A friend of mine pointed me to some really good on-line software which creates a video from your own uploaded photos and music. Naturally I thought I would have a go to see what it could do. Here is the result using some of my underwater photos...
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Monday, 1 December 2008
Diving off the Algarve
This November the family & I had a week in Portugal staying with my Uncle just a few miles North of Albufeira on the Algarve.
Whilst there enjoying the autumn sun and thankfully escaping from the dreadful weather I managed to get 2 dives in with Indigo Divers. They were about the only provider working over what is the Portuguese winter, but they were very good indeed and I would certainly use them again.
The diving was from the shore - not enough people to run the boat. The shelf apparently goes on for miles so the diving is incredibly shallow - I only managed to get 9.5 meters on dive 2.
Despite the fantastic blue skies and mid-twenties temperatures the visibility was pretty poor too - the wave action was stirring up the sandy bottom so that is was almost like diving in the UK quarries that I love so much!
I didn't really get to see very much; 2 octopus including the first one that I have seen swimming and a cuttlefish were the highlights.
This is the best photo that I managed to take and it isn't great so I apologise for that. Can you spot Mr. Octopus in this photo?
The other incident worthy of mention was the fact that I managed to loose my buddy for the first time! Actually he lost me - on the decent on the 2nd dive! The visibility was shocking so I was staying close to the Guide as well as keeping an eye on my buddy - but he just swam off in completely the wrong direction...
I hung around at 3m for a minute then headed to the surface to find him hanging onto the Guide's SMB getting ready to descend! A quick holler stopped him, the guide and his buddy then arrived on the surface so we had a second attempt at starting the dive.
I think I was quite short with the bloke but it turned out that was quite well founded as afterwards he told me that it was the worst visibility that he had ever dived in...
It just goes to show the merit of experiencing diving in the mixed conditions in the UK rather than sticking to holiday based warm weather diving.
All in all an enjoyable day and 2 more dives in the log.
Monday, 24 March 2008
Friday, 21 March 2008
Red Sea, March 2008
I have just come back from a week in Sharm El Sheikh.
It was my first dive of 2008 in Open Water as well as our first holiday as a family - Max is 11 months old and loved every minute of being away in a warm country and not having to wear a vest!
As this was a family holiday I had to negotiate hard on the diving front, but I managed to get 3 days out with Emperor Divers and an additional local snorkel with Kate.
It was a nice balance of the all important family holiday time as well as getting 7 additional dives into the log book!
I managed to get dive 40 done as my last dive which also pushed me over 2000 minutes under water so lots of milestones!
I visited some great dive sites in the 3 days including Shark & Yolanda Reef which apparently is one of the top 10 dive sites in the world! It was a little quiet at this time of the year, but never the less, was a superb full drift dive with some very interesting currents to play with!
I managed to get some pretty good photos whilst under, mainly of small fish and reef scenery. The camera held out well, despite a small incident with my strobe which decided to pop out of its housing as I entered the water on the 2nd dive and decended to 12 meters unaided! My buddy did retrieve it for me, but despite washing and drying it I think it is dead! Hey ho - I was going to upgrade it soon anyway, so here is my opportunity! Shhh...don't tell Kate...
It was my first dive of 2008 in Open Water as well as our first holiday as a family - Max is 11 months old and loved every minute of being away in a warm country and not having to wear a vest!
As this was a family holiday I had to negotiate hard on the diving front, but I managed to get 3 days out with Emperor Divers and an additional local snorkel with Kate.
It was a nice balance of the all important family holiday time as well as getting 7 additional dives into the log book!
I managed to get dive 40 done as my last dive which also pushed me over 2000 minutes under water so lots of milestones!
I visited some great dive sites in the 3 days including Shark & Yolanda Reef which apparently is one of the top 10 dive sites in the world! It was a little quiet at this time of the year, but never the less, was a superb full drift dive with some very interesting currents to play with!
