Your Favourite Photo of 2008

This is one which typifies my 10 year old son's 'coming of age' as as a competent diver and photographer. His next trip is St. John's and the northern wrecks...

Bit off topic but alarm bells ringing...

Tim

You know the depth of the dives, particularly the wrecks in the North Red Sea?? Thistle - 30m, Dunny - 30m.....Marcus, Carnatic etc 30m........As a 10 yr old is he not limited to 12m?? Their is a reason for this, namely the physical size and delicacy of the air spaces....

Rgds

Duncan

Bit off topic but alarm bells ringing...

 

Tim

 

You know the depth of the dives, particularly the wrecks in the North Red Sea?? Thistle - 30m, Dunny - 30m.....Marcus, Carnatic etc 30m........As a 10 yr old is he not limited to 12m?? Their is a reason for this, namely the physical size and delicacy of the air spaces....

 

 

 

Rgds

 

Duncan

I have to agree, although I thought you meant St. Johns, Newfoundland in Canada - and I can attest to the fact that those are not dives for children!! Sounds like they're about the same depths as the North Red Sea mentioned above.

Not wishing to take this way off topic (sorry Alex) its true that PADI JOW is formally limited to 12 metres and JAOW to 21 metres though I confess that both CJ and I have applied some flexibility to these parameters. At the outset, when CJ was just seven years old, I acquaited myself with all the physiological data I could muster from numerous hyperbaric chambers, DAN, etc. regarding young persons, diving and breathing compressed gas at depth. In essence there is no imperical evidence to support PADI's depth restrictions which are driven by issues of liability more than anything else. Lung development and bone plate development issues are largely hypothesis and conjecture. The telling statement came from the then president of DAN Europe "I know many divers who commenced their recreational diving as early as four years old and today they are safe and healthy adult divers". CJ has been using nitrox (as 21%) since he first breathed compressed gas and this year at the age of 11 he was qualified by PSAI to use up to 40% back gas. In ideal diving conditions CJ is very comfortable at 25-30 metres and displays impeccable gas management regimes and buoyancy skills. On second and third dives of the day we may often bust a little deco too which he manages like a pro using a Stinger and either swimming off his obligation or hanging under his DSMB. What does he want for Easter? Manifolded twin 7's and a nice 16kg lift wing. I expect it won't be too long before he's hanging a pair of 3's, lean left and rich right...

If there's any more corresspondance on this, I'm sure Alex would appreciate it being conducted elsewhere. I've opened up a new thread http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28111

congrats to everyone - there are some stellar images in this thread

i'm gonna beak the rules, because i have many "favourite" things and places this year

after years of not quite making it to South Aus, I made the 3000km road trip to see the leafies ... and was not disappointed! I wanted two shots - a whole dragon and a face.

Anyone who has worked with these guys will know they take a bit of patience ! This was one of those times where a weeks effort paid off on pretty much the last shot

& I'm not planning to wait 15 years for the next trip

I have always loved anemonefish, like many of you, from way before they were "nemos"

So when I am in the tropics I am hard pressed to swim past a chance to shoot them. In Layang Layang this year I was very excited to get some tending eggs shots ... and even though I was shooting for the eyes, and had better shots, this batch of shiny new eggs turned out to be my favourite

i love diving at home in Jervis Bay. The squid here are hammered by fisherman and are fast disappearing. Now I'm a fan of all cephalopods so its really sad to witness the squid population crash this was a special moment on dusk with a small group escorting the female (lowest squid) laying eggs in a communal egg mass near Bowen Island.

cheers

Leander

<img src="http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/jnbgoat/dive%20pics%20favorites/JNB_1295a.jpg">

Hi Leander,

Great pics of some truly beautiful critters. We are so over-looked down here in Oz. . . .

Hopefully your images will encourage a few of the Wetpixellers to come and have a look.

I see that you just had my buddy Brendan up your way?

We are planning a return trip VERY shortly. . .

Bruce...

Great pictures everyone!!!

Just came back from Santander (Christmas holidays with the family ) and I did not have any pics there so, a little late, but here we go:

This pic gave us the SEA 2008 Bob Commer award of which we are very proud so it should be one of the favourites!:

And, to start the cheating multiple pic topic , this one is from the entered on the Lanzarote photo competition in december (there were two mandatory creative pics) straight jpg:

And to finish, this one was taken on the last day of diving of 2008 during the XII Cabildo of Tenerife´s Cup of UWphoto competition (which we won ) straight jpg:

As always, outstanding, David. Happy New Year.

Late but hopefully not forgotten:

My favorite....no, no I won't cheat...though its so tempting!

Posting this pic for two reasons: first and foremost it is always awe inspiring seeing sharks this close! Second, it took second in NCUPS Novice WA and as a result of this, and a few other photo's in the NCUPS contest I am planning my next big dive trip for April!!!

This is my first attachment and a low res. version, hopefully it turns out okay!

bit late, but here's my favourite from 2008. Tavurvur Volcano, Rabaul, PNG.

EOS1dsmkII | 100-400mm @ 160mm | 19secs @f5.6 | 400ISO | 16 April 2008 | 20:51hrs

Awesome photovan!

Wow Darren. Great shot!

Incredible shot Darren!

Hi everyone.

I'm quite new to underwater photography (20 dives so far) so I don't have that many pictures under my belt yet. I'm just using the camera the office where I work has (a canon powershot A630 w/ standard canon housing).

I think this would be my fav image since it was the first time I saw mantas. They're such amazing creatures.

But I really like this one too because it kind of captures the whole feel of diving (for me atleast)

No idea about on land shots because I have too many of those ehe.

Some really really (really) amazing work on display here. You guys are awesome hehe

Thanks for all the great pics, I just had a great itme looking at all of them and now I'm really excited about my next diving trip.

-DAve