If you like what you see here, I welcome all invites for freelance work. Hiring me is a great way to capture your next fishing expedition memories like never before. Please call or write me to discuss your travel plans. (954) 553-5445.

DAM as in Digital Asset Management – As a long time user of iView Media Pro software, I spent years avoiding the versions that MicroSoft put out after they acquired the company and renamed it Expression Media. iView Media Pro did it all, read all types of files, and worked fast and smoothly. It just plain worked. In four years of MS development, I never read of any improvements. I was excited to read that Expressions Media was recently purchased by Phase One and would once again be the go to software for managing a collection of digital files on a Mac. Who wouldn’t be. Phase One is a major player in the high end digital imaging field in both hardware and software. Unfortunately, this upgrade is a step backwards. The performance of even displaying an image file on screen is many times slower than than the 10 year old software that was iView. I made the mistake of paying for this “upgrade” and installing it first before reading the forums. Now I see posts from plenty of users who are not happy with this release and feel like they are having to pay to be beta testers for Phase One. There is a lesson in there somewhere…

They are taking it to the streets again. It’s time for another social media face off to help Salt Water Sportsman choose their next cover image. They have mocked up one of my photos and are asking for your opinion. My photo candidate is a monster Dolphin caught aboard the Carolina charter boat “Pelican” in Isla Mujeres Mexico. It was part of a typical double header Dolphin bite, with the other fish being a smaller cow. I tried to get a unique angle of this fish and ended up laying down on the deck and warping the fish up and away. I was using a 20mm lens with an aperture of f18. Please follow the link below to place your vote. The other guy doesn’t stand a chance!
SWS Cover Battle

UPDATE – I just heard from SWS and found out that they ended up choosing the Wahoo photo submitted by editor John Brownlee instead of my killer Dolphin shot. Maybe next time…

Here’s a little fun Movie Trailer project I put together using some footage from a Kiteboard Magazine shoot off Puerto Rico.  Turn up the volume!

My last trip here was aboard the Revenge when we fished one of the Barcardi Billfish Tournaments about 16 years ago. What a treat it was to return and see what has changed. This trip was sponsored by Hatteras Yachts and I was hired to shoot three of their latest products – 54′ GT, 60′ GT, and a 63′ GT. These new boats are some of the nicest looking production boats to roll off the line so they made great subjects. Hatteras didn’t hold back on design or performance either with all of these hulls breaking the 40 knots barrier.
 


 
 

The weather was perfect and the only change on the island that I noticed was the Bimini Big Game Club was completely redone and better than ever. The club is now branded as a Guy Harvey Outpost and management has gone to great lengths to bring the facility up to modern resort standards. I’m happy to say that the Kalik’s are served icy cold and the cracked Conch is just about perfect when served at the upper deck restaurant overlooking the marina. They have brought in lots of talented charter fisherman to cater to their guests too. For the shallow water crowd, they have the veteran guide Ansil Saunders. Just last week Ansil celebrated the 40 year anniversary of his still standing world record Bimini Bonefish. To help him celebrate, the legendary Stu Apt was on island to try his luck. And no doubt hoping to best that amazing catch.
 

 
 
For the offshore angler, you can charter another legendary guide named Billy Black. The same Billy Black who spent 30 years running charters out of Walkers Cay. Billy now has an incredibly restored and beautiful 1966 Rybovich named “El Viejo” and is ready for business.
 

 
 
While I was there shooting, we even got to see a little bit of the behind the scenes action of Southern Boating’s annual swimsuit photo shoot. Those snapshots however, can’t be posted here. You’ll have to wait for the Southern Boating issue to hit the news stands.
 
And on my final day I was shooting from the beach, and being a spectator. From the sky came Forrest Johnson in a chopper for the arial angle. The light was great and the water color was off the charts. I’m looking forward to seeing the next advertising campaign from Hatteras Yachts to see his work in print.
 

The folks at SaltWater Sportsman magazine are asking for your help – And so am I! They have narrowed down their next cover choice to images from two photographers and are asking for your votes to pick the winner via FaceBook. Please follow the link below and cast your vote for my Bull Dolphin photo on the right. This Dolphin photo shows Brian Stapleton from Ireland holding his catch made during the Spice Island Billfish Tournament.

Link to SWS FaceBook Cover test – Go Dolphin!

UPDATE:
Thanks for you votes. The editorial staff at SWS ended up choosing my Dolphin shot after all. Look for it on a news stand soon.

My stock photo web site host is continuing to tweak and refine the user experience. They now offer visitors to my site the ability to leave a comment below a photo. These comments are only visible by me and the person leaving the comment. So now’s your chance to look around AquaPaparazzi.com and let me know what you think about any particular image.

Just wandering through some saved links this morning and found myself drifting back to the Caribbean. I was happy to re-visit a blog site for a photog friend who lives and shoots there full time. Josh is dialed into the local scene and has an eye for beauty on an island that is provides it at every turn. If you want to take a virtual trip to Grenada and see some fantastic photography, take a look at Josh’s site “Modern Day Gilligan“. It is an explosion of color and scenic beauty from a jem of an island.

Marlin mag’s latest issue hit the news stands this week. Their choice for a cover photo always interest me and this issue is no exception. They chose the first frame in a sequence I captured last summer while riding along with Capt. Butch aboard the Prime Time in St. Thomas. Clearly this first frame is the best choice, since the composition goes south as the fish flattens out during the second half of the jump. To see the entire motor drive sequence, click the image above to start the movie. This shows that you don’t need all the bells and whistles in a fancy digital camera motor drive, you could shoot this sport with a single shot. What do you think?

I recently decided to treat myself to some more memory cards. With file sizes ever expanding, my old collection of 1, 2, and 4 GB cards were seeming a bit small during some days offshore when the action heated up. Add the occasional movie clip to that and those cards fill up fast. So I surfed around and found an attractive offer for a two pack of Lexar 300x UDMA 16 GB CF cards. They arrived one week ahead of my departure for a photo shoot in the Yucatan. Plenty of time to test them out. Luckily I did since one failed after just a few captures/dumps/formats. Although the matching card is still working now, I sure can’t trust it to do any better. So after a tech call to Bombay, where they diagnosed the sick card to be in need of replacement, I was transferred to Lexar customer service in Boise. They couldn’t have been more helpful. Normally exchanges are only done with the company where you purchase the item (Adorama). They not only offered to exchange both cards just in case, they are even overnighting the two replacement cards to me in time to make the upcoming trip to Mexico. Maybe my subtle hints of how happy and trouble free my SanDisk experience has been going all these years had something to do with it?  Fingers crossed…

UPDATE – The replacement cards arrived on time as promised in time for my trip. I shot for 8 days exclusively with these two cards and loved it. It’s so nice to have plenty of space. The Lexar cards performed fast and flawless.