January 5th Meeting
Indonesia by Foot, Spoke and Fin

By Leonard Cichowski

January’s featured program will be presented by Anne Millioud and Chuck Roberts.  Anne and Chuck have been members of HUPS since 1991.  They became certified divers in Alaska, in 1983.  The colder Alaskan waters sparked their quest to explore warmer destinations such as the Caribbean, French Polynesia, PNG, Aldabra (Seychelles), the Red Sea, Solomon Islands and Indonesia.  Chuck and Anne dive as a team.  On dive trips, Anne takes the photos, while Chuck provides humor, spots underwater critters and beats Jackie Reid at cards between dives!  Anne’s choice of underwater equipment is a Nikonos RS.  Chuck’s is a Radio Shack antenna, used as a pointer.

Anne and Chuck’s Indonesian program will be shown in two parts: The first, with topside images of Ubud, Lake Batur, and the Sidemen areas of Bali.  The second portion of the show will be a two projector presentation from their September 2003 trip aboard the Komodo Dancer, in and around the waters of Lombok to Komodo Island.

Another exciting feature of our January meeting will be a digital photo critique.  We will take a few minutes to view and critique five digital images.

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January 5th Meeting from previous column

If you’re not sure what to do to improve your digital images bring a couple to the meeting or better yet mail them to James Wiseman.  Files should be no larger than 1024x768 pixels.  If your images are selected you will go away with some great new ideas and techniques.

This will be the first of this year’s programming.  Hopefully I can bring forth programming that will captivate and educate us all as underwater photographers.  I have some very large shoes to fill, as the previous VP, Dennis Deavenport, did a remarkable job of finding pertinent programs.

I encourage you all to make suggestions on the type programs and topics you would like to see.  I am open to all ideas as I see this as a process that is constantly evolving via the needs of the club.  And PLEASE, if you have a subject or feature you would like to share with the members, by all means, get in touch and lets put you on the schedule.  How do you get in touch?  Send e-mail to gdivareef@aol.com.

Next month, John and Kathy Ringrose will do a program on Fiji.

As usual the meeting will be at the Bayland Community Center starting at 7:00 PM.  A map and directions are at the end of this newsletter.

TGCC Banquet

HUPS will again present its member of the year and photographer of the year awards at the TGCC Banquet.  Join in on the good fun and good food.  Last year we had about 20 HUPS members show up to chow down.  This year the banquet will be Saturday February 7th.  The location will be the Monument Inn (http://www.monumentinn.com).  Price per person is $30 until February 3, 2004, $35 thereafter.  Price includes all the seafood you can eat.  For tickets go to: http://www.tgccdiveclubs.org/banquetticket.pdf.

President's Message
By Dennis Deavenport

2004, what a scary number!  I remember the night I turned 30 and according to the rules set up by my generation, I joined the "establishment."  So many years ago... so many memories... so many times that I have remembered how fortunate I have been to have lived the life I chose so haphazardly in my youth.  And now, how great it is to have the opportunity to lead this fantastic organization into this new year and further into the digital age.

2004 for HUPS will be a year to remember.  David Lenderman, who has given so much to our club over the last 4 years as president and vice president, has stepped down to spend time making Underwater Images a world-class newsletter.  The new group of officers, board members, and committee/activity chairpersons are already working to make this year’s HUPS the best ever.  To do this will be an enormous challenge considering the consistently outstanding leaders that HUPS has enjoyed in the past.  So without too much more fuss, let me start by giving you a preview of what you can expect over the next 12 months.

Leonard Cichowski, our new VP, will be lining up some outstanding talent for our monthly programs.  I’ll also be leaning heavily on his past experience as president to guide me in the right direction.  Leonard is also heading up the task of putting together this year’s Bonaire Shootout, which has the potential to be the best Shootout ever.  Henry Ragland will continue to do his normal excellent Treasurer’s job managing our finances.  We’ve also added a new officer’s position this year and have tagged Tammy Allyn to serve as our Secretary.  We have a new slate of Board members with some new blood to help keep HUPS moving dynamically and creatively.

As you can probably already tell from the email messages from Chuck Jensen, he has hit the ground running full-out as the new Membership Chairperson.  When I challenged him to "think outside the box" for new ways to increase membership, I had no idea how much energy he would generate.  His first project is to put together short bios (with a photo) of new and experienced members and distribute them by email to help everyone match up faces, names, and experiences.  We’ve also been talking about other neat projects that might be rolled out later in the year.

Digitally speaking, James Wiseman will continue with his valuable monthly feature for the newsletter.  But there’s more... we’re talking about compiling all of his articles into a reference book that would be available to HUPS members.

