posted by on 02/10/2005
Grand Cayman Digital Jam 2005
Introduction
It did not take me many minutes until I knew the answer of the question put forward by Lesley. Eva and I were going to Grand Cayman!
To be honest, I did not have a clue as to what to expect from Grand Cayman. I hardly even knew where to find it on the map. Now I know, and I am very convinced that I will return before long. Read on, and you will understand why!
Grand Cayman is one of the three major islands that form Cayman Islands. The other two islands are the Sister Islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Grand Cayman is roughly 32 km long and 6–12 km wide. No part of the island is more than 20 m above sea level. The island hosts the capital of the Cayman Islands, George Town.
Geographically, the Cayman Islands are part of the Cayman Ridge, which extends westwards from Cuba. The Cayman trench, the deepest part of the Caribbean at a depth of approximately 6.5 km, separates the three small islands from Jamaica.
Historically, the islands were discovered by Columbus in 1503. In those days, the islands were not inhabited. Birds and large reptiles reined the land and the surrounding seas were rich in turtles. In 1655, England captured Jamaica from the Spanish and the Cayman Islands were part of the treaty. Permanent settlement probably occurred around 1700. In the early days, business was mainly fishing including turtle meat, ######, mahogany and logwood. Nowadays, business consists mainly of financial services, tourism and real estate development and sales. The Cayman Islands is still a Crown Colony of Great Britain and you are welcomed by a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at the airport.
Let me continue by introducing our guru of the week, Dr. Alex Mustard who was the host of the DigiJam week at Ocean Frontiers. Alex is a marine biologist and prominent figure in the world of digital photography. He is the Digital Officer for the British Society of Underwater Photographers, moderates on the Wetpixel website and his images have been published around the world and have won multiple international awards. I bet most of you have seen at least some of his beautiful pictures. If you want more, you can check his website or browse through some of the issues of the online journal Underwater Photography Magazine. You can also find contributions from Alex here at the Digideep Photo of the week contest.
To be honest, I did not have a clue as to what to expect from Grand Cayman. I hardly even knew where to find it on the map. Now I know, and I am very convinced that I will return before long. Read on, and you will understand why!
Grand Cayman is one of the three major islands that form Cayman Islands. The other two islands are the Sister Islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Grand Cayman is roughly 32 km long and 6–12 km wide. No part of the island is more than 20 m above sea level. The island hosts the capital of the Cayman Islands, George Town.
Geographically, the Cayman Islands are part of the Cayman Ridge, which extends westwards from Cuba. The Cayman trench, the deepest part of the Caribbean at a depth of approximately 6.5 km, separates the three small islands from Jamaica.
Historically, the islands were discovered by Columbus in 1503. In those days, the islands were not inhabited. Birds and large reptiles reined the land and the surrounding seas were rich in turtles. In 1655, England captured Jamaica from the Spanish and the Cayman Islands were part of the treaty. Permanent settlement probably occurred around 1700. In the early days, business was mainly fishing including turtle meat, ######, mahogany and logwood. Nowadays, business consists mainly of financial services, tourism and real estate development and sales. The Cayman Islands is still a Crown Colony of Great Britain and you are welcomed by a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at the airport.
Let me continue by introducing our guru of the week, Dr. Alex Mustard who was the host of the DigiJam week at Ocean Frontiers. Alex is a marine biologist and prominent figure in the world of digital photography. He is the Digital Officer for the British Society of Underwater Photographers, moderates on the Wetpixel website and his images have been published around the world and have won multiple international awards. I bet most of you have seen at least some of his beautiful pictures. If you want more, you can check his website or browse through some of the issues of the online journal Underwater Photography Magazine. You can also find contributions from Alex here at the Digideep Photo of the week contest.
The trip
Our trip started during the night between Thursday and Friday with a night drive by car from Kalmar down to Copenhagen Airport. From there, we went to Miami via London, stayed over night and took a plane to Georgetown, Grand Cayman, the next morning. Unfortunately, one of our bags was lost in London. It did not arrive until Tuesday so Eva had to temporarily rent dive equipment and could not use her camera during the first three days of the competition.
From here, I think it is best to present the week as a diary.
From here, I think it is best to present the week as a diary.
