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Historical Diving Society - New Museum at Gosportneeds your help

The Historical diving society (HDS) are setting up adiving museum in No.2 Battery at Stokes Bay in Gosport. The Museum will open on 30 April 2011 and is expected to be open weekends thereafter(manned as ever by volunteers)!

The Museum will in time be a formal archive, but will have display areasfor SCUBA, Military, Commercial and standard equipments. It is also planned to have a section for underwater cameras. As you will see from the image (right) the camera corner is rather bare with the basis of a Nikonos collection and some miscellaneous housings etc. It would be appreciated if the BSOUP members were able to expand the collection, I'm sure many, as I, have many systems in the cupboard that are no longer used or functional. It would also be nice if the members expertise could be used to identify any systems we are unsure of and any supporting information/details., e.g.the top three rows of the cupboard.

If you can help please contact gavin.anthony@btinternet.com

Historical Diving Society - Camera corner in theMuseum
in No. 2 Battery at Stokes Bay in Gosport

Mustard Wrecks in the Mail andTelegraph

BSoUP Committee Member and Wetpixel Associate Editor Alex Mustard has just had a seriesof his wreck images published in two UK newspapers. The Daily Mail and The Telegraph have both used a portfolio of his images and these havealso been picked by Globo, the largest media outlet in Brazil. Alex isquoted by the Daily Mail as saying:

"'Wrecks attract divers because of the incongruity ofseeing something from above the waves beneath them."

The articles include pictures of the newly-sunkKittiwake, Grand Cayman, Thisttlegorm and Giannis D, Red Sea and a VW Beetle from Capernwray, Lancashire!

Website of the Week - Nigel Wade

Each week we are highlighting a BSoUP Member's website. This week's choice is Wade Imaging, the website of NigelWade.

Nigel is an experienced Diver with a passion for photography. He is PADI 'Master Scuba Diver Trainer' providing Instructionto hundreds of students in the UK. He is also a qualified TDI in AdvancedTrimix for deep (100 meter) wreck diving using Helium based gas mixes and owns and dives with an Ambient Pressure Diving Inspiration Vision fullyclosed circuit Re-Breather.

As well as the UK, Nigel has dived and returned with images from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

For further details and to view some of Nigel's imagesplease visit www.wadeimaging.com/

Dynamic Digital Duo to feature atLIDS

Saturday and Sunday 26th and 27th

The dynamic digital duo BSoUP Members Alex Mustard and Martin Edge are teaming up again to give a presentation, this time at the LondonInternational Dive Show at ExCel, in London's Docklands.

Alex, an award-winning photographer, is widely regarded as a pioneer of innovative techniques, including his Magic Filters foravailable light photography and his book 'Reefs Revealed'. He is also a regular contributor to UwP and writes a monthly column for DIVE.

Martin is known as a leading teacher of underwater photography and his book 'The Underwater Photographer' is regarded by many as holy writ.

Following on from their sell-out 'On Underwater Photography' event at Imperial College last year, they will discuss thetechniques and concepts that make for memorable underwater images. They will be in the North Gallery, rooms 4/5 at 11:15 a.m.on both Saturday and Sunday 26th and 27th March. But get there early as there is limited capacity and entry is on a first come, first served basis.

Maria Munn wins DIVER magazine's Publication ofthe Year Award

Congratulations to BSoUP Member Maria Munn whose book 'Underwater Photography for CompactDigital Cameras ' won the DIVER Magazine Publication of the Year.

Maria was over the moon when she learned the good news.'Wow I am totally speechless!', she said. Once recovered she added 'I feel incredibly humbled and touched that my book has been so well received. Thank you so very much to all DIVER readers who voted for me'.

No other single book or DVD attracted votes in sufficientnumbers to be deamed worthy of being a runner-up in this category.

For further details of Maria's book and to purchase a hard copy or an e-book please visit www.oceanvisions.co.uk/

Winner © David Henshaw
Shoal of catfish, Lembeh Straits, Sulawesi Indonesia

Focus on - February - Shoals -Results

Congratulations to David Henshaw who was the winner of this month's Focus On competition with a school of feeding catfish taken in Lembeh Straits, Indonesia.

The runner-up was Alex Tatersall with ashoal of Bastard Grunts taken in Gran Canaria. Trevor Rees took third place with a shoal of Red Sea glass fish taken on the Nuweiba house reef. Fourth place went to Georgette Douwma with a shoal of fish taken at Misool, Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. Tom Pepper took fith place with a shoal taken in the Maldives. Sixth place went to Paul Colley with a shoal of Horse Eye Jacks taken in Grand Cayman.

