RickMo

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A timely article for me, Christophe, as we recently spent 12 days on a liveaboard in the Jardines de la Reina, Cuba (Queen's Garden, mentioned by Andrey). The trip was heavily oriented to shark photography--in fact, I have a reef shark image open in Photoshop as I type. Bait boxes were used on every dive of 32, there was chumming, and guides routinely fed lionfish off their spears. The liveaboard has sailed, as it were, on the ethical question of manipulating the behavior of big predators through baiting; and, as I reminded my wife, we feed birds in our yard without a second thought, and beg them to raise their offspring in our boxes. But your article is not about that ethical issue per se, but about whether it is ethical, as a photographer, to offer such images as representing what happens in the wild. I can say that our experience was "in the wild," in the sense that we were 40 miles offshore and totally surrounded with full-grown sharks (Caribbean reef and silky), but of course without humans, there would not have been eight or 10 animals showing up as soon as a guide picked up a mooring ball. Are the photographs which were taken by the two-dozen photographers on board, a number of whom are pros, properly used without a disclaimer? Good question, which goes to the second part of your article: Manipulating scenes to get the photograph. If a guide uses his stick to nudge a pipefish into the open, is that an ethical issue? There are certainly excellent arguments in favor of that view, and I very much prefer guides who don't. But if the guide does, and I end up with a great photo of that pipefish and enter it in a competition, should I disclose the guide's action? What about clearing spiny urchins away to get a better view of the mandarin fish ballet? As Andrey says--a difficult topic. I would certainly not publish a photograph of a rhino in the zoo and claim it was in Sumatra, and in my images from the Jardines, I include information about the scent boxes--in fact, I include a picture of one. But are the pictures less interesting--or the animals less beautiful, for that matter--because of the circumstance? The underwater-photo-industrial complex says no, I think, but it's a serious question which deserves the community's thought. Thank you for writing your article and re-posting it here. Aquabluedreams--I had some trouble with your link, for some reason, but the rules you published are compelling. Thank you.

These were used on a handful of dives. Both appear to me to be in as-new condition. I paid $380 for the SMC-1 and $260 for the flip holder in 2017; the SMC-1 now retails for $589 and the flip holder retails for $308. I'm asking $450 for both.

I mentioned a month or so ago that I expected to find significant bleaching during our nearly two-week liveaboard in the Jardines. I really hadn't imagined the carnage we'd find. I'm working on a trip report, but in the meantime, the attached article by accomplished author Robert Osborne was published in the recent edition of X-Ray Mag. The before (May 2023) and after (October 2023) images are striking. Water temperatures are coming down--we had mostly 81-82f, but had one dive at 78f--so fingers crossed for recovery, but it's hard to imagine the Jardines being the garden it once was anytime soon. Feature_ClimateChange-CoralBleaching_Cuba_RobertOsborne_123_protected(1).pdf

It would be a welcome break with tradition if the new body fits in the OM-1 housing (at least in Nauticam), but I can't imagine changing either way, since the "rubbery coating" wouldn't do much good in a housing. Fortunately, I have no significant complaints with the OM-1, above or below the waves.

Tom, your website is outstanding--beautiful, unique images and excellent information. Thanks!

Fun thread! I think this is a dwarf zebra lionfish. OM-1, 12-40, Banda Sea.

Four stand out to me. First, this image of batfish gliding by above a disorganized scrum of divers following a negative descent off a tender in PNG. It reminds me of how foreign we are to the undersea world. It's not a technically-great image--in fact, a full-on grab shot--but I find it evocative. Second, this picture, from last February, of healthy, vibrant purple tube sponges in a rich reef scene on Klein Bonaire. I had no idea that within months, SCTLD and serious bleaching would overtake Bonaire's reefs. While I don't know what this scene looks like now, I fear the worst. Third, this soft coral crab in the Tulamben muck. It reminds me that no matter our size, our survival depends on our environment, even if it's a few square inches of soft coral. And fourth, this marbled Saron shrimp found in the Banda Sea, in hopes that someone can tell me why it has a pompom on its beak. Great 2024 to all of you!

It's unchanged. There are a couple of improvements, notably a dedicated ISO button just below the video button, and a button to re-center the focus point.

This is very timely for us. Sometime last spring, I booked a long photography-oriented liveaboard in the Jardines de la Reina, now a month away. At that time, there appeared to be no SCTLD in the Jardines (although I was and am suspicious about that, fingers crossed), and the hard corals have long been reputed to be very healthy, certainly by Caribbean standards. It's now clear that the triple-digit temperatures in the Keys, and the attendant temperature spike throughout the region, has not spared Cuba. Two recent videos show extensive bleaching, one just a month or so old. So, there is likely to have been some recovery of bleaching, but the trip will certainly be different than planned. My partner and I discussed two nights ago that it will be important to document the tragedy; although it's our first time in the Jardines, there are lots of baseline images which we can bump what we see up against. Also apropos, there is a decent documentary on Netflix, Chasing Coral, which documents the glory and subsequent ruin of a little-known reef complex in the western Caribbean.

Trendsetter, that's me.

Whoa! Sea Sponge already! Ian Marsh, something to strive for. I do aspire to Bobbitt Worm . . . Mods, any chance of adding it to the list?

John, we've had great success with Prescription Dive Masks, and I really recommend getting lenses ground to your prescription. They offer a different grind for photographers, with the close-focus lens extending a little bit higher in the visual field. Given that you don't need distance correction, maybe those would be worth checking out. (I wouldn't be happy with fuzzy distance vision, but that's a lifestyle choice). As to mask size, I've happily used Cressi Big Eye masks with prescription lenses for a long time.

Of all the things I've been called, I think "polyp" stands out. According to Google: "a projecting growth of tissue from a surface in the body, usually a mucous membrane"-- and, apparently, commonly the colon . . . I'm trying not to take it personal-like!

Phil, thanks for the update. The strobes (and Marelux) are certainly innovative. How is the RC capability used/useful?

Bittersweet, but more sweet. Nice job, ghosts-in-the-machine!