vintage divers in Cozumel

[Bryan]

Hey Gang

Bunch of us are diving at Scuba Club Cozumel this week. I am posting from a tablet so no photos but I am sure some of the others can post some. We are super secret squirrel diving some new items this week and hope to have some exciting news to report!

[antique diver]

We hope y'all have a great time!
Bill & Francie

[couv]

Sounds like a load of fun....I wish I could join you.

[Bryan]

[Nemrod]

It was a great time indeed. The hotel was excellent with friendly staff, excellent boats, excellent dive masters, good food (despite several of us incurring the wrath of Montezuma and not the fault of anyone), good weather, good diving, good entertainment. I have 16 gig of photos to work through, some look decent. Maybe someday I will get my wife a camera so I can be in some of them .

Thanks to all who came. Thanks to the efforts also of Luis and his sincere patience.

I will post some photos soon, spent the evening transferring what was left of my wife's new computer into her newer computer--do not ask!

Saw some amazing things too, not sure all of it was marine life.

The last dive was the best dive, loved it, worth the trip alone.

James

[Bryan]

It was a great time indeed. The hotel was excellent with friendly staff, excellent boats, excellent dive masters..

Could not have been better!

Thanks to all who came. Thanks to the efforts also of Luis and his sincere patience.

Luis went above and beyond to make everything perfect.

Saw some amazing things too, not sure all of it was marine life.
Agreed

You and MC are great divers and friends...Wish we got to see you more often. Looking forward to next year.

James

[couv]

Hear, hear.

I had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting all of you face to face for the first time.

Luis did an extraordinary job of putting this trip together and shepherding while we were there.

Thanks to all of you who helped out this DH rookie: Bryan for untangling my hoses, Robert S. for keeping an eye on me, and Luis for loaning me equipment.

I'm looking forward to another outing.

Couv

[luis]

I had a great time.

We are leaving the resort in a few minutes... I will post more later.


Thanks

Luis

[Nemrod]

Someday I am going to have air clear water, no current and photogenic models ( ) and fish that hold still, until then, this will have to do. So, the alleged current was a bit strong one of the days, sort of reminded me of diving in a washing machine, fun but frustrating. I dove mostly with a different DM than the main double hose group. That turned out OK because our DM was excellent and once the rest of the party had consumed their tanks, he guided my wife and I along on a wonderful personal tour pointing out all sorts of secretive critters. And, once I figured out he was predictable, I could get my wifelet sorted out and then once assured she had a target lock on him leave her with him as I zig zagged over the reef on essentially a solo dive. These photos are straight jpegs from the camera, no Photoshop. I have RAW files but it will be a bit before I can get to those.

Some people do macro, some people do fish photos (fishtogs), some people do diver shots, some do landscapes, I do close focus, wide angle, still life as my favorite form. Drift diving does not really lend itself to macro anyways and if I was a fish photographer then the poor fish were dealing with the same issues we divers were, being tumble washed on medium high setting. I wound up upside down a number of times trying to track my subject because I could not stop and hold position without grabbing ghe reef, something I am loath to do.

Cozumel is a photo rich environment, it is almost overwhelming when I first entered each dive site, where to begin, such problems probably do not gain much sympathey from those of you poor souls who did not get to hangout on a tropical island in mid November .

Wreck of the U56:









Our DM:



Some critters I met:













Nemrod:



On the boat:







My wife, M.C., points out a critter:





Beautiful reef:









Bryan:



Couv:



Fish and turtle sharing a conch meal:



The vdh website seems to chop the right side of my horizontal photos, if you click on the photo and open in a new window it should show the full frame.

Nem

[Bryan]

When I got to Cozumel I was told there was a new diver in my close circle of dive buddies who we would be diving with all week. By force of habit my instructor instinct kicks in and wonder if the FNG will be an asset or a liability to the group...Will they be a sand digger, arm swimmer, bicycle kicker, out of control mess. Or will they be calm cool collected with their gear configured to a T as well as being competent and capable to help someone out if the need arises.

Our new dive buddy Couv fits the latter description to a T.

Very glad to have finally met him in person and even happier he joined our group.
I hope we didn't scare him off and he chooses to dive with us again real soon!

[Nemrod]

Don't mess with my cuz Couv (by marriage apprently he is related fairly close to my wife ).

Hey y'all want your pic taken you got to hold still .

Flying:



Rob:



Is this Jim?:



Is this Andrew or Adam, sorry, cannot tell in mask and pie pan regulator blocking the face:



Luis:



My wife, M.C.:



And this is how it was:



Getting back on the Reef Star, deck hands at ready:

[Emilio Largo]

Great pictures! Let's see some more!
Luis organized a fantastic trip. As the pics show, the diving was amazing.

[luis]

Recent diving in Cozumel:




Note: I did not set the dive computer to local time. Therefore the times shown are two hours later than local.

Let me know if your log shows a different dive site than what we recorded.
Thanks

[frogman63]

James, thanks for sharing your pics.
The colors, lighting and clarity all came out very good.
What type of camera and strobe were you using?
Thanks,
Brian

[Nemrod]

James, thanks for sharing your pics.
The colors, lighting and clarity all came out very good.
What type of camera and strobe were you using?
Thanks,
Brian

Thanks, I was not really on my game, between getting sick and tending my wife, lol.

I shot dual Inon D2000 strobes and an original aluminum FIX (now made by RecSea) housing with a Canon S90 and this time I was using a Fisheye UWL28-M52 full frame fisheye lens. The little S90 is an amazing little camera, fast, full manual and RAW file capability. In the segment I would now go for the new Sony RX100 in an aluminum RecSea housing from Bluewater Photo, an internet friend of mine. I love my Inon strobes, they are rock solid and so easy to use. I really like the RecSea product in this class better than the FIX/Nauticam offer because it is more versatile with accessory lenses. I have also purchased through REEF in Ft Lauderdale. Those guys are sometimes a little stiff but when I needed them to help me repair my strobe after a "tourist" knocked it on the deck, while on a trip, they came through for me even staying open for me to get there.

http://www.bluewaterphotostore.com

The most important thing, learned the hard way, two strobes and a wide angle lens so I can get close, the barracuda shot up above was about 6 inches from his snout. You have to get close, it makes all the difference.







Nem