The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

[Frazier Nivens]

This is the time of year to take stock of our blessings. How fortunate we are to dive amazing places, create world class underwater images, and if you’re really lucky – make the equipment to do so.

From everyone here at Gates, wishing you the best this holiday season, and a booming 2013.

J-

Absolutely John, we have been blessed to be able to do what we love to do. Merry Christmas to all of you UW Bubble Blowers. Best to you for 2013 and beyond. If any of you are ever south of Miami and close to Key Largo, please make sure to touch base and do some diving with us.

Frazier Nivens, Ocean Imaging

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Hi all, just wondering of anyone has had any experience with using Shark Shields? Do they interrupt with cameras due to their electronic signal transmissions etc? .

Shark Shield does not interfere with cameras. Good luck with your project, Mark.

 

[James Killion]

Happy Holidays to all!!!

2013 is going to be a GREAT Year!!!

 

[Mark_Thorpe]

Shark Shield does not interfere with cameras. Good luck with your project, Mark.

Cheers Pawell, have a great Christmas and New Year, see you on the other side, or the 22nd if we make it that far!

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Converting Gates Deep RED to Epic

Converting Gates Deep RED to Epic

I was contacted by one of Redusers to help him convert Gates Deep RED housing to Epic.

Apparently our high density ribbon connector for side SSD module that we developed for 3Deep does the trick :blush:

 

[Greg F]

Hi all, just wondering of anyone has had any experience with using Shark Shields?
Cheers,
Mark.

I think it would be a waste honestly.. Everything I have heard they do not really do much anyway, can agitiate them even? if you are that worried get in a cage otherwise just be very aware of your surroundings and well good luck.

Zero idea if I will become shark bait someday myself but I have been around plenty of the big fish.. infact I dive with them on purpose

 

[Mark_Thorpe]

Hi Greg,
Have dived with all manner of toothed predators including Great Whites, Tiger Sharks and others without the need for cages. I'm planning an expedition shoot and given the isolation of the project and distance to any reputable medical facility my idea was to possibly employ them (shark shields) in worst case scenarios. That being entering the water on reefs that are un-dived and the wildlife reacting as is the norm with full inquisitiveness. An inquisitive shark is a problematic shark in the off chance it's having a bad day.

There are some places that have been dived in the region. If anyone here knows of an American underwater photographer called Bill Curtsinger they may want to ask him of his adventures on the reefs of West Fayu where he almost bled out after being bitten by a Gray Reef shark. Another friend of mine was chased from the water on another reef in the region by Silvertip Sharks and I myself have witnessed a friend get a love bite from a Silvertip on the reefs of the main island, took his mask off and bit through his Poseidon reg hose right at the articulation entry point of the 2nd stage.

So my point is not to stay away from the animals, far from it, I welcome the option to get close (the reason I am also hoping to use the Arri 8R underwater) but at the same time wish to reduce any risk factor to it's minimum in all eventualities.

Regards,
Mark.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

I think it would be a waste honestly.. Everything I have heard they do not really do much anyway, can agitiate them even? if you are that worried get in a cage otherwise just be very aware of your surroundings and well good luck.

Zero idea if I will become shark bait someday myself but I have been around plenty of the big fish.. infact I dive with them on purpose

I'll second Mark's post Greg, he probably has more face time with the great toothed ones than many of us here put together. With notable exceptions of course, all y'all know who all y'all are :beer:

The product page explicitly states that the device cannot guarantee protection from all sharks in all situations. In fact, experimentation with a similar device by Ron and Valerie Taylor some years ago even showed certain species becoming agitated and aggressive when exposed to a combination of bait, and the electrical field generated by the unit. Food for thought. Or sharks. As the case may be.

So, a very wise question indeed; does anyone out there have direct experience?

 

[Tom Hamilton]

Mark,

I own one of the early prototypes that Ron and Valerie were testing, be happy to dig it out of the dive locker, dust it off, and ship it out to you.

I purchased it from an outfit in Durban, developed in response to all of the shark problems they were having at their beaches back in the late nineties. Nibbling on bikinis it seems, not good for anything other than the medevac business.

We were filming a spectacular wreck at an outer reef a few clicks from Jeddah over a series of weeks, a brace of Silkys were unusually curious. That's a rare thing in the Red Sea, most parts anyways, usually it's just a drive-by, check for food, then off into the deep blue, never to be seen again.

Found out afterwards it was a senior Prince from the Royal family who had been chumming extensively, wanted to get some racy vid of him and the sharks to show his girlfriends, by all accounts. He had the Amphibicam/F900 setup, which, at the time, was the sexiest piece of u/w kit around. Ended up getting his mask, and part of his face chewed off by a big aggressive male.

Anyways, our experiments with it were inconclusive, hard to tell one way or the other, the critters didn't seem too bothered. Welcome to try mate, ping me.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

I just watched The Hobbit in 3D at HFR. Here are my thoughts, most of which I share with Mark Warren's feedback.

What do you guys think about HFR use in underwater film making? Anyone out there shooting HFR?

 

[Mark_Thorpe]

Hey Tom, will email you on that mate, cheers. Testing the unit here in Bali would take a month of Sunday, only the occasional wide eyed White Tip seen scurrying off in the distance and all the Threshers, Mako's, Tigers and Hammerheads out here seem to have a distinct lack of water flowing over their gills on the beaches of Lombok and east Bali!

