Aqua Hill

Re-registering as a PT in NYC

2011-03-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

This process is now in action, so I may be able to practice the lost art.
Very exciting ... the link from Crossopterygii ( lobe finned fish ) to human is becoming clear.
Thanks Dave Gorman for the great page on the Appendicular Skeleton - Phylogeny

time to get Rhada sequenced

2011-02-22T05:25:00.000-08:00

sequence below the pink cat on 11th street New York City

Out of bed ‘L’

2010-08-16T11:19:00.001-07:00

New Yukon and Red potatoes out of the bed ‘L’

Mozart - Requiem

2010-08-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Finding Oneself at sea by the Stars

2010-06-03T07:21:00.001-07:00

I’ve not yet sailed in the Ocean. The idea of it is daunting, and yet the draw is greater than ever. There is lots of time apparently to spend doing something other than exhausting paperback novels and possibly my mother’s Suduko. One option is to have a backup Sextant and to actually use it. GPS should it fail [sic], would then neccisitate finding one’s way quickly away from whatever it is one needs to get away from, fast!

Firstly said it is complicated. Secondly accuracy. Seasoned and professional mariners, like Bob’s father would get within a mile of two of knowing exactly where the Wanderer, his schooner was in the pacific ocean. Bob learned this as a child, he would take three or four sights a day and have to calculate the position and then compare them with his fathers observations. If he was wrong, he was to recalculate. If still wrong, then it indicated his sightings were wrong. Well it’s easy to understand how this could be possible.

The sextant the instrument that evolved from the yardarm, itself may have some internal error, that needs to be subtracted from the reading itself. [see sextant errors ]

The atmosphere may be cloudy, the celestial orb not visible or poorly so, and early morning or late afternoon sightings of the sun could be difficult to read due to errors of parallax and refraction.

Your clock may be off, the radio broadcast of time-ticks may be unreachable so syncing your chronometer to GMT or Universal Time may not be possible. Who knows what if you don’t know what day it is or what hemisphere you think you are in, well this is admittedly a rare scenario of ocean shipwreck survival, unlikely.

Nearby planets, the moon, and sun are physically closer to earth, so their orbits and significantly changing. These are recorded in the sighting tables, and do make the calculations more complex. Not good when under pressure in rough seas. It’s better to use the stars to Navigate as they are further away and require no corrections.

Understanding the calculation is fairly repeatable and with a good form to fill out and having the correct almanacs I'm sure with practice I’ll be able to work out my relationship with the heavenly bodies.

Extremely thought provoking stuff, not immediately practical, but something to keep the old brain lubricated. I’ll write more once we go do a sighting on Rodeo Beach one clear Sunday, hopefully soon.

Lines - to tweak or not to tweak?

2010-05-24T12:38:00.001-07:00

Tweaking battens beyond end points can in some cases produce a more fair curve.

There is one restriction though, ask yourself is there a physical structural entity in the end object to support such a curve?

In the case of waterlines, sure, these are hypothetical and have nothing to do with structure, so tweaking if required, is good in this case.

Buttocks and diagonals do however have something to do with the structure ( ie frames and planking ) so never tweak the battens beyond these lines. There is nothing structural beyond the edge other than air/water that can support this shape.

Re-sawing White Cedar

2010-05-14T07:09:00.001-07:00

About a month ago we went milling again with the Saturday class and were able to mill up a white cedar tree in San Anselmo. We brought the flitches back to Sausalito and here we are last weekend working on the large ship saw with Bob and Roxy. No body makes these saws anymore and there are probably less than six operational in the USA. It is quite a deal to operate the saw and requires much attention and care! The use of pipe rollers make the task much easier as the flitch weighs in at about 300lbs! Bob is wearing a mask as about 50% of people have or develop allergies to cedar, despite it’s wonderful ‘incense’ aroma.

Images from the shed

2010-04-10T20:44:00.001-07:00

Looks like my Bailey #4

Milling with Bob round two

2010-03-29T08:32:00.001-07:00

We went milling again this past weekend. This time it was a white cedar that Jim my good arborist friend had recently felled.

