Sperm whale social group (Physeter macrocephalus)

We saw fewer whales today and spent most of the day looking for whales that might tolerate a human presence in the water. A cute little calf (we’re told it’s Enigma’s baby) was accompanied by up to 12 larger sperm whales, but none of us were able to capture all 13 in one frame. (read more »)

I’ve been shooting lots of timelapses recently. I typically shoot them with a Canon 5D Mark II in sRAW (small RAW: a lower resolution RAW file) because otherwise I end up with thousands of 21-megapixel images to store.

My timelapse workflow involves bringing all of the images into Adobe Lightroom, setting white-balance and 16:9 crop on all images, and exporting as JPG to be opened as an image sequence in Quicktime 7 Pro. I noticed yesterday that one of my timelapses had a jump exposure in the middle of the movie. Upon close inspection, I discovered that the change in exposure was due to Lightroom treating RAW files differently than sRAW files! I had forgotten to set my camera to record sRAW images and ended up switching to sRAW in the middle of the sequence. (read more »)

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) rub up against each other while socializing

UPDATE: See an iTunes podcast about my Dominica sperm whale encounters!
[DiveFilm HD, via iTunes]

After yesterday’s incredible encounters, we left dock (late — island time!) and ventured north, where we were told sperm whales had been sighted. After an hour and a half of cruising, we spotted a tight bunch of whales on the surface, and when we dropped in, we discovered 11 sperm whales! 9 of them were clustered together in a tight ball, and 2 were off to the side a bit. (read more »)

Scar, a 10-year old sperm whale in Dominica

Scar, vertical and CLOSE

What an incredible first day! We’re all pretty much wiped out, and I can’t think well enough to try to put the day’s experiences into words. Instead, I’ll leave you with a bunch of sperm whale photos, which I posted to Flickr.

Oh — check out that second shot. Scar has the end of a squid are stuck to his mouth. We pulled it out of his mouth and brought it back to the boat. I have pictures (for later).

Another day, another timelapse. Even though I was really, really tired after a full day of swimming with sperm whales, I dutifully set up my tripod and grabbed this sunset timelapse in Dominica. It’s on Vimeo in 1080p; click over if you want to see it in high-definition.

Scar, a 10-year old male sperm whale (Physeter Macrocephalus) in Dominica

We had incredible encounters today with up to 6 sperm whales at a time. We even met Scar, a personable 10-year old male sperm whale who nearly begs to be rubbed! Photos taken under permit. (read more »)

Brilliant!

The Apple iPad, announced today

I just finished following various live blogs of the Apple iPad unveiling event at Yerba Buena (which is almost literally across the street from me). Regardless of your level of Apple fandom, the iPad is a groundbreaking product. There have been quite a few attempts at tablet devices in the past, but no one has ever put so much thought into usability and infrastructure.

I am a mobile device junkie, and have been long juggling Blackberry, iPhone, Droid, Kindle, Mifi and satellite phone in an attempt to find a solution that works best for me. I realize that I am not a typical user; I am always online, but I spend about half of each year out of the country in areas with poor connectivity. This instantly makes any device without an optimized, compressed wireless network nearly useless when I’m in the field (e.g. iPhone, Droid). Even if wireless networks were up to speed, the cost of international use would be outrageous. I took my iPhone to India a couple of years ago and chewed through my 50MB of allocated monthly data in a matter of days. A friend on a trip to Mexico last week went through his 50MB in 7 days — and that was with light usage during the day, plus a WiFi connection at night. So I stick with my Blackberry Tour and its fixed-cost, unlimited international data plan. It is the best of both worlds: Verizon CDMA in San Francisco (the only working network here) and CDMA / GSM / EDGE / 3G when I’m out of the country. Unfortunately, the Tour has a slow processor, which means > 5 minute hard reset times and frequent multi-second lockups, but there are no other options and I remain productive while using it. The trusty little Tour downloads 200 messages in a minute on EDGE while I drift by small Indonesia villages. Meanwhile, the iPhone can barely finish negotiating an IMAP connection, and the Droid is hopeless because it’s on CDMA.