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Frazier Nivens]

Hi Greg,
Have dived with all manner of toothed predators including Great Whites, Tiger Sharks and others without the need for cages. I'm planning an expedition shoot and given the isolation of the project and distance to any reputable medical facility my idea was to possibly employ them (shark shields) in worst case scenarios. That being entering the water on reefs that are un-dived and the wildlife reacting as is the norm with full inquisitiveness. An inquisitive shark is a problematic shark in the off chance it's having a bad day.

There are some places that have been dived in the region. If anyone here knows of an American underwater photographer called Bill Curtsinger they may want to ask him of his adventures on the reefs of West Fayu where he almost bled out after being bitten by a Gray Reef shark. Another friend of mine was chased from the water on another reef in the region by Silvertip Sharks and I myself have witnessed a friend get a love bite from a Silvertip on the reefs of the main island, took his mask off and bit through his Poseidon reg hose right at the articulation entry point of the 2nd stage.

So my point is not to stay away from the animals, far from it, I welcome the option to get close (the reason I am also hoping to use the Arri 8R underwater) but at the same time wish to reduce any risk factor to it's minimum in all eventualities.

Regards,
Mark.

Andre tried it Mark with White Sharks, didn't work, most other sharks didn't really do much of anything, only shark I saw it worked on at all was the Caribbean Reef sharks in Bahamas, only when very close were they repelled by it the instant it was turned on and that was in a feeding situation. But for the most part even they unless they were very close weren't too troubled by the shark shield..

 

[Greg F]

Hello Mark,

I do wish you the best of luck in what you are attempting to do, I hope the footage turns out Magnificent! I just really have zero idea how well the device would work and I have heard conflicting reports via what they do. As was stated by tom they can agitate some sharks and I would hate to see that shark that gets agitated come at you and destroy what you are trying to do. After all every person that dives with sharks and survives without incident is further proof they are not mindless killing machines

If you dont mind me asking Mark, do you have any sample images of the hammerheads there and the level of damage done to them? Are they beat up really badly from mating? what is the average size you see? I was looking further at some of the images that Johnny Friday posted and they are very very CLEAN sharks.. Lack parasites or damage.. Also it appears that the dominant size in Johnny's photos do not seem to be over 8ft in length. We get some titanic Scalloped out here that have been easy 6 feet across the hammer... Blows the mind for sure!

The sharks I dive with locally are just beat to hell no way else to describe it.

 

[Mark_Thorpe]

Andre tried it Mark with White Sharks, didn't work, most other sharks didn't really do much of anything, only shark I saw it worked on at all was the Caribbean Reef sharks in Bahamas, only when very close were they repelled by it the instant it was turned on and that was in a feeding situation. But for the most part even they unless they were very close weren't too troubled by the shark shield..

Cheers Frazier, much appreciated.
I guess the good thing with the deal I have with the company is that I've also been asked to create a small video of the unit in action in the waters of Micronesia during the project. That was always an idea in order to create a small special feature for the DVD version of the project. Will be able to do that on the first main stop with Gray Reef and Silvertips so from packs to turbo charged nutters that should give an idea, seeing as these will be the tow most populace shark species we'll encounter on the gig will be a good eyeopener.

Greg, the sharks I see here are those that have been caught by the local fishermen, tend to be very small, juvenile in many cases (I know, makes me sick too) and scalloped, very clean but that may just be due to their short existence before capture. There is a dive spot over in Lombok called 'The Magnet' the attraction of which is the possibility to see Hammerheads but the few people I know who have dived it haven't been able to get a good look given the fleeting encounters.

Sadly, sharks are a massively dwindling resource in this region.

Regards,
Mark.

 

[Greg F]

Thats really too bad that they are all small.. I suppose there is massive pressure from Shark Fins on them though however.

 

[Mark_Thorpe]

Yep, sadly shark fishing, finning and any other act of butchery is legal here. Indonesia is the largest single exporter of fins to Hong Kong which is a bit of a bummer. Not just standard reef species but all the 'exotics' too. Leopard sharks, bamboo cat sharks and other such benthic species. It;s kinda gut wrenching to also photograph butchered dolphins decapitated and left on tourist beaches here. They're targeted simply because they eat fish in direct competition to the fishermen.

Tough stomach's required to live around the Oceans and fishing communities out here.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Ron Lagerlof]

I posted this yesterday in the New Year's thread, but thought it appropriate for this forum. Although you can't see the Deep Epic in my hands (yes, me in the photo) my dive partner, Erin Quigley, snapped this shot with her Canon 7D. All the more reason for me to - strongly - consider getting an Epic Monochrome. Blue water and big animals - sharks, whales, mantas, and even barracuda - would be awesome in B&W, and I can't seem to come close to the conversion that Erin can achieve with her stills in Photoshop/Lightroom...

Happy New Year - in glorious Black and White!

Peace - Ron

 

[Greg F]

Nice shot of the Barracuda I love those schools here in Hawaii they are just beautiful.

 

[James Killion]

Great Photo Ron!

 

[Greg F]

Red Camera [Check]
Red Camera housing [Check]
No Idea what I am doing [Check]

Saturday I go play LOL