Everything posted by aquabluedreams
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I like the effort. Emphasizing being reef friendly photographers may help. Just thinking someone is watching you may make some think twice about more than a muck stick or finger in the sand. Just back from Anilao, great trip, but was sooooo disappointed with my fellow divers/photographers at the molesting of the reef, creatures, and corals. Witnessed guides pushing pygmy seahorses around for their clients. The posing of creatures for shots, the laying all over the bottom, the herding of macro creatures for "better" images was shameful. -
Thanks!
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Planning one of our Bucket List trips for 2026. Dominica Sperm Whale Trip! We have snorkeled with humpbacks in Tonga and had very different experiences. Any suggestions for operators? Also when snorkeling are you allowed to get off the surface a few feet so you are not bouncing around in the chop? Thanks!
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Thanks, really appreciate the input. 1. Fixed 2. Here goes the rant...Like many I don't like what AI is doing to photography. BUT I do use Sky Replacement on rare occasion, I keep it to skies I have shot. Yes, I admit I have replaced Spot Healing and Clone with Photoshops Generative Fill. My pathetic rationalization is only to remove items, people taking selfie shots, not to add anything to the image. So the asterisk is an attempt at truth in advertising and I need to put a note in the About Us page. 3. Being old it just feels odd to put personal info on the Web. Even the site feels like bragging in a way. 4. Agree, I have to find the function that will give an enlarged view of an image. Thanks again.
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For videos +3mins do you have a preference for voiceover, text slides or just music? Goal usually will be simply giving a location, information about a unique creature, setting or occurrence. Not in love with the sound of my voice but now you can use AI generated voices.
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Excellent! Almost makes me regret selling my drysuit.
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First attempt, still over 3min but a start. Pulled from two "old school" +15min Bilikiki trip/travel videos.
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Updated the website, still a work in progress. As we dive less and travel more becoming more generalized. Total hack and new to Squarespace so feel free to critique! https://www.aquabluedreams.com
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Reworking the website and have many "trip videos", basically made for ourselves, all in the 15min range. I have tried cutting that down to 7-8mins for posting. Is 7mins still too long? What is the max you are typically willing to browse through? I'm thinking no more than 3mins.
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Sorry, I'm an idiot! The Gates housing has an internal "flip down" red filter, lol.
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My wife's current video rig is; Gates, Canon GF50, 2x 6000 video lights. While an enthusiastic shooter and lover of macro wide angle is secondary for her. She will never white balance nor adjust settings while diving. Is there a 58mm filter that she can use when committing to WA at typical >60ft depths? Happy to do some correction in post with FCPX. Thanks!
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#1 get back in the water!!!! Life and Covid kept us out of the water for almost 8yrs. We did our first trip back in October, Cozumel, and loved it. We have booked Philippines Anilo and Raja Forgotten Islands trips. Can't Wait! We did order new Kraken 6k video lights for the Better Half's video rig. But have come to terms that are gear, 4k video, Sony RX100IV for stills, are plenty good for our needs. Be more WAY MORE creative with images. Abstract underwater nature photography? Fewer fish ID pics. Just months from retiring so going through the process of updating our website, www.aquabluedreams.com. Getting old, memory fading so one way to document the journeys, lol. Our new motto is Real Images from the Real World.
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Very nice, going in April, looking forward to it.
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Thanks! Found two Kraken Hydra v6000 for a good price.
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Time to update decade old video lights. In hand we have one Big Blue 4000lumen light with extra batteries. How much longer will it last, who knows? Its mate died awhile ago. Budget is an issue so for wide angle video what do you think is better; two 4000lumen lights or one 10000 or 15000lumen light? Her first love is shooting macro. Shooting a Canon Vixia GF50 in a Gates housing. Thoughts?
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The nice thing is the Philippines is a lot easier and less expensive to get to Lembeh, as much as we love Lembeh.
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FYI, thanks for the suggestions we ended up going with Solitude Acacia Resort. Surprisingly a couple were resorts are already booked up for April.
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Again we have two rigs, RX100 IV in Nauticam housing, Canon Video cam in Gates housing plus all the wet lenses and strobes. Fills the Stormcase right to the 50lb limit. When you get off the plane in Cozumel, you collect your bags and then have to run them through the scanner on the way out. The Mexican Customs official did stop me and wanted to know how many systems we had. I made it clear it was just one for myself and one for my wife. She asked if we had more than two cameras, which on this trip we did not. She let me go after that. While Cozumel is were my wife decided to try diving 20yrs ago and on this trip decided to take it up again; it will probably be our last trip there.
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Seattle-Houston-Coz. We use zip ties to lock the case. Inside the lid have a sign thanking Customs for their work and ask they use zip ties I provide them to "re-lock" the case, which to date everyone has done. So that means it has to be someone in Customs. Should have had them on me. It just resulted in having to download the cards in the camera every night to an external hard drive. "Fortunately" they are just standard SD cards for the RX100 and the now 7yr old Canon.
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Great info! The link was very informative. Now we just have to pick a date.
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We typically pack all the camera gear in a Stormcase. This trip I spaced out and put the pouch with all our SD cards in with the "misc gear" box. When we arrived in Cozumel it was missing....
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Looking for resort suggestions for Anilao. Like all of you we are avid (reef/muck friendly) photographers. Prefer smaller groups, don't need a 4star chalet, though A/C can be nice. If they have a good camera room that is a plus. Suggestions please and any pics or video you shot there.
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As mentioned after a 7yr hiatus from diving we went to Cozumel to brush off the cobwebs and frankly to see if we are still passionate about diving. Plus for us diving means packing 4 bags with dive gear and camera gear. It was a great trip and now have booked a trip to Raja. The website is a mess and got in a habit of just posting the long video I make for us, long being over 15mins. Below is the less than 4min vid from our Coz trip.
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Cozumel diving in the offseason.
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Life, Covid lead to a 7yr break from diving. Now that we have retired it was time to see if our passion for diving, photography, and dealing with packing all that gear is what it once was. We booked a trip to Cozumel to dust off the gear and skills. After that first dive we both came up and said, "this needs to always be part of our life". In process booking a Raja Ampat trip! Took longer to dust off the photography skills than the dive skills. But by day 3 started to come along. Shooting Sony RX100 IV, Nauticam with the various wet lenses. The better half shoots the Canon HF G50, Gates housing but need to pick her up some new lights. Few pics from the trip. Yes, I see the world in wide angle, lol.
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