017: Our Favorite Dive Resources

In our main topic, Todd and Dalton talk about their favorite places to get all the best information related to scuba diving.  From finding the best shore diving sites and gear reviews, to finding underwater photography clubs and meet up groups, we cover it all and more in today's episode.

We also catch up on some exciting news from the past week about canon's new "R5" mirrorless 45 megapixel camera, and the announcement of the long awaited Ford Bronco.


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Todd Reimer
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Dalton Hamm
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Transcript

Introduction

Todd 0:08

Welcome to the Aquatic Life, a podcast about underwater photography, diving, and adventure travel. I'm Todd Reimer, and with me as always is Dalton Ham. How's it going, Dalton?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Hey, what's going on, Todd? Hey everybody.

What We've Been Up To

Todd 0:20

Well, it's been a couple weeks, but we're back, and better than ever. That's right. Well, we got uh a few new guests lined up coming on in the coming weeks, but until then we got another uh catch up with just the two of us. So why don't we start with uh what we've been up to lately, Dalton? What have you been uh getting yourself into lately?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Well, apparently nothing with uh COVID still going on and you know trying to do my part to keep that down and wearing my mask and everything when I have to go out. But uh other than that, I still working on the Jeep. I got my uh rooftop tent um from Tough Stuff put on. Uh it came in I guess about a week ago, and so I put that on and uh getting ready to go do a little camping and try it out, so I'm excited about that.

Todd 1:08

Yeah, it looks badass.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

How about you? What have you been up to?

Todd 1:12

Uh so what I've been up to, well, actually, before we get into that, uh it's also someone's birthday coming up. Someone's gonna be the big 3-0. That's me, that's me.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Happy birthday in advance, Dalton. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. That'll be tomorrow. Tomorrow. For anyone who wants to shower me with gifts.

Todd 1:34

Yeah, we'll have a virtual zoom party for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

There we go.

Todd 1:38

Uh otherwise, um, we got a swag package from Patrick Webster. We got Dive Mola, so I'm rocking my new Dive Mola hat.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

That's right, we got some dive molo sweat.

Todd 1:48

Swag some stickers and yep, we're actually uh giving away uh some Aloha collection bags and some dive molar swag stickers and stuff like that. So if you haven't done so already, make sure to just check our social media and say if you wanna what you want to win. And we've only got a few entrants so far, so uh your odds are pretty good at winning if you go in and enter in a comment. So go check that out. Uh other than that, last weekend I took the old dog out, Little Soda, and took her to the park and got some fun puppy shots of her. So it was a nice fun personal project to do. Yeah, you've been killing it on your bike rides too. And yep, I won for a 65-mile bike ride yesterday, so that was my personal best distance-wise. So uh that was awesome and felt really good after that, so that's always a good sign.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah, and what was it? Garmin thought you were really good at it, what, five-hour recovery time?

Todd 2:39

Yeah, it that's the thing with this Garmin, like it keeps track of how you're performing and improvement and things like that. But as it it will also tell you, based on your heart rate, how hard it thinks you worked. And man, it is a brutal as far as a trainer is going. So I 65 miles, definitely the longest ride, definitely feeling it this morning. When I got done with the ride, I said, your recovery time is five hours. There's no way that my recovery time is showing five hours. I need like a week.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Five days.

Todd 3:07

Yeah, I need a week to recover from that thing. But Garver's like, nope, you should be ready to go in a quarter of a day.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Right. Yeah, that's nuts.

Todd 3:16

Yeah, it is, but whatever. Strava thinks I I worked really hard, so I'll go with Strava until that uh makes me feel better about myself. But yeah, it was an awesome day. Actually, um, it was funny. I was biking through Manhattan Beach, and throughout the country, Manhattan Beach always tends to have some of the strictest regulations on things. So they're one of the first places in all the country to start finding people for not wearing masks. And uh even it's just a small little city about one mile long. So it used to be that if you're exercising, uh if you're biking or running, you didn't need to wear a mask. Well, they changed the law, and now, unless you're swimming, you still have to wear a mask even if you're biking over. And and sure enough, when I was biking through Manhattan Beach that one mile stretch right around the pier, they had a bunch of people out, a bunch of uh police or security that were yelling at people to wear masks. So luckily I basically took my headband off and made it into my mask. It was a little sweaty at first, but uh but I looked like a little bandito and uh still rocked it pretty well, I think. But uh I thought it was pretty funny. So uh but yeah, so I mean it's good. It's uh I'm glad they're being extra cautious. That's the way it should be. And obviously, obviously those guys are mainly meant for pedestrians that are just hanging out at the beach.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Right.

