Houston's Premier Scuba and Dive Shop Oceanic Ventures Inc.

(713) 523-3483 (dive)
5808 Newcastle Drive
Houston, TX 77401

Underwater

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Archaeologist Staci Willis, PhD to Speak At Social Club Meeting

Staci Willis, PhD Diving in Albania
Are you interested in unexplored shipwrecks lying hidden on the ocean’s bottom just waiting to be discovered?  This is Dr. Staci Willis’ passion and this past summer she and a team of investigators explored a portion of the coast of Albania looking for some potential excavation sites.  For more than six days she and her fellow researched dove on various sites from 15 meters to 24 meters (50 feet to 80 feet) in an area around Corfu Chanel.
Their investigatory dives were successful and they will be returning next summer to start an archaeological dig on one or two of the sites.
Dr. Staci Willis is currently a Professor of Anthropology at Houston Community College and the Co-Principal Investigator of the Albania Ancient Shipwreck Project. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Ph.D. in Anthropology, specializing in Nautical Archaeology, in 2016. In addition to her most recent work in Albania, Dr. Willis has also participated in a number of other underwater excavations, including a 7th-century BC Phoenician shipwreck off the coast of Spain, a 1st-century wreck in a river of northern Italy, and and 1st-century wreck in the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Staci will be discussing her work and these dives at the January 17, 2019 Club Aquarius Social Club meeting.
 
 

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The Houstonian Hosts Santa for Underwater Photographs

The Houstonian Hotel, Resort and Spa hosted Santa Claus for an underwater photography session.  The Houstonian staff were on hand with Hot Chocolate complete with marshmallows and the Oceanic Ventures staff were in the water taking the photographs and entertaining Santa!  People of all ages joined us and even a little rain did not stop the festivities.  To see what you missed…
 

 

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Getting started with Underwater Photography

Photo by Zaide Scheib
Everyone like to have photographs of their experiences, and from their vacations and travels.  Divers are no different.  The only issue is that taking photographs and videos underwater requires a little bit of pre-planning and some different equipment — well sort of.
There are a number of ways to get started from jumping in with your GoPro to using your mobile phone in a case to take photographs.  But, what is the best way?  That is a difficult question to answer,  It all depends on where you are in your land photography and where you want to go with your underwater photography.  What so I mean by that?  Let’s look at this further further.

IPhone Camera User

If your primary camera is your iPhone or Android phone even on vacation, then you will probably be happy starting with a simple underwater camera.  These allow you to shoot video or still photographs and download them to your computer.  Most of these cameras save files in a JPG format.  However, some of the new models have a RAW file feature too.  Not sure what these terms mean, check-out part 2 of this article about digital files and processing.  Let’s just say that the JPG files are what you are used to seeing in your iPhone which means they have some processing done during the save function.  Some examples of these camera are the SeaLife Micro 2.0 and a GoPro.  You could also put your phone in a housing and take it with you.  Kraken makes a new housing for phones.

IPhone and Point and Shoot Camera User

If you use both an iphone and anther camera during your trips, you are probably trying to get better images or different images that what you can get with your phone.  For you, the SeaLife Micro 2.0 or the SeaLife DC 2000 might be good options.  Both have basic functions but also expand to let you “tweek” your photos and your experience.

Eric Keibler in Yap by Joe Thompson

DSLR & Mirrorless Camera Users

Now this is a wide-ranging area of underwater photography.  You could stick with the simpler camera from above or you can expand to take your land camera underwater in a housing.  A lot of it depends on what you want to accomplish underwater and how much you are willing to invest.  The housings for your underwater camera can cost more than your initial camera investment and then there are the strobes…  So you could look at the SeaLife DC2000 or a housing from Nauticam or Aquatica.

How to get started

Our Club Aquarius meeting this month will be focusing on “How to get Started in Underwater Photography.”  We will be discussing how to meet your various goals and what equipment you might consider.  We will also be discussing some things you can do to improve your photographs once you start with a system.