Saturday 22nd January
Now, let’s tune in at 19’ 18.415 N / 081’ 05.662 W where underwater photographers gathered at the dive centre Ocean Frontiers to take part in the inaugural Dive Chronicles’ Digital Jam. This story will actually be restricted to the “East Enders”, i.e. the team at Ocean Frontiers, consisting of eight participating photographers, Alex Mustard and the crew of the dive centre. We did not meet the other participants until the Awards Party of the last evening. However, all in all some 30 UW photographers participated in the DigiJam contest, including other guests at Ocean Frontiers who were not on the official Digital Jam dive boat.
Our group was a nice mix of DigiJammers from the U.S.A, United Kingdom and Sweden. In the evening we were welcomed by a refreshing and stealthy Caymanian rum punch on the Compass Point pool deck. Alex explained the itinerary, although said that it was not set in stone and there would be some surprises later in week!
Our group was a nice mix of DigiJammers from the U.S.A, United Kingdom and Sweden. In the evening we were welcomed by a refreshing and stealthy Caymanian rum punch on the Compass Point pool deck. Alex explained the itinerary, although said that it was not set in stone and there would be some surprises later in week!
Sunday 23rd January
There she was, waiting for us at dusk, already loaded with filled bottles and all our gear – Nauticat, our dive vessel for the week. First dive and no chance for a warm up! Glassy smooth seas meant that Captain Dan was able to take us to Ol’ Wreck Head, one of the East End’s most exposed sites that can only be reached by divers for 10 or so days during the year. This site was both Dan’s and Alex’s favourite on the East End. Although this was not a wall site, we chose to do it first, so that we could enjoy a long dive in the caverns there, which boast the most colourful sponge life at the East End. I decided to go for wide angle to start with. I used my Nikon D100/Seacam, 10.5 mm fisheye, dome port and two Sea&Sea YS-90 DX Duo strobes on long arms from UltraLight Control Systems. During wall dives, I also had a dive light from Epoque mounted on top of the Seacam housing. I was all the time using the Seacam S45 viewfinder during all dives, a fantastic tool which provides a great advantage, ergonomically, with a 45 degree angle and gives you a magnified and easy to read viewfinder (see picture). Already at this first dive, two winning pictures were shot: Joe Hoyt took an image of lobster and Alex that won him a trip to Wakatobi in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and I shot a reef seascape that was later manipulated to become “the living reef”, the winner of the Creative category! For the second dive we headed to Chub Hole, one of the East End’s fishiest sites and as such it was a real favourite for the photographers. Malcolm Nobbs shot a barracuda in a cave here that was highly commended by the jury. I found a several lobsters in a crack, a curious bunch that tickled me with their antennas while I was trying to get close with my fisheye!
The afternoon was left free for people to relax and settle in after the frenetic start. Then in the evening everyone gathered on the pool deck for Alex’s first presentation “Controlling light underwater”. The setting was perfect: cool evening air and a large projection screen on the pool deck framed by the setting sun. Alex argued that light is everything to all photographers and went on to explain the three main types of underwater lighting and how to control, manipulate and exploit light underwater. Each point illustrated with an inspirational image.
Photo: Eva Arvidsson |
Photo: Joe Hoyt
|
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
The afternoon was left free for people to relax and settle in after the frenetic start. Then in the evening everyone gathered on the pool deck for Alex’s first presentation “Controlling light underwater”. The setting was perfect: cool evening air and a large projection screen on the pool deck framed by the setting sun. Alex argued that light is everything to all photographers and went on to explain the three main types of underwater lighting and how to control, manipulate and exploit light underwater. Each point illustrated with an inspirational image.
Monday 24th January
For the second morning we chose to do a classic Ocean Frontiers itinerary: The Maze followed by Grouper Grotto. Brad Nolan from Dive Chronicles brought a batch of MP3 players from H2O Audio for us to try which were very popular. In addition, Susan Long from DUI brought a selection of their new BCs for us to try. Chris Powell bagged third prize in the Wide Angle for compact cameras at Grouper Grotto. It was a bit overcast on this day and it was pretty chilly by the end of the second dive. Alex joked that if you weren’t coming up cold then you weren’t concentrating on your photography enough! Anyway, Compass Point’s Jacuzzi Tubs were the perfect way to warm up.
