One Year Anniversary

My first passable Rascasse photo

The 20th of July will mark the one year anniversary of www.azur-diving.com. I started underwater photography just under one year ago, and it’s fun to think of all the things I’ve gotten to experience and see, courtesy of mother nature. The photos in this site represent only a small fraction of the beauty that mother nature has presented for us, and I’m looking forward to capturing more of it on camera. I posted this today, since I am heading to Corsica for a week of camping, hiking and diving. I won’t have any updates next week, but I’ll likely have a huge update once I get back.

Looking back at my first pathetic attempts at underwater photograhy (we’ve all got to start somewhere),  it is amazing to me how far this site and my work have progressed in such a short time period; it has gone from point and shoot documentation to what I hope is beginning to resemble art. I understand that I’ve still got a long, long way to go before I can reach the level I want to reach, but it is comforting that I’ve been able to at least get this far. I wouldn’t been able to get where I’ve gotten without the encouraging words of friends, family, supporters, and of course the patience and (sometimes harsh) opinions of my lovely partner. So thank you all, I can only hope to get even better with your support. I’ve got to push even farther if I want to reach my ultimate goal of being at least able to compete at the World Festival of Underwater Photography in Marseille. I am at least going to enter for the first time this year and see how I stack up.

Okay, down to business. This week’s photos are, in my opinion, average at best. I missed a few great shots,and this morning, I struggled with shooting racscasse (scorpionfish). The rascasse, in my opinion, is a beautiful and varied fish that can change colors to blend in with it’s surroundings. This makes them incredibly hard to shoot, since they either blend in so much with their surroundings that the pictures look flat, or they have such variation in color that you get “hot spots” which are blown-out white areas. Using flash makes their eyes turn yellow, and gives instant hot spots, so that just makes it that much more difficult. I’ve taken perhaps hundreds of shots of different rascasse, and I’ve yet to get one that I am completely happy with… Until today. I managed to get ONE shot finally that I like, and that is a good place to start.

Otherwise, in this week’s shots I have a picture of my partner crossing a thermocline. It’s not a wall-hanger, but you can see where her body and oxygen tank are all distorted in the photo. That distortion happens when you move to another warmer or colder layer of water. I also have a few shots of octopus, a shell I have never seen before, a nacre ( a relatively rare and large mollusk) and a rather large chapon. We also saw a Poisson Lune (or Mola Mola) from the boat, but I didn’t get a shot. Enjoy the shots, and I hope I’ll have some better ones when I get back from vacation!

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