Scuba Extreme September 2010 Flyer
Scuba Extreme – Adventure Sports and Travel is located in Middleburg, Florida. Here is their September 2010 Flyer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adv. Open Water, Artificial Reefs, Cavern, Emergency/FirstAid, Events, Reefs, Rescue Diver, Specialties, Training, Travel, Trip Invitations, Wrecks
Full Face Mask check out
Today, Joe Kistel and I took off to Blue Grotto at 8am. Joe is the founder of TISIRI. My goal this trip is three fold. First, a checkout dive to see how I feel on my first dive after surgery. I felt great! Buoyancy was spot. I wore my usual, drysuit, Zeagle 911 BCD, slipstream fins, gators and 10 pounds of weight. I ended up being over-weighted. I couldn’t believe it. I was adding air to my BCD and my drysuit at 30 feet. Kewl. I can drop some weight from my belt! The second goal was to speak with Ed, the owner of Blue Grotto about putting together a video of Blue Grotto. Well, Ed and Judy are out of the country at the moment. The third was to test out the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adv. Open Water, Cavern, Events, Instructor, Reference, Report, Training
Uwatec Tec – Setting the O2
Use of computers is becoming more common every day. First think I have to offer you is RTFM. Read The Friendly Manual. Know how your computer works. Ask for help and understanding. It’s faster than readying, right? 🙂 I use Uwatec (scubapro) wrist mounted computers. I own three and use the Uwatec Tec as my primary. Here, I will walk you through the menus of this computer. I feel once you see what I have to show, you’ll get it. Understanding the menuing system on the Tec is Easy. It’s really a matter of remembering what their for and how to use them. Let’s get started. First, Let’s look at the mechanics that allow you to navigate through the menus. Contacts. There are FOUR contacts on the Uwatec tec. Three are found at the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Training
Tritonshall
divetalking and tritonshall have traded links. Visit tritonshall for articles related to the field of diving and all things related. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adv. Open Water, Artificial Reefs, Cave, Cavern, Convention, Divemaster, Emergency/FirstAid, Events, Instructor, Master Diver, Open Water, Photography, Posts By DMs, Promotions, Rebreathers, Reefs, Reference, Report, Rescue Diver, Summit, Training, Travel, Trip Invitations, Trip Report, Video, Video Equipment, Videography, Wrecks
Videography Tips and Techniques
Issue 1 Tip 4 Housing and Lighting Lighting is important. Everyone in the industry knows this. You can have the most fantastic camera and housing but without lighting, you can not get the video to look colorful. Videos come out dark in nature with very little color if any at all, depending on depth, sea conditions, etc. So what type of lights should you buy? What features do lights come with? How much will they cost? These and other questions are good questions and the only way to find out is to try. Renting is an option. Rent until you find what you like, then buy. There are a number of places that rent video equipment. It may be a little pricey, but a lot less pricey than purchasing new. I purchased … Read entire article »
Filed under: Photography, Training, Videography
Videography Tips and Techniques
Issue 1 Tip 3 White Balance White balancing is calibrating your video camera to capture color as accurately as possible. The idea is you tell the camera which color it sees is actually white, letting the electronics adjust everything else using white as the base. We’ve all seen video that have not been properly white balanced. Example is shooting outdoors, then walk indoors, the video may appear reddish/orange. If filming inside, walking outside may make the picture appear bluish or when videoing underwater and the video appears bluish. Almost monotone in color. The color temperature of sunlight is higher than incandescent light, which has a low color temperature. That’s why sunlight looks whiter, bluish than indoor lighting which looks yellow/orangish. When you walked outside with the video camera, the camera was adjusted for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Photography, Training, Videography
Videography tips and Techniques
Issue 1 Tip 2 Color Where to start… Physics! Understanding refraction and absorption. The light spectrum from Red to Violet. When entering the water column, you will notice one of the first colors to disappear is red. Red or green/blue are common filter colors to compensate for the loss of a spectrum of colors lost by water absorbing the wavelength of that color. For example, if looking through the lens with a red filter, from 5 feet of depth things will appear reddish. Continue down the water column and that red you see begins to disappear and the objects begin to appear more natural in color. Red or something close to red is a very common filter. Looking at the graph on the right ->> you see at around 15 feet, you begin … Read entire article »