Important lesson about the rpm’s keep them high, otherwise engine bogs down and the cut is not as fine. Also keeping the pull lines parallel to the cut also can cause ‘skipping’ which causes a wrinkle cut that would be harder to square up later.

Good stuff!

Load water human line

2010-03-28T12:51:00.001-07:00

While swimming today, I kept my body long and my waterline length maximized by keeping one hand out in front of me during the crawl stroke. The longer the hull, the faster the body moving through water. Given my 5’ 10” height that’s about 3.12 knots, but by increasing my overall length with an arm, say 1.5 feet more means another 1.64 knots, given the formula

Maximum Hull Speed = 1.34 * LWL^1/2

^{It’s a good thing, given the necessary ramp up for South End’s September Alcatraz Challenge}

Memento Mori

2010-03-21T17:01:00.001-07:00

Walking under the golden gate bridge, saw the coast guard unload a dead body, that was eventually loaded into a brown undertakers van. The body was on a gurney and covered in a maroon blanket.

Water in lungs, not great.

Possibly a Golden Gate jumper, or some unlucky fellow who went unseen overboard and succumbed to hypothermia? What ever, it was shocking and a certain reminder of our mortality.

Thinking about a blue-water analog

2010-02-16T18:24:00.001-08:00

I’m thinking about building a ocean going yacht , and have been very interested in Colin Archers “Stavanger” a rescue boat that saw service in Norway, here is a nice video of her in action http://www.woodenboat.com/wbmag/stavanger.php

I also like Bob’s Elanor is also part of the analog.

http://www.arqueschl.org/projects/eleanor/

33 – 43 feet and medium displacement 5-8 thousand pounds, internal ballast, comfortable safe and relatively fast for long distance ocean capable sailing.

Early morning Sausalito Walk

2010-02-10T09:10:00.001-08:00

Headed out for a walk with Delta this morning, we went down Cooper Lane, turned left on San Carlos, Then took Exclesior Lane down to Harrison and then on down to Cafe Trieste for great freshly squeezed OJ and croissant. There was this cool army boat, that had been turned into a house boat.

Further down the warf was the Henry Rusk.

Bob had helped frame this boat about twenty years ago. There were about a dozen professional builders under strict supervision and the eucalyptus frames were steam bent and installed in only one day!

The boat is a nice wooden boat, however one can see the aesthetic advantages of a curved raked transom. The existing transom is just too boxy for my liking

Mallard – new motions

2010-01-14T17:27:00.001-08:00

Rodeo beach, sunset, awesome almost unreal. Next thing there are these ducks, real green heads and all, perfect vehicles for water, and air. Would it not be cool if kitesurfing met high performance sailing … fanciful for sure, but the thought of rising out a trough, then taking air would be a fun ride, Mallards rock!

Here is Delta Dog, growing up everyday …

x.y.z. points and why?

2010-01-10T09:40:00.001-08:00

Layout and rough carvings for the beginnings of a pepperwood or bay laurel rounding plane

It’s hard to keep within the lines, I went over, but was able to save the piece by adding a filler tenon in the throat and mouth.

The fascination I have with wooden boat craft, as seen in current writings:

From Oren Kredo an, interesting article in today's New York Times
Finding an Answer to Rough Seas

From Maria Moyer another interesting article on the non-digital
The Case for working with your hands

Of Course two books further help explain the Joy of building, studios and boats - Michael Pollen’s “A Place Of My Own” and Michael Ruhlman’s “ Wooden Boats”

Milling Nicasio Valley, The Video …

2010-01-03T07:26:00.001-08:00

NO SOUND? Yes this is tekkie, please click HQ button ( ) on the Video Player after playing, for high definition TV. Note, Video starts 36 seconds into clip for now.

This is the footage from an earlier post made more or less exactly a year ago …

Sorry it took a while, at last, after a long while of fiddling with an old video format*, I’m able to get the footage up from Julie and Steve, I mixed it up to give the basic sequencing when Milling a Tree, in this case a black locust, an extremely strong lumber choice for sawn/grown frames.

