jamesd – Page 2 – photofile

Vanuatu: Diving the Wreck of the Semle Ferdesen

With the entry to the wreck lying in 42 meters, and the bow in 60 meters there was limited time to explore the Semle. Once again Big Blue served as guides for the day, as I gained experience towards the PADI wreck specialty. The Semle Ferdersen was a freighter that served the archipelago until 1985, when she was purposely sunk in much shallow waters. It was the 1987 Cyclone Uma just two years later that dragged her to her current resting place, bow down with her propeller in 36m of water. Having been sunk in 1985, much of the superstructure’s interior is decaying, and light beams down from above, reaching as far as the engine room. With a limited bottom time, compounded by the tight quarters within some of the superstructure, I decided to shoot video of the penetration portion of the dive. Until that’s edited to remove the parts where my hands were required for manoeuvring and not holding the camera steady, here are the photos from the outside the wreck.

Vanuatu: Diving Pink Panther and West Side Story…

Diver hanging in crystal clear blue water.

Newly minted GoPro in hand, I was onboard one of Big Blue Vanuatu’s dive boats, heading for the twin sites Pink Panther and West Side Story. There’s no viewfinder and no screen on the GoPro, just the promise of 60m water resistance and 12megapixel jpegs. So it’s a far cry from the careful workflow of meter, compose, check background, think and then shoot… This was photography with spray and pray mentality, hold down the shutter and hope for the best. Needless to say, there are many many photos, but here’s the best of the first bunch.

Instagram …

I’ve been a little quiet of late on this blog, so to get things moving again I’ve built in an instagram feed. Instagram has become my image sharing platform of choice due to it’s simplicity and speed, it’s the photographic antithesis of shooting with an SLR. Instagram has limited options, including it’s characteristic square frame, along with the required publication to a wide audience. Join the phone photography fun and follow @jamesdoherty85.

[instapress userid=”self” piccount=”35″ size=”104″ effect=”fancybox” title=”1″]

York and Yorkshire

On hour and forty-five minutes northward on the train from London is York. A medieval town, now the centre of a 200,000 strong population.

Notre Dame de Paris

The view of Notre Dame de Paris was unfortunately blighted by a large, expired christmas tree, and the rooftop walk closed due to ice. Leaving just the slightly warmer interior of the church to explore…