The sun returned in the afternoon and most participants gathered by the pool for the tune up session. This was a chance for some one to one coaching from Alex to improve techniques in preparation for the reef. Rubber ducks from the Compass Point bathrooms provided practice macro subjects and dive fins substituted for gorgonian fans. Ted Janssen took a perfect image of the fins and the next afternoon repeated the technique in the ocean to claim third prize in the Wide Angle for SLRs.
In the evening Alex spoke on the subject “Creating Outstanding Images” with advice about how to make you images stand out from the crowd. Starting the talk with a quote from landscape photographer Ansel Adams: “There is nothing worse that a sharp image of a fuzzy concept”, Alex talked about composition, communication and injecting images with impact. After the talk we headed off to the Kaibo Grill for dinner.
Tuesday 25th January
On Tuesday we were joined on Nauticat by Joe, Matt and Mariano from Amphibico who brought along some of their latest products. Peter Frohwein, Eva Arvidsson and even Captain Dan grabbed Amphibico housings and shot some moving pixels. For the first dive we went to Crushers Wall and then to Big House. This time I rigged my Nikon D100/Seacam with a 105 mm macro lens / flat port and short strobe arms. Time for some macro shooting! Here are some of the shots from this two-tank dive; a yawning Trumpetfish, a Red lip blenny and a Saddled blenny.
We went for another two tank dive in the afternoon doing two dives on the same site: Iron Shore Gardens. Alex was very keen that we repeat dived sites because it meant we could get in for the second dive knowing exactly what we were going to photograph and set up our cameras and minds accordingly. We chose to delay the afternoon trip by an hour and a half so that our final dive would be in late afternoon dappled underwater light. After a full day of diving there was no lecture, and instead we went to Castro’s Hideaway at the Reef to hear the wise words of the Barefoot Man!
The next two pictures show a Secretary blenny (left) and a Flamingo tongue (right). The Flamingo tounge (Cyphoma gibbosum) belongs to a family of snails called "false cowries" (Ovulidae) which live and feed on gorgonian soft corals. Interestingly this snail has evolved a large mantle which cover most of their shell. This mantle has bright colours and patterns and has several functions - it works as a lung, exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide with the water so the snail can breathe. It also contains distasteful chemicals which deter fish from eating them. Next, I want to see the tongue of a flamingo...
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
We went for another two tank dive in the afternoon doing two dives on the same site: Iron Shore Gardens. Alex was very keen that we repeat dived sites because it meant we could get in for the second dive knowing exactly what we were going to photograph and set up our cameras and minds accordingly. We chose to delay the afternoon trip by an hour and a half so that our final dive would be in late afternoon dappled underwater light. After a full day of diving there was no lecture, and instead we went to Castro’s Hideaway at the Reef to hear the wise words of the Barefoot Man!
The next two pictures show a Secretary blenny (left) and a Flamingo tongue (right). The Flamingo tounge (Cyphoma gibbosum) belongs to a family of snails called "false cowries" (Ovulidae) which live and feed on gorgonian soft corals. Interestingly this snail has evolved a large mantle which cover most of their shell. This mantle has bright colours and patterns and has several functions - it works as a lung, exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide with the water so the snail can breathe. It also contains distasteful chemicals which deter fish from eating them. Next, I want to see the tongue of a flamingo...
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Wednesday 26th January
By Wednesday we were a well-oiled machine of efficiency and a prompt start and calm seas gave us the chance to head down to Breakers Cutback for a wall dive. This site gets its name because the wall cuts back beyond vertical and the overhang is covered in colourful sponges and black coral. This site was also great for macro with gobies and blennies (including Secretary, Arrow and Triplefin blennies) galore! Second dive we headed back up to Half Moon Bay and dived on Maggie’s Maze. Captain Dan found a beautiful gold and black Chain Moray posing against a red and orange sponge encrusted rock. I collected the Second Prize in the Macro for SLRs category with my shot of this rare critter. On the same dive my wife Eva took a classic image of a Trumpetfish in gorgonians that won Third Prize in the Macro for compacts category, using her Canon S50 for the first time under water! (Yes, the lost bag finally made its way to Compass Point Tuesday afternoon!). OK, let’s throw in another moray because he’s sweet!