* AVI v1 ( file format no longer, supported by Adobe Premier Elements ( Really nice product btw, well worth the $79 ) Was able to convert it to a MPEG-4 with videoX so please … excuse the watermark in the video … Alaskan milling is fun! … dusty + loud … tho’ so take a good facemask and noise protection … and above all keep your wits about you, Awareness is Key! Alaskan Chainsaw Milling is potentially Dangerous Or Lethal do not attempt without extensive preparation and education. Always operate mill with a remote throttle and rope pulling system in the event of the saw chain breaking and wound operator(s)

Flickr Tags: "Alaskan Mill",Chainsaw,Woodenboat boatbuilding,Arques

Aquatic Park Row boats

2009-12-23T10:26:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday, I went with Allison and Louise to Aquatic park and visited the Dolphin Club

Dolphin Club South End Rowing Club
Allison and a Wherry

Restoration of a 9 Person club boat

	Louise
8 Person “John Wieland” boat from 1887
Allison and her painting of swimmers from below. Nearby Dolphin Club art show, Joe, a member and club photographer.

Lining Off – Alex’s 12’ sailboat

2009-12-20T15:24:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday class we learnt about Lining Off. We discussed how to approach the Freda and it’s difficult shape. A plank width vs station is created full size for the width, but scaled down on the section spacings, drawn on a small piece of wood ( 9” x 36” ) board. A batton is laid down on the width ( derived from space/#planks ) coordinates and a faire curve is sort out. The posibbly revised widths are harvested and the next few weeks of planking work can be known.

Here is Bob braving the cold and demonstrating this:

On a smaller boat, like Alex’s lovely 12 foot wooden sailboat. It’s taking shape in his garage, and it just fits! A straight edge is first lain down, more or less on the diagonals. Basically two elements are discovered with this process. The shape and width of ones planks, important for lumber ordering as well as knowing if there are any reasons for scarf joints ( an 8 inch plank can be made to frown or smile ( exaggerated ) rather than one long 14 inch board ). Furthermore, it also helps one to understand just how difficult it may be to build the boat. Alex’s midsection is a beautiful wine glass S-curve, so it soon became clear that this was going to be hard to build, as it will be difficult to get the planks to bend around the moulds. Additionally one learns plank widths and layout ahead of time, helping to plan a pleasing planking schedule and resultant aesthetically pleasing boat.

Everdur Bronze composition

2009-12-02T09:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.anchorbronze.com/c65500.htm

Jewler’s Burnishers for finishing scraper blades …

2009-12-01T15:55:00.001-08:00

http://www.deltaonelapidary.com/detail.php?id=2794

Safety and comfort

2009-12-01T15:34:00.001-08:00

Key elements to existing in or on water in boats.

Safety, think no air or too cold = drowning or hypothermia

Comfort, think no sea-sickness and a peaceful nights sleep.

So many boats are so fast and jump all over the place, so at the end of a trip you arrive exhausted and agitated, not great if your destination is the Marquesas and you wish to enjoy the beaches etc …

“fiberglass resin will make your liver quiver”

2009-12-01T12:26:00.001-08:00

Yes, not a great option for longevity, what are the alternatives, i’m particularly interested in filling up ‘knot’ holes in wood, I like the idea of a clear filler rather than opaque wood fillers/putty. Once I find suitable alternatives, I’ll post it here …

http://sculpture.net/community/ has some interesting posts

bio-resin : http://www.canonburyarts.co.uk/bioresin.html

jesmonite: http://www.canonburyarts.co.uk/jesmix.html

hmm will have to check these out …

Scraper or Sandpaper?

2009-11-29T21:04:00.001-08:00

I grew up with the notion that sandpaper was the way to finish a wooden project, and later learned that steel wool was also the way to go.

So there is a better alternative to the dust and fine particles from sanding.

The “cabinet scraper”, correctly sharpened can produce a better finish than even some Japanese finshing plane, especially in highly figured or gnarly and knotted woods. The blade requires some special attention – firstly the width of the blade’s diagonal edge, needs to be approximately 1.5 to 1.7 x the thickness of the blade. Knowing this, the angle is evident.

The blade is a Hoc scraper blade, which cost about $45 and really makes a difference. The blade is 2” wide and best sharpened this way.

Firstly hold the blade on the edge of a table top, and use a bastard file to get the initial edge. Do not use a wheel grinder, the bastard is a good tool to get a flat edge. Once a nice bur is obtained move to the diamond stone. Progress to bester, then to polishing stone, all the time paying attention to a flat back and a good flat forward angle.

