I’ve been sitting on this video for some time, so I am very happy to finally get it out there in the wild. The video includes footage from one of the dives we did on the MV Fairwind, which is sitting in 87m of water. Divers on the project included Merv Maher (Nipper), Fil Gray - Stingray Divers, Tony Kean, Kevin 'Pops' Okeby, Mark Eaves and myself. Thanks to Jon and Al at Fish Rock Dive Centre for their excellent support and boat services; if you’re in SW Rocks look these guys up at http://fishrock.com.au.

A Fairwind still image collection is now available online. Also, if you have the bandwidth, a high definition version of the underwater video is available here.

The ABC 730 Report program will be feature a story tonight (30/06/2010) about a wreck project of ours, which we've been working on for the past 6 months or so. The story includes underwater video, as well as interviews with the divers involved and an original crew member of the vessel. The wreck itself is located off South West Rocks in 87m of water and is one of the more interesting wrecks I have had the pleasure to dive given it's condition.

I'll post more information about the wreck, along with additional photographs and video footage after the story airs tonight. One small caveat is that whilst it's scheduled for tonight, we're dealing with the magic of television so it could get bumped should we see another federal government coup or similar.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to Jon & Al at Fish Rock Dive Centre for their support and professionalism throughout the project. Thanks also to Peter Mooney from Scubapix for support with video lighting equipment.

They say better late than never… It’s been a few weeks since my Coral Sea trip but I’ve finally got around to posting a report. I spent a week on Mike Ball’s Spoilsport, which is an excellently decked out boat, having just come back from an annual refit. We steamed from Cairns for the Coral Sea via the Cod Hole and then back through the Ribbon Reefs. Whilst the surface weather wasn’t the best, the conditions underwater were top notch.

The brief I got was quite simple – get shark shots. With that in mind I had a few days up my sleeve to put my relatively new Canon 7D through its paces. With the camera sorted I assembled the Sport Kiss CCR I was using and was off to a flying start in the 27 degree water.

Although rough, we eventually got to the Coral Sea and it didn’t disappoint. With 30m visibility, pristine coral and fish everywhere it was all on. I took some nice shots of some circling big eye trevally in the morning before hitting the shark dive in the afternoon. My weapon of choice was the Canon 28mm f/1.8 with the 6” Aquatica dome and 12+9” arms on each side. The old faithful DS-125s provided the light with enough cycle time to handle the high burst mode as well (on 1/8th power at least anyway).

On the shark feed it was on for young and old – sharks were everywhere. The estimate was around 40 sharks, mostly grey reef though there were a few bigger silvertips amongst them. To be honest, I was so busy shooting that I didn’t really have time to soak in the sharks but I did bag a few keepers throughout the dive. As quick as it started it ended, but that’s when you get nice shots of sharks swimming out in the blue, yet still in photographic range. I followed a pack of grey reefs down to about 40-45m, which was cool as they kept buzz past me.

The next day we did some more dives and then managed to jump on an Undersea Explorer shark dive as they were filming a BBC doco. It was quite interesting to see their entourage underwater, though ultimately they were more interestied in catching a shark for research than the dive at hand so it was all over pretty quickly. We hung around and snapped off more of the same as the grey reefs patrolled the site.

Heading back through the Ribbon Reefs proved why they have such a reputation. Both Steve’s and Lighthouse bommies were amongst my favourite. Although not as clear as I’d hoped, the critter count at both sites was high.

View full Mike Ball 2010 collection.

I’ve just uploaded an interested video of the SS Annie Miller wreck dive, which has been created using video taken by Aengus Moran and myself on the same dive. After exchanging our raw footage, we then each produced a short video that shows our unique styles and perspectives of the dive.

You can view my version of the video on this site. Aengus’ version can be found on Vimeo. As too many people complained about bandwidth and streaming speeds, I've taken it easy on the low bandwidth version and enabled high defintition 720p content on this site as a seperate page. The standard version should be under 40mb download for the three minute video.

