Pictures from out on the Mussel beds

We get big flocks of Oyster catchers, Curlews, Gulls and Dunlin at this time of year. Whilst investigating the mussel beds (see previous post) I took some pictures!

The demise of Morecambe Bay's mussel beds

I spent some time walking out on the mussel beds around my house in Heysham, and was shocked to see how denuded they are. For the past two summers, there has been mussel gathering on an industrial/commercial scale. Large gangs of labourers, accompanied by dozens of quad bikes with trailers have quite literally stripped the mussel beds. I walked out on the beds early last year, and was encouraged by the amount of re-growth that had occurred since the harvesting of the previous year, but the mussels were very small. I assumed that the size would render the beds uneconomic for the 2008 season. However the gangs were back in force-apparently, they were taking these tiny mussel as "seed". They were stripped out of the beds, and taken elsewhere (to Ireland I believe) to be grown on to a commercial size.  This illustrates the ammount of profit that is to be made-and equally that the profits didn't return into the local economy. This strikes me as a ludicrous system, and one that the sea fisheries protection should prevent. The wholesale destruction of any marine species in an area is not acceptable. There was no attempt to do so in either an way that is sustainable or that would encourage re-growth. In farming this would be called slash and burn-and yet it is going on adjacent to a mid sized town in one the most highly developed nations in the world!  I will be watching this year!

Forgotten Pictures

Sometimes you need to browse your picture library! I was doing so today and came across this image from the Red Sea last November   I really like it-and I hope you do too!

Earth-touch.com

Another amazing source for wildlife/nature video is earth touch http://www.earth-touch.com/ Also primarly South African based-enter Sardine Run into their search engine!

More Sardine Run footage

More amazing footage of the Sardine Run off South Africa's east coast. [youtube]ulzv7tG8-PQ[/youtube] Shot by Stuart Ireland This won the award for short video at the Antibes film festival in 2006. By all accounts, the run in 2008 was even more spectacular!

Diving Yesterday

I was diving yesterday, completeing two PADI adventure dives with a student. I've spent a while either out of the water, or not being able to carry a camera on a  specific dive, so it was great to be able to take few pictures! It is hard to juggle the responsibility of a student with the needs of photography! Many thanks to Dave(s) Morgan and Elliot and Antony Gattrell for backing me up!

Caving Pictures

I've been diving with Dave Elliot today, and doing so made me think about going caving again. I also though I'd stick a few caving pictures on here. I love the exploration involved in being underground-the fact that you can look at a hillside and be completely unaware of the miles and miles of passageways underneath it

BBC Nature's great events-SA sardine run footage

Check out this promo video clip for the forthcoming BBC program Natures Great Events- [youtube]AGKa8wlXvhk[/youtube] Absolutely amazing! Can't wait for the program and for next June when we will be there!

Happy Valentines day

 Wishing you all a very happy Valentines Day. This is Caron my gorgeous valentine and dive buddy, life partner, soul mate,  best friend and lover. I am so glad we met and thank you for putting up with me!  

Magic filters DVD

I recently ordered a copy of Alex Mustard and Peter Rowlands Shooting Magic DVD. I ahve been using magic filters (http://www.magic-filters.com/)in blue and green water for some time. This is an example of a green water shot:    What is amazing is that the combination of filter and high ISO/slow shutter has meant that it actually shows more  detail than I could  actually see through the viewfinder! I've had a similar experience using a green water filter on my video camera. The blue water filter brings out the fantastic coulours on the reef. This was shot using a blue water magic in the Red Sea:   Anyway, the DVD arrived and it is amazing how much more it gives! The practical advice on all sorts of things-even just getting the Anthias to point in the right direction(!) is great. You can order it from magic filters at http://www.magic-filters.com/

Getting in tight with Lightroom

I was playing with the perch pictures that I put up. I had posted them onto wetpixel (www.wetpixel.com) and thought that I would like to maybe improve the crop on them. This was the result!     The level of detail post crop is amazing! All I did was tweak the white balance a tiny bit.

Pictures from the past couple of mornings

[flickr album=72157613436637947 num=20 size=Medium]

Amazing scenery

The combination of clear mornings, snow and higher tides has made me late for work on two consecutive mornings! I should explain. Yesterday I took the dogs out for their normal walk along the beach at Heysham. The early morning light and the snow on the Lake District mountains made for an amazing view. As the tides are high in the morning, the Oystercatchers, Dunlin and Curlews are gathered in large groups close inshore. SO.... rather than go to work on time, I got caught up trying to take pictures of the scene. It does get worse though-while driving along the Morecambe promenade on my way to work, the light and the snow and the boats on the tide "forced" me to stop and take some more! Sorry bosses! Anyway, I was on my way out the door thismorning, and Caron was taking the dogs out, and guess what-take two! The views are just so beautiful! Both mornings, I was playing with my Sigma 170-500. I think the moral is that I need to tripod mount it to get the results I want. I will post up some pictures later though

XIT404

Another kudos to type post, but also a heads up for those interested XIT404 are a specialist company making some truly esoteric bits for enhancing your underwater housing! I bought an oversize focus wheel knob from them-it is fantastic for using with my big gloves Check out www.xit404.com

Caving in the Dales

I went up to Lost Johns Pot near Cowan Bridge in Yorkshire yesterday, and together with Dave Elliot, had a fantastic trip down Lost Johns Pot. We dropped down about 6 pitches, in smooth walled, very dry clean cave, and then came back out again! I'd forgotten how physically hard SRT is, although it was good to feel that I was getting back into my rhythm by the end. I ache a lot and have some strange bruises today though Caves are amazing environments, it is always weird to look out over a landscape, and imagine that underneath it are a rabbit warren of tunnels and passageways. They also give you a real sense of the scale of geological time-many of the passages are now dry, they were carved out when water levels were much higher.  I used to take a camera on my caving trips-together with slave flashes, but didn't yesterday. As always, I wished I had! Caving is such an alien activity, that I think it is quite eye-catching and photogenic. Note to self-take a camera!

Inon Knob tests

My last post was about the cold water knobs for my Inon strobes that I got from Jonas Odell. I managed to get them wet in Capernwray on Friday with David Kneale and David Elliot. The strurgeon were most obliging-and Dave Elliot gets Strugeon Wrangler supremo points for actually de-tangling the sturgeons barbels! The viz was superb, although it was a gloomy day. I was using my Nikkor 105mm VR that I mentioned in my earlier post, together with a Fisheye focus light. The water clarity is so good that you can use the 105 as a short telephoto:                         The backscatter is from the strobe position-I think they were a tad too close. Anyway, water temp was 4 degrees, and my right dry glove seems to be seeping, so my hands were pretty cold. In the past, I have really struggled to adjust my strobe's power output when cold due to the size of the knobs on the Inon strobes (see my previous posts), but with the extenders that I got from Jonas, even at the end of a 45 minute dive, was able to easily adjust them-result! Here are some more pictures from the dive:                             Thanks to David and Dave-looking forward to the next one!