The final part is to properly use a Jewler’s Burninshing rod tool with some 3in1 oil work the sharp edge into a curl of steel – this is the very secret to the tool taking off fine shavings regardless of grain direction. Even the Japanese can’t do this.

So given that there are no sanding partilces only shavings and no noise and expensive sandpaper, give me a scraper any day!

Bronze Casting – Sand Method

2009-11-19T10:18:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we witnessed an actual bronze casting. Bob Darr our teacher at the Arques Wooden Boat School set up the air blast propane forge. Simply put it is the bottom third of a 55 gallon drum that is partially filled with a special cement, an inch and a half pipe is set at an angle and functions as the fuel input into the forge.

For the bronze stock, Bob tried out an old propeller shaft, which Alex cut up into small three inch pieces. When heated, to approximately 1800 – 2000 degrees Fahrenheit

The bronze melted in about 45 minutes, and by using a modified carpenters square, the ash and impurites are skimmed off the surface. The alloy was also seen to be burned off, as seen by a green glow to the top of the forge.

Two people then hold the crucible and pour the liquid bronze into the forms.

Flasks are only opened the next day, to ensure that the minimum amount of the expensive petrobond sand is not burned. Here is Alex’s bronze dolly ( used for riveting and clinching boat nails and roves )

Unfortunately the last flask was not a great success, as the bronze was cooling down by the forth pour ( each pore was about 2 minutes ), here one can see the bronze cooled before it reached the extent of the cavity in the form.

Here is Alex’s finished dolly. He opted not to patina it, but michael did, using phamarcy bought peroxide and wine vinegar heated with a blowtorch.

Here is some other items Bob wanted, a mast step’s support and a bow post cap.

( Added later a link to a ‘safer’ version of Petrobond is something called K-Bond )

Bronze casting video

2009-03-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

We've not done this yet at Arques, but this video from Rauscher boatworks seems quite informative http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFOo5EWNl8M

Bainskloof longdistance swimmer ‘Hull’ study

2009-02-06T11:55:00.001-08:00

Carina Bruwer and I headed out to Bainskloof rivier and the river water was very nice indeed

Carina regularly swims distances over 30km. I was honored to join her attempt to break Robben Island crossing, she missed it by 3 minutes, 10km in 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Finished sawn frame at Station 17

2009-01-19T16:20:00.001-08:00

archived

Knots

2009-01-19T15:33:00.001-08:00

Knots learned with Bob Darr:

Bowline ( with eyes closed and one hand )
Clove Hitch
Rolling Hitch
Sheet Bend
Whipping and Serving
Eyehook splice

Milling Black Locust in Nicasio Valley

2009-01-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

This Saturday we went on a field trip to learn and observe how to 'Mill your own Wood' with relatively simple and inexpensive equipment.

The idea was to drop the tree with a chainsaw and guide it's fall into the creek bed where we would do the milling. Bob cut an 18 foot 'Black Locust' tree which fell perfectly into the creek.

Oscar weilds the Peavey
The log is rolled into optimal cutting position with a neat looking tool called a "Peavey".

Bob flattens the top of the fallen tree with an Adze - so that the plank can be nailed to it. Wooden wedges are used to stabilize the plank so that the mill can operate smoothly. Plank was slightly cupped, so that side is placed upwards.

Julie mills - by pulling on a simple handle with two long cords attached to the chainsaw mill. The rpm are supposed to be high in order to preserve the engine and prevent a stall in the middle of a cut, one pushes in with a choke style throttle.

At the end of the day we had cut two 9' x 3.5" x 12" black locust board, with a slight curve in them, they were priceless, and even if the yard had curves it would have been a few hundred dollars worth.

The mill is basically a modified large chainsaw engine, attached to a custom chainsaw blade, which is framed and has rollers to allow the equipment to smoothly roll over the plank, while sawing. This could be achieved by holding the mill direclty and with a helper on the other end, but that would be too dangerous, as the chain could break. By pulling with the ropes you are ten feet away, so it is relatively safe to use.