Club Aquatrius Meeting:

  • Speaker:  Zaide Scheib and Eric Keibler
  • When:     22 February 2018, 7:00 PM
  • Where:   The Black Labrador, 4100 Montrose Blvd.  Houston, TX

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Equipment Special For Photographers the SeaLife DC2000


The new DC 2000 has a waterproof  camera to 60 feet,that fits into a housing rated to 200 feet and shoots at 20 MP, Shoots RAW, JPG, 1080 HP video – Free Wide-angle lens
Free Wide Angle Lens: Urgent:  The program ends on Friday but, Dive Mom has an extension so that you can order before noon on Monday, Oct 2 2017, so you can get the Free Wide angle lens.
 
Upgrade Offer:  If you purchased a Sealife 2.0 Camera, from us in the last two years, and want to trade-it for the DC2000, you get a $150 credit toward the DC2000.  This is an Oceanic Ventures only promotion and expires on Monday October 2 at noon.  Please note, the camera must be in working order and traded in with the charger cord.

This is SeaLife’s most advanced camera! 

Enjoy full creative freedom with SeaLife’s new DC2000 digital underwater camera. Featuring a large SONY® 1″ type back-illuminated 20MP image sensor and RAW formatting capabilities, the DC2000 will let your underwater inspirations guide you to stunning results.
 

  • Full featured with nearly unlimited editing options
  • With an ultra-fast auto focus and shutter response, you’ll never miss a shot with the SeaLife DC2000.
  • Take control of your creativity by selecting from the 8 shooting modes: manual, aperture, underwater, shutter, program, intelligent auto, land, and panorama.
  • JPEG and RAW (Adobe .dng) imaging formats are available, providing you with nearly endless photo editing options. Get the best of both worlds.
  • With DSLR-like imaging results, you’ll want to make the DC2000’s waterproof inner camera your go-to land camera with the ability to capture rich landscapes and stunning close-ups and portraits.
  • The DC2000 features a 31mm (film equivalent) lens with a variety of underwater lens options available.
  • Ultra-fast shutter response of 0.1 seconds
  • 4 Underwater Shooting Modes for sharp, colorful underwater pictures under any conditions
  • 3 built-in underwater digital color correction filters: shallow water (snorkeling), deep water (diving) or “green” water (algae bloom)
  • 25 Land Scene modes adjust camera settings for specific shooting environments
  • Intelligent Auto Mode selects the optimal land scene mode for effortless shooting
  • Continuous Burst Shooting shoots high resolution 20MP pictures up to 10 frames per second
  • Manual White Balance control to customize UW color correction to your specific depth and water conditions
  • Manual shutter and aperture for complete control over image exposure from 15 to 1/2000 seconds and F1.8 to F11 in 0.3 stop increments
  • Auto focus from 4″(10cm) to infinity
  • WiFi to wirelessly preview, download and share pictures/videos to smart phone or tablet with free Link123 Plus app. Includes Geotagging and “Auto Send” functionality.
  • Micro SD, SDHC SDXC and UHS-1 memory card compatible up to 64GB
  • Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) – CCD shift technology reduces camera shake
  • Short-cut key for fast and easy access to favorite menu setting
  • Expandable with Sea Dragon Flash(es), Photo-Video Lights and SeaLife lenses
  • Rubber armored, shock-resistant for rough handling and tough environments
  • Depth rated down to 200ft/60m (camera in housing)
  • Depth rated down to 60ft/18m (inner camera)

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Photography Contest for Divers and Friends – 2016

photo contest titleWow!  We have had some website issues behind the scenes so we are very late in getting the Photography Contest rules uploaded onto the web.  However, they are here now as well as the 2014 and 2015 photo submissions.  So, hopefully you have been taking photos and are planning on submitting to the contest.  Call or email Eric or Ann if you have any questions.