Dive into a world of colors.

The Underwater World offer us an incredible and vast richness.

Multicoloured textures, abstract desings.

Art created by nature.

I just love underwater photography…here are some really beautiful underwater pics.

Thanks to Halee, Sharon and Nkeong make themselves to the last minutes outing. Hope that you guys enjoy the outing.

Nevertheless, the outing was challenging. Under the super low light situation, we had no choice but to push the iso higher and higher. I think most of us had using the MAX iso speed.

By the way, about the Aquaria, nothing much species. Don’t even see the hammer head as printed on the brochure.  To me, quite a disappointment. Furthermore, I seem fail my challenge to the low light. Definitely still need a lot of improvement.

Seascapes

Download high resolution here.

Date: December 12th, 2009

All family water & underwater photography festival at the Kalev Spa water park.

Location: Kalev SPA water park, Aia 18, Tallinn Estonia – www.kalevspa.ee

Keywords: see or try out underwater photography equipment, take a 4,5 m deep test dive with an instructor, get a waterproof make up, have a fantasy face painting, get yourself or your children photographed by a professional, take underwater photos of models wearing waterproof make-up, get an under water photo of yourself or your child/baby, enjoy the submarine Christmas show, etc. A lot of action both under water and above the water, for adults and children. It’s all about taking pictures!

NB! Waterproof photographic equipment for rent on the spot. Diving equipment on the spot. Sale of water proof make up products from STAGECOLOR.

Access to the Kalev SPA water park is free for the hotel residents, normal ticket price is 150 EEK. Pre sale price at the Piletilevi is 130 EEK. Children up to 5 years pay 15 EEK only. http://www.piletilevi.ee/eng/tickets/kogupere/muu/?show=14903

PROGRAMME

11:00 – 16:00 All family water & underwater photo festival festival at the Kalev Spa water park.

16:00 – 17:30 Under water nude photography – guided by Mr. Lembit Michelson.
Pre sale price at the Piletilevi is 200 EEK http://www.piletilevi.ee/eng/tickets/kogupere/muu/?concert=58574
NB! Limited availability, restricted access.

How to buy http://www.piletilevi.ee/eng/generalinfo/howtobuy/webshop

Accommodation at the Kalev SPA Hotel.

Double room 860 EEK (430EEK/person).
Price includes breakfast, full access to the water park, to the All Family Water Festival, sauna, gym. Further information on the accomodation http://www.kalevspa.ee/hotel_rooms

Accommodation booking kalevspa@kalevspa.ee email address and password is “FOTO”
Phone +372 649 3300, www.kalevspa.ee

Organizer: Kultuuriühing Eesti Fotofestival NGO, info@fotofestival.ee www.fotofestival.ee
Contact Person: Mr. Devi Tompel, GSM +372 566 75 091

Culture Club  – Time (Clock of the Heart)

De La Soul – Forever

Drake – Successful

What They Talking Bout

Tips For One-Night Stand  (Ask Men)

‘Avatar’ video game to expand film’s alien world (the insider)

Professor advises underwater homeowners to walk away from mortgages (LA Times)

The 29 Best Chalkboard Gags In “Simpsons” History (Huffington Post)

Technics To Cease 1200/1210 Production? (Rock The Dub)

Tiger Woods: The 911 Call (TMZ)

Jay-Z vs. Everybody: Don’t Do It To ‘Em Hov! (Global Grind)

Urban Mogul Life Needs You! ( Urban Mogul Life)

]]> http://providepetpainrelief.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/nutritional-supplements-can-provide-pet-pain-relief/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:56:26 +0000 animalpainrelief http://providepetpainrelief.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/nutritional-supplements-can-provide-pet-pain-relief/

For years, our staff of the veterinary medicine clinic began to notice a disturbing trend. Despite the fact we had a number of medications and pet foods available, we were still watching animals suffer. We were overwhelmed with the number of animals that were coming in suffering from conditions such as equine arthritis, pet arthritis, animal joint pain, and canine paralysis. While we have an educated, caring staff, and offer all of the animal medications possible, we just weren’t seeing the results we wanted to in these animals that suffered. Again and again, clients would bring their pets back to the clinic, and tell us about their dog joint pain, horse paralysis, or pet paralysis, just to name a few of the common conditions. We tried to do everything we could to treat the animals and ease their discomfort. Unfortunately, we were finding that the techniques learned in veterinary school just weren’t having the effect of healing.

However, several years ago the clinic’s staff became re-energized about offering the best possible veterinary services. You see, the staff’s new energy was all a result of a discovery made by clinic staff. We discovered the Standard Process and Mediherb animal dietary supplements, and we knew they had the potential to help pets with their pain and suffering.

