Club Aquarius

Archaeologist Staci Willis, PhD to Speak At Social Club Meeting

Are you interested in unexplored shipwrecks lying hidden on the ocean’s bottom just waiting to be discovered? This is Dr. Staci Willis’ passion and this past summer she and a team of investigators explored a portion of the coast of Albania looking for some potential excavation sites. For more than six days she and her fellow researched dove on various sites from 15 meters to 24 meters (50 feet to 80 feet) in an area around Corfu Chanel.
Their investigatory dives were successful and they will be returning next summer to start an archaeological dig on one or two of the sites.
Dr. Staci Willis is currently a Professor of Anthropology at Houston Community College and the Co-Principal Investigator of the Albania Ancient Shipwreck Project. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Ph.D. in Anthropology, specializing in Nautical Archaeology, in 2016. In addition to her most recent work in Albania, Dr. Willis has also participated in a number of other underwater excavations, including a 7th-century BC Phoenician shipwreck off the coast of Spain, a 1st-century wreck in a river of northern Italy, and and 1st-century wreck in the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Staci will be discussing her work and these dives at the January 17, 2019 Club Aquarius Social Club meeting.

Member Special on Big Green Eggs

This month, one of our Club Aquarius sponsors, Sweetwater Pool & Patio, has a fun special for the summer — Big Green Eggs!
This is your chance to own one of these fabulous ceramic cookers and prepare the juiciest ribs your family has ever tasted (ask Eric & Wade both owners of ceramic grills). The smaller units are perfect for your Dive Around Texas Scuba Diving cookout or a cookout at the lake. Remember, as Eric says, “Texas diving is a barbecue interrupted by diving.” And as a special offer, if you go in and ask Shelia or Kim to ring your egg up, they will even throw in a free bag of smoking chips to get you started. They also offer a full line of BGE accessories as well as other pool and spa accessories. Go by and visit and see what you have been missing!
Here are some of the specials (while supplies last):

Getting started with Underwater Photography

Everyone like to have photographs of their experiences, and from their vacations and travels. Divers are no different. The only issue is that taking photographs and videos underwater requires a little bit of pre-planning and some different equipment — well sort of.
There are a number of ways to get started from jumping in with your GoPro to using your mobile phone in a case to take photographs. But, what is the best way? That is a difficult question to answer, It all depends on where you are in your land photography and where you want to go with your underwater photography. What so I mean by that? Let’s look at this further further.

IPhone Camera User

If your primary camera is your iPhone or Android phone even on vacation, then you will probably be happy starting with a simple underwater camera. These allow you to shoot video or still photographs and download them to your computer. Most of these cameras save files in a JPG format. However, some of the new models have a RAW file feature too. Not sure what these terms mean, check-out part 2 of this article about digital files and processing. Let’s just say that the JPG files are what you are used to seeing in your iPhone which means they have some processing done during the save function. Some examples of these camera are the SeaLife Micro 2.0 and a GoPro. You could also put your phone in a housing and take it with you. Kraken makes a new housing for phones.

IPhone and Point and Shoot Camera User

If you use both an iphone and anther camera during your trips, you are probably trying to get better images or different images that what you can get with your phone. For you, the SeaLife Micro 2.0 or the SeaLife DC 2000 might be good options. Both have basic functions but also expand to let you “tweek” your photos and your experience.

DSLR & Mirrorless Camera Users

Now this is a wide-ranging area of underwater photography. You could stick with the simpler camera from above or you can expand to take your land camera underwater in a housing. A lot of it depends on what you want to accomplish underwater and how much you are willing to invest. The housings for your underwater camera can cost more than your initial camera investment and then there are the strobes… So you could look at the SeaLife DC2000 or a housing from Nauticam or Aquatica.

How to get started

Our Club Aquarius meeting this month will be focusing on “How to get Started in Underwater Photography.” We will be discussing how to meet your various goals and what equipment you might consider. We will also be discussing some things you can do to improve your photographs once you start with a system.