Cussy's review of 2009

[Cussy]

Digital Photography School had an article on "Best of 2009" (124 “Best Photos of 2009″ Blog Posts). So this inspired me to do my own, I plan to do these each year so I can gauge my own progress and see if I achieve what I set out to do. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Rob’s underwater photography review of 2009 Part 1
I started off 2009 with many aims for the year, but most of these can be summarised as 1) enjoy my photography, 2) try a few different things and 3) stop making silly mistakes. I also aimed to move away from TTL and go fully manual and take the shots the way I wanted them.

The first dive of the year was very quick in coming, with a trip to Wraysbury to dive with Daniel Taylor and Robin Adams (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94.../01_Wraysbury/). I had absolutely no expectations of the day and just wanted to get wet. I was surprised at the place as the visibility was very good, but in terms of navigation we were truly muppets!! There was plenty to go at in the shallows and I was pleased with the results from the day, but the number of self-portraits told the story of long periods of nothingness. My favourite shot from the day was a simple one:


Flood

The first big trip of the year was in April. I was really fortunate that Trevor Rees and Charles Erb asked if I fancied joining them on a trip to Loch Carron (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...ron/?start=all). The plan was perfect, travel to the back end of beyond and shore dive a number of sites that Trevor, Charles and Rob Bailey have had a lot of success at. For me it also gave the opportunity to see how Trevor and Charles go about their work and talk photography to my heart content. The main dive sites we did were the lads regulars in Loch Carron and Loch Duich, but we also did a new site in Loch Duich opposite Eileen O’Donnan castle, which turned out to be very good. I have to say I learned a lot from the boys and found the opportunity to bounce ideas very worthwhile. Difficult to pick out my favourite shots as there are so many for so many different reasons. This one I find very pleasing as it is what I wanted to achieve:


Phospherescent Sea Pen

On the way home I pestered the lads to stop off at the River Orchy after reading an article on diving rivers. I am so glad we did. We struggled to find the main site and came across a small tributary to the river with a wonderful stone bridge. There was so much to go at and probably the most productive photographic hour of my life! Charles and I had trouble getting Trevor into the river, but oh did we struggle even more to get him out!! This site was a perfect over/under location and my favourite shot is probably my favourite image of 2009:


River Orchy Tributary

After the tributary, Charles and I dived the River Orchy proper – with a depth of 9m!! It was a dark brown colour and in places the current was exceptionally strong. In Loch Carron I had had a few issues with the mouthpiece on my reg coming off (strange sensation seeing the second stage drift off!) and my confidence was low, so I have to say this was probably, at times, the scariest dive I’ve ever done. I’ll do it again though.
The next trip was in May and was one of those opportunities you just can’t turn down. A lot of my early diving was with a wonderful DL called Rod Hill, who had a great interest in diving aircraft and we had a couple of failed attempts to find B17s; my grandfather also worked for the Gloster aircraft company. So when I heard of the opportunity to dive a Short’s Sunderland Mk1 in Pemboke Dock I had to sign up (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...05_Sunderland/). For the trip I went with Simon Morton and we were greeted with wonderful hospitality by the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust who put on an excellent weekend. Simon and I were pair number 3 to dive on the Saturday morning and our guide was Stephen, who did a fantastic tour of the aircraft. As the plane sits in Pemboke dock, it’s fair to say visibility is an issue. The plane has been buried several feet in silt and stir the silt and vis became ZERO – couldn’t even see my computer. The plane itself is large and there are many recognisable bits, but the big plan was to get a good shot of the guns!!


Rear guns on the Sunderland Flying boat

After the dive, the weather had picked up so diving was canned for the rest of the pairs. We did a second drift dive nearby, where one of my strobes flooded and this meant the camera couldn’t use flash (why is it always the primary strobe that goes wrong??). This was a shame as the site was covered with many dogfish/cat shark and they were tame enough to stroke. On the Sunday we did a repeat dive on the Sunderland allowing shots of key parts of the aircraft. By far the most challenging underwater photography trip I’ve ever done. My results were not great and I’d love the chance to do it again.

The strobe then went off to Kevin at Aquaphot. I was lucky as we had dived brackish water and as soon as I could I submerged the strobe in freshwater. Once dried the strobe still worked, so Kevin sorted it out for me – just in time!

