Before every trip I ask myself which lenses and ports I should bring along. And once at our destination, the question then becomes which lenses need diopters, extension tubes, and what ports are best with those lenses. The following article documents my experience with the lens and port combinations I've tried. In some cases, I also include notes on camera settings and substrobe arm lengths. These notes are as much for myself as anyone else, since I will use this article as a reference on future trips. You can expect this information to be updated once in a while as I try new lens / port combinations and fine-tune old ones. If you have additional information and/or opinions on...

Housing buoyancy has been a problem for just about every photographer I've met, including myself. Compact strobes like the DS-125s pictured here are very compact, and thus very negative underwater. It takes air filled spaces to offset the negative weight of batteries, lenses, cameras, etc. When shooting wide-angle, the large diameter of a dome port will help offset some of the weight. ULCS and others also offer buoyant strobe arms of various lengths. The longer the arms, the more lift is achieved. This is all great for wide angle, and indeed, our wide-angle setup is close to neutral and a real pleasure to use. The opposite is true for a macro setup though - especially at night. You can see...

Melanie and I have been going back to the Carib Inn in Bonaire twice a year for the past four years. We started taking pictures with a small P&S camera, then a prosumer camera, and finally dual-strobe dSLR setups. By the time we got up to our current housing configuration, we realized the rinse tank at the Carib Inn would not hold our cameras. We purchased some 48-can soft-sided coolers to use as rinse tanks, but these were a little short. It took some time to find our current rinse tanks - 48-can soft-sided coolers by Polar Bear. These coolers are excellent. They're large, well padded and constructed - a little expensive, but well worth it. Several UW photographers...

Every underwater photographer I know struggles to carry-on as much equipment as he / she can. As we prepare for another trip to Bonaire (in October 2005), I took a few snapshots of our carry-ons to describe our setup. Hopefully you can use this information to improve your own setup, and if you have some suggestions / comments for us, please feel free to post a comment bellow. Melanie and I both use complete dSLR setups with dual strobes and a variety of ports / lenses, which makes travelling a little equipment intensive. When packing, I try and carry-on as many essentials as I can, figuring our checked luggage might arrive late, or not at all. We use two...

My wife decided it was time to upgrade her underwater photography equipment. She's been using a Sony P&S with a Sony housing and Ikelite DS-50 for over 2 years, so this upgrade is long overdue. After looking over the features of different housings and cameras, she decided flash TTL was one of her requirements. This article explores the different options available, with flash TTL support, for underwater digital cameras in September 2004.

L'île de Bonaire est reconnue pour la richesse de ses fonds marins, ses petites créatures et la facilité d'y plonger de la rive tout au long de sa cote ouest. Bonaire offre plus de 80 sites de plongée identifiés avec des bouées sur l'eau ou avec des pierres peinturées jaunes sur le long de la route. Les sites non identifiés sont très nombreux. Il faut seulement choisir un point d'entrée, stationner son véhicule sur le coté de la route et plonger à l'aventure !!

Pour profiter et apprécier pleinement la plongée de bord, il y a plusieurs trucs qu'il faut connaître et mettre en pratique...

Un regard sur la petite ile de Bonaire. Un reportage sur le voyage, hotel, restaurants, sites de plongee, location de voiture, le parc national, les oiseaux, les mangroves, le sanctuaire d'anes, etc. pour aider les plongeurs a planifier leur prochaines vacances sur cette ile...

Bonaire in May 2003: Information on accomodations, restaurants, Washington-Slagbaai National Park, the birds of Bonaire, and it's many boat & shore diving sites.

Talk to any diver about their favorite vacations, and you're likely to hear about Bonaire. As Bonaire's license plate boldly states, it's a "Divers Paradise". The dive sites are plentiful (over 80 marked and many more un-marked), most are easily accessible from shore, visibility often exceeds 100 feet, and there's very little current. Bonaire offers some of the easiest and hassle-free diving in the world...