Great outing and will definately add a mill to list of things I want for Christmas.

Bod Darr Wooden boat magazine 1980 I found the pdf of this article from thiry years ago - the equipment is the same, however the engines do burn out, he's replaced the engine every ten years - Nice Stihl engines 090AV. The mill is called an alaskan mill and more info about the mill is availible here

Half model of a Hershoff boat

2009-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Heeling increased the effective sailing length from 46’ to nearly 70’

The ‘Defender’

The yacht that made Herreshoff, Captain Nat famous, the Gloriana 1891.

I bought a the plans and lines to create this half model of Gloriana

Sloop designed by N.G. Herreshoff in 1891. A revolutionary yacht, she featured a convex bow rather than the then-current long, hollow entrance. Overall length of the finished model is 36''.

4 pages of plans historical information about the boat and step-by-step instructions for half-hull building,using the lift method.
There are also detailed drawings, including full-sized patterns for each lift, as well as template for you to shape the profile.

Calculating Camber

2009-01-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

archived

The Lines

2009-01-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

archived

Shift towards building and mastering traditional wooden boats

2008-12-13T18:09:00.000-08:00

A while ago, I'd blogged about underwater sequences and studies to see how people performed and moved while swimming. Now I'm excited to start recording my experiences at traditional wooded boat building. Besides a love for water and swimming, I also like to move on top of it, on either a scull or a canoe. I'm not much of a sailor yet, and hope to learn about sailing, other than sailboarding in Mauritius while I was a teenager, I've little knowledge about the wind. Wind is a great way to travel without burning fossil fuels, so I'm going to focus on learning about building and using pulling (rowing) and sail boats.

I'm currently enrolled at the Arqes School of traditional boatbuilding in Sausalito, California. Every Saturday I spend about 7 hours in the popular 'Saturday' class. About 6 to 8 of us attend and have wonderful lectures and tuition from Bob Darr, a superb and inspiring teacher.

So it's been about five weeks now, and I have built up a passion and curisosity for understanding what it is to build small woodend boats. Boats built in the traditional style are a more than just pleasing a boatstruck buyer, but rather the whole process is good for the designer ( no computer screens ), the builder ( little or no toxic fumes and dangerous particulates ) and ultimately the people on board, the boat is seaworthy and green/ecofriendly.

Up next, I'll start describing my experiences with building wooden boats.

Here I am working on a hollowing plane.

Sea Horses

2007-01-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

Kate Weare is an old friend and modern dance coreographer in New York. From an email dated 1/1/2007

" ... I think the photos of swimmers are gorgeous, by the way, been meaning to tell you that. You know, Kurt and I visited the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago (a very old institution) and I thought of you and the swimming shots, because the movement language of underwater creatures in so sublime and fierce and you captured some of it, particularly in that one swimmer who is long and sharp-bodied. It would be great to see her body without clothes in the water (don’t know if she’d be willing) not for any sexual reason but because her physique seems so beautifully formed for and attuned to speed, like a sting-ray or a shark. Anyway, the shots are fascinating, especially when the body is composed in a linear way against the flow of the underwater environment, like an arrow or a knife. I think the way gentler creatures move, like seahorses that just float and flow, could also be interesting to play with, but there you could run into more sexual innuendo, which may not be a bad thing, but just another element..."

I agree, the underwater shoot with Origami and light in a natural pool maybe moonlight. Muybridge shot some of his models without clothes, I don't think it would be sexual at all from my perspective. Water for me goes more towards the spiritual I think!

underwater syntax for travel

2007-01-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

overdressed at Koret, too much gear! Photo by Tim Fogarty.

so I've started to make a list of the underwater swimming gear I have and need to take on an extended travel adventure.

swimming trunks x2
(first) + second stage ( the first is so heavy, may need to buy a nice lightweight one )
goggles ( swim, scuba )
nikonos ( service? o-rings etc )
leica ( for above water ) - digital / m6? or both!
strobe ( ? very heavy too, may have to leave in Berlin )(longer sync cord?)
film ( provia, gx, uc, triX, delta 3200, Infra-red? ( need darkroom nearby ) )
3lb lead shot bags
underwater slate and pencil
tri-suite / rash vest
skegs
gps
laptop

53 degrees Farenheit

2007-01-13T07:37:00.000-08:00

Diving into water so cold that even a 3mm triathlon suit could not keep us in the water for longer than 23 seconds!

