Second outing with new Sony a7rIV

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Nice, would look better in full raw I’m sure. The contrast and exposure on the underside of the shark is really nice as well. I bet it would kill with some filtered keldans on video.
Great stuff!

I have to be honest that I have never really considered N.C. and Flights are cheap from here , I may pack my MWL-1 and come on down.

 

[stuartv]

Nice, would look better in full raw I’m sure. The contrast and exposure on the underside of the shark is really nice as well. I bet it would kill with some filtered keldans on video.
Great stuff!

I have to be honest that I have never really considered N.C. and Flights are cheap from here , I may pack my MWL-1 and come on down.

Thanks again. And, yeah, I could have done a fair bit more in post, but I spent minimal time on it. My current laptop is a MacBook Pro from 2013. These 61MP images are absolutely crushing my laptop. Lightroom runs okay, but any time I switch to editing in Photoshop it takes halfway to forever. And if I try to load an image in one of the Topaz plug-ins it takes forever to load and then another forever to apply the filter. My new laptop is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Hopefully, that will yield New & Improved speed.

If you ever do plan a trip to NC, feel free to drop me a line. I'm pretty much game to go any weekend that my schedule permits.

And, consider coming down for next years Wreck Shark Shootout. This year's was canceled due to COVID. But, I have been the previous 4 years and it is a great event. There is a video category as well as the ones for still photos. Next year's event was announced about 3 weeks ago and it sold out in the first week. But, they are adding a 3rd boat, so they are still accepting new participants.

8th Annual North Carolina Wreck Shark Shootout 2021 - Mike Gerken Photography

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

awesome, my reference to resolution was more about the compressed file size you need to upload to this board though

I often find that Photoscape X is pretty decent for a quick edit if your mac is struggling with light room..I am hovering over a new imac mini because of the dual 5k LG ulrafine monitors i bought...I'm going back though all my edited shots and noticing about 100+ editing improvements now i have these monitors ...some of my 'best edits' now look like fingerpaintings

 

[stuartv]

awesome, my reference to resolution was more about the compressed file size you need to upload to this board though

I often find that Photoscape X is pretty decent for a quick edit if your mac is struggling with light room..I am hovering over a new imac mini because of the dual 5k LG ulrafine monitors i bought...I'm going back though all my edited shots and noticing about 100+ editing improvements now i have these monitors ...some of my 'best edits' now look like fingerpaintings

I have been using this MacBook Pro Retina 15 (late-2013) since my company bought it new, back in 2013. It was the most expensive model they had at the time. Quad-core CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. It has been my full-time daily driver for the last 2 years or so. And I curse it every single day. I just frickin' hate MacOS. I switched to using the Mac after running Linux Mint as my full-time daily driver for about 2 years (with the Mac only used for Lightroom/Photoshop and travel). My new Dell XPS 15 is arriving tomorrow. I left Windows about 4 years ago, when I swore I would never use Microsoft as my base platform again. Well, now, I am actually looking forward to getting back on Windows and having stuff actually work the way it should. I could seriously go on for hours.

When I talk to people who have Macs and love them, all I can hear is the soft, broken sounds of yet another victim of Stockholm Syndrome.

My dual monitors are not 4K. They're 25" WQHD or something like that. 2560x1440 (and another MacOS annoyance at how many clicks it takes just to see what my resolution is). Dual 4K curved monitors would be nice, but that is not in the budget any time soon. But, the new laptop will support them, when I eventually upgrade!

 

[Skeptic14]

Shot 3 is excellent!

Are the sand tigers seasonal on the NC wrecks or there with pretty good consistency.

Could you describe the diving? Never thought much about doing NC wrecks but now that its kinda close and the idea of shooting sand tigers seems cool might have to reconsider.

 

[stuartv]

Shot 3 is excellent!

Are the sand tigers seasonal on the NC wrecks or there with pretty good consistency.

Could you describe the diving? Never thought much about doing NC wrecks but now that its kinda close and the idea of shooting sand tigers seems cool might have to reconsider.

The only seasonality that I know of is around mid-July there is usually an aggregation of them on the wreck of the Caribsea. I've never made it there at the right time, but I've seen videos from different years, almost always showing what looks like maybe as many as 100 of them just hanging out.

They are pretty consistent the rest of the year, on certain wrecks.

Other than the sharks:

If weather permits, the boat will take you out to what they consider the "offshore wrecks". Those are out in the Gulf Stream, so the water is generally more blue, more clear, and warmer than what you might expect. This time of year, it would be in the mid-70s or better on the bottom.

The offshore wrecks are mostly in 100 feet or more of water. You really need to have Nitrox certification and use it. The shops there bank EAN30 so they can go anywhere with a bottom up to 120 feet or so.

 

[stuartv]

Oh, and when I said pretty consistent the rest of the year, I meant anywhere from 2 to 10 or so are pretty reliable - on certain specific wrecks. The Aeolus, the Spar, the Caribsea, and the Atlas are my favorites for frolicking with the sand tigers.

 

[Skeptic14]

Oh, and when I said pretty consistent the rest of the year, I meant anywhere from 2 to 10 or so are pretty reliable - on certain specific wrecks. The Aeolus, the Spar, the Caribsea, and the Atlas are my favorites for frolicking with the sand tigers.

Do you use OPs that leave out of Moorehead City? Any particular Ops you like?

Looks like 20 mile trips out to the offshore sites or further?

Thanks

 

[stuartv]

My top choice is Olympus Dive Center, out of Morehead City. They are just top notch on everything.

I have also used Discovery, out of Beaufort, which is about 3 miles from Olympus. They are also good. But, Olympus has better support for tech diving (like O2 fills, for example), so I choose to support Olympus.

20-ish miles is about right. Boat rides are typically 1.5 to 2 hours, one way, to the offshore wrecks.

If you go, I don't care if you NEVER get seasick - take some motion sickness meds. I can't tell you how many people I've been out with that said "I never get seasick" that ended up talking to Ralph - but it's a lot. The boat rides are long and you usually cannot predict conditions well enough to be certain of not getting sick.

 

[Hoag]

My top choice is Olympus Dive Center, out of Morehead City. They are just top notch on everything.

I have also used Discovery, out of Beaufort, which is about 3 miles from Olympus. They are also good. But, Olympus has better support for tech diving (like O2 fills, for example), so I choose to support Olympus.

20-ish miles is about right. Boat rides are typically 1.5 to 2 hours, one way, to the offshore wrecks.

If you go, I don't care if you NEVER get seasick - take some motion sickness meds. I can't tell you how many people I've been out with that said "I never get seasick" that ended up talking to Ralph - but it's a lot. The boat rides are long and you usually cannot predict conditions well enough to be certain of not getting sick.

A couple things.
First, congrats on the new camera and the set-up to take it diving. (I dive with an A6000 but above the surface I use an A7iii.)

The Wreck shark shootout has my interest. Thanks for posting the link (and for recommending taking meds for seasickness). I am curious, as a ballpark, what would the water temps be at the wrecks?

Keep up the good work. Your images are incredible!