NASE Shoot

A few years ago when I started my open water dive training up in Massachusetts, we still used the "old school" classroom/book approach. I still remember the excitement of getting the PADI book and reading every word before class, which was held in the back garage of Vineyard Scuba. Surrounded by dive gear and in the company of a few other people, the small garage witha little whiteboard is perhaps where it all began for me - but a new wave in diver education is starting. The next summer when I returned to the Vineyard, I decided to pursue my rescue diver training and this time the classroom portion was online. The training consisted of slideshows with videos and pictures, and it was great because I didn't have to buy books (and as a result didn't waste paper) and could complete the lessons on my own time and in the comfort of my own home. Not even in my craziest dreams did I think I'd ever be in a diver training video...

But this past May, about two years later, I found myself at a pool in Ocala with David, cameraman Bill Mills, photographer Gene Page, super cave diver Eric Hutcheson, NASE director Scott Evans, and fellow diver Lance. We met at a pool in Ocala and dragged tanks, cameras, and gear into the pool area, greeted at the same time by the practically-summer Florida sun and scorching temperatures. But this (and the fact that literally nobody remembered sunscreen...oops) didn't stop us from having a productive and successful day - and a perfect on-the-fly introduction to being on-camera.

Pool Day 1

On the first day of the shoot, we were tasked with getting the topside and underwater footage for confined water training. Part of the video was for an instructor training course while the rest was basic skills for beginning open water students.

Step 1: Gear setup. Bill films and Gene shoots as Lance sets up gear and Eric and I hold up reflectors. 

Before Lance showed the regulators, mask, fins, and pressure gauge, I was responsible for attaching the regs and BC to the tank. Seemingly simple task, right? Normally, I can basically do it with my eyes closed, but not for the camera... Here are a few things I learned: go slowly and be explicit with your movements and actions, take direction from the director and cameraman but do not respond with ok or a nod... just do it, don't look directly at the camera, don't block what your doing from the camera with your body or hands, and it usually takes multiple takes (and different angles/shots) to finish one skill. But with the help of the professional and very patient team, figuring these things out on the fly wasn't bad and actually turned out to be a lot of fun :)

David and Bill shooting some topside gear setup.

Opposite direction of the photo of David and Bill above... it was getting veryy warm at this point in the day... we were ready to jump in the pool!

Step 2: Superman/muscle pose while Scott arranges the gear. (I think the heat was getting to our heads). 

 Step 3: In-water skills. In the afternoon, we all hopped in the pool to shoot the underwater skills. Some shots were filmed as a group to reflect a class setting while others were camera-inches-from-your-face close. I demonstrated skills such as mask flooding, clearing, and removal, regulator removal, etc. It was a great review for me - after a while of diving (or doing anything for that matter), I think everyone adapts each skill or performs some sort of variation while actually swimming in the water. It was also interesting to learn how NASE wants the skills to be demonstrated for their new divers.

Pool Day 2

A few weeks later, we had another day at the pool to finish up some shots we didn't complete on Day 1, but this time it wasn't as large of a production. This time, it was just David, Scott, Gene, and I who met for a long morning in the water. With David behind the video camera, Gene behind the still camera, and Scott and I as the divers, we shot stride and seated entries then moved quickly to underwater shots of BC removal, kicking, and ascents, just to name a few.

BC removal at the bottom of the pool.

Remember: don't look directly at the camera! Such a blast working with Gene... it was pretty cool to get a chance to work with him again. He does all of the behind-the-scenes photography for The Walking Dead and has photographed many celebrities such as John Travolta, Colin Farrell, Drew Barrymore, and Jack Black!

Open Water Day 1 - Weeki Wachee

Most recently, the day before my birthday on October 10, we took an exciting trip to Weeki Wachee for the open-water portion of the dive video. Scott, David, and I returned, this time with the addition of Jim Killion as videographer and a much-recovered Harry as the producer. Thanks to Harry, I had been in the water at Ginnie a few days before the shoot to practice the skills and make sure I was demonstrating them in a NASE-like fashion... and to make the process go more smoothly once we were on site at Weeki Wachee for the day. Plus we had limited time to be in the water because we had to plan around the underwater mermaid shows that take place in the basin throughout the day.

While it wasn't  the objective of the day, I did manage to snap a 1/2 and 1/2 picture of the main basin with Harry's camera. The building with the sloping roof to the right is where the auditorium is located - people can sit in the comfortable room and look out the windows in front of them into the spring at the underwater stage and the mermaids!

The first time we were clear to be in the water was 11am, so after a 2 hour drive, unloading and trekking all of the gear over to the basin (and marveling at the free-roaming peacocks at the park), we had a pre-dive briefing and hopped in the water for our first (of three) dives. 

One of NASE's major philosophies is that sharing air does not need to occur only in out-of-air scenarios. Here, Scott and I demonstrate a convenient position for sharing air and swimming comfortably in a low-air situation - this skill could be used to get a low-air diver closer to the boat so they are safely able to ascend and do a safety stop near the boat without the help of a buddy.  