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President's Message from previous column

You can look forward to James moving into even more advanced digital topics in the digital contest, which will be expanded significantly in 2004 to keep pace with the encouraging start we had in 2003.

Donn Rosen has assumed the duties of running the monthly photo contest.  He brings a lot of experience to the job and will be aggressively working to make it all work better and smoother.  Upcoming initiatives will be to upgrade our equipment and putting together a program on how to be a good photo contest judge.  Drew Trent will continue to assist by scanning monthly winning images and getting them to David for publication in the newsletter.

Pat Miller will continue as our Webmaster for www.HUPS.ORG.  If you haven’t visited it lately, it’s worth a quick click.  Pat has done a great job of putting it together and maintaining it over the past several years.  Even after moving due to his new job, he volunteered to continue his duties.  Look for more of the same excellent work and new wrinkles in 2004.

And last, but not least, Joe Nicklo, our Director of Education, will continue to sponsor outstanding workshops designed to enhance our skills as underwater photographers.  Last year, he coordinated two well-attended workshops on "Enhancing Digital Images" and on "Underwater Lighting."  Keep reading Underwater Images for announcements of upcoming workshops.  Joe has also started a Library for HUPS that contains books, videos, and other reference information on underwater photography.

So there it is.  My promise to you as your new president is that we will be working hard to deliver the MAXIMUM BANG FOR YOUR HUPS BUCK.  The key is involvement -- and that means everyone can help make HUPS a better, more dynamic organization.  Step up to the plate and take a swing.  It’s fun and rewarding.

December 1st Place Digital - Terry Moore ©2003

Quick-Tip

(If you have a tip that would be of interest to fellow members please email it to underh2o@ev1.net.)

Ever had your camera/housing fog up when walking from your air-conditioned hotel room out into the tropical heat on the way to the dive boat?  An easy way to avoid this is to store your camera/housing in a warmer spot.  If you are on an upper floor place your camera/housing on the balcony.  Just keep it out of the hot direct sun.  Another spot is the bathroom.  Many hotel bathrooms don’t have an a/c vent so if you keep the door closed it will stay warmer than the rest of the hotel room.  Keep in mind that these suggestions are for housed cameras or underwater cameras.  With land cameras be careful of moisture in the bathroom or rain/dew out on the balcony.

Please Note Changes to 2004 Photo Contests

2004 brings some changes to the monthly photo contest.  First is the list of contest topics.  This list can be found on the right column of this page and on the web site page.  Please notice that beside each month topic it is specified if that month’s topic applies to slide only, or digital and slide.  You will notice that there are 10 slide contests plus the December best of HUPS.  In 2004 we will have six digital contests plus the December Best of HUPS contest.  This is up from four digital contests in 2003.

The entire set of contest rules is included with this newsletter and on the web site page.  Please take a moment to review them, as there are several important changes.  Some important changes to the digital contest include: Rule #6 - Images to be named as follows: first initial last name1, 2 and 3.  For example, if John Doe entered three images for the contest his files should be named: jdoe1.jpg, jdoe2.jpg and jdoe3.jpg.  Rule #7 - Contest entries must be emailed to James Wiseman at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.  Each HUPS member will be allowed to enter three (3) images per contest.  Rule #8 - If images do not meet the above criteria they will not be considered for judging.

If you plan to enter the contests in 2004 please read the rules so you are not surprised by any of the changes.  Read the rules, pick out your best "night time" shots and enter them into the January contest.  As always, you can’t win if you don’t enter.

UpComing Meetings and Events

January 5, 2004 – HUPS Meeting
Anne Millioud - Indonesia

February 2, 2004 - HUPS Meeting
John & Kathy Ringrose - Fiji

February 7, 2004 – TGCC Awards Banquet

March 1, 2004 - HUPS Meeting
Terry Moore

FOR SALE

Ikelite 4200 Digital underwater light meter. $275

Sekonic MMII with bracket and UltraLight mount.  Extra batteries. $125

Ikelite flat port for 50 Micro Nikkor (#5502 for lenses < 3.5" max extension). $25

AquaLens dome port in very good condition.  This allows you to use any NIkon-mount compatible lens as an underwater wide angle lens on your Nikonos camera.  Note that a 20mm lens inside this dome port is equivalent in field of view to the Nikonos 15mm.  Included is a Vivitar 19 mm lens (good condition also) along with focusing and aperture rings.  Original cost of the AquaLens alone was $800.  All yours for $150 OBO.