Deciding to try a change of venue, Marisa agreed again to be photographed up in my good friends home pool up in Santa Rosa. It had been cloudy and cold all week leading up to the shoot and the fact that the pool was solar powered made me quite nervous. On arriving Shane indicated to me that the pool was a nippy 53 degrees! Well that did not stop us from getting 4 shots in the pool. Good thing there was a hot tub nearby to warm us up. Sorry Lynne Cox, but it was really toooo cold!

Marisa at the Koret

2007-01-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

Warmer film! - Kodak 400uc ( ultra color ) Thanks Piro for the suggestion!

So Marisa Churchill asked to be photographed for style and stroke correction by Allison. This time I think I've got the equipment under control. One pony, my new yellow modified side access demand valve 2nd stage. And just the NikonosV, the strobe also will be untethered from the sync cord for the first time and used in a manual like way - rapid succession firing, or not at all. Also I've started to experiment with films other that the cool blue provia chrome i'd previously used. The new warmer films I like are the Kodak E100GX, and the Kodak 400 Ultra Color. Also I found putting some orange/amber gel on the strobe was also interesting as warmed up the blues considrably.

Backstroke start.

Strange abberation of the Nikonos while winding and shooting at the same time.

I need a device that has a motor drive, or perhaps it is time for a video camera?

Koret Oct shoot posted to flikr

2006-12-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

I'm experimenting with Flikr as a place to place photo's for now, and then seeing maybe about getting a pro account. Got it makes financial sense.

sequences attempt I

Marisa best of Koret, November 2006

Marisa Style and Stroke, Koret, November 2006

Allison Wagner Style and Stroke, Koret, October 2006

Koret November 2006

2006-11-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

So the last two shoots at Koret were even better than the last ones. They seem to be getting better all the time.

Allison here is in the butterfly outreach position.

The water streams off her toes in the dive.

Well more to come shortly, still organizing the shots for showing.

Second Koret Shoot - MUA reqest

2006-10-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

Very exciting, second shoot at Koret is this Sunday. Put up a posting for a Makeup Artist on Craigslist. Put together the following outline:

... The shoot is of olympic swimmer Alison Wagner and two other swimmers. There are two parts to the shoot, the first part will be of racing relay starts and turns. The swimmers will wear bikinis. Camera will try to capture motion in rapid succession using motordrive and / strobe combinations. 'Muybridge' style effects will be attempted here. Makeup for this part will be fairly basic, and mostly to counteract the negative effects of submersion on skin ( basically makes one look like a corpse! ) Some accented eye work could be good.

The other aspect of the shoot will be much more creative, and will be basically an underwater 'pantomine', where the swimmers/models will wear vitage clothing, like evening gowns, tight fitting bodices, corsets, flapper dress etc So the idea is to capture a lot of emotion like a Manga / Anime comic strip. Some of Howard Shatz's work is part of the precedence here, so lots of loose fabric and 'bare' or skin colored body suits. So here are plenty opportunities for dramatic expression and creativity as far as the makeup is concerned ... Japanese style theatre makeup maybe, or mabye something ghost like?

Swimmers in Motion - relay starts

2006-10-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to write that this Sunday we are going to do another underwater shoot at Koret. Allison Wagner along with Marisa will be doing relay starts / changes. Also Lara Maloney will participate in the 'fashion/pantomine' aspect of the shoot. Not only will I shoot the NikonosV but this time I will attempt to use an old F3 Nikon and a MD-4 inside of an underwater housing, in an attempt to get the multiple frames capturing image motion! I'll write more later ...

Allison Wagner Chromes at Koret II

2006-04-01T15:36:00.000-08:00

So some of the lessons learned from this shoot were:

No black / blue swimsuit, it blended out in the dark shots.
Swimmer got cold between takes, so provide hot drinks, robe, or keep swimming
Air supply would have been good, so next shoot going to organize a small scuba Pony tank.
Bracket f stop and stop one / two stops above coupling range.
Make sure flash was recharged between shots.