You see, the nutritional supplements we found have a cult following among pet owners. Over and over, clients rave about the amazing effects these nutritional supplement therapies have. These products effectively offer horse pain relief, animal pain relief, and pet pain relief. Despite the fact that our clinic endorses therapies such as animal chiropractic services and pet underwater treadmills, it is our experience that our available pet nutritional supplements have the most effective results with ailing animals.

Our clients agree with us; many hard to treat pet conditions show incredible results after using these available nutritional supplements. We have been receiving countless thank-you letters and phone calls; our clients often thoroughly describe the relief they feel about their pet’s quality of life. The supplements are developed using state-of-the-art methods, and specifically target vitamins and minerals that a suffering pet needs in order to not only develop immune resistance but also to heal. The supplements available from our clinic will support your pet’s cardiac system, skin health, adrenal glands, digestive health, liver and kidney functions, and endocrine system.

After you experience the effects caused by our quality pet nutritional supplements, you will become another pet owner who raves about Pet pain relief.

This piece is a gift for a friend.  In addition to loving mermaids, she really loves fairies too, so drawing the two together was kinda a no brainer.  I really enjoyed making it, especially since it forced me to draw from a cool new perspective.  To see my first attempt at the water distortion effect, check out the full post.

This was my first try at the distortion effect.  You can see the mermaid better, but its harder to tell you’re looking through the surface of the water.

Ambonkku, tempat kelahiranku. Adalah sebuah pulau yang sangat eksotik, banyak sekali tempat wisata yang indah.

Stéfania & Umberto Pelizzari.

En 1998, Stéfania est un dauphin Tursiops. Depuis 11 ans elle vit en captivité dans l’aquarium de San Andreas en Colombie. Son état de santé se dégrade, elle refuse même de s’alimenter et a perdu plus de 70 kg. Seul un miracle pourrait la sauver. Une équipe composée de Ric O’ Barry, un ancien dresseur de dauphins, Véronica Duport, une réalisatrice suisse, Cyril Hue, un vétérinaire et le multiple recordman du monde d’apnée Umberto Pelizzari, vont tout faire pour lui redonner goût à la vie et lui réapprendre à vivre en liberté. Le fil conducteur de ce film est bien évidemment le sauvetage de Stéfania. Parallèlement, nous suivons les plongés d’Umberto avec les baleines à bosse, dans les célèbres trous bleus… Un film riche en émotions, avec notamment de très belles séquences montrant le lien qui unit les sauveteurs et leur protégée. Umberto Pelizzari est un champion d’apnée par excellence des années 1990, il a pulvérisé de très nombreux records du monde en no limit. Il s’est reconverti dans le journalisme et defend la cause environnementale.

Divers:

Moko:

* Moko, le dauphin ambassadeur de Nouvelle-Zélande, fait un beau cadeau à deux pêcheurs

* Le dauphin Moko sauve deux baleines échouées en Nouvelle-Zélande

Beau film THE COVE:

Wildlife photography is the act of taking photographs of wildlife.

Wildlife photography is regarded as being one of the more challenging forms of photography. As well as needing sound technical skills, such as being able to expose correctly, wildlife photographers generally need good field craft skills. For example, some animals are difficult to approach and thus a knowledge of the animal’s behaviour is needed in order to be able to predict their actions. Photographing some species may require stalking skills or the use of a hide/blind for concealment.

Whilst wildlife photographs can be taken using basic equipment, successful photography of some types of wildlife requires specialist equipment, such as macro lenses for insects, long focal length lenses for birds and underwater cameras for marine life. However, since the advent of digital cameras, greater adventure travel and automated cameras, a great wildlife photograph can also be the result of being in the right place at the right time.

wikipedia.org

]]> http://philsbackupsite.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/23-of-homeowners-have-underwater-mortgages/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:42:22 +0000 ilene9 http://philsbackupsite.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/23-of-homeowners-have-underwater-mortgages/

23% Of Homeowners Have Underwater Mortgages

Courtesy of The Shocked Investor

We just got back from Ahe Island in Papua and have a lot to share with you. We were delighted to see that the local people see the need to develop more sustainable sources of income instead of  fishing which currently is their sole income source. We believe that with a joint effort step by step a situation can be achieved from which both people and marine life can benefit.

Let’s start by telling you a little bit more about Ahe and the Harlem Islands.

The Harlem Island are situated in the Geelvinkbaai in Papua. Many moons ago they where ‘discovered’ by the Dutch vessel the Harlem and thus got their name. These 7 islands are situated amongst crystal clear water and pristine reefs. Virtually no one has dived here and we are just touching first base when it comes to discover the diving possibilities of this unique place. We have dived many places around the world but even for us this is diving adventure ‘pur sang’.