Photos of these items are viewable at http://www.seabelow.com/uwphoto4sale.  All prices OR BEST OFFER.  Contact Dave Van Rooy at dvanrooy@seabelow.com.  Dave has been a member of HUPS for over 15 years and currently resides in Bali.  All equipment is in good working order, and he will guarantee money back if not satisfied.  Equipment is located in and will be shipped from Austin, TX.

Upcoming Workshops and Other DEA Stuff
By Joe Nicklo, Director of Educational Activities (DEA)

I'm very excited about the New Year and you should be too!  The momentum and the revived enthusiasm I'm seeing is very refreshing and somewhat contagious.  I strongly believe it will continue and possibly increase.  We already have plans in the making for several workshops.  As you know, David Lenderman has agreed to do our first workshop on "Getting the most from your Nikonos V."  James Wiseman has volunteered to conduct a workshop on digital workflow.  Our new president has offered to repeat his stellar performance workshop he did in 2003 on "Enhancing Digital Images."  Dates and locations for these workshops will be nailed down and announced soon.  Also with the coming of the new year, we will finally find time to begin collecting the data for the Travel/Destination Data Bank.  Many of your suggestions for improvement that originated in 2003 and were approved by our board of directors will be implemented in 2004.  And, it is time to begin thinking about SEASPACE and volunteering for the committees we will need to make this year's performance even better than the fantastic showing in 2003.  Lets all work together to take the Houston Underwater Photographic Society to a new level.  As Emeril, the famous chef, would say, "LETS KICK IT UP A NOTCH."

Time to Renew

A new year is here and it’s time to renew your HUPS membership.  Please fill out the application and bring it along with your dues to the January meeting or mail it to Membership Chairman Chuck Jensen.  Please try to get your membership paid up soon as we need to get the 2004 HUPS Directory printed.

Joe Nicklo Honored as Member of the Year

Our own Director of Educational Activities, Joe Nicklo, was selected as 2003 Member of the Year.  Joe made numerous contributions to the club in 2003.  Some of his most significant work included organizing the HUPS SEASPACE booth, helping construct the photo gallery display boards, creating a HUPS library and suggesting and becoming the first Director of Educational Activities.  Thanks Joe.

Monthly Contest Winners
December 2003 – Annual Best of HUPS

HUPS Member is Rodale’s Photographer of the Week

HUPS member Terry Moore was recently selected as Rodale’s Scuba Diving web site Photographer of the Week.  To see his work and to find out how you can become Photographer of the Week check out the web site.

Better, Stronger, Faster

No, I am not talking about the Bionic Man, I am referring to the HUPS Newsletter.  As the official, full time newsletter editor I want to make it better than ever.  I can’t do this with out your help.  I am constantly looking for news/information that would be of interest to our membership.  If you have anything to share please email it to me at underh2o@ev1.net.  I mean anything.  It can be a trip report from your recent dive trip, a cool web site, a new underwater photography book, a quick technical tip or anything that you think would be of interest.

Please help make our newsletter the best UPS newsletter in the country.

This month, I’ve prepared a short column to talk about an exciting new feature in the most popular application for digital photographers – Adobe Photoshop.  Just like Microsoft, Adobe has changed their naming convention, abandoning numbers and going to letters, so it’s no surprise that their new product is Photoshop CS.

I’m going to use a shot that I took in San Diego recently, as it is the perfect candidate to demonstrate the use of this wonderful new tool.  Conditions were good for San Diego, with relatively clear water and 40 foot visibility.  This cold nutrient rich water contains a lot of phytoplankton and particulate matter, which results in a lot of diffuse green reflected light, causing the water to look green in photographs.

Here is the JPEG straight out of the camera, with no color correction.  The camera has already set the white balance, hue/saturation, and sharpness:

JPEG from the S2pro: Auto White Balance, STD Color

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Photoshop Channel Mixer from previous column

Photoshop CS RAW File Converter

Converting from RAW using the default values in the new Camera Raw converter yields a slightly better result, however the shot looks washed out:

Converted using default values from RAW to TIFF, then saved as an 8-bit JPEG

The Channel Mixer tool is something new in Photoshop that was introduced to me by Craig Jones – a friend that has come over to digital still from shooting video.  Videographers commonly use the channel mixer to adjust a whole sequence of footage as they can’t use strobes like we can. 