A total of 45 entries were submitted and as you can see from the results (below left) it was a very close contest between David, Alex and Trevor.

None of the top four were present at the meeting - oncea gain disproving the myth that members need to be present to compete.

How the top six scored:-

Runner-up © Alex Tattersall
Bastard grunts, Gran Canaria

Third © Trevor Rees
Red Sea glass fish

The top six may be viewed in the Gallery.

BSoUP Members only may view all of the entries in the Competition Slideshow, but you will need to login if you have not already done so this session.

If you were not in the top six and would like to know howyou fared, please e-mail brian.pitkin@virgin.net.

Next month we will be holding our annual Theme Portfolio Competition. This is for BSoUP Members only. The deadline for submission is Wednesday 9th March. Please read the Rules before entering via the online Entry form.

The competitiion is sponsored by UnderWaterVisions, the official UK distributor of the Nauticam underwater housing line, who have donated a voucher worth £150 to spend in their onlineshop.

Next BSoUP meeting:

The next BSoUP meeting takes place on Wednesday,16th February 2010 at 7.30 for 8.00 p.m. at our usual venue the Holland Club, Imperial College, S. Kensington, London. Directions. New and prospective new members willbe welcomed from 7.30 p.m. See Welcome

Photo Techniques: The Great Bali Critter Hunt by JaneMorgan

Jane is BSoUP's Meetings secretary. She will be showing some of her images from a recent trip to Bali.

Jane learned to dive in 1991 and is an openwater instructor and an International Association for Handicapped Divers instructor. Passionate about the underwater world she has worked on conservation projects with Coral Cay in both the Philippines and Borneo.

Jane discovered underwater photography during a trip to the Southern Red Sea in 2001 and never looked back. She moved to digital photogaphy in late 2004, and now uses a Nikon D80 camera in a Sea and Seahousing with twin YS110 strobes. Jane's work has been widely published in the UK diving press and images are available for sale directly from her website.

Focus On: ' Shoals of fish'. The competition is now closed. BSoUP Members only may view the Competition Slideshow, but you will be asked to login if you have not already done so this session.

An infrared image of an Anemone fish © KathyWhite

Main Event: Infrared underwater photography by Kathy White

Kathy learnt to dive on Koh Tao several years ago, whereshe later trained and worked as an underwater videographer before makingthe move to stills. After returning to the UK, she took up landscape photography and now runs small group and 1 to 1 landscape photography workshops in Dorset as well as leading photography tours for Ocean Capture.

Her infrared experiments and learning started on land a few years ago and last year she took this underwater.

Kathy will talk about what infrared light is and how you can capture it, what works underwater and what doesn't and things to look out for when shooting in IR. The talk will be accompanied by lots of infrared images, from both land and underwater. To learn more about Kathy and to see some of her images please visit http://kathywhiteunderwater.com/

Website of the Week - JP Trenque

Each week we are highlighting a BSoUP Member's website. This week's choice is JP Trenque

'Born in France, I learnt to dive in 1980 to follow my father's footsteps.

After moving to the UK in 1994, I became a diving instructor and spent my holidays teaching people to dive. I also developed an interest in underwater videography, which I thought would be a great tool to share my passion of the underwater environment and would allow me to show non divers how beautiful and fragile coral reefs are.

Soon, I realised that, although I could obtain some decent footage, I often struggled to put it together into an interesting story. So I switched to still underwater photography in 2003 with a Nikon D100 and started attending BSoUP meetings on a regular basis. Listening to speakers such as Linda Dunk, Linda Pitkin or Alex Mustard offered a major source of inspiration.

Currently Chairman of the British Society of Underwater Photographers, I spend much of my spare time taking photos underwater, either in the UK or abroad and I organise photographic trips with Hidden Depths Dive Tours.

Working as a volunteer RNLI helmsman on the Thames has also given me access to new photographic opportunities, which I hope to explore further in the future.

To learn more about JP and to see some of his images please visit http://www.jptrenque.com/

BSoUP at the Big Scuba Show

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th at Earls Court and Olympia, London

BSoUP Members Rick Ayrton and Steve Jones will be giving presentations at the Big Scuba Show.

