Good news however, it’s looking like I will be back in the diving business starting early next year.  All to be confirmed but it looks like I will have four months shooting around SE Asia, followed by a stint in the jungle.  So hopefully no more dogs, babies and hedgehogs…

Having said that, I really enjoy blogging.  I like digging up interesting photography sites and sharing the shots I have been taking.  Building a Wordpress-based blog page into my new site would be perfect - I can continue with my random posting and keep visitors up to date with my travels, but at the same time, make my photography the focus of the site.  Any good designers out there willing to take this on?

Not entirely sure how useful this will be for the aforementioned project, but I love it anyway - I’m such a sucker for anything internet!

Just 3 days old.  Congratulations to Hannah and Grant!

The D3 is an FX format camera - full-frame, rather than cropped like the DX sensor in the D2X, my camera of choice for the last few years.  What this means for the photographer is that the standard, wide-angle lens and dome combinations used underwater have to be spot on, corner to corner.  The full-frame sensor will show up any mismatches between the dome and the lens, particularly with rectilinear lenses like the 17-35mm.  Unfortunately, from what I have seen from the few tests already out, FX format brings back all the bugbears of soft-corners when shooting through dome ports.

My original idea was to house my D3 or a new D700, and work round the soft corner problems using diopters.  I would end up using a 14-24mm and 16mm, along with my old 105mm macro.  However, I had a bit of a brain wave this afternoon.  Second hand D2Xs are going for a song at the moment - I’ve seen good condition bodies on eBay for $700-800 and I suspect Greys of Westminster could get hold of something for me.  I know and like the camera and am used to how it behaves underwater.  And because it uses the DX-format, cropped sensor, I can safely use either the Tokina 10-17mm or a 10.5mm, along with a 60mm macro.  It also means that if I buy a 70-200mm VR for top-side use, I have a great long lens combination by using it either on the D3 or the D2X.

Basically if I buy a second hand D2X body, I’ll have a great underwater set-up and will substantially extend the use of my topside lenses.  Fuel for thought indeed!

I made the decision to upgrade to Lightroom 2 today, mainly because of the new adjustment brushes and LR2’s ability to work offline across multiple drives.  But interestingly, it also accepts a variety of plugins - the pic below was uploaded straight to flickr using a free plugin by Jeffrey Friedl.

More recently, things have taken a slightly odd turn.  Over the space of a couple of weeks, I went from stomach pains and feeling rough as a dog, to being whisked into surgery to have what was described as a ‘Gangrenous, perforated and blackened appendix’, removed at MK Hospital.  I now have a lovely scar across my swollen stomach, can’t fit into my trousers and have been hobbling around like an old man.  But it’s all done and dusted and despite the fact that appendicitis is very random and can hit anyone at any time, I am VERY glad I was back in the UK when it happened.  The thought of being on a trip somewhere, without access to what turned out to be very good healthcare, support and painkillers, fills me with fear!  Without quick intervention and access to antibiotics, peritonitis can quickly lead to death.  I’m thanking my stars…

So, 2008 - what else do you have in store for me?