In a protest against AT&T’s crappy network, I sold my iPhone and switched to Droid on Verizon. I like the potential of Android, but I’m finding that I only use the Droid as a fancy video player and alarm clock when I’m on the road. Because I don’t have time to watch TV or movies when I’m at home, most of my reading and video consumption happens from the comfort of tiny cabins on dive vessels. I read books on the Kindle because there is no Kindle app on the Droid and because I only need to charge the thing once a month. The Kindle app is the one thing I miss the most about the iPhone.

I think the iPad will change things, though. Its display is large enough for comfortable book reading and video viewing. It can be held easily while on the airplane and in situations where a notebook computer would be unwieldy. It will have more light-weight apps than one could ever hope for, is compatible with the iPhone apps I already own, and can beautifully display my photography and video portfolio.

I’m thinking that it will replace the iPhone / Android device in my lineup, as well as the Kindle. I’ll finally have one phone, one notebook computer, and an “in-between” device: Blackberry, iPad and MacBook Pro (plus MiFi). Now if I could only coax my Blackberry into creating a WiFi cloud…

As of today, Akismet has stopped more than 2.7 million spam messages from being posted on my journal. Installation and use with WordPress is trivial, and the plugin works flawlessly.

Daily spam messages caught on echeng.com since July 28, 2009

Since December of 2007 on echeng.com: 2,727,362 spams caught, 5,329 legitimate comments, and an overall accuracy rate of 99.997%.

Timelapse of Tony Wu and me packing cameras and dive gear in Isla Mujeres (timelapse images taken with Canon 5D Mark II — 1 frame every 2 seconds. around 1750 frames in total).

3D (cross-fused) video tour of Isla Mujeres from our golf cart, taken with dual Canon 5D Mark II cameras and Canon 15mm fisheye lenses. Special thanks to Sterling Zumbrunn for his help, and to Tony Wu for the loan of a 15mm lens. The color in the videos is different because Tony’s lens is much older.

• On our way out @ sunset for more sailfish. http://tweetphoto.com/9003331 #
• The world is a small place with Blackberry Messenger. Chatting with Pam, who is 14 timezones away at the moment. #
• Tony scored an incredible shot of sailfish about to eat a sardine. Head on — awesome! #
• Tony just duct taped his heals in anticipation of today's events. #
• I uploaded a YouTube video — Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans) hunt a ball of sardines http://youtu.be/QTwDcfjKIR0?a #
• Resetting Google Latitude to login from Blackberry Tour instead of Droid (for non-US support). Wonder what will happen. #
• RT @TripIt: Our free app for BlackBerry is now available! http://bit.ly/6TCntZ #
• Another person sees the light(room). RT @pyknosis: Aaaghghg! I can't take it anymore. Me and Aperture are finished! #
• Been hanging out with fishermen in Mexico. Time to buy a visor and a long-sleeved t-shirt! #
• BBC Wildlife contest disqualifies winning entry (leaping wolf). http://bit.ly/5ZHIPH #
• 2 hours of solid action on the water today. Large groups of sailfish — more than 25 in frame at once. Am now sun-damaged and exhausted. #
• Wtf am I going to do with 636 sailfish photos? (after first pass edit). Still have 4 more days on the water, too. #
• RT @tonywu: New post: Isla Mujeres, Day Four http://bit.ly/5ifqEj #
• WTF Screaming Turtle (via Matt S) http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/15863 #
• Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. it is friggin hot here. http://tweetphoto.com/9227391 #
• Oh, shit. http://tweetphoto.com/9236711 #
• Anyone want an extra fuel pump thingy? http://tweetphoto.com/9237075 #
• RT @johnolilly: Releasing 3.6! — at Mozilla http://gowal.la/s/fPa #
• @choccobo I'll bet you could find 421 out of 4.81 million people who also have imaginary friends. in reply to choccobo #
• Why would you give a kid a whistle?? #
• Heading out on day 6 of sailfish trip. This is tiring! (Wish us luck) #
• The ocean is a strange place. No fish out there today whatsoever. Hundreds of birds are at home on their island circling aimlessly… #
• I feel like I'm in a trashy beach suburb of Texas. #
• Beautiful sunset captured by atrocious blackberry camera. http://tweetphoto.com/9315860 #
• Good reads on BBC Wildlife Competition fraud incident: http://bit.ly/636PXW http://bit.ly/8E5JRt #
• RT @johnolilly: coming up on 6M downloads of Firefox 3.6 since yesterday morning — really neat to see. http://bit.ly/77QCh7 #
• "Refusing to eat shark's fin at a Chinese dinner party" http://bit.ly/6jn3Jy (via Dave Patchen) #
• Very disappointed that Firefox doesn't support HTML5/H.264 video (e.g. YouTube and Vimeo betas). I don't think OGG is going to beat H.264. #
• Tripit http://bit.ly/8neI6v and FlightTrack Pro http://bit.ly/4TQ4Zg available for Android. Awesome! #
• RT @pyknosis: Stanford DNA study: Hunting minke whales on grounds of overabundance not justified. http://bit.ly/85KTNt #
• Pam: "You can't just spray bug spray on your face!" Me: "I don't spray. I rub." #
• Exploring Isla Mujeres http://tweetphoto.com/9413562 #
• If I see another photo of a diver with his/her light pointed at something (for no reason), I'm going to barf. #
• A certain housing manufacturer needs to fix their shutter lever on their Canon 5D2 housing! http://tweetphoto.com/9536675 #
• Packing up to @viennateng's Inland Territory. Back to SF for a couple of days tomorrow! #
• Leaving Isla Mujeres at 5am. I'll miss this place! #