Trips were coming quick and fast! In June it was time to take my competition winning holiday to Marsa Shagra in the Red Sea with Daniel Taylor and Simon Morton (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...gra/?start=all). Sadly Maria Kjellen couldn’t join us because of a job interview. For underwater photography I can’t recommend Shagra any more highly; unlimited shore diving, which means if you are with fellow photographers you have all the time in the world! Kevin’s wonderful work on my strobe was all wasted within 6 minutes of diving. On dive one I settled on a coral head and managed 2 shots before it flooded again, so for the rest of the trip I was down to single strobe. This I found quite challenging, but also enjoyable in trying to re-learn single strobe use. There was plenty of variety and lots to go at, with the option of trips to see the (invisible) Dugong at Marsa Abu Dubab (at least there are plenty of turtles and Guitar Sharks there) and we did 2 dives on Elphinstone, where we had very close encounters with Whitetip Reef Shark and saw Manta Rays.

The highlight of the trip was the discovery of dappled light. Diving at twilight in shallow water was wonderful and the effects gave great results – we dived twilight every day! My favourite shots of the trip were:


Butterfly fish and sunset over coral


Flatfish

Very rarely do I allow anything to let me down more than once and it was fair to say I had lost confidence in my Ikelite DS-125s. Having taken them apart there are aspects of their design that are bomb proof, but this is offset by a couple of features that are truly baffling (a couple of o-rings placed in a way that o-rings shouldn’t really work). So it was almost with relief when Kevin told me my DS-125 was totally knackered. He said he’d keep an eye out for another where 2 could be cannibalised into one, but I’d lost confidence in them. I was also struggling with them. It is very easy to put them on TTL and be lazy with TTL control, or use the dial on the back of my housing to give manual, but this has limitations. The area my photography was taking me was requiring full manual control and allowing the two strobes be on different power. Whilst the strobes can be used on manual, their size makes changing settings quite difficult. So it was time to move on from Ikelite.

The BSoUP spash-in was in early July, so I wiped out my savings and ordered an Inon z240 from the far east. I much prefer to deal with UK companies as you never know when you may need their help, but the offer was too good to turn down and the strobe arrived within a week. The plan was to use the remaining DS-125 as master and the z240 as slave. Time and time again I have learned not to try something new during a splash-in, but yet again this was a step too far! The z240 was only seeing the master strobe about half the time when photographing wide angle. Dive one was the good old James Eagen Layne and my good friend Graham Stanbridge was good at modelling for me. I had a shot in mind, but failed to deliver. Dive 2 was on the Scylla, but again nothing seemed to work; although I finally managed to get a shot of a Tompot Blennie. It’s a good job that the best part of the Splash-in is the social aspect, as no chance of winning anything!
The weather on day 2 was a lot more rough and so we stayed quite close to shore and dived some of the gullies. A lot more to go at and I managed to find a red Deadmans Finger to work on. I particularly like this shot as it shows that the UK isn’t dull:


Red Deadmans Finger

I puked my guts up in a big way after the dive and even got to that point of thinking death was better than I felt! So we didn’t do a second dive.

It was a couple of months off from the diving for me (just lack of plans), but at this point I hit a bit of luck. Gareth Lock was after borrowing a DS125 and I gladly obliged. He offered to buy it off me instead of sending it back, which was a result for me! Time for a second z240!!

[Cussy]

Part 2......

September was the big dive holiday of the year. Whilst many dream of the Red Sea or the far east, my first love is UK diving. Ask around the world and many divers have heard of Scapa Flow – it is the UK’s one true world class dive site (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...apa/?start=all). So 12 of us from Digigreen/EMUP/YD signed up for a week on the Valkyrie. It was a wonderful week and Helen and Hazel looked after us magnificently. We were unlucky in the weather and lost a day and it was also sad that my good mate Graham Stanbridge was not feeling right and did only a few dives.

I had no expectations for the week; I just wanted to enjoy it. I’m not primarily a wreck photographer and wont be changing that, but as artificial reefs all of the wrecks are wonderful – with fantastic vis all week. Big wrecks are also iconic diving photos, so whenever the opportunity allowed you have to get the gun and diver shot!

