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For many people it is harder to clear your ears when you are head down. That is why it is best to descend in a mostly vertical orientation. Instead of dumping all of the air from your BC on the surface, it is best to dump enough to become slightly negative and make small adjustments as you...

Yes. The first one is my favorite too.

My wife and I did the "Pelagic Magic" dive with Jacks' Diving Locker, 3 miles off of the Kona coast. This is a night dive where the divers are hung (like bait) off of the the side of the boat in several thousand feet of water. Strange and alien things float up from the deep. Here is a couple...

This is a California two-spot octopus. You can also see part of the eponymous blue ring on the right, next to the siphon.

Yesterday was Coastal Cleanup Day, and the Paradise Dive Club cleaned up Tajiguas beach near Gaviota. Afterwards we had a shore dive at Refugio State Beach. I don't bring my big camera on shore dives because it is too easy to drop it in the sand. Instead I dusted off my trusty old Oly5050...

Here are a couple: Invisibility Cloak by - drsteve -, on Flickr Do you believe in Angels? by - drsteve -, on Flickr

I do not have any Ikelite gear, but I have several friends who have had exactly the same problems you describe: floods due to cracked strobe housings, and mis-seated o-rings. Perhaps I am paranoid, but I feel that some housings and strobes are prone to pinching o-rings. The biggest problem is...

Hi All, Recently the Paradise Dive Club of Santa Barbara chartered the Lois Ann to dive wreck alley in San Diego. We dove the Yukon, Ruby E, and Nosc Towers. Topside it was beautiful, but the vis was only about 20 ft on the wreck. Temp on the bottom was 52 so I was wore my drysuit. Here are...

I ran across this baby horn shark at Catalina a few weeks ago. He was only about 12 inches long and cute as a button. Enjoy! Smile little shark by - drsteve -, on Flickr ---------- Post added July 3rd, 2013 at 12:38 AM ---------- Here is a more traditional 3/4 view portrait. I love the...

Here are a couple more silly sheephead photos. I don't know about everyone else, but they always make me snicker when I see them underwater. Sheephead head by - drsteve -, on Flickr Sheephead... Sheephead... Rolly Polly Sheephead by - drsteve -, on Flickr

Thanks annasea. I work hard on them and I love to share.

I went on a three day trip to the three southern channel islands (San Clemente, Catalina, and Santa Barbara) a few weeks ago and thought I would share this silly photo. Doh! by - drsteve -, on Flickr

We went late in the season on the Nautilus Explorer. The advantages of going late in the year is that the big female white sharks show up, but you risk encountering poor weather. We were very fortunate to hit perfectly flat conditions, clear water, and perfect visibility. It was epic. Here...

Another trick is to shoot in the morning or the afternoon and keep the sun at your back. This reduces scattering from particles in the water which contribute to "haze" and improves contrast.

First you have to realize that when you don't shoot RAW, the camera applies a set of "post production" filters automatically. It does white balance, noise reduction, and sharpening among others. By shooting in RAW, you are telling the camera NOT to apply these filters, which means that you...

I agree with the recommendation, but I don't know where you got water in the low 60s. I did a trip last year and two years before that. On both occasions the water was in the 73-74 range. I wore my 7mm suit with hood and was comfortable for 2+hours at a time. A few people wore drysuits and...

Chris, I had dual Inon strobes on long arms. The arms were fully extended and the strobes were placed behind the plane of the camera, feathered slightly inward to provide "edge lighting." I didn't use any diffusers because I wanted a hard edge to the beam. The water in Patterson bay was...

I have dived Platform Grace off of Carpinteria a couple of times. It is definitely a different type of dive than what most people are used to. The rig is very geometrical and is covered in life. It makes for some very striking photos. You find friends in the strangest places by - drsteve...

One highlight of my recent Alaska trip aboard the Nautilus Swell was diving in the "smudges" of Patterson bay. These are incredible blooms of moon jellies with tens out thousands of them pulsing hypnotically. It is a surreal experience. The biggest difference (although I have never been to...

I didn't have any leaks in my suit, but I did bring spare neck and wrist seals just in case. With ZipSeals it only takes a minute to change them out. On my first trip to Alaska three years ago I had a bad neck seal leak on the very first dive. I zipped a new seal on and was as dry as a bone...