Todd 4:36

But sure enough, it still applies to people exercising. So unless you're swimming, if you're in Manhattan Beach, you better have your mask on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

So and if you wear it while you're swimming, it's just like getting waterboarded. So there's exactly yeah.

Todd 4:48

See, you know, if you're looking to become a spy, maybe give it a shot.

Fresh Fruit Snack

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Exactly. What was that uh what was that little delightful looking beverage that you sent me a photo of what that you had while you were on your ride?

Todd 5:01

So it wasn't a beverage, but um yeah, so on the way right at the end of the strand, right before it hits the LA River, you basically cross over this bridge and it goes right where the trail is going to either go into Wina Del Rey or go along the river to Culver City. There's always this fruit stand, and I've never stopped there. I've always seen her there, but there's a fruit stand of this lady that basically has all this fresh fruit, and they have stuff you can buy fresh, they have in a cooler coke and Gatorade and all sorts of goodies there, but they have fresh fruit, mango, pineapple, watermelon, uh, coconut, cantaloupe, and you basically they'll basically chop up all this fruit, put it in a cup, put coconut water in it, put lime juice and tahine, and put it in a cup for you. And it was it was delicious. And you know, and especially for biking salon, you lose you need electrolytes, you need sugar, and you need salt to avoid cramping.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

And so I'd say after 60 miles at that point, you know.

Canon R5 and R6

Todd 6:01

Yeah, it was it was perfect. I was 40 miles in, grabbed this cup, I got my sugar and and salt content uh back up, replenished, and I was good to finish out the ride. So uh, but it was great. I'm glad I got to try it. I'm sure I'm gonna stop there a lot more often now. That's awesome. Uh it's really tasty. Other big events that have happened in the news in the last couple weeks uh that I'm excited about that is somewhat dive related and somewhat adventure travel related. On uh the first note is Canon uh introduced a new mirrorless camera that everyone's been waiting for.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, I've heard a lot about that. I heard it's pretty uh pretty set.

Todd 6:39

So it's the new Canon R5. It's their second, they actually released an R5 and R6, but I'm just gonna concentrate on the R5 because it's the Mac Daddy. It basically is a mirrorless camera that's kind of like the R series that series that they released a few months ago, but it shoots, I think, I I don't have the specs in front of me. It shoots 45, 46 megapixels, uh up to 20 frames a second in live view, 12 frames a second mechanical shutter. The big thing for video content creators though is it shoots 8k 60 frames a second and 4k a hundred and 4k 120 frames a second. We always talk about you know when are we gonna change housings or switch cameras and do an upgrade? Uh and we always say, well, whenever the mirrorless cameras start getting mature, and this is really the first entrance from a major manufacturer like Canon and Icon. Granted, other other places like Sony's been on top of it and and Panasonic and those other guys have some great shooters, but since we're all we're kind of stuck with the glass that we've got, it's the first thing we're like, yeah, maybe, maybe uh eventually switch to this and get an underwater housing for it. But uh so I'm excited to see. It's it's available for pre-order, but it's like four grand for the top of the line. But I'm thinking in a year or so it'll come down pretty steeply, and they'll probably have uh in a year they'll probably have a new version of it out anyway.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

So yeah, yeah, but I mean they've got a lot of the uh newness shaken out of it, you know, with this version. Yeah. You know, so I could I could see it being worth the price tag they put on it.

Todd 8:20

It's not quite a 1DX or anything, you know, but But I think if you shoot, you know, if you're shooting video for underwater photography or a photos and video and you want that high quality goodness of shooting eight K imagine shooting eight K 60 frames a second underwater video. I mean, that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

But I I know that you've been shooting some sports with me lately too, when we had sports to shoot, and dude, 12 and 20 frames a second, that would be nuts. You would yeah, you would love that.

Todd 8:53

I would, yeah. And so I think uh and I would imagine something like that, the price will get discounted a lot faster than a 1D X Mark III would. But uh definitely something to consider and and keep in the future. So super excited about that, even though I don't plan on picking one up right away. Um I'm excited to see what other folks do with this camera because I think there there'll be a lot of fun stuff that comes from it.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, um keep waiting for Nikon to make their announcement about their Z eight or Z9, whatever they're gonna call it.

