Lightroom housekeeping during Lockdown
2020 has been a tough year for everyone. Not being able to travel to our favourite dive destinations and forced to stay at home has driven many of us to spend hours working on our pictures and organizing our catalogue, time for some Lightroom Housekeeping. We are now in the middle of a second, but […]
Boat Bio Whirlwind
The Award-winning wooden-hulled M/Y Whirlwind was built in Rasheed close to Alexandria. In May 2006 she sailed her maiden voyage journeying to Sharm el-Sheikh. Soon after that, she took her place amongst the elite of the liveaboard vessels in the Red Sea. At a generous 36m with an 8m beam Whirlwind easily accommodates 20 guests. […]
Truk Lagoon – Wreck divers heaven
Few places in the world are as famous as Micronesia’s Chuuk Lagoon (to divers known as Truk Lagoon) a true wreck divers heaven. Since I first started diving, the pictures of Truk’s stunning wrecks have lured me and visiting this almost mythical atoll had been on my bucket list ever since. But life happens and […]
Cyclone’s Winter Warmer with Mario Vitalini
by Penny Granycome Having dived several liveaboards in the Red Sea during the last few years and never taken a camera underwater, the time felt right for a trip to extend my comfort zone and see the possibilities. I had always felt underwater photography something apart, the stunning images produced by great photographers unobtainable. Yet […]
Inward lighting. Make your subjects pop
Some images stand out more than others. I often asked myself why, and to be sure, there are lots of distinctive reasons. But the usual answer is not because the subject is a rare or unique creature. In many cases, the reason is the subject is perfectly isolated without distracting elements that draw your attention […]
Critters in Lembeh. Lembeh-Gulen shootout.
If you like small and wired critters, very few places in the world can beat this little section of North Sulawesi, the Lembeh Strait. I’ve been lucky enough to visit the area on three occasions and every time it blows my mind. Last week I joined a group of underwater photographers competing in the shootout […]
Shark Quest Photography: Mario’s Trip report
Sitting back at my desk I’, having a quiet moment to think about last week’s trip. It was the first Shark Quest photography workshop of this year, and what a great trip it was. And if I had to sum it up in one word that word would be… oceanics. Very close up oceanics. Well, […]
Shooting sharks with ambient light
When photographing pelagics such as sharks the use of strobes is sometimes not possible. This may be because the animals stay to far away or becauselocal rules do not allowe it. Today I will talk about shooting sharks with ambient light. In today’s blog, I will talk about how to achieve the best possible results out […]
Wide angle. Back to basics
Today I’m going back to one of the basics topics in underwater photography, wide-angle lenses. One of the most repeated sentences when coaching underwater photographers is “get closer” and there is a very simple reason. Water is much denser than air. It will absorb and dissipate light causing the image quality and contrast to rapidly […]
Snell’s, a window to the sky
If you want to get a really impressive wide angle shot, there are a few compositional elements you can always rely on. The Snell’s window is one one of them. What is Snell’s Window? It is named after the Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snellius who discovered the refraction law we know today as Snell’s Window. Is […]