PC Photo Article

My underwater photo article in the August issue of PC Photo magazine.

Total Submersion 2008 - Grand Cayman...What a Blast!!

Just got back from Grand Cayman and the PADI Diving Society's Total Submersion event. We had a great time and the diving was terrific! I headed up the Blue dive team and must say, had some great divers and wonderful people on my team. GO BLUE!!!!! We enjoyed 4 days of 2 tank boat dives to sites like, Cheeseburger, Big Dipper, Sand Chute, the Doc Paulson, La Mesa and more. In addition, the fantastic shore diving at Sunset House was unlimited!!! I got in a total of 17 dives including a must-do excursion to Sting Ray City. Here are just a few images from the trip... Hope you enjoy. Next stop... Bonaire in August. You'll be there, won't you???? Budd

2008 Bora Bora Trip

From Feb 27th - Mar 6th the PADI Diving Society hosted the Tahitian Diving Festival. 30+ divers from the US, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Canada joined together for great diving, great accomodations, great atmosphere and great fun.

The diving included sharks (Lemons, Grey Reef, Black Tips), turtles, stingrays, all sorts of colorful fish and, my favorite, the large Napolean Wrasses.

Here are some samples. It was a great trip! Next stop...Grand Cayman in May then Bonaire in August. Life's a beach....and then you dive!!!!

For more information on the PADI Diving Society click on http://www.padi.com/padi/en/kd/ds/am/default.aspx

Budd

Injured Nurse Shark

We came across this badly injured shark in Cayman last year. It was hard to see it struggling to survive. It lost the struggle as we found it had died the next day. Reminds me how fragile life is in the sea and how we must take care of it.

A Divers Perspective

One of the truly great aspects of being a diver is the appreciation you acquire for all that you are privileged to see. From the big, majestic animals, like the graceful and beautiful manta, to the tiny, but amazingly colorful nudibranch, its all wonderful. After 30 plus years of diving I am still amazed by what I see, and what awaits me on each and every dive. May it never cease to amaze me....Budd

Island of the Great White Shark

I went to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific for a premier of Richard Theiss' new documentary on the white sharks of Guadalupe, Mexico. Wow!! Good stuff. I hope you get a chance to see it. Visit his website at www.rtsea.com to find out more... Budd

When it's raining.....

It's raining and dive conditions really bite right now, so all I can do is look at pictures of my favorite places.....then I see this......I think I will enter... Deadline Approaching For Prestigious International Underwater Photo & Video Competitions Over $80,000 in Combined Prizes! New York, NY (December 6, 2007) -- For the second year, two international competitions associated with dive expos on opposite sides of the world are collaborating to produce a complementary series of categories and prizing opportunities. The competitions at Our World Underwater and DEEP Indonesia have become “the Super Bowl” of underwater imagery events. With a combined prize pool of over $80,000, there are plenty of opportunities for photographers and videographers of all levels, both amateur and professional, to walk away with fantastic prizes and the glory of placing in a prestigious international competition. Photographers will compete in 7 technical categories in Our World Underwater and 7 themed categories in DEEP Indonesia, to win premium dive travel packages to some of the top photo destinations in the world, photo equipment, dive gear, and more! Dive packages for the Our World Underwater competition include trips to Socorro, Wakatobi, Papua New Guinea, Ambon, the Red Sea, Grand Cayman, the Solomon Islands and Vietnam! DEEP Indonesia packages include some of the top photo destinations in Indonesia and beyond such as Komodo, Raja Empat, Lembeh Bali, Manado, Fak Fak, and Ambon. Additional dive packages include trips to the pristine reefs of Papua New Guinea and shark diving in the BahamasOther prizes include camera housings, strobes, lighting systems, and other valuable items. The competitions include a category for images that focus on conservation and the marine environment, one specifically for entries taken by compact digital cameras, one Indonesian resident category, and two video categories. Esteemed judges Eric Cheng, David Espinosa, Ric Frazier, Steven Frink, Chuck Nicklin, Mary Lynn Price, Berkeley White and Tony Wu, will select winners. All compact camera category entrants will receive one free underwater photography lesson courtesy of Marty Snyderman and TheUnderwaterPhotographer.com Winners will be announced online and displayed during the Our World Underwater and DEEP Indonesia Expos in Chicago and Jakarta, Indonesia respectively in Feb and March 2008 and will be published by supporting media publications worldwide. Winning videos will be broadcast via podcast as episodes of the iTunes-featured DiveFilm Podcast Video and DiveFilm High Definition Podcast Video As with all UnderwaterCompetition.com events, 15% of entry proceeds will be donated to marine conservation efforts. For more information, please contact: contest@divephotoguide.com.

Fun picture

Was just editing some images today and ran across this one. I thought it was cool so I'm sharing it with you.