Hi from S. Cal

[WallDive]

Hi everyone,

I just found this website today. Even though the membership seems small, I like the tone of it so far, so I'll bite and join in.

My wife & I started diving about two years ago. We have about 115 dives so far, mostly in S. CA, but many in the Caribbean.

We just recently got drysuits so we can dive year round here without risk of chipping our teeth from chattering :D after multiple dives in the low-50 degree water we have here in the late winter and early spring.

We also are learning about U/W photography. We aren't interested in taking award winning photos, just snapshots of what we see when we dive, so we are just using point & shoots.

We started with our old Nikon Coolpix 4300 in a housing, and just bought an Olympus SP-350 & housing, along with a tray, arm, and strobe.

Now my goal is to start using it more manually, as so far I've only been using the cameras in automatic, with very mixed results.

We belong to two dive clubs locally. We like to be involved in clubs, so we were on the board of one club last year, and now the other board this year.

Xtreme Scuba in Ventura is trying to get a local chapter of Ships to Reefs started, and we are going to be involved in that effort also.

Anyhow, that's us in a snapshot.

Wally

[Sarah]

Hi Wally, thanks for joining!

Our membership ranks seems low at 200 or so but that is because we've been open for less than 30 days, so we're doing great considering such.

If you two are near Ventura then it is the perfect place with the Peace and that other dive boat whose name escapes me to make a short run to Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel, which during high season the peace seems to go or try to go to San Miguel every Wednesday for a eally reasonable price.

Wise move on the drysuit thing. I've been diving at Santa Rosa in 52 degree water and I just do not have enough fat on me to be able to deal with wetsuits. I don't know of anyone who has gone from wetsuits to drysuits in temeprate waters and permanently switched back.

Check out our Gallery section with photos that we just opened a little over a week ago. You can upload your works there and showcase what you've done so far.

Do you do any image manipulation post shot?

[WallDive]

Hi iDiveChick,

After I signed up I read that this websites only been up a short amount of time, and that there are only 200 or so members so far. I like what I see so far, I hope it and stay on track!

As to the drysuits, while I have more fat than I'd like to, when it gets to 50 degrees I'm cold in a wetsuit. I can do two dives if I stay relatively shallow without too much of a problem, but the third dive gets to me, and often I don't do the 4th dive (if offered) because the cold just saps my energy.

I don't have a lot of dives in my drysuit yet, and while it was warmer (if you can call 60 degrees warm!) when I tried it (Nov/Dec), I'll have to see how it compares this winter/spring.

The other boat that most people know of in Ventura is the Spectre. This boat is commonly used for OW classes, so they primarily go to easy dive spots. We used it several times early on, and while we'd still use it, we find other boats go to better locations for us now.

The Peace is a great boat with Eric as Captain. We've been on that before. Our drysuits were bought from Peace Scuba Shop, which is run by Angie, Eric's wife.

As to manipulating images, I have done a little with a Corel program, but I didn't have a lot of sucess. I just bought Photo Elements 5.0 from Costco, and I'm taking a 2 day class from a local park & rec next month. I'm also taking a 4 day class for digital cameras so I can learn how to use my camera in manual modes more effectively.

While I understand Photoshop is very powerful, I know it is expensive & takes quite a while to learn, so at least for now I'm not going to try it.

I may upload some photos after I've had a chance to tweek them a little. While I have some that are pretty good as they are, I'd like to see if I can improve them first.

Wally

[Sarah]

Wally, I have PhotoShop. Not that I really know how to use it all that much, but if I import a jpg in, I can use a tool called autolevels, and it automatically senses all funkyness and corrects them all, from color balance, to sharpness, contrast rations, etc. I then save it optomized for web rendition so the files are smaller, then post them here.

Your always welcome to send me any photos you want me to tweak and I will warm and massage them over and send them back to you. We have other real experienced photogs here that can always help too.

:)

Sarah

[Zero]

Hi everyone,

We also are learning about U/W photography. We aren't interested in taking award winning photos, just snapshots of what we see when we dive, so we are just using point & shoots.

We started with our old Nikon Coolpix 4300 in a housing, and just bought an Olympus SP-350 & housing, along with a tray, arm, and strobe.

Now my goal is to start using it more manually, as so far I've only been using the cameras in automatic, with very mixed results.

Wally

Your addicted. Give in too all temptations now its much easier haha:D Its worse than drugs. The strobe will be way too big for the P&S camera so youll need to upgrade to a DSLR. Then no matter what one you get the strobe will be just not enough so youll have to upgrade it and while your at it you may as well go for 2 of them. Then its a stronger housing to go deeper ............ Its all a downward spiral once you hit the water with a camera in your hand.
Welcome aboard and hope to see some pics soon.

Matt