Another thing that sets NASE apart from other training organizations is that they do not believe buoyancy control is a skill - they more see it as a necessity. They believe that divers should naturally hover while swimming and when they stop swimming, and they do not teach any skills kneeling on a platform underwater. This photo, as well as the other two in this post with divers in them, are stills taken from Jim's amazing video - he shoots with the Red Epic camera, which shoots in 5k (higher resolution than HD!!).

Before our last dive, we took a trip over to the underwater room and watched a bit of the mermaid show. It's pretty amazing to be sitting in a room looking out at eye level with the mermaids in the middle of the basin.

Behind the scenes: this is how the mermaids enter the basin from their changing room... it is a 60' swim through this secret entrance... you never see them dive in during the show!

The filming went smoothly and we got all of the shots on the list that we needed that day. It was also fun to meet Allen, who is responsible for training all of the mermaids at Weeki Wachee. He had some cool stories and I also peppered him with questions about training and what it takes to be a mermaid. This particular shot is a still taken from video footage during the last dive. Jim was filming from the underwater stage as I floated above, ready to demonstrate how to breathe off a free-flowing regulator.

Here is a little video Harry made about our day at Weeki Wachee: http://scubanase.com/news/video.html 
Can't wait to see how the training videos turn out... they're promoting NASE's new Learn Green, Dive Blue philosophy by not printing any books (http://www.diveindustry.net/diving-news/70-diving-news/253-nase-think-green-dive-blue).
:)

Underwater Archaeology: Week 2 at sea

After a week at sea in the Bahamas and a very brief night on land (thankfully not quite enough time to get used to a full-sized bed with ample headroom to sit up), David and I headed back out to sea for a NOAA-sponsored archaeological cruise with scientists from Mercyhurst University aboard the Weatherbird II research vessel. We left Ocala early to meet a boat captain in Cedar Key and catch a ride out to the anchored ship, which had left its home port in St. Pete a few days before while we were still out in the Bahamas. Our job was to document the expedition via above- and under- water photos and videos. Throughout the day, we participated in team meetings, calls for all hands on deck, and several dives (when the seas were calm enough and weather permitted) while using GoPros, a Nikon D90 in an Ikelite housing, and a giant video camera in a Gates housing to capture the action and make daily video logs about the amazing science team. The scientist were performing underwater archaeology, employing novel field techniques to find out more about our ancestors that lived at the ancient site of the Suwannee River that now lies out in the Middlegrounds in the Gulf of Mexico. Here is the link to our video logs on the NOAA site with a lot more detail about the expedition:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12newworld/logs/photolog/photolog.html

The research team meeting to discuss the daily activities (Dr. Hemmings, Ryan Duggins, Ben Wells, Jennifer Adler, and David Ulloa). Image courtesy of Exploring the Submerged New World 2012 Expedition, NOAA-OER.

Coming from a world of biologists and marine biology, it was very interesting to view the world through an archaeological lens. Just as there are known field techniques and buzz words in biology that became second nature throughout college and my job at USGS, the same is true for archaeology. The whole experience opened my eyes to this new and different science and allowed me to see the world in a different way. While biologists are trying to understand the world by discovering new species, understanding ecological processes, or studying the life cycles of native and invasive species in an ecosystem, archaeologists dig deeper into our past. It was neat to listen to the grad students, recent PhDs, and veterans in the field describe their jobs and what is involved at a lot of their dig sites both on land or underwater all over the country. It was a learning experience all around as I learned science aspects from the archaeologists and film/video techniques from David and got used to expedition style filming and editing. Aka film, download to computer, film, dive, download... and all at the same time edit, film, edit, edit, edit. Repeat! Producing on the go is a ton of fun but definitely tiring as you work in a lab in the middle of all of the science action on a rocking ship. One of my jobs was to write the scripts for the video logs, so that helped force me to completely understand what was going on every step of the way so we could relay it to a broad audience watching the video logs on the NOAA site.

As evidenced by the video logs, the trip was unfortunately plagued by bad weather, but this did not bring down the morale of the crew and scientists, who used their experience and expertise to work through seemingly unworkable circumstances. I have realized that this is a common theme among scientists, biologists and archaeologists alike, and it reminded me of being out at sea exactly one year before as a biologist on the Holiday Chouest research cruise to investigate the effects of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Fortunately this time we were not on 6 hour shifts, so sleep deprivation was not as much of an issue. It was also different being on the team documenting the science rather than performing the science. While I felt I had a better understanding of what was going on by the end of the trip, I didn't feel quite as at home with the archaeology as I ever will around my fish :) Nevertheless, it broadened my horizons and kept me close to learning and science, while also being underwater and taking pictures. It doesn't get much better than that... I'm definitely looking forward to more trips like this in the future.