Todd 9:25

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

But um they haven't quite it's gotta be imminent, right?

Todd 9:29

Everyone's everyone's getting in, so it's about I'm sure they'll throw their hat in the ring any to any minute now.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah, they've been talking about it all year, but it I mean it just hasn't come to fruition yet, yeah. It was I believe it was rumored it was supposed to be announced the first quarter of 2020. Right. Which anytime uh I don't know why they say first quarter, second quarter, third quarter anymore. I mean, if they say third quarter, it's or first quarter. It's never really the first quarter, it'll be the last day of the first quarter. It'd be like March 31st, they'll make the announcement. Exactly. You know, I'm like come on, just say you'll you'll announce it by the end of the third quarter or something like that.

Todd 10:11

Yeah. Well, we all know the big, big announcements and big projects, they all they all get lofty goals and then you know they all uh end up missing them usually by uh by quite a bit. So it's so no big surprise there.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Kind of like the second um little tidbit of information that came out this week.

2021 Ford Bronco

Todd 10:31

That's right. Why don't you uh why don't you lead them off even though uh no, this is your this is your uh Well see that the other big thing that uh was in the news that I'm also excited about is I've been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the new Ford Bronco. So I believe it was supposed to be the 2020 Ford Bronco or the 2019 Ford Bronco originally, but they finally announced the official release of the the new Ford Bronco coming out in 2021. They officially did an official unveiling of it this past week. It looks amazing. Uh lots of different models, tons of specs, so it definitely looks to be very competitive with the Wrangler. Uh, but obviously the big thing with the Bronco was is it how much of the styling was it going to maintain from the Bronco of old, the nostalgia, you know, the nostalgic Bronco that everyone loves and that's really iconic. And to me, I think they knocked it out of the park.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

They did. I agree. I think it uh I think it looks really, really sharp. I was um I was a little concerned that you know we had seen a few pre-production models and stuff, and we were like, okay, well those look good, but there's so many times where you'll see a pre-production model, and then when they come out with the production model, it looks entirely different. Um exactly. And so I was just hoping we didn't end up with like a uh what was it, E Mustang, Mustang E or whatever the Maki or the Mocky piece of that's crossover. Yeah, yeah.

Todd 12:06

But it yeah, they they botched it with the electric Mustang, but that's alright.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah. They did a great job with the Bronco though. It it is it looks it looks sick, it's awesome.

Todd 12:16

Again, they're saying, well, it's gonna be ready mid-2021. So all the enthusiasts are like, oh yeah, it'll be out in March. I'm like, no, that means June at the best, and maybe sometime before September.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Well right. If it's anything like the Jeep Gladiator, when I was really chomping at the bit for that gladiator, it was you know similar. They're like, oh, it's gonna be released uh next year. Yeah. And then the next year release was their their f first edition, which was released in like March. And then the they released like two or three color variations of it in like June. Right. And it was like gray, black, and white. And then they slowly would release color variations throughout the year. And the color variant that I wanted um wasn't available until November of uh 2019. So I went from them announcing it in 2018 you know, for it to be the same thing, it'll be available, you know, first part of 2019. Yeah, it was available, but that was just the launch edition, you know. And then the the rest of it would be available, you know, mid-2019. Yeah, but that was only like three colors. And then they slowly started releasing all the other colors.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

So I mean hopefully it won't be quite that bad and they'll just release it all in you know, June or something like that.

Todd 13:55

I just want to see how I can spec it out. What are all the options and upgrades? You know, you know how that goes. There's so many different things with Jeeps and now with Broncos that you can do from the factory that lets you upgrade. You can lift it, you can have choice of lifts, choice of change out bumpers, change out into you know, interior accessories, all sorts of options.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yeah, I'm just happy to finally see some Jeep competition out there somewhere, you know. I mean, Jeeps have been at the top of that market forever. And back in the day, um there was the Ford Bronco, the original Ford Bronco, and then there was the original Toyota Land Cruiser.

