Happy Holidays 2005

Pygmy Seahorse, Raja Empat Indonesia

(c) 2005 Jason Heller & Underwaterphotos.net

Exactly one year ago - Thailand

Exactly one year ago, Wendy and I were in Thailand scuba diving the uninhabitted Similan Islands when the now infamous Boxing Day Tsunami sped past us and proceeded to devestate the entire Indian Ocean region, including the coast of Thailand and its outlaying Similan islands. Were it not for our location in the open ocean, we may not be here to recount the events that changed our lives forever.

We did not however "survive" the Tsunami, we merely experienced it. The poor souls hanging bleeding in trees for hours before being rescued survived the Tsunami. The children who were left with no families, or families left with no children, the hundreds of thousands of fishermen, farmers and others who relied on the world around them for sustinence and had to rebuild their lives from nothing - they all survived the Tsunami.

Experiencing the Tsunami was humbling nonetheless. I received an assignment from Asian Geographic Magazine to cover the aftermath in Thailand. The devestation caused by the force of the waves still to this day is unfathomable to me, even after seeing it with my own eyes. Events like these really make you think about the things that matter in life.

Thailand will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

A year later, I understand that Phuket is back in business, although Kaoh Lak, hit hardest by the Tsunami, is still struggling. So much foreign aid and investment flowed in to help restore the economy of some of the hard hit tourist areas. The Phuket and Kaoh Lak region represents roughly 4% of the GDP of Thailand, therefore it was a necessary investment to make in restoring the island and surrounding area as quickly as possible. The coral reefs are in good shape, with some exception of the shallow reefs that felt the full brutal force sweeping past them. The reef life is very resilient and is just as prolific today as it was a year ago. I look forward to going back to do some diving and to visit some friends soon!

Here are links to the archives of my original recounts of the events of Dec 26, 2004.

7 Underwater Photo Competitions

There are 7 underwater photo competitions with deadlines on December 31st.

You can find information on the contests on DivePhotoGuide.com, here.

I've been so busy lately covering news about underwater photography, photographers, and photo and video competitions at the sacrifice of remembering to enter any lately myself! So I'm going to enter a few images this year into a few of the larger competitions.

Unfortunately I had to cancel my trip to Indonesia scheduled for this month in order to cover the workload at my agency, but I will make a short trip to the Caribbean sometime in January. Not sure where yet. I also will be in Sipadan, Malaysia in April. I miss the peace and serenity of the ocean and it's beautiful reefs.

NYC Transit Strike 2005

So today, 30,000+ transit workers went on strike and put the city into a snail's pace. Trains and buses aren't running, there are 3 - 4 hours lines for the Long Island railroad and cabs are taking on multiple passengers at $10 a pop flat rate. Drives that before the strike took 15 minutes, now takes 2 hours. you need 4 passengers to drive into Mnahattan and people are riding with strangers just to get to work. And it's freezing outside! I feel bad for everyone who doesn't have the luxury of working from home. To think about the children who missed school and parents who missed work because of this. People are going to lose thier jobs. The city is going to lose millions of dollars for each day of this strike. I understand where these guys are coming from, but I think that the unions are taking advantage of the situation and using their members as pawns in a game. Their must be 30,000+ in NYC dying for these jobs. Does the average working person support their stance? OR would they take these jobs in a heart beat? I understand the hipocracy of the MTA having a cash surplus and not willing to offer decent compensation increases. I underatand the purpose of unions, but to what extent is what is going on just? When it impacts the entire city, the trade off makes the means to an end entirely out of hand.


Wendy had oral surgery yesterday and thankfully is home resting while the chaos is going on out in the streets. She had a widon tooth extraced from the bone in her jaw - OUCH! We missed the strike by a day, and therefore were able to move her around town from the oral surgeon's office back home, without any delays. The same trip would have required an extra hour or so today. Hopefully she'll recover this week in time to enjoy Christmas.

DivePhotoGuide.com is growing!

Our website is growing! We are now close to 100,000 page views per month and have over 1,500 registered members and over 4,000 dive operators, resorts, and live aboards. We are quickly becoming a staple resource for underwater photographers and videographers. Our calendars offer centralized information on all of the international photo and video competitions in the world, and our photo galleries showcase some of the best underwater photographers on the planet!

We will be launching our RSS feeds this month. We will offer feeds of both our news headlines as well as our competition calendars. Our network of partners is growing and we are looking forward to the launch of the DPG Directory *hopefully* in Q1 2006!

A Demanding World, Technology and Hamster Wheels

Did you ever have one of those days? Well this last few weeks has been like that for me. We live in such demanding times. There are very few human beings in the big business world. They are mainly drones I tell you. Programmed to live life with the perception of serving oneself, when really serving others. I have the good fortune of working with some select few minds that shine above the rest. The one common element is sense of self. Whether working on a team or alone, the sense of self helps to keep passion and pride burining strong. Thus giving you the power to overcome all obstables and hurdles, to develop solutions for every problem. There's a lot going against us, particularly in America, where our programming is deeply embedded in our minds. It trickles down from the top - the top of society, the heads of companies and the heads of families - to slowly affect everybody (shit always flows downstream). Do we do it to ourselves? Sort of. I am what we in marketing call an "early adopter", or as my friends call me, a gadget freak. However, technology is a double edged sword. We continue to develop technology to make our lives more productive and more efficient, but all we are doing is making ourselves drones to our own tools and technologies. Are we more productive and efficient? Yes. But at the sacrifice of actually living our lives for the fallacy of always evolving to live life "on the edge". One must be careful, or end up running twice as fast in the hamster wheel and getting half as far as you used to. We must all challenge ourselves to strive to be the best we can, personally and professionally... But it must be in that order.

Saturday in New York

We decided that we had to have the world's best Pastrami sandwich this weekend, so we headed over to Katz's deli, where else....I remember going to Katz's when I was a kid with my father. It was always a special occasion. I guess if you eat at Katz's regularly, you'd most likely die of a herart attack from the grease. But it would be worth it! Now, I can help share that same special feeling of the best Pastrami in on the planet, with my new wife and relatively new New Yorker, Wendy. She isn't new to Katz's anymore, but I guess it sometimes takes someone who didn' have their entire life to take something for granted, to help you remember just how good it is. If you've never had a Pastrami sandwich from Katz's, you're missing out!