The afternoon was a bit of a treat as Steve took us out to Shark Alley, the site where Ocean Frontiers used to run their Shark Awareness Program. Ocean Frontiers originally chose this site for the Program because it was the most common spot to see sharks on the island and it is always worth a dive there in the hope that something shows up. As this was not a feeding dive, Alex advised everyone to use midrange instead of wide angle lenses. I decided to squeeze my new 18-70mm zoom into the flat port and set it at 35 mm. I thought this would give a decent angle of view for shy but large animals in the range where I should still give them a punch with the strobes. I had never tried this setup before. Maybe that’s why I made a silly mistake. I went first of all into the water and quickly reached a sandy patch at 17 meters. And hey – two sharks came swimming right towards me! BUT I COULD NOT SWITCH MY CAMERA ON! I realized that I must have had the camera switched off but the knob of the housing set to on while mounting the camera. I made a quick decision to return to the boat. I met all the other divers, pointing sadly at my camera with the not OK-sign. A quick fix, just a few drops of water into the housing and then back in. Now I went down to the outer part of the plateau (no buddy, but don’t tell anyone). I sat down below a small ridge and waited. I tried to breathe as little as possible. I had a horrible pain in my sinuses due to my unorthodox dive profile. Suddenly, I saw some black gooey stuff inside my mask. I realized it was blood. Well, no time to worry about that, because now I could see a shadow in the blue, slowly developing into a magnificent shark. I bet it knew where I was but was a bit curious – it passed majestically just above the ridge, just a few meters in front of me. And this time, I was prepared. I had made several blank shots to get a good balance between strobe and ambient light, and managed to produce a classic portrait of a shark swimming over the reef. The shot won the prestigious Wide Angle for SLRs category – and got me a one week live aboard in Papua New Guinea! We were lucky and three Caribbean Reef Sharks, two females and a male, appeared at various stages during the dive. I got several other pictures of the sharks, with and without divers.
In the evening Alex presented “Digital Thinking” arguing that just comparing digital to film misses the point. Instead we should understand and accept the differences of digital and then exploit them to create images that have never been possible before in underwater photography. Alex spoke about the use of filters and manual white balance for obtaining full colour with just available light. Plus new techniques he has developed that are only possible on digital including Nemo Lighting and Telephoto. After the talk we headed to Portofino’s for supper.
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Eva Arvidsson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
The afternoon was a bit of a treat as Steve took us out to Shark Alley, the site where Ocean Frontiers used to run their Shark Awareness Program. Ocean Frontiers originally chose this site for the Program because it was the most common spot to see sharks on the island and it is always worth a dive there in the hope that something shows up. As this was not a feeding dive, Alex advised everyone to use midrange instead of wide angle lenses. I decided to squeeze my new 18-70mm zoom into the flat port and set it at 35 mm. I thought this would give a decent angle of view for shy but large animals in the range where I should still give them a punch with the strobes. I had never tried this setup before. Maybe that’s why I made a silly mistake. I went first of all into the water and quickly reached a sandy patch at 17 meters. And hey – two sharks came swimming right towards me! BUT I COULD NOT SWITCH MY CAMERA ON! I realized that I must have had the camera switched off but the knob of the housing set to on while mounting the camera. I made a quick decision to return to the boat. I met all the other divers, pointing sadly at my camera with the not OK-sign. A quick fix, just a few drops of water into the housing and then back in. Now I went down to the outer part of the plateau (no buddy, but don’t tell anyone). I sat down below a small ridge and waited. I tried to breathe as little as possible. I had a horrible pain in my sinuses due to my unorthodox dive profile. Suddenly, I saw some black gooey stuff inside my mask. I realized it was blood. Well, no time to worry about that, because now I could see a shadow in the blue, slowly developing into a magnificent shark. I bet it knew where I was but was a bit curious – it passed majestically just above the ridge, just a few meters in front of me. And this time, I was prepared. I had made several blank shots to get a good balance between strobe and ambient light, and managed to produce a classic portrait of a shark swimming over the reef. The shot won the prestigious Wide Angle for SLRs category – and got me a one week live aboard in Papua New Guinea! We were lucky and three Caribbean Reef Sharks, two females and a male, appeared at various stages during the dive. I got several other pictures of the sharks, with and without divers.
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
In the evening Alex presented “Digital Thinking” arguing that just comparing digital to film misses the point. Instead we should understand and accept the differences of digital and then exploit them to create images that have never been possible before in underwater photography. Alex spoke about the use of filters and manual white balance for obtaining full colour with just available light. Plus new techniques he has developed that are only possible on digital including Nemo Lighting and Telephoto. After the talk we headed to Portofino’s for supper.
