I spent some time today scanning some underwater images of mine from my long ago trip to Dominica. Scanning film, dust spotting, and color correcting is such a time consuming process, I have a significant portion of my image library that has never seen the net. I wanted to apply some of the great adjustment tools in Lightroom to some of my film images. In addition, my underwater gallery has been somewhat stagnant for awhile, so I thought I would try to breathe some new life into it.
The side effect of working on these images has really increased my hunger to want to go diving again. I can’t express in words the feeling of being weightless and surrounded by a massive school of fish, or the amazing animal life that can be found in every square inch of coral reef. It is simply sensory overload, yet at the same time, the ultimate feeling of peacefulness in such a foreign environment.
I pretty much took this past year off from diving in Michigan. I have dove on many wrecks here, and have been treasure hunting in our local river – but for some reason, the urge to dive locally just wasn’t there. The photography in freshwater has never ignited the passion 
in me as the abundant colors and life to be found in salt water. The reef simply has critters galore, like this bearded fireworm image here. Perhaps I am turning into a warm water wimp (as Michigan divers so affectionately like to call them). 😉 (But I still would like to dive Antarctica someday!) Freshwater life is also much more sparse, which equals a lot of time spent coming home empty handed. I do think that freshwater underwater photography is really an area that deserves to be documented more, so perhaps that aspect alone deserves some more effort. So maybe the new year will bring back some of my cold water nerve again.
It is definitely time to start thinking about our next underwater destination, and the more I pull some of these images from my archives, the more eager I get. If any divers reading this have some good recommendations, please chime in, preferably some place with guaranteed big animals!
It is really interesting when you go back through your old underwater images. You learn a little about the old habits you have broken and the new techniques you have learned. More importantly, you have the opportunity to see something in the images that you missed the last time you viewed them.
Great post!
My Art/Underwater Photography Blog
Happy New Year & keep up the excellent work. 🙂
Ron and Lana, thanks!
Ron – I wouldn’t mind trying some Alaska diving. I really like some of the shots I have seen of salmon underwater.
I can see why you would be “hungry” to return to the water. I had never gone through all your underwater images and they are truly inspiring (another world, indeed). BTW, I like your redesign in your gallery… more impressive seeing a body of images (such as the hawks).
Happy New Year, Mark. Wishing you the very best!
Hey Carl – no changes to the design, it is a side effect of the page not loading fully. If you click the thumbnail before the page loads, for some reason the cool opening thingy doesn’t work.
Hey Mark,
I haven’t spent any time underwater (other than falling outta kayaks and rafts) since I was a teen vacationing on the northeast coast of Australia. But I’ll grant you the experience is awesome. I do miss the beach.
What’s with the new design in the site? The images don’t have that really cool opening up thing they used to.
Get a Mac and be done with it.
Cheers
Carl
Very cool! Have fun, wherever you decide to go. 🙂
Mark,
That photo of the Lightbulb Anemone is stunning! The thumbnail doesn’t do it justice, it looks like a futuristic painting or something.
You should come up to Alaska and do some diving in the salmon streams!
Hey Thomas, thanks for taking the time to comment and the kind words.
On the Mac cost, everything I have read so far, and my own limited comparisons show the Mac Pro pretty competitive with <i>high end</i> PC configs with a few exceptions. Apple’s RAM is very expensive compared to perhaps a PC OEM. Everything I have read suggests to buy the minimum and install 3rd party RAM. Also PCs with internal RAIDs seems to be cheaper than the Mac equivalent. So it all appears to be in the particular options.
I don’t know anything about iMac upgrades – but I guess we will know in a couple of weeks when Steve Jobs gives his song and dance about the new stuff.
I am really still on the fence until this happens.
As far as jobs – nope, I haven’t quit my day job yet – so I am essentially working 2, which gets tiring at times. But the photo one won’t pay all the bills at the moment.
Happy new year to you as well.
Hi Mark,
I don’t know much about diving. The closest I have come is snorkling on Great Barrier Reef here in Australia. However, if you are looking to renew that sensory overload then Great Barrier Reef is obviously one such destination – and the water is very warm I might just add. How about a trip down under!
I have been checking in a few times in the past and thought I should just leave a comment today. Your photography is outstanding and indeed inspiring.
Is photography your occupation by day or are you slaving it the hard way like the rest of us?
More recently I saw your post on switching to Mac. I’m starting to consider this myself, but the Mac Pro looks expensive when you compare to a similar PC spec say from Dell. What are your thoughts on this price difference? Also do you know any rumours if they plan to upgrade the processors in their imacs which (at top spec) might be more my price level although I hate to compromise on these things.
Anyway I will keep an eye on your switch project if you update your blog on this subject.
Happy New Year!
Petra, seeing any type of whale or manta ray remain my top priorities. I did hear them while underwater in Dominica, which was one of the coolest things, but still haven’t seen one. Hawaii is definitely on the short list.
Mark, I did not knwow that you were diving too – what a hoot! You want to see real big ones? Maui – there is nothing beyond hearing and seeing the humpbacks underwater and mantas near Molokini – and the green sea turtles near to Makena beach.
Lots of the most wonderful leopard sharks near the Phi Phi islands in Thailand – we missed though the whale sharks near the Similan islands – also in Thailand. Huge morray eels in the Red Sea near Hurghada and my partner and I have experienced shark feeding at the Bahamas/Long Island which was sooo fascinating to swim between about 30 small and middle sized bull sharks and nurse sharks.
I cannot tell you how much I miss all this and completely understand your longing. Same happens to me each time I see underwater photographs. Water is just my element – I feel entirely at home there not a stranger at all. Sometimes I dream of it and my memories are as new as if it happened just yesterday and not several years ago…