We did many of the wrecks; Karlsruhe (twice), F2, Brummer, Coln, Seydlitz debris site, Kronprinz Wilhelm, Gobernador Bories and V83. For the last of these I dived macro – what a mistake!! Such a beautiful site in shallow bright water with plenty of structure; oh why did I go macro? One big memory of the trip though, was our attempted swim with a Basking Shark; they are truly massive fish.

So what did I learn? I struggled for the first couple of days as this was the first dive with the z240s. I liked their size, but I really was feeling they weren’t punching out the power. On dive day 3 I realised they were on the wrong setting, so basically I think I was trying to illuminate everything with pre-flash; what a muppet! After this my results greatly improved and the ability to dial in different setting was proving it’s worth. I’ve never really understood why, but my shots are about 50/50 landscape/portrait. In portrait it is so so easy to burn out the bottom of the image and this can take a long faff of strobe placement. This is no longer the case and all it takes is dialling back a stop or two and the light is even. I didn’t necessarily get the results I wanted, but still came back with a set of images I am very proud of. Big wreck photography isn’t easy and I leave the top end stuff to Leigh Bishop and Gareth Lock.


Maria inside the Brummer


Crab and diver

The huge lesson I did learn was to enjoy the diving. Photography isn’t everything in places like Scapa Flow and putting the camera down and diving can be very enjoyable too.

Very oddly for me, was the fact that I only did 2 dives in Stoney Cove. The first was a naked (non-camera) dive in August with Graham, the second came in October (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...009/10_Stoney/). Simon Morton and I wanted a dip before the October EMUP meeting. I had the plan to try a HDR image of the Stanegarth and to do a light experiment. It was fair to say vis at depth wasn’t good and the HDR experiment will have to wait for another day! After Scapa, the Stanegarth is tiny, but a swim off the back took us to the even smaller Defiant; which had only recently been sunk. We then came up to the shallows and spent a long time looking for Pike. Plenty of good opportunities, but the new totally manual approach meant I had to be a lot more prepared for their ultra-reflective scales. One observation I’ve made this year in underwater photography is that camouflage shots are rare – but are common in nature photography; especially of moths. So I’ve been attempting to capture images to show how well some of our UK fish are camouflaged, so was very pleased with this shot:


Camouflaged pike in the weeds

Many divers at Stoney never see a Pike as they seemed obsessed with getting depth. I cannot remember the last dive I had without seeing one. They are exceptional ambush predators, so a hunt in the weeds will always find one. Once you spot one, you spot many!

In November I had what seems to have become an annual trip to Guildenburgh (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...009/11_Guildy/). The dive was with Daniel Taylor and Maria Kjellen and we stayed shallow throughout two long dives. I love Guildy, there is plenty to go at in the shallows, but often you are frustrated by a lack of fish. There are many chances for amazing shots, but only if you are lucky to get the fish too. My favourite from the day was:


Sunken tree

The final trip of the year was probably my most enjoyable dive ever! The dive itself was nothing special and boy was it cold; but the Scuba Santas event at Vobster the Saturday before Christmas had such a wonderful atmosphere amongst the 150+ diving Santas that it will remain a fond memory for years to come (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...as2/?start=all). For the day I dived with the Alexes (Mustard and Tattersall) - although in usual underwater photography style, "with" is used in the loosest of terms. The opportunity to get photos of Santas underwater was too good to pass up. The vis wasn't great and sadly I had forgotten to put the slave caps back on one strobe (because of the self portrait shots described later!), so it wasn't an ideal day. I also ripped my neck seal and the hired suit flooded!

As I was told Vobster is virtually lifeless, I was pleased to come away with this shot:


Trout

But the main aim for the day was to get good shots of Santas underwater. They wont win any awards, but that was never the intent:


Diving Santa

So that was 2009. I learnt a hell of a lot and feel I have improved greatly during the year. I’ve missed several photos from this write-up that are being saved for competitions, but each of those selected mean something to me. I am finally happy with my set-up and there is nothing to change; although if someone gave me a D700 in a Subal housing I wouldn’t say no!

I have many plans for 2010 and it will be a year where I concentrate on a project I’ve been planning and working on for nearly 2 years. I have no aims, just to nail the images I have in my minds eye!

