Getting Started

Shortly after I started diving I began looking for an additional activity to pursue while gliding along underwater. As with many other divers I chose photography. Already a serious topside amateur photographer for years, I figured it would be a logical extension. Plus, I'd get to buy a bunch more cool gear. <G>

I decided to take a lesson with Backscatter in Monterey to see if I could photograph and pay attention to diving skills at the same time. Andy Salmon was the guy they referred me to for my first lesson. I rented a Nikonos V with 35mm lens and we dove the breakwater to shoot a roll. I was hooked! That was 1997. 

UW Equipment

These days I shoot a Nikonos V with 15mm or 28mm lenses and Extension tubes (1:1, 1:2, 1:3).

I retired the Nikon 105 strobe this season and replaced it with two INON Z-220 strobes. They're much smaller, higher in power, faster to recycle, lighter and have a closer color temperature to normal daylight than the 105 has. I augmented my Ultralight arm configuration to accommodate the two strobes.

I mostly shoot Ektachrome E100VS and process ONLY by Kodak labs.

Topside Equipment

Above water I’m a quality freak, not that I'm not underwater, but I'll sacrifice all the Japanese gee-gaw features for quality. I still shoot a Rangefinder Leica M4-2 with external meter. -- GREAT optics! Better Photos!

Digital? Yea, I'm well into the research phase now. <sigh> I'm watching my friends closely as they invest and learn about UW Digital. Maybe mid-2005.

Last updated: 12/10/04

Projection and Digital Darkroom Equipment

I project my slides with an old Leitz Pradovit CA2500. Still the sharpest optics around!

I scan slides with a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED scanner (4000 dpi), edit them with Photoshop 6 and print them on an HP 7550 7 ink printer. My PC is a 4.8Ghz with 60Gb of storage and 1Mb of RAM. I also use an HP flatbed with transparency adapter for hardcopy and overside slides and negatives. 

Photo Gallery - click on the link to go there

My notes on the Cathy Church course - click on the link to go there

Camera Clubs

I belong to two camera clubs, the Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS) and the Wildlife Photographers of Silicon Valley (WPSV).

Check out NCUPS and WPSV by clicking.

Both are largely focused on underwater photography, but the WPSV, started by a talented group of underwater photographers, includes topside nature photography as well as underwater photography with a strong emphasis on digital equipment and advanced techniques and has most of it's members in the South Bay. Many of those do not wish to travel to the NCUPS meeting farther north.

Instruction

In September 1999 I took the Cathy Church Underwater Photography Super Class on Grand Cayman. I think it improved my shooting 100%! 

Cathy's business site - http://www.cathychurch.com/

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