http://www.tonywublog.com Pix and Thoughts about Underwater Photography & Stuff Tue, 13 May 2008 23:19:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Finally made it to Narita, the international airport near Tokyo. It's incredibly inconvenient. For a 09:30 flight I had to get up at 04:30 (but I overslept 'til 05:00). For all of Japan's hi-tech achievements, it can be an awfully inefficient and illogical place. I'm sitting in the airline lounge ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080514/hi-tech-sushi.html After nearly three months without heavy-duty travel, I'm off again, this time to Bangkok first for the Thailand Travel and Dive Expo, and then over to Sabah, Malaysia. Packing is such a hassle already under normal circumstances, but it's an even bigger headache than usual given my upcoming itinerary. I ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080512/budget-baggage.html I'm not a big drinker, but I've recently received a couple of presents that I'm really looking forward to imbibing. The first is a bottle of Chateau de Bordes Jacques Morel 1967 vintage Armagnac, a present from Stéphane, whom I met recently in Papua New Guinea. Stéphane had quite ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080510/armagnac-and-bordeaux.html If you're trying to improve your underwater photography, one of the most useful things you can do is take photos on land. Doing so helps you get comfortable with your camera, with composition, technique, etc., and often leads to ideas for things to try underwater. One thing I've been playing ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080507/dynamic-range.html After much procrastination and many false starts, I've finally managed to update my main website! Because I update this blog regularly, I've redesigned my website as a portfolio. For a start, I've put together five galleries, comprising recent photographs of humpback whales, marine organisms with their mouths open, reef scenes, ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080502/updated-website.html Events over the past week or so have been just shy of chaos. A lot of unrelated things have been happening at the same time, all requiring my attention. My natural tendency to get distracted with new projects, ideas or interesting stories in the news hasn't helped much either, ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080429/dandelions.html This is an editorial (252 kB) that appeared recently in ultraMARINE magazine, a bi-monthly publication in the UK for aquarists. Also downloadable from my iTunes podcast. http://www.tonywublog.com/20080421/misdirection.html Going through my photo library for a project last week, I came across this image of a black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) from my trip last year aboard the M/V Shear Water in the Bahamas. Much to my dismay, I was never able to find time to write about the ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080420/friendly-grouper.html Last night, my blog suddenly went down with no logical explanation. I tried everything I reasonably could given that it was late at night and I was tired. I checked to see if FTP was working. It was. I checked to see if email was working. It was. I ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080417/dreamhost-not-so-dreamy.html Playing around with multimedia software again. This is a short slideshow/ video of my recent trip to swim with Australian sea lions in Western Australia. [flv:http://www.tonywublog.com/videos/2008/sealions.flv 432 240] I've uploaded a version to my iTunes podcast, or you can right click here to download a higher quality quicktime movie (59.9 ... http://www.tonywublog.com/20080412/fun-with-sea-lions.html