Tag: Diving

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Mostly Everything

Hello I’m Jayvee: All Around Geek, Diver, Photographer — and I’m Joining SNUPS!

Hey guys, back to reality! This post is long delayed. Sorry about that. If you want more real time updates, I’m almost always online on Twitter (@jayvee) and Instagram (@jayveef).

Anyway, we’ve been working on a huge event — it’s basically Year II of SNUPS, the biggest underwater photo competition in the Philippines. Now, you don’t need to be a professional photographer to join. There are categories suited for beginners as long as you can bring a camera down 2 feet with tupperware (you’ll be amazed with the things you can find — after all it’s the Philippines!).

In this case, we took the iPhone 4s down. Have a look at the video and share it with friends who may be interested! =)

Dates:

Cebu
April 20-24 2012

Anilao
May 4-8 2012

Hello I'm Jayvee

Categories
Underwater

When you dive in Basura, you find the oddest things

Smile! I’m a hairy frogfish

Whenever SCUBA is marketed to the public, the point of entry is always how pretty everything is underwater. Go to any SCUBA marketing collateral and you’re guaranteed a photo of healthy coral reefs with schools of red anthias and other fish swimming in nonchalance. Don’t forget the diver in the pink wetsuit and huge yellow mask. I spent more than a year diving reefs, going to average depths of about 60 ft and deeper to catch glimpses of the “busy” underwater life.

After a while though, you start wanting other things. Even if they’re less beautiful and more bizarre.

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Categories
Mostly Everything

‘Sharkwater’ is the best shark documentary I’ve seen. Spare an hour and a half to watch it here.

Stunning underwater video from a guy who loves the oceans. And sharks. ‎’Sharkwater’ is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen that talks about why sharks are not the predators we’re made to believe. The fear of sharks is one of the most successful media hypes that has gone viral in the past 50 years because of military training videos, the media and Hollywood.

Categories
Mostly Everything

My Dive Gear

So Lilliane started this so I decided to follow with my own list of dive gear. I’ve divided the list into skin diving gear, SCUBA gear and underwater camera gear.

Skin Diving Gear

Black SCUBAPRO Spectra Mask

The current mask I’m using now. I like the black skirts instead of transparent ones because it gives less distractions when taking photos. This mask was a gift to me by Chie!

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Categories
Mostly Everything

A Hunt for the Rhinopias

Over the weekend I took part in an event loosely coined as the ‘Hunt for the Rhinopias.’ As a diver and a photographer, it’s the latter that urges me on to keep diving because of the sheer challenge of underwater photography as a hobby. Before taking photos underwater, I’d scoot through a dive site in 45 minutes. When I started photography, our dives turned to a slow crawl as we explored every square inch of the reef to find shrimps, crabs, slugs and other critters.


Our gear on display for the Rhinopias photo hunt.

There was word circulating among the divers that a yellow Rhinopias frondosa, more commonly known as the Weedy Scorpionfish or the Popeye Scorpion has been spotted in a dive site called Red Rocks in Anilao, Batangas. The Rhinopias is extremely rare and there happened to be one in Anilao sitting on the reef at 30 ft deep. At that depth, we spent two dives of 80 minutes each, taking turns to photograph this rare scorpionfish that is camouflaged to look like a yellow patch of sea kelp.

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