Sterling Zumbrunn, Tony Wu and me in front of our sailfish boat, the Lilly M (3D)
- click image for larger photo -

I’ve been experimenting with shooting 3D stereoscopic images with the Canon 5D Mark II and discovered that it is a very limited platform for taking 3D images. When two 5D2 cameras are mounted next to each other, there is a minimum of 6″ between the center of each of the two lens mounts. This extreme separation produces a stereoscopic effect that is too pronounced when using normal lenses (20mm and longer) — unless you shoot subjects that are very far away.

However, I have had some success shooting 3D images and video using two Canon 15mm fisheye lenses. Subjects still have to be at least a few feet away, but at least it is possible to shoot close subjects. (read more »)

Tony Wu sleeps while Rogerio and Juan look for sailfish

Skunked — and in perfect conditions, too! You can’t win ‘em all…

Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans) with a sardine in its mouth.

We left dock at 6am this morning in search of more sailfish. The sun broke through for half an hour on our way offshore, which was fantastic — until she was swallowed up by a sky full of clouds. As Anthony so cheerfully exclaimed yesterday, “Come to Mexico! Bring a snow jacket!” (read more »)

• @pyknosis what is up with those shrimp wonton billboards? They are everywhere! in reply to pyknosis #
• @Frogfish It would be an A+/WIN if the teacher were expecting English and were not able to read Chinese. That was the funny part. in reply to Frogfish #
• RT @Wetpixel: Tony Wu's topside toy video from our PNG Eastern Fields trip: http://bit.ly/5s3MqW #
• @gilesshaxted 24-105/4L. The aperture/shutter malfunctioned half way through the trip, though — I just had it repaired. in reply to gilesshaxted #
• It has been such a gloomy couple of days in SF. More to come, it seems… #
• Not a bad workspace for the late afternoon! http://tweetphoto.com/8537710 #
• Aerial landscapes of Mars: http://bit.ly/7rvI38 and http://bit.ly/7pnJmB #
• Having hybrid GPS (using accelerometers when out of signal) in cameras was inevitable. http://bit.ly/6rFbmp #
• Dynamic dual video GPU in notebooks. Yes, please! http://bit.ly/6oRNvb #
• I'm thinking of upgrading from my ScanSnap S510M duplex scanner to the S1500M. Anyone want to buy the old one off of me? Works perfectly. #
• @dane Agree. I love the ScanSnap series. They are the only real (affordable) desktop solutions for paperless office! in reply to dane #
• I want a new bullet point in QuickBooks 2010 for Mac called "fixed bugs in 2009," but I don't see it. http://bit.ly/kqEAt #
• I met Al Vinjamur 4 years ago today: http://echeng.com/journal/2005…..eisurepro/ #
• Correction: I met Al Vinjamur 5 (FIVE) years ago today (hello, 2010): http://echeng.com/journal/2005…..eisurepro/ #
• Ron & Valerie Taylor, Stan Waterman, Douglas Seifert are all headed out with Jimmy for sharks in the Bahamas. Wish I could have gone! #
• Vote for the Wetpixel Picture of the Year 2009! There are some incredible images in the running (spread the word!). http://bit.ly/5Qoggx #
• Google vs the Chinese government. Should be interesting! http://googleblog.blogspot.com…..china.html #
• Aw, man. My Dremel died. Gotta get a new one. #
• DAMN YOU, MODAL ALERTS THAT STEAL FOCUS. #
• @cindypon PLEASE don't tweet spoilers about tv shows! in reply to cindypon #
• Hrm. OCR no like orange text on white backgrounds. #
• @cindypon That's a good rule re: TV shows; you can't hide things after the jump in tweets! I actually unfollowed someone for doing that once in reply to cindypon #
