YELLOW

Yellow was the theme for the April Bluewater Photography contest and my yellow ribbon eel image taken in Alor Indonesia at Maumere Pier placed second.  For more images from that trip, visit the Scubarews website gallery for Alor, Indonesia.

"A Boy and his Dolphins"

I woke up this past Thursday to a nice surprise from Dive Photo Guide. They selected my image "A boy and his dolphins" for third place in their Marine Mammals Monthly contest. This photograph was taken on a trip in the Bahamas aboard James Abernethy's Shear Water. We had many opportunities to free dive with the wild dolphins. The dolphins were were very curious and loved to play with us. The only limiting factor was how long you could hold your breath and how fast you could swim. This was by far my best dolphin experience and would love to return soon.

Check out the first and second images at http://uwpho.to/KBGRx7. What a great moment captured on Film by Phil Davison and those whales photographed by Brandi Mueller make me even more excited about my Sea of Cortez trip in August to dive with the local whales.

Celebrate Memorial Day in the Pool with All Wet Portraits

The All Wet Portraits underwater photography photo session at SWIMkids USA has sold out, but they decided to add more time for the day so call now (480-820-9109) to book one of the few remaining spots. The shoot is on May 28th from 9-1, but there are only a few spots left in the afternoon. Click on their link to find out more and contact them today to reserve your spot.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Get-an-Underwater-Photo-of-Your-Swimmer-.html?soid=1103352564881&aid=nJGjd7Qur3M

In April, I took a wonderful trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and spent 10 days on the MV Febrina diving and doing underwater photography.  It was my first time to PNG and also first time shooting super macro.  Underwater Photogreaphy Guide just published my latest article "Learning Super Macro Photography in Papua New Guinea." In this story I explain how my first attempt with super macro went, lessons learned and share some of the images of subjects less than an inch long. I hope you enjoy the story and look for another to be pubished soon about the PNG trip
http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/learning-super-macro-photography-png

Ricky Lee Potts Interview with Ron Watkins

Recently, I was interviewed by Ricky Lee Potts for his popular blog.  Ricky describes himself as an opinionated realist and conducts his interviews as such.  On his blog (a voice of rhythm, reason and reality) he covers lifestyle topics ranging from golf, beer, wine, travel, photography, and other great topics of interest. He is also an avid diver and traveler so he asked a lot of great questions about how I got started, my underwater photography, travels around the water and a few tough to answer questions. This resulted in the most detailed interview I have ever given and a great way for you to learn more about the man behind the camera.  Visit his site today and have read of his blog entry titled:

SCUBAREWS: Ron Watkins Underwater Photographer 

Underwater Pool Photography Article

Interested in how I got started in underwater pool photographies and some of the techniques I use?  Read my latest article published on Underwater Photography Guide website and have a look.
http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/underwater-pool-photography 

My Long Over Due Return to Southern California

When I was a teenager, my dad would take us over to California to dive at Catalina and we would also do beach dives up and down the coast.  Then later in my late 20's after I took up underwater photography, I went on a 3 day live-aboard to the Channel Islands and had a good time, but remember it being a bit chilly.  Then over the years, I was fortunate enough to dive and photograph in the warm waters of SE Asia, the Caribbean, Micronesia and Mexico.  These temperate waters and their 3/2 wetsuits had me spoiled and I turned my back on the closest diving to me in AZ.  So when I hear about the first annual SoCal Underwater Photography Shootout hosted by my friends at Bluewater Photo, I thought it was a great excuse to get back in that cold water wetsuit and see what is under the surface to photograph.  Today nearly everyone diving the SoCal waters wears a dry suit, but the wetsuits are a lot more comfortable now than they were in the 90's.

I dove on the Peace Boat that Scott Geitler had organized for the shootout as one of the boats. It was a great boat and the staff took good care of us and the food was delicious.  Diving and photographing in Southern CA can be challenging because of the cold water temperature, strong currents and low visibility, but well worth the effort. There is an abundance of marine-life to photograph and the kelp forests make a perfect backdrop for wide angle.  Sea Lions would swim up to the boat when we were anchoring and anxiously wait for their new playmates to enter the water.  They would follow you, sneak up on you, grab on your fin, speed right at your face and turn at the last minute.  There was also a group of them that was playing with a sponge and playing keep away.  What really surprised me was the amount of colorful nudibranhes to photograph and other macro opportunities.   I dove off of Santa Barbara Island and Anacapa Island.  I not only enjoyed the diving, but the photographers on the boat were terrific.  California divers are definitely more hardcore than the occasional warm water diver that I usually encounter, but what a great group of divers.  I made lots of new friends and will definitely be back soon.

I was very excited to learn that one of my photos took second place and another got an honorable mention in the SoCal Shootout. If you would like to see more images from my SoCal diving, check out my website at http://www.scubarews.com/Underwater/Southern-California

Here are a few of the pics from the trip, but there are many more on the website.