I did a few shots with B (bulb setting) with the flash, these turned out to be pretty interesting, but given air and a "tripod" and possibly multiple flashes in a dark ( nighttime ) pool could be really great.

We also did some 'art' shot of Allison suspended in the water, so these are not part of the four regular strokes.

Thanks again to Allison, Cathy, Vince and the Koret aquatic center for making this shoot possible. We hope to do another shoot like this again soon and see what we can improve on.

Allison Wagner Chromes at Koret I

2006-04-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

On March 19th 2006 I set out with the Nikonos, three rolls of 100ASA film ( Kodak GX100, Provia 100 and 100F). Cathy Huang at Koret center kindly gave us permission to shoot in the deep end of the pool. I decided not to use scuba tanks this time, so the whole shoot was done by holding my breath. This was OK, but sometimes my bubbles got in the way. For instace here is Allison doing a turn and it's just not possible that those bubbles are hers.

It looks like it was shot at night, but really it was the narrow f22 stop I used with the strobe set to TTL (this probably could have been open a couple of stops)

It was amazing to be so close to Allison diving in to the water, it was like an arrow and very fast. So it was hard to capture. This was shot on M90 TTL f22

Tumble Turn from side, here the f stop was opened up so there is some external light

Tumble Turn from bottom of pool. (made B/W in photoshop)

Abstracts taken during a swim on Bondi

2006-03-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

Sydney and swimming.

2006-03-09T19:23:00.000-08:00

Bronte Beach tide pool.
Icebergs pool, the waves crash directly into the pool! The lane closest to the sea is the most fun, and it's full of seaweed and crabs!
Clovelley Inlet Swimmer Diving in

Swim at your own risk! Clovelley inlet, I went in but via the beach, it was pretty hairy!
Bondi Roughwater open sea swim, looked like a lot of fun.
Roughwater swimmers enter the sea.

Roughwater swimmers at the end of the race.

Gilly, my other brother-in-law, finished in 35 minutes and 20 seconds!

Parseley Bay with Joni

2006-03-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

So somewhat inspired by Martine and by the warm water in Parseley Bay I was able to take these shots of Joni.
Again these were shot with cheap Kodak film, and with a little manipulation in photoshop they came out fairly well. There was no strobe and I used a snorkel and fins to shoot them.

Photos inspired by Martine Emdur

2006-03-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Soon after I arrived in Sydney, I came across a catalog of an artirst called Martine Emdur, whom I unfortunately did not get to see, but her artwork as the exhibition was over, however they were very inspiring to me, they are oils of people swimming, some underwater, in what looks like a green dreamy nature pool or cenote. I found these images on the web at the galleries website.

( http://www.arthousegallery.com.au/past-exhibition.asp?idExhibition=70 )

Results from the first Shoot

2006-03-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

So here are some of the images from the shoot I did with the help of my brother-in-law Baruch in the basement pool of my brother Sean's apartment in Sydney, what must be almost two months ago. I rented a scuba tank from Bondi Dive center for AUS$ 70 for a day and Baruch arrived at 2 that afternoon. We spent about an hour going over the preparation of the Nikonos V, mainly checking O-rings for leaks and discussing how we would do the shoot and possible distance adjustments for the focus, strobe and f stop. Baruch donned his blue and black 'stinger' lycra suit and we headed down to the pool. I only shot one roll of film and Baruch also took a few shots of me. The scuba gear was unyeildly and it would be preferable to have less gear! Also had the pool been deep enough, it would be difficult to shoot directly above as the regulator does not work well in that position! All in all the camera worked well, the strobe seems to have an effective distance of about 6 feet max! But that was fine as the 20mm lens enabled me to get a full body shot from about 4 feet away, the strobe is very powerful and seems to blow out the subject on the TTL setting, so in future I'll experiment with ISO setting adjustments and also try to use pro film. The film I used here was Kodak Gold 200.
Freestyle Kick from behind ( changed to b/w in photoshop )

Me enlarged from a 4000 dpi scan and as the strobe did not reach, made b/w as it would otherwise be very blue!
Baruch, breastroking, head to side, not sure why?
So here is me, in poor form as my head is looking at Baruch while he shoots, but ordinarily, I'd have my face pointing down and my neck in the correct alignment for freestyle.