Thursday 27th January
It was a glorious day, with hardly a cloud in the sky and we headed to Babylon, one of the prime sites on the North Wall. Babylon is one of the most famous wall sites on Grand Cayman, with some of the most impressive sponge and coral growths anywhere on the islands. It was flat calm and the visibility was easily 50+ meters. To really get the most out of this amazing site we decided to make two dives. They were absolutely fabulous! During the first dive, we were surprised by an increasing current which made posing in wide angle shots difficult. However, the current ceased in time for the second dive, and now we knew the place and could get some amazing shots! Too often during dive trips, you only get one dive per dive site. This is sad. If a dive site is good, stay and make several dives, this is so much more rewarding!
For lunch we pulled into the Kaibo Yacht Club and Alex sat down cutting up filters so that everyone could try available light photography over two dives at Stingray City Sandbar. I placed a 40CC Red Kodak Wratten gel in the filter holder at the back of my 10.5 mm fisheye. This was the hands-on follow-up of Alex’ lecture from yesterday. I also borrowed a grey card and did manual white balance at the working depth of approximately 4 metres. I used this filter setup during the first dive, and it produced some amazing colours – true Nemo lighting! Also watch Barbara - Dive Goddess in action! No need to confuse her with the other divers
Chris Powell’s available light shot on this dive won the Stingray Category of the competition and return flights to Cayman. Chris’s buddy Malcolm won the Macro for Compact Cameras category with a high impact shot of a Moray taken on the same dive. Many of the pictures came out very suitable for graphic enhancement, as the example below of a sting ray which when turned into high contrast duotone becomes rather Sci Fi – “The eagle has landed!”.
The second dive was closer to sunset and a good time to practice the use of a mix of ambient and strobe light. This was a challenge, but you could have as many tries as you liked as the stingrays were plenty and very cooperative. Barbara Janssen took advantage of the fantastic light to produce an original “stingray takeoff” picture that was highly commended in the competition.
We returned to Compass Point in the evening for a Barbeque up on the pool deck, and Alex gave a more general talk about photographing the marine life of the Cayman Islands, showcasing some of his rare images of the personal lives of reef fish. There were stunning shots of hamlets, angelfish, butterflyfish, parrotfish, wrasse and others mating. The evening was not that relaxing for me as I had a big problem with my 4 GB memory card (all my pictures from a whole fantastic day of diving were gone) – but using the free wireless broadband at Compass Point I was able to download some recovery software and managed to save all my images! That was a huge relief!
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
For lunch we pulled into the Kaibo Yacht Club and Alex sat down cutting up filters so that everyone could try available light photography over two dives at Stingray City Sandbar. I placed a 40CC Red Kodak Wratten gel in the filter holder at the back of my 10.5 mm fisheye. This was the hands-on follow-up of Alex’ lecture from yesterday. I also borrowed a grey card and did manual white balance at the working depth of approximately 4 metres. I used this filter setup during the first dive, and it produced some amazing colours – true Nemo lighting! Also watch Barbara - Dive Goddess in action! No need to confuse her with the other divers
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
Chris Powell’s available light shot on this dive won the Stingray Category of the competition and return flights to Cayman. Chris’s buddy Malcolm won the Macro for Compact Cameras category with a high impact shot of a Moray taken on the same dive. Many of the pictures came out very suitable for graphic enhancement, as the example below of a sting ray which when turned into high contrast duotone becomes rather Sci Fi – “The eagle has landed!”.
Photo: Malcolm Nobbs |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
The second dive was closer to sunset and a good time to practice the use of a mix of ambient and strobe light. This was a challenge, but you could have as many tries as you liked as the stingrays were plenty and very cooperative. Barbara Janssen took advantage of the fantastic light to produce an original “stingray takeoff” picture that was highly commended in the competition.
Photo: Barbara Janssen |
Photo: Ingvar Eliasson |
We returned to Compass Point in the evening for a Barbeque up on the pool deck, and Alex gave a more general talk about photographing the marine life of the Cayman Islands, showcasing some of his rare images of the personal lives of reef fish. There were stunning shots of hamlets, angelfish, butterflyfish, parrotfish, wrasse and others mating. The evening was not that relaxing for me as I had a big problem with my 4 GB memory card (all my pictures from a whole fantastic day of diving were gone) – but using the free wireless broadband at Compass Point I was able to download some recovery software and managed to save all my images! That was a huge relief!