Overall I think this is a pretty interesting exercise to see what we each did with the raw footage. The fact that we didn’t use the same lens or camera (Canon 5DmkII + 17-40 vs 7D + Tokina 10-17mm) also adds to the differences between each of our videos. As I had a set of lights on the rig I tended to shoot closer to use these, whereas Aengus opted for the mostly wide long distance shots. Ultimately both focal lengths compliment each other when combined, however its the post production editing where things are interesting.

I recently wrote a detailed review of the Canon 7D and Aquatica housing which has been published at the Underwater Photography Guide. The article expands on my first look blog post and includes my ongoing view of how the 7D is performing for both stills and video shooting applications.

Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions.

I took my Canon 7D and the Aquatica A7D housing for its first dive today. I can say without question that the combination of the two certainly didn’t disappoint. Upgrading from a Canon 40D/50D and Aquatica housing, the immediate thing to hit me was the brightness and size of the 7D viewfinder through the AquaView. The second thing was the autofocus – it’s damm fast! The internals of the housing are a thing of beauty with the camera fitting precisely. My only negative comment is that it would have been nice to have the moisture alarm fitting at the factory, rather than doing it myself.

As has been reported in other reviews the Aquatica housing is small and feels light when compared to it’s predecessors. Shooting with my old lenses, strobes and ports the experience was seamless for still photography. Aperture, shutter speed and release are all where you want and expect them. The dials are easier to manipulate too when compared to my 50D housing as I presume they have bolder edges which grip nicely even with thin temperate water gloves.

The 7D’s beautiful LCD is shown off well. One of my minor gripes with the 50D was that the top of the screen was blocked at certain angles and the AquaView didn’t help things. The A7D seems to address this with a nicely positioned LCD window and even with the AquaView, viewing the screen was no issue at all. Several people have questioned the omission of the top LCD window, but I have no issue with this as I never used it on the 40D housing. The Canon information screen makes the top LCD redundant in my view.

I primarily focused on stills today though curiosity forced me to enter video mode. Using a 60mm lens in murky water left me few options. I got close and opened the lens up to f/2.8 (and I paid the penalty for it). My less than steady hand meant the video was almost useless, so I think I’ll need a tripod for macro video. I say almost useless as I could see glimpses of awesome definition when things were in focus. Stay tuned for wider angle footage using the Canon 28mm f/1.8 and Tokina 10-17mm as I think it’s going to be great for wrecks and large animals.

I’m leaving this review incomplete as I need more time in the water to understand the camera and housing more. More from me in the coming days, though thanks to Peter from Scubapix and Jean and the crew at Aquatica for getting the housing to me for a timely birthday present!

After two dives on the SS Keilawarra wreck I have to say I’ve mixed reviews about the dive. At 72m it’s deep, though well worth the hang time which for us exceeded 2.5 hours. Over 100 years underwater has taken its toll on the ship, with the hull mostly broken down though the boilers, prop and many artefacts are all still visible.

The site itself is reputed to frequently have high currents and low visibility, though our first day was the exact opposite. Relatively clear warm water to the bottom resulted in a dark but pleasant dive. Marking the most of it we pushed our bottom time to 32min and then sat back for the required decompression. The next day it was like a different site, with 1-2m visibility though only a minor current was present.

The mixed trip of GUE boys and two of us on CCRs made for an interesting weekend, with many discussions had on GUE, DIR and CCR paradigms.

Click here to see the full gallery.

I've been working on a new version of OneStop deco, but this time implemented in Silverlight. The technology is not cross browser and platform, so will work on windows and Mac.

The base algorithm for the new version is the same as the older version but seems to run faster and with more stability than the older versions.

You can run the new version straight out of the browser at http://damiensiviero.com/onestopdeco/beta.

I've uploaded a small collection of images from my USA adventure, and includes a both underwater and surface shots. The collection includes images from California, Florida cave diving, Daytona, the USS Oriskanny aircraft carrier wreck, Vegas Baby and an assortment of randoms.

The collection can be viewed from my portfolio or by clicking here.