Filed under: Photography, Training, Videography
Videography tips and Techniques
Issue 1 Tip 1 Panning Getting the shot. When I am looking for/at something to video I try to see it in my mind as a movie that is playing. I try to envision how the video will appear to the viewer. This allows me to frame the shot in ways that will hopefully, through editing provide the wow effect. For example: While looking upwards, pan a school of fish at the same pace the fish are swimming. If they are swimming towards you, even better. While panning with the fish, use a zoom in or zoom out near the end of the pan to add that period to the effect and as a aide in fading into the next scene during editing. Here is an example: [xr_video id=”bd0dc0594d164cba9c5e83084ae95d09″ size=”sm”] … Read entire article »
Filed under: Photography, Training, Videography
Videography tips and Techniques
Issue 1 May 18, 2010 This is my first post on underwater videography tips and techniques. I will post my experiences and observations while filming under water. I hope the notes will serve me in the future as a reminder of things to do while filming as well as serve as a reference for those introduced to the idea of making underwater films, documentaries. I will document my observations and experiences of what it takes to make great underwater video. Areas I would like to cover are: goals and objectives, equipment, configurations, lighting, cameras types and features, housings, buoyancy, gas management, angles, color, white balance, timing, framing, editing and more. Stop by to read the updates of becoming a great underwater videographer. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Photography, Training, Videography
AOW, Blue Grotto May 16, 2010
Sunday, 5/16, students from yesterdays diving returned to Blue Grotto for one more day of diving. They, along with one more diver performed Navigation and Deep dives. all looked good. Some need to work on their buoyancy control, but with more practice should be fine. Feeling neutral is something that will one day just come to you. You iwll get everything just right and the comfort you feel, will be a feeling you would want to repeat. Make note of your configuration/setup and dive it again. Great job to all. Dive Safe. Larry … Read entire article »
Filed under: Training
AOW Devils Den, Williston, Fl. May 15, 2010
Today started at 4:10am. I was out the door by 4:40 and on my way to meet up with another Instructor and a DMC. Off to Devils Den in Williston Florida I go. I arrive Devils Den at 07:45, check in, locate my AOW students and off to the Den we go. Today the two AOWs and myself performed three dives. Our first was buoyancy. After discribing the cross hairs, displacement, techniques, trim and tips, off to give it a try. I must say, they did pretty good. Some slight over usage of the LP inflator for some yet overall pretty good. The second dive was Navigation. After a surface exercise to learn and understand the compass, off to the water to perform a surface navigation. Then off for some navigation underwater, ending with a buddy … Read entire article »
Filed under: Training
Convert your picture to .png format or any other
If you ever found the need to convert a picture to png format, or any other format, check out this web site. Convert your jpg to png Larry … Read entire article »
Filed under: Training
4th Qtr 2009 PADI Training Bulletin
PADI 4th Qtr Training Bulletin … Read entire article »
Divemaster Application Hologram
Divemaster Application Hologram If you’ve recently purchased a Divemaster crewpak, you may have noticed something new in there…. a hologram decal. The decal is a proof of purchase to ensure the candidate received the required materials for the Divemaster course. What Are the Required Materials for Divemaster Anyway? Starting 1 June 2010, all new Divemaster candidates are required to own an instructor manual (4Q09 Training Bulletin page 6). So the required materials are as follows: * Instructor manual * Divemaster manual * Divemaster slates * Diving Knowledge Workbook * Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving Divemaster candidates who started their program prior to the instructor manual standards change aren’t required to have a hologram. Please write: “no hologram received, program started on [date prior to 1 June 2010]” on the 2010 Divemaster application form. The revised Divemaster crewpak (which started shipping late last … Read entire article »
Divemaster 2010 04/19-23
No class. Spring Break. Let’s Go Diving! Yee Haaa! Larry … Read entire article »
Filed under: Divemaster, Training