Some time back, I wrote an article about creating your own fibre optic cables: a quick, easy, inexpensive and very satisfying process. In case you missed it it, a link to the piece is here. https://waterpixels.net/articles/articles_technique/diy-fibre-optic-cables-easy-r32/ Now, many months on, a couple of additional suggestions: BURPING On entering the water and descending the plugs at both ends of the cables often need burping. Tiny air bubbles seem to be able to block fibre optic light tra

I have long fascinated with shooting ring lights underwater starting with the Inon Quadflash, through the various Athena modifications to Sea and Sea strobe heads, continuing to the Saga fiber optic rings and now to the Weefine 3000. The Weefine 3000 is the latest version of the LED lights made by Kraken and Weefine. The Weefine 3000 CCW Weefine 3000 CCW Ring Light It's similar to the earlier 3000 lumen LED modules but has adjustable color temperature and a 3000-lumen burst (strobe) mode. It

Afterhours Magic: An Ambient Light Video Workflow for Action Cams (and Other WB-Challenged Cameras) INTRODUCTION Getting good colours in underwater footage, especially when shooting in ambient light, has been a challenge since the early days of underwater cinematography, and action cameras are no exception. As divers learn in their certification course, water absorbs light unevenly, with longer wavelengths like reds and oranges fading quickly as depth increases, leaving underwater scenes dom

Mafia Island is located in the Indian Ocean, off the East African coast of Tanzania. I learned about Mafia Island from reports of several scubadivers in internet platforms, who consider it an “insider tip”. In November/December 2024 three divers (Lisi, Franz and me) set out towards Mafia in order to experience firsthand the diving and possibilities for UW-photographers. Mafia Island is not difficult to reach via international flights from Vienna/Austria to Dar es Salaam/Tanzania. From there, t

A few months ago in November, Scubalamp showed a new "small strobe". I like small strobes and wanted one, but they have never appeared on the Scubalamp website. However there is a Fotocore GTM (the same ones in the Scubalamp posts that are available. I bought two of them, and last Saturday, I got to try them out here in Los Angeles. The strobe is a bit larger than the AOI RC strobes, and a bit smaller than the YS D3 Duo. The strobe is machined aluminum and appears to be very solidly built

Waterpixels is always happy to help promote the activities of our own members. Husband and wife team, John Warmington (johnvila) and Sandra Kaye, have set up Critter Spotters in Vanuatu which they describe as a "Photographer-Friendly Retreat". Here's what they have to say: "We’re John Warmington and Sandra Kaye, a husband-and-wife team with over 40 years of dive experience between us, and a combined 26 years of living here in Vanuatu. Together, we’ve built Critter Spotter, a dive offering cre

In these last months of 2023, underwater photography and video enthusiasts have witnessed a phase of particular excitement in the action cam market with the release of new models of video cameras, cases and other accessories. If in the camera sector GoPro has suffered an attack from the competition with the presentation of models suitable for 360° shooting or equipped with a larger and more high-performance sensor (the very recent INSTA ACE PRO with its 1" sensor), as regards accessories, G

Adobe have just released an update to v15 of Lightroom Classic to v15.0.1. This contains a few bug fixes. The update has loaded without an issue on my system.

On a recent dive trip I met someone who is writing a dissertation on people who are 50+ and diving. If you are interested in contributing, the following is a link to a simple questionnaire which takes about 5 minutes to complete. I've become paranoid about online scams, phishing etc. But this looks fine and I know the author - and the information gathered is pretty innocuous. https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=e3VPRDDLUkaTvMqNbR74E5Cna1DJ6d1KvM2oRz5_gAdUM0Y3UEpYTkZERDJON

This article in the UK's The Independent newspaper caught my eye...... The Independent Scientists find way to develop shark bite-proof suits for... Researchers hope materials assessed in study can be part of the ‘toolkit’ to reduce shark-bite risk

Retra have released a new firmware update for ProMax II strobes to v 3.6. Full details are available through the usual app stores. The update also covers the Flash Pro Max to v2.17, Prime+ and Pure to v2.4. This includes bug fixes and a number of performance improvements.

Adobe have announced further updates to Lightroom. Classic goes to 15.0, Lightroom to 9.0 and Mobile to 11.0 These are the main new features: Classic & Desktop:  AI-Powered Assisted Culling AI-Powered Visual Similarity Stacking Point Color - Variance is a really useful new slider in Point Color AI Reflection Removal has been updated for better results AI Dust Removal feature added Classic: Filtering Criteria now includes Likes/Comments Zoom while Cropping finally arrives! Edit in P