Friday 28th January
For the final day of DigiJam it was an early start for most guys, but Eva and I decided to stay at Compass Point. I had some problem with my sinuses and we had also been diving very hard for 5 days and had to think about safety margins for the long flight back home to Sweden. But we learnt from the others that they had a fantastic experience back at Stingray City. The sunrise is a special time of day there. Not only is the light fantastic, but Guy Harvey discovered a few years ago that at this time of day the stingrays form a massive school and lap the Sandbar in formation. Guy had taken Steve and Alex out to see the phenomenon back in the summer of 2002 and they had been waiting for an event like DigiJam to share the experience with others!
They must have had a stunning experience! Captain Dan was able to count between 80 and 100 rays in the school from the bridge of Nauticat. Malcolm Nobbs not only clocked up his 1000th dive here, but he also won Second Prize in the Creative Category with a superb picture of the schooling rays. Ted Janssen scored third prize in the Stingray Category on the same dive. The second dive on that last morning was out on the wall at Haunted House. But everyone was still talking about the rays when they surfaced!
In the afternoon we all prepared our images for the competition. Each photographer was allowed to enter a maximum of three pictures per category. The categories were Wide Angle, Macro, Creative and Above Water. A special category was also Stingray City. The judges further decided to separate the contributions according to used camera equipment. Pictures taken with SLRs were judged separately from pictures taken by compact cameras in the macro and wide angle categories. Thus, there were all in all seven categories in the competition. The week’s images were judged by 1) Cathy Church, Grand Cayman. Cathy has been taking pictures underwater since 1966, has written hundreds of articles, and a video, co-authored five books, and taught thousands of students; 2) Geri Murphy, Las Vegas, one of the most published underwater photo journalists in the world, and 3) Dr Alex Mustard (see above). They had a hard time going through several hundred contributions in just a few hours.
The climax of the week was the Dive Chronicles Awards Party at the Great House in George Town. I don’t want to show off too much, just let me tell you that the East Enders from Ocean Frontiers dominated! The OF group won 6 of the 7 categories and prizes including trips to Papua New Guinea, Wakatobi Indonesia and the Bahamas and kit including a dive computer, an underwater metal detector and an underwater MP3 player! Suffice to say it was a most successful evening!
A special thanks to all sponsors who were present. You added to the success of the DigiJam by your personal commitment and by giving us the opportunity to test everything from UW video to gadgets such as Underwater MP3-players! Alex was very sad when he had to give the MP3 player back.
Dive Chronicles’ Digital Jam 2005 was co-sponsored by Amphibico Video Systems, Cayman Airways, Diving Unlimited (DUI), Ego Jester Designs, H2O Audio, Microsoft, Oceanic Dive Computers and Sea Life Cameras
Now Eva and I are back in the Swedish dark and cold winter, thriving on memories from Grand Cayman, DigiJam and all together four great prizes! I must say we scored beyond all expectations! I did not think it should matter so much, but it really added that extra feeling of success that is hard to beat! Prizes aside, this week was about superb diving, great photography and having fun with like-minded people. The East Enders were a great bunch – Photographers Ted and Barbara Janssen, Chris Powell, Malcolm Nobbs, Joe Hoyt, Peter Frohwein and my dear wife Eva Arvidsson, owner Steve Broadbelt, crew members Karen Eardley, Spencer Mason, and the rest of the crew and staff at Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point. Cheers to you all! A very special thanks to Lesley Agostinelli who found my e-mail address somewhere on the Internet and sent me the invitation. You’re the best!
The East-Enders on board Nauticat
Three more guys to give special thanks:
Brad Nolan from Dive Chronicles who was wholeheartedly committed to the success of this event and captain Dan Schaar who new every dive site by heart and was eager to share all his knowledge and insights with all of us – not to mention his way of posing with the stingrays!
And last but not least our host Alex! This guy was one of a kind! His knowledge in marine biology and outstanding expertise in underwater photography, mixed with a charming and generous personality, added enormously to my personal benefit of this memorable week. I think everyone in the group would agree! Alex did what most UW-photographers rarely do – he completely put aside his own interests and instead made sure that all participants had a steep learning curve and found most of the life forms and motives on the reef that they wished to find!