Tumbleturn attempt number three!

So this was a good start I feel, camera and logistics starting to get ironed out.

Preperation for the First shoot

2006-01-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for first shoot of the Nikonos, Baruch Taylor, my brother-in-law, is coming over and we are going into the basement lap pool of my brothers apartment. I rented SCUBA gear yesterday in Bondi, AUS$70. Using 2 rolls of 200 ASA color film and 1 roll of 100 ASA chrome slide, and possibly a roll of TriX. Strobe is fully charged and about to clean and grease the o-rings.

Recording swimmers underwater, 'Muybridge' style.

2005-12-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

I've been gathering the information and equipment to start to photograph swimmers underwater. After a fair amount of research, I've aquired a serviced Nikonos V, a 20mm wide angle lens and a SB 104 strobe light.

The idea is to start to photograph the swimmer closeup, 3-6 feet away from underwater at first in very clear water, either a pool or tropical waters. It would be ideal to be moving at the same velocity as the swimmer, either with fins or some kind of cable winch, then to fire off a burst of shots covering the key phases of the stroke.

The strokes are fairly well documented here at swim.ee for instance. There are the pull and push phases of the stroking arm and the recovery phase of the the opposite arm. The pictures are fair to poor quality in my opinion, and well that's part of the challenge, can one take better shots for motion studies? There are a few obvious challenges due to the nature of the shot been in / underwater. Firstly the photo will be 'bluish' to start so I'm hoping the strobe will be able to rectify that. Also when swimming at 100% effort, well there is usually a lot of white water, noise, bubbles etc, so it's possible to make that part of the dramatic effect, or to get the swimmers to swim more slowly and carefully without loosing the quality and accuracy of effortless swimming.

Ideally I can capture a sequence of shots for a stroke and have them represent how the motion took place. This may be difficult given the manual winder on the Nikonsos, but I may need to later on use either a motion film camera or some kind of high speed SLR in a housing. One thought here is to gather enough well framed sequenced shots so that I could start approximate the style of Muybrige and Marey

Meanwhile for precedence, here are some interesting related images:

My life and water

2005-11-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

I've always loved been in and around water. I grew up on the suburban highveld, Joburg, South Africa. We lived in a modest split level home with a 18 meter pool where I took my first strokes. Later I'd feel the tide retreat and i'd sink into the sand of the warm Indian ocean of the coast of South Africa. In the early 70's my Auntie Daphne Taylor was my first swimming teacher and I remember I used to get these gold stars and boiled sweet for every accomplishment, like completing a width of backstroke in her Johannesburg swimming pool. I never really swam much or well at school for one reason or another, but did love swimming in the clear aquamarine waters whilst holidaying in Mauritius with my family. It was there on the southern tip of the island that I first learnt to scuba and started to fall in love with the reefs. Since then, I've dived mostly in the Caribbean, where I became Padi certified ( only Open Water One at this time ), Hoduras and Belize been the best aquatic experiences. Whilst studying Physiotherapy in Cape Town, I started to get into the healing power of water by way of hydrotherapy, and experienced high pressure water massage, and also got to see the importance of buoyancy for rehabilitaion of Guillain-Barré patients. When I moved to California a few years ago, I first lived in the sleepy wonderous surfer town Bolinas. It was here that I learnt to long board in probably one of the most idyllic surf spots, despite the cold, riding a wave while a flock of pelicans glide by is pretty spectacular. About two years ago my good friend Tracy encouraged me to try some openwater swimming, and I did swim the South End Invitational from Alcatraz Island across the cold San Francisco bay, my times are steadily improving and I've gone from 63 minutes to 55, and I hope to finish under 45 next year. Last night was a turning point, I got accepted to the USF Masters swim team. I've also been getting brilliant inspiration and coaching from Allison Wagner at USF. With her guidance, I've improved leaps and bounds both in style and motivation. I feel like swimming will always be an important part of the fantastic journey my life is turning out to be.

So I've decided to start to journal and aggregate mine and others aqua related experiences. I hope to be able to share with others, my absolute love for swimming, water, it's transformations and all it brings to life.