Thanks for reading,
Rob

[Cussy]

Topside 1
I don’t really set out for aims in topside photography, but as over the last couple of years I’ve amassed quite a bit of kit (flashes, tripod, intervalometer, filters etc) I just want to actually use it. My philosophy is to take great photos of everyday things as opposed to poor images of unusual things (same philosophy as underwater).

I’ve identified my favourite 25 images (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/Cussy/2009/Best09/) and in true Rob-style have failed to whittle them down to 10!! So in no particular order, here they are:

Panoramas
I love doing panoramas and over the last couple of years have been experimenting with including people multiple times. I think I’ve cracked it and have done about 10 this year I’m really pleased with; including 2 at weddings!

The image I’ve singled out was from February. There are many reasons why this was exceptionally challenging. First of all, panoramas in tight confides are difficult, add in the use of flash and it gets very difficult – you really have to be spot on. But what truly made the whole thing almost impossible was the fact I was a guest at this wedding and by the time we could spare the 15 minutes to do it, I was totally hammered. Add to the mix the happy couple (Vicky and Paul) had also had plenty to drink and were struggling to visualise what I was trying to do I’m amazed it worked. Maybe as a result of the alcohol, the couple over-lap on images, which meant I had to learn new skills in Photoshop. I’m really proud of the image.



Painting with light
For this image I was planning to get my lad, Ollie, to paint his name using sparklers. I’d done some experimenting in November 08, but they don’t last long and it’s difficult to show a 6 year old what to do. So I took a mini Q40 and modified it, so we took about 30 shots before he managed to spell out each letter well. I finally took a photo of him using a homemade snoot on my flash (it’s a Jaffacake tube!) and then stitched it all together in Photoshop. Again this was something I wanted to create and nailed it. Just waiting for my little girl, Mads, to be old enough to write her name!



Night photography
I love night photography. Do it properly and you get a totally different perspective of everyday views, but it isn’t easy and not everything works. In Nottingham in February we had the touring big wheel in Market Square for about a month. During this time there was a Friday evening event called “Light night.” For one evening a number of locations around the city were open with landmarks being illuminated, some using colour lights. The shot I’ve selected is of St Mary’s church, which was illuminated in blue and yellow. Sadly the shot suffers from light entering the lens; so hopefully they will repeat it again in 2010 I can properly nail the shot:



Fog
Some say underwater photography in the UK is like photography in fog, well on Christmas Eve I thought I’d put that to the test. I went for a walk with Kate’s dad along the River Trent and it was quite misty/foggy. It’s fair to say photography in these conditions is difficult and often images look flat, but by shooting in RAW I was able to create images that give the impression of foggy conditions. The image I’ve selected would be an absolute nothing shot if it wasn’t for the fog and the last of the pre-Christmas snow on the ground; I think this gives a near monochrome appearance with a splash of green:



Rear curtain-sync
I love front and rear-curtain sync. I practice it often, sometimes with zoom, as it creates such nice images where there is movement. Just take a photo of people dancing, once with rear-curtain sync and once without and you instantly see why it’s a useful effect to master. Early in 2009 I went to Trencherfield Mill in Wigan with Kate and her dad. In the steam hall there is a massive steam engine that was working, but as it is a dark room photography is tricky. What I wanted to capture was a photo that showed the speed that the steam governor was turning and the relative power that the big machine oozed. Too short a shutter speed and it looks static, too long and it’s just a blur. I think I eventually got what I wanted. I took lots of images of the steam engine in this way:



Self-portrait
No doubt I’ll get stick for this one! In early December I got bored and was reading Strobist (thanks to Tim Ingmire who suggested it). In 2009 I’ve been trying to branch out into “people” photography and wanted to practice with multiple flash. Kate doesn’t like posing, so I was the next best thing! In my camera kit I have the build in flash on the D80, a SB-600, SB-25, 2 Inon z240’s, a Sea & Sea YS90Duo and a crappy Ikelite AS/Q. So for the experiment I used the internal flash to trigger the SB-600 and the 2 Inon z240’s; so that’s 4 flash on manual to control. It was good fun and I’m pleased with the results. I processed all the images quite hard in Lightroom, which Kate says makes me look older. Those that know me, know my eyes aren’t that shade – LR lets you make certain shades light or dark and I like the effect. I quite like the one I’ve selected:



The Red Arrows
In August Kate and I went to the balloon fiesta and Banksy exhibition in Bristol. For photography it is an utter paradise and there is so much to go at (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...tol/?start=all). On the Saturday the fiesta included the Red Arrows, needless to say we were sat in possibly the worst location. The shot I’ve selected, for some reason, I like. Many would criticise the inclusion of people and trees in the shot, but to me it captures something about their display that the other shots don’t.