And to all you readers: Try to make it to Dive Chronicles’ Digital Jam 2006 – you won’t regret it!
They must have had a stunning experience! Captain Dan was able to count between 80 and 100 rays in the school from the bridge of Nauticat. Malcolm Nobbs not only clocked up his 1000th dive here, but he also won Second Prize in the Creative Category with a superb picture of the schooling rays. Ted Janssen scored third prize in the Stingray Category on the same dive. The second dive on that last morning was out on the wall at Haunted House. But everyone was still talking about the rays when they surfaced!
Photo: Malcolm Nobbs |
Photo: Alex Mustard |
In the afternoon we all prepared our images for the competition. Each photographer was allowed to enter a maximum of three pictures per category. The categories were Wide Angle, Macro, Creative and Above Water. A special category was also Stingray City. The judges further decided to separate the contributions according to used camera equipment. Pictures taken with SLRs were judged separately from pictures taken by compact cameras in the macro and wide angle categories. Thus, there were all in all seven categories in the competition. The week’s images were judged by 1) Cathy Church, Grand Cayman. Cathy has been taking pictures underwater since 1966, has written hundreds of articles, and a video, co-authored five books, and taught thousands of students; 2) Geri Murphy, Las Vegas, one of the most published underwater photo journalists in the world, and 3) Dr Alex Mustard (see above). They had a hard time going through several hundred contributions in just a few hours.
The climax of the week was the Dive Chronicles Awards Party at the Great House in George Town. I don’t want to show off too much, just let me tell you that the East Enders from Ocean Frontiers dominated! The OF group won 6 of the 7 categories and prizes including trips to Papua New Guinea, Wakatobi Indonesia and the Bahamas and kit including a dive computer, an underwater metal detector and an underwater MP3 player! Suffice to say it was a most successful evening!
A special thanks to all sponsors who were present. You added to the success of the DigiJam by your personal commitment and by giving us the opportunity to test everything from UW video to gadgets such as Underwater MP3-players! Alex was very sad when he had to give the MP3 player back.
Dive Chronicles’ Digital Jam 2005 was co-sponsored by Amphibico Video Systems, Cayman Airways, Diving Unlimited (DUI), Ego Jester Designs, H2O Audio, Microsoft, Oceanic Dive Computers and Sea Life Cameras
Now Eva and I are back in the Swedish dark and cold winter, thriving on memories from Grand Cayman, DigiJam and all together four great prizes! I must say we scored beyond all expectations! I did not think it should matter so much, but it really added that extra feeling of success that is hard to beat! Prizes aside, this week was about superb diving, great photography and having fun with like-minded people. The East Enders were a great bunch – Photographers Ted and Barbara Janssen, Chris Powell, Malcolm Nobbs, Joe Hoyt, Peter Frohwein and my dear wife Eva Arvidsson, owner Steve Broadbelt, crew members Karen Eardley, Spencer Mason, and the rest of the crew and staff at Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point. Cheers to you all! A very special thanks to Lesley Agostinelli who found my e-mail address somewhere on the Internet and sent me the invitation. You’re the best!
The East-Enders on board Nauticat
Three more guys to give special thanks:
Brad! |
Captain Dan! Photo: Ted Janssen |
Alex with UW MP3-player! Photo: Barbara Janssen |
Brad Nolan from Dive Chronicles who was wholeheartedly committed to the success of this event and captain Dan Schaar who new every dive site by heart and was eager to share all his knowledge and insights with all of us – not to mention his way of posing with the stingrays!
And last but not least our host Alex! This guy was one of a kind! His knowledge in marine biology and outstanding expertise in underwater photography, mixed with a charming and generous personality, added enormously to my personal benefit of this memorable week. I think everyone in the group would agree! Alex did what most UW-photographers rarely do – he completely put aside his own interests and instead made sure that all participants had a steep learning curve and found most of the life forms and motives on the reef that they wished to find!
And to all you readers: Try to make it to Dive Chronicles’ Digital Jam 2006 – you won’t regret it!
comments
I love Cayman islands, but I saw that photo with the shark and somehow, all the glee in my soul, slowly faded away in one dark corner...
posted by Alaska Cruises on 05/19/2008
Very beautiful place in the world. BBC has released documentary serial (11 serieses) "BBC Earth", in which is well shown nature and all alive that there dwells.
posted by painkiller on 07/21/2008