Todd 14:32

Land Cruiser, yep. I happened to see two of them on my bike ride, the old school two were Land Cruisers.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

And and again, the uh, you know, like the Land Rover, what is it, D something Discoveries. Yeah. Um, but yeah, those were the only things that really were in the same family as you know, like a Jeep Wrangler. And then when Toyota stopped that lineup of the Land Cruiser, that was one thing, but then they brought the Land Cruiser back, and it was nothing like the old Land Cruiser. And I've always had a beef about you know, when a car company will have a uh a great car or a great truck and then from back in the day, and then they bring it back, but they don't bring it back, they have a new vehicle, but they want to try to add the badass name to just a new vehicle, and I'm like, no, you shouldn't do that. And like with the uh the Dodge Charger, which is a awesome car, and I'm sure some people will bitch at me for saying this, you know. It's an awesome car, but it's a sedan, it's a four-door. The charger was never a four-door, it was a sports car, it was a muscle car. The GTO is the worst, though. The worst example. The GTO, yeah, exactly. The GTO. I am example. I mean, what are you gonna do the goat that way, man? You know with such a a rich history with like the GTO and and you know, then to turn around and you know, it's like making the Mustang 2. Right. And when they were doing that, that kind of thing. I'm like, dude, just you know, have a little a little brand loyalty to the to the name. You know. And similarly, like we were talking about with the uh mock-e Mustang.

Todd 16:17

But luckily that's not the case with the Bronco. They did a fantastic job. There'll be some legit competition for Jeep. I still think, you know, Jeep will still be the top of the heap in terms of you know the amount of people that have it, the avail the amount of options, and third-party people that support it, but uh there's enough excitement out there, I think it'll be.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Absolutely.

Todd 16:40

Plenty of room to have both communities there.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Yeah, and I think overall, I think the Bronco will be would still be in second place to the Jeep in just in general, um out of the box stuff. But they're not the same they're not the same vehicle, you know what I mean? So you know, it just And I'm sure people will say, Oh, it's better than a Jeep, and yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm and I'm sure for you it is, you know, and yeah, it depends on what you need. Depends on what you're using it for.

Todd 17:11

Right. It's it doesn't have a solid front axle like the Jeep does, uh, you know, but are you using it to to as a traditional rock crawler, or are you gonna just be cruising across the desert and be a desert runner? Right. Uh so some of those things, you know, it doesn't matter so long as competition's always good for the consumer. So there's the there's lots of things to be excited about. You know they're gonna each force each other's hand, push to get more features for less money, and hopefully in the end, consumers win. And they're they're both good looking. For sure. They're both good looking lineups.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

So and you know, like I said, when I saw when I saw that Bronco and I saw the release video of it, I'm like, that looks nice.

Todd 17:50

They did a good job on that video. Uh Tanya, like that's a way to promote, like if you want to have a off-road vehicle, like that the I don't they didn't speed it up or anything, but to see the Bronco like literally bucking as it was running over the the hill and yeah, and then the the aerial view of it climbing over the rocks. They did a really good job on producing it. For sure. Um that they definitely get got me excited watching it. So uh kudos to them.

Main Topic: Our favorite dive resources

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So what is our uh what's our topic gonna be today?

Todd 18:22

I think we should talk about what are some of our favorite resources for getting dive information and talking at dive communities, things like that. Uh I think uh for some of our experienced folks they may already know and have their groups of people, but if you're new into diving and you don't know where to look to get information, everything from where to dive, um gear reviews, commute you know, talking to communities, finding experts on everything from diving and underwater photography, we should talk about where we like to go and some of our favorite resources and hopefully give uh people some ideas if they didn't know about it already, where to look.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

I I agree. I think that's a good one. I think we should start with um with one of our favorite where we get our our weekly underwater news from. And you know that that would be like the underwater times.com.

Todd 19:17

Underwater times. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

And uh just just to give you some some ideas, Florida mask mandate, all lobster divers will wear them during mini season.

unknown 19:31

What?

Todd 19:32

So they gotta wear a mask while diving for mini season?

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Is that that that what uh that's that's the headline. Uh it's just uh Do you'd wear that now?

Todd 19:42

Do you wear that mask on over your regulator or do you have to put the regulator through the mask?

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah, I just think it's the semantics on words versus you know, you gotta wear your mask.

unknown 19:53

Yeah.

