The Open Water Swimmer was inspired by an image of Phil Barber’s, a photographer from the NW whose work I greatly admire. I set about creating my own version and this short video shows you how I went about it. Special thanks to Tammi Randall who showed immense patience on the shoot.
I’m finally getting around to processing some images from my trip to the Mexican cenotes last August. A cenote, (pronounced say-noh-tay), is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of the limestone bedrock which then exposes the groundwater underneath. They are especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.
You may have heard gruesome stories surrounding the fact that they were used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings - this is true and many human remains have been found in them. But the ancient Maya believed the cenotes to be much more than simply a place to deliver their sacrificial dead. They considered them to be the portal to Xibalba, their Netherworld. Given all the knowledge that we now know the ancient Maya possessed, they no doubt also knew, or at least suspected, that the thousands of cenotes are interconnected, forming an underground labyrinth of tunnels. It was these tunnels I was diving in last August.
It’s a surreal form of diving - you enter in an open cenote, often crowded with tourists, but led by your expert guide (& boy does he need to be expert) you follow the tunnels. Think of majestic caves with stalactites & stalagmites & I was effectively flying through them! And then, as if by magic, we’d pop up in another open cenote, often in the middle of the jungle & inaccessible by foot. The water is pure & crystal clear because it’s been filtered through the bedrock - providing you don’t disturb the bottom this is some of the best visibility a diver will ever experience.
Initially I found it disconcerting to know I couldn’t surface if I had a problem, but I soon settled and proceeded to enjoy an amazing three days. Here’s a couple of images - more to follow plus a video over the next week or so.
Very pleased to be told yesterday that my submission for EFIAP was successful.
FIAP is a worldwide body organised to support club photography - EFIAP stands for Excellence FIAP. The criteria involves achieving specified levels of success in FIAP patronised photographic salons (competitions). There are many other detailed requirements, including the submission of a portfolio of the applicant’s more successful work, and the need for salon awards in the case of EFIAP.
I think this will be the last FIAP award I apply for as I find the record keeping quite a chore - but I’m delighted to have achieved the Excellence level.
Here’s the sea lion video :-)
I shoot these videos with a GoPro attached to the top of my camera rig, so the footage I get is very much secondary to the stills I’m taking. I hardly ever frame up for the video shots, I get good footage only if the camera happens to be pointing in the right direction while I’m taking the still. Consequently I’m often struggling to find enough footage when I put the videos together - but not this time.
Sea lions are so playful, inquisitive & cheeky that it was impossible not to get lots of great footage. I could have made the video 20 minutes long easily. At times their behaviour was so extrovert towards the diver that it’s impossible not to come to the conclusion they were just plain showing off!
An example was when one juvenile picked up a shell in front of me. She would take it up to the surface, drop it, let it gently sink down & swoop in, catch it in her mouth & repeat the process. She did this about 10 times, often leaving it to the last second before the shell hit the sea floor before zooming in & taking it. She was showing me just how agile & coordinated she was - it seemed to me that it was all done to impress me.
Now I know an animal behaviourist would explain the real reason & I’m sure it had nothing to do with me at all - but I don’t want to know. I think I made a connection with these incredible animals many times in the week & that’s how I want to leave it. To me it was one of the most special trips of my diving career to date. Happy days.
Whilst I would never describe myself as a competent video producer I do use a lot of video in my lectures to give an idea of what it was like to be on the shoot. They are shot quickly with little preparation and rarely last more than 3 or 4 minutes - I really enjoy creating them and audiences seem to find them interesting. Here’s a 60 second example showing how I shot my High Board Diver images.
I’m often asked how I then incorporate them into my lectures, particularly now that I’m using Zoom to deliver lectures (in these days of lockdown). Here’s my method;
All the videos I use in my lectures are MP4's & embedded in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
- to create slideshows of my images I use the Lightroom Slideshow module & output as an MP4 video
- I shoot videos either with my phone (90% of the footage) or a GoPro. I use software called Camtasia to edit them & output as an MP4
It's easy to incorporate them into Powerpoint - just insert them as you would a JPEG image. The whole presentation then runs from Powerpoint, making it ideal to deliver remotely using Zoom.
For Zoom lectures the only other important thing to note is that when you share your screen with the audience make sure you tick the 2 boxes on the share screen - highlighted in the first image below.
Make sure your Zoom meeting is set up so only one person can share their screen - you’ll not be able to tick the box “Optimize Screen Sharing For Video Clip” otherwise. If you’re hosting you can set this option yourself in your Zoom control panel, otherwise ask your host to make you the host (or co-host) & do it from your “Share Screen” - see second image below.
When you share your screen via Zoom make sure these 2 boxes are ticked
To be able to tick the boxes make sure “One participant can share at a time” is selected
Last November I visited Mexico, principally to photograph the sea lion colony which lives on the small outcrop of rock known as Los Islotes, an hour’s boat ride from Baja California Sur's capital of La Paz. Sea lions are friendly, inquisitive animals that often interact with divers. They also make great photographic subjects, offering opportunities ranging from super cute pups, mock fighting of juveniles and territorial behaviour of the bulls.
This image falls into the super cute group & was taken in a small cave the pups use as a playground, presumably keeping out of the way of the more boisterous juveniles. It was quite a small cave, probably only 3m x 2m inside - I found I could surface & just get my head above water before hitting the roof. There must have been around 20 pups playing inside & they were very inquisitive of their new visitor. They pulled my fins, mask, air hose - anything they could get hold of. It was quite claustrophobic with only enough room for one person inside, plus it was obviously dark. Some divers found it a bit too much, particularly when the sea lions started play-biting (think a small puppy’s bite), but I was ok & visited at least 5 or 6 times over the week. I’ve got several favourite images & this is one of them - in addition to the cute look on his face I also love the colour tones.
I’ll post more images over the next few days, plus I’m going to start pulling the video together. I’ve got a lot of footage which will mean it’ll not be a quick job, but I’m genuinely looking forward to looking through it.