Rick will be giving a talk based loosely around his involvement with diving and photographing deep wrecks entitled 'Deep Wreck Mysteries' in the Knowledge Chamber at 3.00pm Saturday 19th and 10.00am Sunday 20th.

Steve will be giving a talk 'In the footsteps of Shackleton' in the Film Theatre at 10.00am Saturday 19th only.

The British Underwater Film Festival videos are being shown throughout the weekend in the Film Theatre and the Awards will bepresented at 2.00pm.

BSoUP will be at the event. Do please call by our stand.

PhotoZone at London International DiveShow

Saturday and Sunday 26th and 27th March at ExCel, London

A new feature of the London International Dive Show (LIDS) this year will be the PhotoZone. This will incorporate the stands of camera and accessory suppliers, alongside the organizations like the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP).

In addition, there will be a series of free 45-minutesessions in the new Photo Zone presentation area in the main hall. Speakers include Saeed Rashid, talking about Photoshop, Alex Tattersall on macro photography and Paul"Duxy" Duxfield on video editing; among others.

Last but not by no means least, there will be anexhibition of stunning underwater prints taken by BSoUP/SUPS members entitled 'Best of A Global Walk Underwater'. This is a selection of 72 of the best prints from over 300 exhibited by the Stevenage Underwater Photographic Society's in2010-11 in Hertfordshire. The exhibtion is sponsored by DIVER magazine.

BSoUP Stand (right) and Print display at DIVE 2010, NECBirmingham. Image © Charles Erb

Paul Colley Wins Telegraph Big Picture Competition

Congratulations to BSoUP member Paul Colley, who's photo of the USS Kittiwake wreck in the Cayman Islands has won the latest round of The Telegraph's Big PictureCompetition. Paul's image wins him a Nikon Coolpix S8000, worth £250.

Paul took his picture during BSoUP member Alex Mustard's Grand Cayman photo workshop, using his Nikon D300 with Tokina 10-17mm, fitted with a Magic Filter, in a Subal housing. The photo is also the first competition success for a picture of the Kittiwake, which was sunk earlier in 2011.

To view the image at a larger size please visit www.telegraph.co.uk/

Last year's Animal Portraits:Winnner
Painted Goby © Cathy Lewis

British Underwater PhotographyChampionship

Saturday 9th July at Mount Batten in Plymouth

The annual British Underwater Photography Championship (Splash-In) organised by the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) takes place on Saturday 9th July at Mount Batten in Plymouth. The competition is open to all underwater photographers whether they are BSoUP members or not.

This year's event is sponsored by Maldives Scuba Tours, Olympus, AP Valves, OceanVisions and Sport Diver.

The competition comprises four categories open to imagestaken with all types of digital cameras - Marine Life, Mankind in the Sea, Humorous, and a special theme to be announced at the event.  Prizes will be awarded to each category winner. There will also be an award for the best image with a compact camera in each category (except Humorous). All participants will compete for the chance to win a holiday for two for one week in the Maldives on board one of Maldive Scuba Tours liveaboard boats (exclusive of flights and taxes).

Full details of the event may be found at www.bsoup.org/Splash/2011/intro.php

Last year's winning Humorous image
Rock pool © Derek Haslam

Some of the BSoUP Members who give talks

Website of the Week - Ken Sullivan

Each week we are highlighting a BSoUP Member's website. This week's choice is Ken Sullivan.

Ken has been diving for over forty five years after a friend encouraged him to join the Stevenage Sub-aqua Club in 1964.

Since the early years of designing, building and customising underwater camera kit, Ken is still absorbed by this activityto this day. Between dive trips one can find him enjoying a few days helping his friends and contacts get the most out of their underwater camera kit by some serious customisation. To learn more about Ken please visit www.kensunderwaterphotography.com

Get 2 tickets to the Big Scuba Show for just £8each, saving £9 off the on-the-day rate. Click here, using promotional code N012. For more information please visit www.thebigscubashow.com

Website of the Week - AlexTattersall

Each week we are highlighting a BSoUP Member's website. This week's choice is ' UnderWaterVisions' the website of Alex Tattersall.

UnderWaterVisions is the official UK distributor of the Nauticam underwater housing line - designed for discerning underwaterphotographers by discerning underwater photographers.

Alex also an official INON UK dealer and a stockist of StiX arm and buoyancy solutions, Zen Underwater dome ports and Cameq greenwater solutions.

To view Alex's website please visit www.uwvisions.com/