At Sea

Just returning from San Diego and a couple of days at sea aboard Sea Fighter which I first covered during her christening and later shoot aerials at her arrival in San Diego. This should wrap up travel until January, and believe me I'm ready for a little down time. Of course there is still lots of local work to do, including wrapping up recent jobs. This job was strictly video. I was shooting footage of the first helicopter landings aboard Sea Fighter, part of a flight deck certification. This video will be used for a one hour documentary on Sea Fighter that will air on the Discovery Military channel Jan. 20, 2006. Since this was the first series of flight ops, the Navy prefered that a Navy photographer document the events, therefore, I was sent to provide the needed footage for Discovery. Armed with a series of shot suggestions from the producer of the documentary, I think I got everything covered. First day though was not the best, since I was coming off the Boston trip and then a series of flight delays put me in San Diego at 0030 Pacific time. I had to report to the fleet landing to catch a RHIB boat to Sea Fighter at 0700. Not much sleep and it showed in that first day of shooting. Next day I was better rested and re shot some of my interviews from the previous day and also had the opportunity to shoot some take offs and landings from the RHIB boat while alongside. Of course I took the opportunity to shoot the still below (one of only about a dozen stills taken on this job). Also had better luck shooting night ops by cranking gain up on camera. And did I mention it was good to be at sea amongst sailors again.

Lobsters everywhere

Spent today photographing robotic lobsters in Nahant, Mass., with Dr. Joe Ayers, Associate Professor of Biology at Northeastern University. Joe is the inventor of these Biomimetic Underwater Robots, known as Robo Lobsters RoboLobsters. These things are really cool and have been featured in all kinds of press. Basically they take advantage of capabilities proven in animals for dealing with real-world environments. Tried different lighting situations indoors with three SB-800's, including using some blue gels, but liked this image best as an overall shot. Robo Lobster is being featured at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City next year and the photos I shot today are for the catalog that will accompany the exhibit. Off to San Diego tomorrow to cover flight operations on Sea Fighter. Will post from there.

Snow time

Been a while. Anyway, I'm back in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, to do some follow up on Sea Jet and it is snowing like crazy outside. Landed at 2 p.m. Pacific and the snow started coming down around 4. Hasn't let up since. Should be interesting tomorrow as I head out on Lake Pend Oreille with an Australian film crew from Discovery Tomorrow to document underway sea trials. God I love this job.

Travel update

Not that I've been talking much about it, but I've been on the road quite a bit lately, in fact, I've only been in the office one day in the past three and a half weeks and will be heading out again in two days for the remainder of the month. Reason for this post is that I think I have finally settled on great packing strategy. I replaced my Lowepro AW backpack with a three-day assault pack from Blackhawk. It holds my 12" Powerbook which I have in a Macally padded sleeve in the outer compartment. For camera protection, I carry a body, 17-55mm, 70-200VR, and one SB-800 encased in Think Tank pouches in the main compartment. When I arrive at the job, I can put the belt together with the lens pouches and I'm ready to roll. Backpack is very comfortable and fits great in the overhead. Other cameras, lenses, also encased in Thinktank products, along with tripod and additional accessories are carried in a Pelican 1610 case. The Pelican case gives me the option of shipping additional equipment home, which I did after Sea Jet job in Idaho. Depending on length of trip, I add a Blackhawk overnight bag or a garment bag and I'm light and mobile.

Alligator II

I just returned home early from the Hunt for the Alligator II expedition based out of Ocracoke, N.C. The approach of Hurricane Ophelia cut this year's survey short. As I wrote in last year's post, the Alligator is the U.S. Navy's first submarine that was lost during a fierce storm off of Cape Hatteras, N.C., in 1863 while being towed to participate in the battle of Charleston harbor.


I'm involved because the Office of Naval Research has teamed with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and several other partners to search for the Civil War-era vessel. This year I spent only one day at sea and that was aboard a 40' fishing boat where we deployed REMUS, an autonomous underwater vehicle, that uses side scan sonar. The seas where 5-7' and we got beat up pretty bad, but completed the mission and I made a few photos.