Todd 19:54

Or maybe if you're you're s you have traps and you're bringing up traps and you're and you're on the boat, you're s like I actually I'm trying to read the the article right now, but it was just um anyways, our uh yeah, where we get our silly scuba news from is underwater times. It actually has quite a bit of legitimate scuba news and things like that, so that's always the funnest part. Let me take it back old school to start by saying what what are what are the dive publications that we look like look at? So let's just knock those out of the uh out of the water first. Obviously, Sport Diver and Scuba Diving magazine.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Sport Diver, Scuba Diving, um, Diver. There was um oh man, I haven't looked at those in so long. There were some um ones that we used to look at from the UK and stuff. Um and then there was like there's like a tech diver one too, I think. Yeah, the only ones that really come to the top of my head right now are that I can really draw out are you know scuba diving magazine, sport diver and diver.

Todd 20:56

Um Dan has uh always publication too.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Well, yeah, so Sport Diver was Patty's um magazine for a while. Uh I think it still might be um put out and it's put out by Bonnie Air. And I think they bought scuba diving magazine and now they put out scuba diving magazine as well. Um Nally has one that's called Sources um but it's more dive industry and has you know some diving stuff in it for the general diver. And then the Dan has theirs. Um and I think there's a couple of other ones from across the world that I've seen. But I just you know, there those aren't coming to the top of my head right now.

Todd 21:47

Yeah. I mean I still I still like even though they're the you know, the big time publications and it's just filled with advertising, it's still it's still my favorite place to usually look to see, you know, where there's some of the pla High trips and locations that they featured and dive areas. They have good photos. They they both, I think, now have sections that are uh every month have uh an expert on water photographer that talks about a different topic each time.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah.

Todd 22:15

They always have good gear reviews. Um so I I usually be default to ch checking them out to to see what's up, and it's always a quick, easy read from the Yeah, and I'm always getting the person I usually just get the digital version.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

I think you still subscribe to the paper version, right? Yep. Um I get the digital version and just download it onto my iPad so I can flip through it whenever. Uh especially if I'm going on a trip, I'll you know, usually I'll have a backlog of them, and that's what I'll look on when I'm on the uh airplane or in the airport. Yeah. And they always have I like that they always have a annual that is like the like the best diving uh top top five dives or something like that. They're top dive sites of the world. Yep and it'll go by region. And then they always have a um gear um gear annual that's you know based around you know the best gear for 2018 or 2019 or 2020. So they're they're a fantastic resource to try to keep up with you know current gear and current trends in the dive industry and you know, good places to dive, um things like that. And you know, like you said, you can even find really good deals in there with um you know, places to go. I think I found uh or we found a couple of times a couple of deals in the Caymans at like Sunset House or something out of one of their one of their ads.

Todd 23:48

Yep. And they all have like you said, they all have online presence now, so in addition to digital editions, they'll they'll have their social media sites up and running and have versions through there too.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

And I think also back in the day, uh and we still use it, is uh like scuba board.

Todd 24:06

Yeah, so switching to online um online communities, uh that's the first one is scuba board is what we used back in 2006, and it was a great place, uh, you know, traditional bulletin board type system, but it's got a big community, and it's a great place to find out anything you want to know. You're looking for buddies in your area, you can look there. You're looking up for trip reports of hey, I've never dove on list liverboard. I want to know if someone ha can tell me about the experience. There's lots of people that write up trip reports, yeah. Gear reviews, and uh yeah, it's a great big community.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Well, it's like the trip advisor for the skib industry. It is, yeah. It's fantastic. And um, there's a a couple of them, like there was one called Dive Buddy. Uh I don't I assume that's still around. I haven't used it in so long.

Todd 24:59

And uh yeah, so Dive Buddy is one of them. Another one that I used to use back in the day, and I just looked and it's still up. It's a great little site called shoreediving.com. So we used uh when we were new divers and we wanted to shore dive around the Southern California area. It basically was uh a way for people to just write uh trip reports of the shoredives that they had to give it a rating and again be trip advisor, but just specifically for shoredive locations in all across the world. And it's mainly the US, it's got Hawaii, it's got other areas too, predominantly for most of the reviews.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

You got some spots in the Caribbean, yeah.

Todd 25:40

Yeah. I don't think it looks like it says Europe. They've got 30 sites, Middle East 11, Pacific 76, so not too many there. It's mainly US centric, but it's great. So if you happen to have shore diving locations and you just want to see what's around you, check that site out. It's it's kind of neat. They've got a lot of sites to check out. The next thing that comes to my mind nowadays that didn't used to be there, but um now is a great primary source for finding communities or finding information is Facebook groups.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yep.