I can describe my time in Florida by saying caves, caves, caves; though it doesn’t depict my experience. I dived some of the world’s best caves, attended a race day at the world famous Daytona speedway and dived on one of two air craft carrier wrecks in the world. None of this however describes the people, whom for me really made the trip.

After flying into Jackonsville (FL) I started the 2.5 hour drive to Fort White, which would become my cave diving base for the next week or so. Within 30 minutes of arriving at Amigos Dive Center I was given gas, sorb, lead, a buddy and a place to say; 60 minutes after that I was well into the famous Devil’s Eye syste at Ginnie Springs. Wayne at Amigos is certainly the man if you’re diving cave country and even had a DIY 24x7 fill station (O2, He, EAN) for those late night fills!

Hooking up with some relative locals was easy and my empty calendar was quickly filled with a plan to dive some long and spectacular cave systems (did I mention long?). With CCR dives from 2-4 hours and penetrations of over a mile, it’s not an environment for the untrained or faint of hearted.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines flow as “...to move in one direction, especially continuously and easily”. After diving some of these caves with high flow, my definition is something like “...a force possessed by the wrath of satan. Unyielding and powerful, it has the ability to strip skin off your finger tips to the point where you bleed".

Moving on Merrits Mill Pond I was priveledged enough to dive a cave system called Spring Board with Edd Sorrenston at Cave Adventures. I can say that it was of the most impressive places I've ever been, and it looked remenisent of something on National Georgraphic documentary. Spectacular white limestone walls and passages that seemingly went on forever.

Finishing off my trip with a few dives on the USS Oriskanny was fun, but plagued with weather issues. Two of my four days were cancelled due to bad weather, and the underwater conditions on the days we dived weren't great. In all though I got two nice, albeit deep and long dives in. You definately need more time on the wreck to give it a serious go.

Well I have finally made it over to Florida where the weather is hot, sticky and it rains a lot. This is a wild contrast to California which was dry hot and cold all in the space of 5 minutes.

I did my first cave here today which was an experience. No photos to show but I will have some online in the next few days. The lack of 3G for my IPhone had hampered my efforts (or I’ve just been drunk for a week??).

Monterey in California is perhaps one of the most spectacular places I’ve been, though what’s with the fog and 7 degree (Celsius) water? Preparing for a boat trip which was said to be rough, we eventually head out in a 12ft swell though with no wind and seas to speak of the trip was rocky though pleasant. The biggest shock was the fog, which is thick and unrelenting; requiring the boat to navigate via radar only as surface visibility was about 20 metres.

I was given advice to book onto a boat charter to Big Sur, which is just south of Monterey. The trip was long, though well worth the ride as the place has no shore access and as such is pristine and rarely visited. Spectacular giant kelp forests towering from 30m to the surface and cover hundreds of square metres. Thick, lush and full of life, these kelp forests support a variety of life including seals and sea otters which frolic around in the forest canopy.

If you’re in the area, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is well worth a visit and is definitely the most impressive aquarium I’ve seen. The exhibits were fresh, engaging and some downright spectacular. The sea horse exhibit would make even the most seasoned campaign stop and watch, though the open ocean dome and exhibit have a certain wow factor.

After only a short time in Monterey and Big Sur, I can’t help compare the place to Poor Knight Islands in New Zealand. It’s apparent there is something special about the place, though I think it would require a longer stay to truly appreciate its secrets.

I’m at the airport on the dark-side of customs after VAustralia promptly checked in my 136lbs (in US scale) of equipment. Cameras, lenses, lights, batteries and chargers, rebreather, regulators, dry suit, undergarments, clothes... the list goes on but I managed to cram it all into two large and two carry-on legal size bags.

I’ll be posting a few things on my blog over the course of the next few weeks. I’ll aim to capture and provide commentary on the weird, wonderful and whacky – which I’m sure the USA will provide much of. I’ll also be posting my geographic location using the GPSed.com service, though you’ll have to watch this space for updates on that (couldn’t get the dam thing working).