sunburst at the surface. Hope they exhaled on the way up, as we don't want anyone to get an air embolism (lame scuba diving joke).

This was part of a very creative campaign developed by the Tinsley Agency, in Miami. Some of the other images they used throughout the station are below. I wish I could have been there to see it in person, as this is one of the boldest destination advertising campaigns I've yet seen.

On press for Alert Diver, Winter 2012

This week, as Alert Diver magazines begin arriving member mailboxes, I thought is would be interesting to reminisce a bit about the process that makes the magazine happen.

Of course, it all begins with the contributors, the photographers and authors who provide the stellar work that graces our pages. Regrettably I don't have their pictures to share here, but the outside contributors and the DAN medical and professional staff that contributes to our content is the very core of the magazine.

Once we have their raw materials our talented art staff in California and the best prepress house in the business do their thing, obsessing over every single page.

Then, there is our dedicated editorial and IT staff in Durham, NC, who take these editorial concepts to the printed page, strategizing where and how things should flow in the magazine, and making sure every single word is checked and rechecked. As my world is ever-more defined by pixels these days, our editorial staff is immersed in the words and the architecture of this magazine, and our companion website at http://www.alertdiver.com. I'm extraordinarily proud of their talent and dedication.





Months go into the process I've described in a few sentences above, and with every issue we thank the stars we are a quarterly magazine. For, without the luxury of time, we could not achieve the quality we seek in each issue of Alert Diver.

One of my favorite parts of the magazine production cycle is being on press. I don't know why that should feel so rewarding, as it is mostly about sleep deprivation, but it is absolutely necessary to see each page come off the press while working with the talented press professionals at Quad Graphics to assure the the words and images on the printed page are the very best they can be.







We pay special attention to the cover, both in terms of image selection and print quality. This issue's cover is a harp seal by Brian Skerry, in support of a Shooter article inside the magazine that speaks to his important work in photo-documenting issues relevant to marine conservation. As the harp seal is in dire difficulty at the moment due to habitat loss (the ice necessary for their pups to be born and grow to self-sustenance is in jeopardy from global warming) we thought this a timely and compelling image.




Finally, when every page is where we want it to be, I sign off on the pages, the press moves on to print 150,000 copies of the magazine, and it then goes to the bindery and the co-mail facility to begin its journey to member mailboxes.



Actually, even then we aren't quite done, for Alert Diver is also available as an iPad version which can be downloaded free of charge by any member of DAN North America by first downloading the free Alert Diver App from iTunes or the App store on iPhone or iPad, and then from "MY EDITIONS" in the device's "Newsstand" log on with your e-mail address on record with DAN as the user ID, and for the password use the last name (case sensitive with only the first letter of last name capitalized).

Those interested in subscribing to Alert Diver for a modest fee can do so, either as a singe issue or a one year subscription.

So, now that all this is done, you'd think it is time to kick back and relax for a few weeks? Not! Our editorial director in Durham already phoned this morning with a wish list for photographs to upload to the designer for the Spring 2012 issue. Here we go. Again. Loving the process, and the final result, so all good.