Todd 26:13

So actually, before I get there, one one of the other big places that we looked at for underwater photographers, and that this will come come to mind because it is a fake big Facebook group now, is uh WetPixel. Uh so WetPixel was another great community that was kind of like Scuba Board, where it had a community, but it was specifically catered towards underwater photographers. So originally was started by this guy, Eric Chang, and or Eric Chang, I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, but um he uh was quite renowned for a series of uh this famous baby turtle shot that he got that went viral. But then he also got in at Tiger Beach and got this a great set of uh shark photos and videos right around the time when DSLR video was making it big. And uh so the community took off all based on his little uh team that he got got. And now it's but has its own publication, it's got a big Facebook group. Um and uh that their site is still up and running, and their Facebook group is running large, and they've got lots of great resources for underwater photographers. Having said that, they also recently started with an educational series on YouTube, so they actually have a YouTube channel where they actually got one of our favorite uh resources, uh resources, uh one of our favorite instructors, uh photographers, Alex Mustard, has got a bunch of series of good videos and how-tos. So similar to the stuff we've been talking about, Dalton, but they they brought in the big guns to help talk about those topics. But it's really neat. Uh so the WebPixel is a great community of underwater photographers anyway. The YouTube channel, I watched a couple of those videos with the new guy, the new editor. Eric's no longer affiliated with them, uh, and Alex Mustard have done so a couple of cool videos. But the community itself is great. So if you have any question about underwater photography, getting better shots, just sharing photos, their their group is really neat.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Yeah, and there's still I mean, like you said, there's still plenty of stuff on uh Facebook, Facebook groups that you can find. There's another one called Scuba Earth, uh scubaearth.com. It's got a list of sites and gives them reviews and stuff like that.

Todd 28:24

And there's uh scuba singles Facebook groups. So if you're a single diver looking for other to marry up, not just to not just from a dating standpoint, but like if you're going on a trip and you need to find other singles to go with to maximize double occupancy, that's usually required. It's a great place to to find other divers and to look up for groups. I think we've had several uh uh John and Patrick both had mentioned that they up in Northern California, they use Facebook groups to coordinate dives up in Northern California.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

So and also just reach out to your you know your local dive shop, and a lot of them have dive clubs. You know, there's even if the local dive shop doesn't have one, there's probably a local dive club in your community. And that can be a fantastic resource for finding not only local places to dive, but dives across the world, and just getting more information, whether it's about diving or about underwater photography, because in a lot of those groups you still have you know several levels of underwater photographers from beginner to advanced that can help guide you in person. Um you can watch uh you can watch online tutorials till you're blue in the face. Um but until you actually do something hands-on and and have someone to help you hands-on, it makes such a huge difference.

Todd 29:59

That's always a great starting point. So definitely worth checking out.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

And a lot of I would say every dive club that I've seen usually does an annual trip somewhere and they do local dives where, you know, hey, you know, next week we're going down to Laguna, you know, to dive, everybody's invited, who wants to come, you know. Yep. And so, you know, it's it's worth checking out your uh your local dive clubs as well.

Todd 30:27

Definitely. And if you're looking to meet up with other underwater photographers specifically, I know at least in LA and Orange County, they have like LA UPS's, L Los Angeles Underwater Photography, Photographic Society in Orange County version too. Uh if you're in a major area, you may get lucky and they actually have meetings specific only to underwater photographers, and you can meet like like-minded underwater photographers there as well.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Yeah.

Todd 30:52

Uh and and the same like a normal dive club, they have meet regular meetings, they bring in guest speakers and do events together. So worth checking that out too.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

And you can always do the same thing that you know I I tell you know, students at workshops with you know, above ground photography or under underwater photography that you know check out Instagram just for inspiration. Check out 500 PX, you know, look through photos and say, Oh hey, yeah, I would like to shoot a molamola. I'd like to take a photo of a molamola. Okay, well that that looks really cool. I want to do that. Where did that person get that photo? You know, and then you find out that there are certain places that are known for molamola. And you know, then you can make a plan to go to that destination and hopefully get some some good photos.