I managed to get some pretty good photos whilst under, mainly of small fish and reef scenery. The camera held out well, despite a small incident with my strobe which decided to pop out of its housing as I entered the water on the 2nd dive and decended to 12 meters unaided! My buddy did retrieve it for me, but despite washing and drying it I think it is dead! Hey ho - I was going to upgrade it soon anyway, so here is my opportunity! Shhh...don't tell Kate...
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
BSAC member A782836/0019
A few weeks ago I joined the Aylesbury Green Park Sub Aqua Club; http://aylesburydivers.org.uk/nuke/index.php
Today is my first training session in the pool! I am going to start learning the rescue techniques that PADI don't teach you until the rescue diver course and I can't wait!
AGPSAC did over 1200 dives this season which means that finally I will get to meet people who want to go diving! That has been the problem to date, my friend Craig who is in some of the photos diving on his re-breather, lives near Darlington, so that distance isn't terribly conducive to getting loads of weekend diving in together. The club will now put me in touch with divers who are happy to head to Stoney Cove and other more exotic locations (!) for a couple of dives on a Saturday - which will be great!
Here's to successful rescues in the pool and no rescues in the open water (fingers crossed!)
Today is my first training session in the pool! I am going to start learning the rescue techniques that PADI don't teach you until the rescue diver course and I can't wait!
AGPSAC did over 1200 dives this season which means that finally I will get to meet people who want to go diving! That has been the problem to date, my friend Craig who is in some of the photos diving on his re-breather, lives near Darlington, so that distance isn't terribly conducive to getting loads of weekend diving in together. The club will now put me in touch with divers who are happy to head to Stoney Cove and other more exotic locations (!) for a couple of dives on a Saturday - which will be great!
Here's to successful rescues in the pool and no rescues in the open water (fingers crossed!)
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
New camera kit
I have recently upgraded my camera! Gone is the little IXUS 400 and in comes the Canon Powershot A570IS - yes I have stuck to a compact camera as I hve kept my INON external lenses. All I needed was a new housing and a new lens mount. The cost of my upgrade was about £250 but I managed to recoup £150 of that selling my old kit on eBay!
The PowerShot gives you manual control over the camera which means you can make better use of easy things like manual white balance, ISO speed, as well as using the apature and shutter speeds to control depth of field etc. I have also moved up to 7.2 megapixels from 4 megapixels so I can enlarge my photos and get them on my wall at A4 without loosing quality!
Now all I need is 'the' shot!
So with that in mind, this August Bank Holiday my family & I headed to St. Abbs with my re-breathing friend Craig to chill out and get some dives in...
The PowerShot gives you manual control over the camera which means you can make better use of easy things like manual white balance, ISO speed, as well as using the apature and shutter speeds to control depth of field etc. I have also moved up to 7.2 megapixels from 4 megapixels so I can enlarge my photos and get them on my wall at A4 without loosing quality!
Now all I need is 'the' shot!
So with that in mind, this August Bank Holiday my family & I headed to St. Abbs with my re-breathing friend Craig to chill out and get some dives in...
Friday, 25 May 2007
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Adventures of the wet kind
I am a new diver; recently qualified in October last year in the Maldives.
Since then I have invested in the plethora of kit that is required (any sport is always better enjoyed when you have your own kit) and have dived in the Red Sea (lovely) and Stoney Cove in the UK (great fun for a first timer)!
I also enjoy photography, so I thought I would combine these 2 things and see what happened! I have a reasonably old Canon IXUS 4 digital compact camera that I bought a housing for (60m depth rating) and also some external INON lenses (wide angle, macro and fish eye) and finally an external strobe that I have isolated with a fibre optic.
These are my results!
Since then I have invested in the plethora of kit that is required (any sport is always better enjoyed when you have your own kit) and have dived in the Red Sea (lovely) and Stoney Cove in the UK (great fun for a first timer)!
I also enjoy photography, so I thought I would combine these 2 things and see what happened! I have a reasonably old Canon IXUS 4 digital compact camera that I bought a housing for (60m depth rating) and also some external INON lenses (wide angle, macro and fish eye) and finally an external strobe that I have isolated with a fibre optic.
These are my results!
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