[Cussy]

Topside part 2

A bit of comedy
Every now and then you see a shot that is simple, but when you look at it in detail there is something amusing or cute about it. At the balloon fiesta there are lots (100+) balloons all flying in a mass ascent. After a while each one looks much the same as the last, but keep you eyes peeled. I spotted the selected shot and luckily for me the balloon continued to spin and the pilot fired his burners. So the sound advice of the Avon Fire Service takes on a new meaning and you have to ask yourself “are you sure?” This photo won the comedy category in our works photo competition.



Two from Orkney
By day 3 of our Scapa trip I’d fallen in love with Stromness and Orkney so much that I phoned Kate and suggested we do a “normal” holiday there in 2010 (we’re going in June). Photographically there is so much there, but I didn’t do the usual stones and other such destinations as I wanted to do them with Kate. Graham and I had several walks around Stromness, which photographically has so much to offer. My first selected shot is a simple one, just a window and a sign; I love the texture and the oldy-worldy feel. There were many opportunities for similar shots:



My second Orkney shot again is a very simple one. This is the statue on one of the Churchill Barriers. I just like the way he looks out into the blue.



Abstract penguin
It’s not often that you can get close enough to birds in order to capture abstract images of their plumage. This shot was taken of a King Penguin at Birdland in Bourton-on-the-water in the Cotswolds. This was a cold day, so there were many birds huddled together and they didn’t mind being photographed. I love the pattern in their plumage and the wonderful colour:



Tawny owl in a tree
This photo is a setup, but I don’t care. In April I took part in a bird of prey photography day with Photographers on Safari (http://www.photographersonsafari.com/index.htm). I’ve always loved birds of prey and I have years worth of dreadful shots of them in flight. During the day we spent a couple of hours with static shots, then the afternoon photographing them in flight (http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...rey/?start=all). We were given great tuition, but the best part was each bird did about 10 fly pasts, with 5 birds in total I think. So from all of that anyone should get at least one good in flight shot. It was such a good day I’m doing another one in 2010. This particular shot is one of the static ones we did. The handlers are excellent at placing the birds in such a way that their Jessies can be hidden. This shot was slightly difficult as it was dark in the wood, but the Sigma 105 did a good job. All throughout the day I suffered from gear envy, but looking at my results I don’t care:



Snowy goose
My final selected shot is almost the last photo I took in 2009. On Christmas day Kate, her dad and I went for a strole to the neaby Colwick park in Nottingham. The main lake there was almost frozen and there was still some snow on the ground. Normally there are lots of young families, so the ducks and geese are full at this time of day, but being Christmas day they hadn’t had many visitors. In my bag I had a Penguin chocolate biscuit, so I tempted them close, free shooting with the inclusion of flash. Lots of failed shots, but this one stands out:



So that was 2009. I shot an amazing load of trash. Thousands of photos of my kids that aren’t worth sharing, but there are many shots that are worth keeping. I’m sure 2010 will be pretty much the same.
Thanks for reading,
Rob

[ScubaDiva]

Thanks Rob - its nice to read about your progression over the year. Its always nice to look back and see what difference some time makes.

I look forward to the topside ones later.

[incapete]

Nice set! There's some great photos there, well done!

[Blu DL]

thanks for that - really enjoyed reading and looking. Some great shots there - I especially like the crab and diver, the goose and the tree root in gildy (must have a go over there one day)

See you at the next EMUP snow permitting...

Mike

[Alsky72]

That's a very nice idea. I enjoyed reading it and some of the images are wonderful! I particularly like the second Orkney shot and the Red Arrows effect!

[Cussy]

Thanks for the comments.

I've updated the diving section as I forgot to include the Scuba Santas event at Vobster!!
Rob

[triplefin]

Thanks for that Rob it made a good read