Technical Scuba Diving
Background Steve Lawson had invited me to go looking at targets with him and Chris Gilmartin on the Sunday of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We set out from the boat launch at Huntington Harbor and had some great conditions that morning. Steve had a list of about 7 or 8 targets he wanted to check [...]
After we had spent some time at Farnsworth Banks, we decided to go dive the Midnight Hour. After all, I can't go out for a dive day and not dive on some rusted metal! I had heard about the Midnight Hour but didn't know much about her but did know that she was a squid [...]
Farnsworth Banks are a series of underwater sea-mounts about 1-2 miles off the shore of Catalina. They are a relatively famous dive site in Southern California but are a bit "out of the way" since they are on the backside of Catalina and about mid-way which means you need to go all the way around [...]
I have decided to offer a three-day Photogrammetry Workshop. If there is enough demand, I will offer it multiple times during 2023. During the workshop, students will learn to take photos for a model and will build multiple models (both land based and under water) using Metashape software. The goal of the workshop is for [...]
Background Tyler had recently gone out diving with friends for his birthday. While they were heading to the dive site, he saw something on the sonar that looked interesting. After diving their original planned dive site, they jumped in to see what was at the target. They ended up finding a steel hull boat that [...]
Intro The "Butterfly Effect" is part of chaos theory in physics. The theory is that a small change in one state can result in large differences in a later state. The prototypical example is that a butterfly flapping its wings can result in a tornado. I ran into a "Butterfly Effect" between building the model [...]
This is my 200th post and I wanted it to be somewhat special so I am posting what I consider one of my best photogrammetry models of one of my favorite wrecks. Background Many might not understand why the USS Hogan is so appealing to dive -- after all, there is little left of the [...]
This is my 199th post. This post along with the 200th post will be about the USS Hogan. Background The USS Hogan is one of my favorite wrecks in the Southern California area. Many might not understand why this wreck is so appealing to dive -- after all, there is little left of the structure [...]
Summary I conducted Dive #4 for my Yukon photogrammetry project on Sunday, 6 November. The model is now close to 5,000 photos. I spent all week working on the model build process. I went down a lot of rabbit holes and my computers were working overtime. I'm definitely pushing the limits for the current hardware [...]
I was out diving yesterday in San Diego on the Marissa and some of the other divers were really interested in the photogrammetry projects I'm currently working on. It got me to thinking that maybe I should hold a class / workshop on photogrammetry here in Southern California. Before I go too far down the [...]