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Photoshop Channel Mixer from page 5

Try out the Channel Mixer tool by opening a shot with green water.  Then start a new adjustment layer by going to Layer->New Adjustment Layer and selecting "Channel Mixer."  The dialog box should look like this:

Go to the green Output Channel and pull down the amount of green in the shot.  In this case, I pulled out 12% of the green to get a pleasing water color.  You will actually go PAST what looks good in the foreground of the shot – it will look strange – but don’t worry, you will fix that later.  When you pull out green with the channel mixer you are also changing the red, yellow, cyan and blue for each pixel.  You can shift these back using the Hue control.

Next, add a new adjustment layer for Hue using the same command as for the channel mixer.  Pull the hue up to compensate for the correction in the Channel Mixer.  In this example, I have added 10 units:

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Photoshop Channel Mixer from previous column

The results of the RAW converter tweaks, and the channel mixer are impressive.  Much better contrast, beautiful blue water, and good saturated color:

Converted to TIFF using preferred UW values, with green removed using the channel mixer and hue adjustment. Final result saved as 8-bit JPEG

This month I only touched on RAW file conversions, so I’ll cover that in more depth next month.  In the meantime, if you haven’t upgraded to Photoshop CS, I highly recommend it!

New Nikon Digital SLR

Nikon has announced that a new digital SLR will be released Spring 2004.  Named the D70 the camera will be a less expensive option to the D100.  At an expected price of $999 the D70 will allow you to use your current Nikon lenses.  For more information check out the news wire article.

New Feature!!! Member Profiles

In an effort to help us all learn more about our fellow members we are starting a new monthly (?) feature.  Space permitting we will highlight one member per month.  The information shared will be taken from the biographical information collected by our new Membership Chairperson, Chuck Jensen.  Chuck plans to take photos of members at the January meeting for use in future newsletter profiles.  Since Chuck came up with the idea we decided to let him be the first member featured.

Member Profile – Chuck Jensen

After being raised in El Paso, Chuck moved to Houston in 1982.  Chuck and his wife/dive buddy, Yvonne, have three children and one grandson.  When not working as a Mortgage Consultant for a leading mortgage company, Chuck has numerous hobbies to keep himself occupied.  He is active in church and enjoys working on his 1969 American Motors AMX classic Muscle Car.  He enjoys the performing arts, fine dining and Houston Symphony productions.  He also enjoys sports!

Of course his favorite hobby is diving and taking underwater photos.  He was certified through SSI at WW Diving in Humble 7/2000.  He is Nitrox Certified and is currently completing his Dive Con training.  He is active at the dive shop and spends a lot of time in the Blue Lagoon with training classes.

He goes on dive trips twice a year.  He has been to Cozumel several times, Bonaire (his Favorite) and Roatan.  He and Yvonne are looking forward to Wakatobi in 9/2004.  Their first BIG trip!!  They joined HUPS at SEASPACE 2000.  Chuck uses a Nikonos V with 35/28/15mm lens.  Dual Ikelite 200 Strobes.  He really enjoys Macro and Wide angle.  He also enjoys shooting silhouettes.  Chuck recently took over responsibilities of HUPS Membership Chairperson.

HUPS 2003 Photographers of the Year
Digital - Ken Knezick
Novice - Sue Watson
Advanced - Jackie Reid
By Dennis Deavenport

The points have been tallied and checked twice.  The totals were close in all three categories, including the new Digital category.

In the Novice group, Sue Watson edged out John Ringrose by only 8 points to become Photographer of the Year.  The Novice contest was hotly contested throughout the year with new and established members showing up with outstanding entries month after month.  Judging from the participation in 2003, we can look forward to another tense year of competition in 2004.

In the Advanced category, Jackie Reid had some real competition from our outgoing president, David Lenderman, to win his latest Photographer of the Year.  With scores of 571 and 567 points, only 4 points separated Jackie and David.  The gauntlets have been thrown on the ground and it looks like Jackie will have a real run for his money to keep the title in 2004.

The inaugural year for HUPS Digital contest was a spectacular success by any standards.  Not only was it well conceived and run, but the degree of competition was excellent.  Because of this, the digital contest will be expanded in 2004 to give us all an opportunity to see more great shots from HUPS members moving into this exciting new arena.  So, who won? Ken Knezick managed to outpoint James Wiseman for Digital Photographer of the Year by a narrow margin.

Join us in congratulating the winners, the runners-up, and everyone that participated this past year.

December 3rd Place Digital - Dennis Deavenport ©2003

The Houston Underwater Photographic Society (HUPS) meets the first Monday of every month at 7:00PM at the Bayland Community Center, 6400 Bissonet, near Hillcroft.

Social time begins at 7:00PM for members and visitors to get acquainted. Visitors are always welcome to join us. So, stop by and see what we are all about!