Tech Diving in the Florida Keys

August 21, 2021

I’m so excited for a new article tech diving some of the Key Largo, Florida wrecks. You can read the whole article over at Scuba Diving Magazine.

I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Bill and Nadine Beard about starting the dive industry in Costa Rica 50 years ago for the latest issue of DIVER. I think about some of the chaos I've experienced working in places like Chuuk or PNG currently and cannot even imagine the struggles (and amazing rewards) of showing up to a country where you have to bring your own dive tanks 50 years ago. Not to mention I've added more dives to my bucket list - diving during an eclipse and in a volcano crater lake. This was so much fun (and also challenging as I haven't really done many interviews in the past).

Download the whole issue (still available for free):

https://divernet.com/september-2021-diver-magazine

Roatan

June 21, 2020

Returning to Roatan in UK Diver, underwater photo techniques at Moziak Underwater Housings, Truk Lagoon on Youtube, Raja Ampat in Australian Dive Log.

Latest Articles

April 1, 2020

What a crazy start to the year it as been. I spent the first six week captaining the MV Odyssey in Truk Lagoon (there’s a new video on YouTube). Right before I was about to leave the Federated States of Micronesia enforced a travel ban to keep COVID-19 out, bring our boat to a standstill as no divers can arrive in the country. Ikelite recently published a piece on my Top 5 Wrecks of Truk Lagoon (to photograph).

Dive Photo Guide published a piece I wrote called Take Photos, Save the World about the responsibilities underwater photographers have to be ethical in how they take photos and the importance of sharing what we see underwater.

An article I wrote for UK Diver Magazine is online at Diver Net - Service Ethics about my trip to Belize with Aggressor Fleet which turned out to be great even with an excessive amount of travel challenges. I have also been writing some blogs for All Star Liveaboards - check out their website for some fun content.

What in the World is Muck Diving?

Top 10 Underwater Photography Tips

I hope everyone is safe and healthy during these crazy times. While dive travel isn’t an option right now, it will be again soon and we will need to support our favorite dive shops and resorts so they can continue to be there for the future. I have a few upcoming trips that are still planed to go as scheduled if things are back to normal by then.

In September the Ladies Dive and Art trip will be September 12-19th, 2020 and the next week, September 19-26th, everyone is invited for a mini underwater photography workshop. The Red Sea Underwater Photography Workshop will be November 12-19 on the Omneia liveaboard. Feel free to send me a message if you’d like more info. Would love to spend some time underwater with you all!

Summer Update: Timor-Leste, Tiger Beach, Saba, Travel and More

August 3, 2019

In December I visited the unique country of Timor-Leste and was really impressed by the shore diving accessible just out of Dili. With muck diving and reefs comparable to Bali, but without hardly any other divers, I really enjoyed my week diving with Dive Timor. The article was published in X-Ray Magazine Issue #91. Download the whole issue for free here. Or view my article online here.

I’ve been writing several blog posts for Moziak UW Cameras and you can read those here.

If you want some tips on shooting wrecks I did a piece for Ikelite - How to get the Best Shots when Shooting Wrecks.

Diver Magazine published an article on diving Tiger Beach which is now online here.

Sand tiger shot swiming over a North Carolina wreck.jpg

The Saba Ladies Dive and Art trip in April was such a success we are going to go back and do it again next year. Join us September 12-19th for a week diving the amazing reefs of Saba while also getting creative and learning from some of the island’s amazing artistic ladies. We will be staying at Queen’s Gardens Resort and diving with Sea Saba. Two dives each morning followed by afternoon art classes. This beautiful island has amazing food, my favorite gin bar, yoga, hiking, and more. Send me a message if you have any questions and see the previous blog post for how this year’s trip went.

If you’re looking to go diving I have a few different trips coming up. The fifth installation of the Roatan Underwater Photo Fest will be happening November 2-9th and there are still spots available. I’m leading a trip to Raja Ampat on the Siren December 6-16th. Next year I’ll be offering a tech trip on the Truk Odyssey July 4-11th, 2020 (this is a rare chance to dive the deeper wrecks to Truk from the comfort of the Odyssey liveaboard. Tech certified divers only, 2 dives per day, depths from 165-220ft, CCR supported.) And I will be returning to Saba for the Ladies Only trip Sept 15-22nd…and possibly another week in Saba directly following that open to everyone.

Nikon 8-15mm Fisheye Lens with Ikelite Ports

November 22, 2018

I spent most of the last three months shooting with a Nikon 8-15mm Fisheye lens courtesy of Ikelite, who so kindly let me borrow it to see how it shoots behind both of their dome ports (the 8inch and the compact 8inch dome). It was excellent (and added to my Christmas wish-list) and it did well with both ports. I took it to Bikini Atoll, Roatan, and Tiger Beach.

We knew it would be great behind the large 8inch but we wondered if the compact port would cause the edges to pull a little. I didn’t find that to happen and actually prefered the compact dome inside wrecks (in Bikini Atoll) where I was swimming through tight spaces and unable to back up or get further away from my subject. The small port let me get closer (and the lens focused even when almost touching the subject.)

Ikelite posted some of the results here:

Compact 8inch Dome Images

Large 8inch Dome Images

Roatan Underwater Photo Fest 2018

November 1, 2018

Just over a week ago we wrapped up the fourth annual Roatan Underwater Photo Fest, and I think this was our best one yet. I personally had a great time and loved diving and photographing with everyone. We had a lot of returning participants (which forced Andrew and me to step up our games and make some new presentations) and I loved the vibe we had of friend’s just diving and taking photos together.

We were also fortunate to have Mickey Charteris, (I like to think of him as the Roatan Marine Life Guru) dive with us and share his photography on the macro life of Roatan (and made us all jealous of the amazing creatures he finds!) Julie Ouimet and Michel Labreque shared some tips for underwater videography and the finalists of the Turquoise Bay International Film Festival with our participants and hotel guests. Tripp Funderburk of the Bay Islands Reef Restoration Project talked to us about the Turquoise Bay coral reef nursery and regrowth projects. Some participants went with him to plant coral (or take photos of coral planting coral and the nursery.)

Roatan is a perfect place to improve your underwater photo and video skills with good viz, warm water, and little current. The easy diving with plenty of healthy marine life gives photographers endless opportunities to try new techniques and perfect skills. We try to create an easy going learning environment and underwater we dive slowly, allowing photographers to spend a lot of time with individual subjects if they choose (no marathon swimming or going anywhere fast). Many of the dive sites are just a few minutes out of Turquoise Bay Dive Resort and Subway Watersports takes great care of us and our cameras. Diving includes reefs, wrecks, caverns, walls, and we do a night dive and spend a morning at the Roatan Shark Dive.

We welcome participants at all levels of underwater photographers from beginners to advance and provide a wide range of instruction on the individual and group level. Throughout the week there are evening presentation and talks on a wide variety of subjects which are catered to the participants who join us each year as well as one-on-one time and help on the boat and during dives.

We like to conclude the week with a little healthy competition to see how everyone improved with our annual Photo Contest. The talent was overwhelming this year and we had a tough time picking winners. Michelle Scamahorn took home Best of Show with her epic macro shot of a gorgonian hydroid shrimp. Our generous sponsors provided prizes including Ikelite gift certificates and swag, BayPhoto lab credits, a Mares dive computer, Stream2Sea reef-safe products, a NightSea photography package and more.

It was so great to see everyone and we’re really excited for next year. We hope to keep up better with social media updates and create some new excitement for next year, so keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram for photos and photo tips. We’d love to see you next year, so please join us November 2-9th, 2019.

More details can be found at www.roatanunderwaterphotofest.com.

Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions!