FREE talk - Southampton UK

On Thursday evening I am giving a free lecture at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK). Anyone who can make it along is most welcome.

It is a chance to hear the stories and techniques behind some of my photographs including recent ones from my recent trip to Australia.

Alex

Hi Alex,

good to see your back... hope it all went well and you got what you needed...

Good luck with the talk...

Give me a bell about our day out...

Dive safe

DeanB

P.s.. saw a draft copy of my BBC Wildlife article...looks great...

Any chance somebody is going to you -tube that ?? (if that is allowed)

Second request for a 'tube from a bloke from downunder.

Get BBC world down then we can all watch it!

Get Jeremy Paxman down for an interview ?

Love to make it Alex - sadly I am committed that night.

Paul

Get his mate the Queen down there to hand out the tea and cakes...

Dive safe

DeanB

Dean - you are spoiling the chances of a knighthood ( not for you - your chances went out of the window some time back .

Paul C

Writing this from the tower Paul...

Dive safe

DeanB

Is that anywhere near Los Angeles?

Oooh, You Tube! Good idea.

Just got back from Alex's Lecture at NOC. Two lectures in one day - particularly impressive as he's just back from Aus and must still be jet lagged.

What a thoroughly entertaining and interesting evening. As a happy holiday underwater snapper it was great to get an insight into his work and the motivation behind it. Gobsmacked by the fantastic studies. Fortunately I only had an hours drive to Southampton but would now travel much further to sit at one of his presentations

Thank you Alex, you have given me the courage to slow down and take a little time over composition and empathising with the local environment, rather than just banging away at anything that happens to float across the front of my dome. - I just hope my buddy wife sees it that way - that's where the courage bit come into play

Thanks for the kind comments, Balrog, and thanks to all who came to both lectures. It was great to see the NOCS lecture theatre packed out (with people sitting on the stairs and standing at the back) for both sittings.

I was particularly pleased how well received my temperate water photographs were. Shooting in temperate waters is a new initiative for me, and from the reaction to the shots, perhaps I should have been doing it all along.

Alex

"Banging away at anything that happens to float across the front of my dome" thats got to be the comment of the week...

Dive safe

DeanB

My wife and I also enjoyed the evening. Luckily we live in Southampton and were literally 5 minutes away from NOCS. I have always wondereed what was inside of NOCS. I worked on the early constrution of the building and was curious as to what was inside. My wife read the pre lecture advertisement on WETPIXEL on tuesday night and telephoned me to say that Alex was doing a lecture at NOCS. I unfortunately was 250 miles away working in Liverpool. I had 2 days left on the project in liverpoolwhich would have been finishing on thursday then driving 5 hours back home to Southampton. There was no way I was going to make it.

Determined to make it I worked all wednesday from 530am right through to 8am thursday. I slept for 4 hours at my hotel then hit the motorways for a 5 hour drive south.

I made it home in time and was very glad I did.

Although I was feeling as tired as Alex, I enjoyed looking at some of his latests shots. Some very impressive images of leafy sea dragons, and a great story to go with them. My favourite shot of the night had to be a shot of a sea lion from his latest adventure in Australian. Then of course he projected some of his better known images. His shot of the pygmy that won the Papua tag badge competition was excellent to see so enlarged. Lemon shark on the surface from Bahamas. Excellent detail and showing why he has won some outstanding awards. I was actually amazed to see the variety of people that attended, ages ranged from 20-70 year old. I was amazed how many elderly women were there, Perhaps the have a crush on Alex !!!!!!!

A big thank you to Alex for spending some of his time showing us your work. And it was free...What better way to spemd a thursday evening.

Obviously... not only do the oldies have a crush on Alex...

Be nice to have someone (apart from the usual females) drive through the night to see me...

Dive safe

DeanB

Thanks Stew,

You should have come up and said hello - I have wanted to meet you properly for a while. Wow, thanks for coming all the way back from the 'pool.

I am very pleased that the seadragons and sealion were so popular with the audience. That was their first public showing. It is always nice when your new work is well received - rather than people going on and on about the same old shots.

Alex

Obviously... not only do the oldies have a crush on Alex...

I'm flattered you think of me that way, Dean. If this rain stops we must make plans to meet in our rubber gear and hang out with some pikeys.

Now thats a vision

Just sent my suit down to 0'three for neck and cuff repairs so i will have to borrow or rent one out...

But yes... we will go.. in the next couple of weeks...

Dive safe

DeanB

Thanks Stew,

 

You should have come up and said hello - I have wanted to meet you properly for a while.

 

Are you from Southampton Alex? We will have to arrange a night out in the new year, have a few beers and some dive and photo chat. The wife and I are off to Cocos next sunday, so I wont be on here for a while after then. Drop me a PM when you are around in the new year and we'll hook up.

 

Stew