Overfishing is a rapidly escalating problem, decimating fish populations in all the world’s oceans from cold water to tropical seas, from shallow areas to the deep, dark abyss.
Recent reports suggests that up to 20 percent of all fish catches may be illegally caught. Read more…
It’s out at last - the much-awaited A Divers Guide to the Art of Underwater Photography by Andrea and Antonella Ferrari is now available worldwide!
Eight enjoyable chapters about motivation, equipment, technique, mindframe, philosophy, artistic influences, cameras, housings, strobes, macro, wide-angle, portraits, topside surface interval photography and many, many other subjects.
Illustrated with a spectacular selection of some of the authors’ top shots, plus image contributions from some of the world’s best professional and amateur underwater photographers - including Doug Perrine, Tony Wu, Charles Hood, John Scarlett, Alex Mustard, Eric Cheng, Stephen Wong, Takako Uno, Alberto Luca Recchi, Fiona Ayerst and many, many others.
A Diver’s Guide to the Art of Underwater Photography strives to be completely different from other guides currently on the market. Not only is it produced on heavy glossy paper with the highest colour separation and printing quality, but the book also features scores of spectacular images from some of the world’s most influential professionals and also many extraordinarily gifted amateurs.
This reinforces one of the basic themes the Ferraris strive to convey: that taking great underwater images has less to do with camera models or technical trickery than with the “art of seeing” and the willingness to react on instinct, recognising beauty when it appears.
The book is a large, high-quality paperback measuring 25 cm x 22.5 cm, with 360 pages, 300+ large photos, and printed on glossy heavy paper. Each photograph (all 300 of them!) is extensively captioned, illustrating technique, equipment used, location, creative choices and final results.
The book is available from selected shops, including NHBS and Amazon UK at EURO 37,00 / GBP 24.99 / USD 51.00. Coming to the FiNS Online shop soon!
The holiday festivities are over (at least for the time being) and it’s time to plan your next dive trip. Peruse the pages of the first issue of FiNS for 2008 and you’ll find enthralling stories on destinations like Myanmar, Tonga and Ambon, as well as our regular collection of informative articles on photography, gear and marine life.
Our one-and-only Gadget Guru finds himself wondering whether whistles work well, while in Dive Diary, we take a look back on a year of dive training and draw lessons from Plub’s experiences.
We’re also very happy to bring you three new and unique columns: Discussions with Dirk and Dermot, Really Richard?, and Urban Diver.
Look out for issue 7.1 in your mailbox, or even better, download your free copy here or via our iTunes podcast.
Attention photographers and videographers: the deadline for the Our World-Underwater photo and video contest is just around the corner! Get your images and videos in before January 15, 2008. DEEP Indonesia’s deadline follows just one month later. As a reminder, we’re giving away over $80,000 in combined prizes, including 30 dive expeditions and a bunch of underwater photography gear.
Winning images will be prominently featured in issue 3 of Wetpixel Quarterly and dozens of other print and online publications, including Sport Diver, Dive (UK), FiNS, Scuba Diver Australasia, X-Ray, UwP, and more.
Entry forms and detailed guidelines can be found at underwatercompetition.com.
Congratulations are in order for video producer Mary Lynn Price and DiveFilm.com! iTunes recently announced its “Best of 2007 Podcasts,” and DiveFilm’s High Definition Podcast Video has been named to the “Best of 2007 Podcasts, Classics - Video” list.
The only diving-related podcast to make the iTunes “Best of 2007″ list, DiveFilm Podcasts have been featured at iTunes since launching in December 2005, shortly after the first video-capable iPods were introduced.
The podcasts are now available in two versions, the original DiveFilm Podcast Video and the DiveFilm High Definition Podcast Video.
“When video podcasting first became possible, it seemed like a phenomenal way to reach more viewers with the short underwater videos that many of us were creating.” said DiveFilm producer Mary Lynn Price. “Because of this exposure we’ve been able to reach a far more diverse audience, and help raise awareness about the underwater world that means so much to us.”
Visit DiveFilm.com to learn more about the podcasts.
The Sony HDR-HC7 is the latest generation of High Definition (HD) camcorder, capturing the highest quality HD video possible on MiniDV cassette. The revolutionary Seatool SHV-HC7 underwater housing conforms closely to the HC7 camcorder body, and thus is one of the smallest and lightest underwater video housings ever produced, and is the smallest HD housing on the market.
HD video continues to gain popularity in the consumer market, and the compact, affordable HC7 is Sony’s most recent prosumer camcorder. It features high resolution and breathtaking imagery for both the hobbyist and serious amateur videographer. Paired with the HC7, the new Seatool housing brings underwater HD video to divers in a compact and affordable package.
Check it out at Dive Rite Express, or view the amazing footage this takes at LEDiveVideo.com.
As always, free worldwide shipping applies to this and any order over $350.
Are you a nudibranch fan? Do you find yourself staring at the reef, peering into little crannies, gazing at patches of coral…all in the hope that you’ll spot one of these wonderfully patterned, and often remarkably camouflaged, jewels of the sea? If so, then you’re in luck. FiNS Consultants Helmut Debelius and Rudie Kuiter have just released a new book called Nudibranchs of the World.
At 360-pages, this isn’t your ordinary guidebook. It’s the second in a series of atlases that this hard-working, self-taught pair of marine-ID experts is working on.
Unlike Helmut’s original IKAN series of guidebooks, which most divers in Asia are familiar with, this new book, as well as the World Atlas of Marine Fishes (the first book in the new series which was released slightly less than two years ago), aims to provide a comprehensive reference for comparing species in all the world’s oceans — no easy task.
To this end, Nudibranchs of the World contains over 2,500 images contributed by more than 100 photographers, covering nearly 1,200 species of sea slugs. No doubt there are more of the shell-less sea snails patrolling the seas, but the images in this book provide the most extensive reference for divers available to date.
If you’re an avid diver or sea slug enthusiast, this is a must-have. It’s far too heavy to take on dive trips, so get one for your bookshelf, and hopefully your dive resort will have a copy on hand for your slug-ID emergencies!
For more information, listen to the interview with Helmut below, which is also available via our iTunes Podcast
If you’re one of those people who has every gadget known to modern diving, or if you’re looking for a really special present for someone who’s got everything, how about a personal UBoat?Say what?
U-Boat Worx, a company based in The Netherlands, has developed personal U-Boats (basically very comfortable submarines) that come in one- and two-seater models. Called C-Questers, these oh-so-cool looking submersibles can dive to 50 metres, hold a steady 1-atmosphere of pressure (meaning no decompression issues) and come packed with safety features like redundant depth control (meaning you can’t sink past 50 metres) and advanced life-support systems (four redundant O2 sensors, redundant fans and CO2 scrubber to keep the air clean).
The CQ1 and CQ2 are stable at the surface and light enough to move around without the need for special support ships, cranes and all the other attendant hassle usually required to have this much fun.Of course, there’s a catch.
In order to pilot one of these Bond-esque babies, you need to take a 4-day course to becomes a certified U-Boat captain. Once certified though, you’re officially a babe/ hunk (depending on your preference) magnet.