Todd 31:54

Yeah, that's a good point. So uh on Instagram, you may may or may not know certain people to follow, but like one of the things I did recently is I wanted to see more Blackwater photos because we happen to talk about it on a podcast about some great, you know, I think John was bringing it up when he went to Hawaii. Yeah. So instead of looking for a specific person that takes it or the the dive shop that runs it, I just said follow the hashtag Blackwater Diving or just Blackwater, I think. And you'll get in your feed anyone that posts with that hashtag, so you'll get to see lots of cool Blackwater uh dive photos, and then the ones that you like, you can dig into who shot it, where did they shoot it, etc. So any type of thing, like I could do the same thing for Mola Mola, follow the hashtag MolaMola or Ocean Sunfish and see what comes up and get inspired that way. So that's a really good point, Dol.

unknown 32:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

So what else you got on your list there, Todd?

Todd 32:45

Uh I'm trying to think here. Um covered we covered the the major ones there. I think, you know, uh match.com.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

We need to make one called Scuba Match.

Todd 33:02

Scuba Match.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

Scuba Match.com.

Todd 33:04

I think that's for the singles that scuba. Plenty of fish.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

I don't think that's plenty of fish. That's not for diving, though, I don't think.

Todd 33:10

Maybe it should be. Yeah, I think we covered the major ones. I'm trying to think there's any that we left out. I I think I'm sure there are. I mean there's there's tons of them all over. Man, yeah, I can't think of any other publications that I follow other the ones that we mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

I think we well, and there's also like hardbound books that you know we really didn't talk much about that. There's hardbound books like um Atlas, uh was it Atlas of Diving? I got it up on my shelf. Uh Dive Atlas of the World. I did have to turn around and look. Yeah. Um, and I know that um National Geographic has one. It's called A Hundred Dives of a Lifetime. Um 50 Places to Dive Before You Die. Oh, yes, really good one. Yeah. There's a a ton of books out there that are very pretty. They have great photos and a lot of information. And some of them give you dive spots that you wouldn't normally uh think about going to. You know, they're not your go to Grand Cayman, you know, do Stingray City, go to Bon Air, you know, they're more, you know, go to the Galapagos, go to the Cocoa Islands, you know, things like that. Go to places a little more out of the way.

Todd 34:28

Yep. And for uh underwater photography specific books, I think one of the first, well, not one of the first ones I picked up, but one of the largest volumes that tries to cover things from A to Z is The Underwater Photographer by Martin Edge. Not everything in there I agree with, but it's a good overall companion to have if you're just getting an underwater photography. And then I think I've mentioned on an earlier podcast, but Alex Mustard has this underwater master class, underwater photography masterclass, which doesn't get into so many details of everything, but kind of high level, once you have the basics, that's a really good book. But I know there's a a bunch I have to rum through my closet that I've really first started with that I really want I really want to run back there right now and look. Uh Brian Scary came out, you know, came out with it, and some of the other founders I really started with. I I don't think they have new editions of them, but um, but yeah, look or look around and see what books are out there that kind of inspire you for instruction, like the ones I mentioned, or like Dalton mentioned, places to dive and locations. Uh there's some great books out there.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

For sure. And you know, like I like I said, a lot of times it's you're finding you need to be able to practice your craft on something that you want to take a photo of. Right? You know, so you know, a lot of times with the dive books, it's like, where's the great place to go see sharks? Okay. Yeah. You know, I I want to go to Tiger Beach. And so you make plans to go to Tiger Beach, and then you go, okay, what do I need to know about photographing sharks? And then you can put those two things together to hopefully turn up some good results.

Wrap Up

Todd 36:09

There are lots and lots of great resources out there, and now you got a few extra ones to check out and see if any of them work for you. That's right. Well, I think that'll wrap it up for today's episode. Don't need to belabor the point and come up with, say, Google. Look on Google, Google, Google the word fish. Right. See what comes up. Uh no, I think uh I think we got the basis covered, so why don't we wrap things up, Dalton? Why don't you tell everyone where they can find more of your work, including some of your instruction stuff?

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Um, anything photo related, you can find uh Dalton Ham photography on Facebook and on Instagram. Um, you can go to my website, Daltonham.com, and you can find me on YouTube, just search for Dalton Ham photography. And if it's diving related, you can check out my dive shop at the pirate dive crew.com. And same thing on Facebook and Instagram.

Todd 37:11

And they can find more of my work at toddrephotography.com. Check out our show notes for more information on this topic, and uh head on over to the aquatic lifepodcast.com. Email us at feedback at the aquatic lifepodcast.com. And if you like what you're hearing, please take a moment to rate us on Apple Podcasts. We greatly appreciate it. Until next week, thanks so much for joining us, and we will catch you soon. Peace. Bye guys.