Ahe is one of the smaller of the 7 islands. It measures 690 by 450 ft and if you are looking for the true bounty or Robinson experience… this is it. Ahe has a unique feeling to it and is inhabited by many special animals such as the mambruk, the goudvink (which is endemic to the islands) and the cuscus… an animal with a high cuddle factor and if I have to describe it I would say it is a sort of mix between a monkey a small bear and a koala. Sea eagles have their nests on the island and every evening hundreds of fregat birds return to Ahe to sleep in its lush vegetation. Turtles visit the islands to lay their eggs and you may get lucky to see the baby turtles running into the sea. Where ever you look there is white sand and the deep kobalt blue of the calm sea. Doesn’t sound bad huh

When you set foot on the island you can get rid of your shoes or flip flops for the rest of your stay. The first thing you see are two large airplane engines that where taken of the WWII plane wreck that sunk on top of one of Ahe’s reefs and that you can see snorkeling. On my first visit before entering the modest bungalow that was going to be my home for the week I immediately jumped into the water to check out the reef and besides the reef fish you would expect I saw bumphead parrot fish, mantis shrimp, several species of snake eels, many blue spotted rays, spade fish, a group of razor fish,  a turtle and even three cockatoo waspfish….this was at just 20 meters in front of the beach!

Ahe is run by a group of enthusiastic young people from the surrounding islands. They choose not to follow the path of their parents that have been fishermen for many generations, but to develop small scale tourism on Ahe with a focus on the adventurous diver. Ahe at the moment offers basic accommodation that will be developed further without loosing it’s charm or harm the wonderful nature and characteristic of the island. Ahe is truly of the beaten track and has been visited by only 20 tourists this year.

There are no specific diving sites at the moment. You can literally plunge in everywhere and have a great dive on beautiful reefs. In the next months the group that got training by us last week will further ‘recon’ the area to map the best dive sites and spot a top 25 of things divers are keen to see. Some good dive news… one of the site offers year round guaranteed private encounters with whale sharks that literally swim up to the boat and Ahe has a residential group of dolphins.

Scubasigns is truly committed to help the people of Ahe to make their plans become reality and to let both people and marine life benefit from ecologic dive tourism. We will take the following steps:

1. Further dive training of local people to increase dive safety.
2. Set up a team of paid dive guides who will explore dive sites and clean and protect the reefs.
3. Enlarge the protected area and create no fishing zone’s… this has been achieved already for the waters directly surrounding ahe.
4. Together with knowledgeable NGO’s and the local community we will write a masterplan for the future of Ahe and the Harlem Islands.
5. Increase the knowledge of the eco system and marine life within the local community.
6. Improve the dive gear and dive facilities as well as knowledge on maintenance.
7. PR activities to put the Harlem Island on the map of exciting dive destinations.
8. Set up a protocol and ‘rules’ for diving in the Harlem Islands.
9. Appoint an island manager to locally help in the development of the island and implement the necessary action points.

Anyone with good ideas or the desire to help please let us know! If you are keen to protect marine life and want to assure that the beauty of coral reefs and marine life should be safeguarded for future generations then this is your chance to actually do something. Send us an e-mail at dave@scubasigns.com. If you would like to be one of the first divers to visit Ahe then please let us know as well and we will make sure you will have the trip of your live.

Nature and Animal Conservation

 

     Preserving species and their habitats is important for ecosystems to self-sustain themselves. Yet, the pressures to destroy habitat for logging, illegal hunting, and other challenges are making conservation a struggle.

Visit : http://www.globalissues.org/article/1…

 What is Biodiversity ?

 

    The variety of life on Earth, its biological diversity is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth.

   

    Appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies attempt to recognize this as being integral to any approach. Almost all cultures have in some way or form recognized the importance that nature, and its biological diversity has had upon them and the need to maintain it. Yet, power, greed and politics have affected the precarious balance.

Does it really matter if there arent so many species?

Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play.

For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Who Cares?

  Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions

It is feared that human activity is causing massive extinctions. From various animal species, forests and the ecosystems that forests support, marine life. The costs associated with deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be high. However, sustainable development and consumption would help avert ecological problems.

 

  

I love underwater photography. Everything looks so serene…

Here are my favorites:

Photo by Zena Holloway

I see lights by Elena Kalis

Photo by Elena Kalis

Photo by Elena Kalis

It really reminds me of being younger. You know how when you’re little, you could spend all day in the pool? I did underwater tea parties, underwater gymnastics, and I had about 20 different mermaid personas. It was a perfect summer day if I had spent three hours playing sharks and minnows with my sister in the pool.

It’s so quiet under the water. It always feels kind of magical.

Does that make sense?

Keep doing, trying some composition.

Underwater Texture, Abstract art.

This picture was taken during a dive on the well known “USAT Liberty Wreck” in Tulamben,Bali