• @cindypon I don't know what time *any* show airs. ;) in reply to cindypon #
• Does anyone know the most effective organization to donate to for relief in Haiti? #
• @johnolilly re: Partners in Health. Thanks, John — looks like the right one for me. in reply to johnolilly #
• RT @mkapor Trusted donations for Haitian earthquake relief can go to Partners in Health (Dr. Paul Farmer's org) http://bit.ly/5INkqw #
• Regarding URL shortening, http://bit.ly/5INkqw > http://pih.org. I am guessing the original URL was "shortened" for tracking purposes? #
• Does anyone have an old Verizon phone that they no longer need? May need to purchase a used one. #
• @sterlingz still have it, but may retire it (defaulting to Blackberry these days) in reply to sterlingz #
• @ericyng I think so. I'll wait until Android matures or the iPhone comes out on Verizon. Blackberry still best for communication. in reply to ericyng #
• @donnunn Thanks for the offer, Don! The new phone is going to be for my mother, so I'm looking for plain phone. :) in reply to donnunn #
• @adamnash Whatever. I've simulated your entire life using the information I've gleaned from social networks. I knew that tweet was coming. in reply to adamnash #
• iPhone 3GS vs Nexus One camera comparison http://bit.ly/8JkmUI #
• RIP iPod Nano. Screen broke, and it freezes when playing via USB (to my car). It's got a good engraving, though. http://bit.ly/7QrFT3 #
• Get a call from @viennateng: Haiti relief: http://bit.ly/71Fr2Q If you've donated, she'll call you to say thanks! (If you give her your #). #
• @alexking Every time my Blackberry Tour stalls for some random period of time, I think of you. #
• A friend is looking for middle school teaching positions in the SF Bay Area (math preferable). Any tips or connections out there? #
• Just tried FireGPG add-on for GPG / PGP support in Gmail. Works well! (since Snow Leopard broke GPGMail) http://getfiregpg.org #
• I can never decide whether or not I should post the things that make me laugh. http://bit.ly/6ZSMhN #
• Tony Wu arrived safe and sound in San Francisco. #
• Driving in San Francisco — 3D video. http://vimeo.com/8756492 #
• Life below Vegas. http://www.environmentalgraffi…..nels/18773 #
• @gilesshaxted What does that question even mean? What is your end goal? ;) in reply to gilesshaxted #
• @gilesshaxted Ahhh. Try dyndns.org. You get a domain name with auto-update tools. Then, you poke hole in firewall, and you're set. in reply to gilesshaxted #
• @gilesshaxted Most routers can support for pinging dyndns, as do some NAS boxes. #
• I smell like Indian food. Leaving in 6.5 hrs. Still have to pack, work, sleep. #
• OK. Done packing. Done with most of the work I had queued up. 3 hrs of sleep, and we're off to Mexico. #
• Sweet. AT&T has unlimited voice and data for $99.99/month. That's an unlimited # of dropped calls for San Francisco users on AT&T 3G! #
• I always forget about non-military camouflage until I head inland. #
• On the golfcart with @tonywu and @sterlingz ready for salfish! #
• Epic first day with sailfish. Jumped on 2 baitballs with at least 25 sailfish on each. Just need some sunlight… #

Tony Wu, Sterling Zumbrunn and I have just returned from our first day out on the water looking for Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans) with Keen M International. We had great luck and dropped into the water with two schools of sailfish hunting sardines. Both schools numbered more than 25 individuals — and those were just the ones we could see at once.

Sailfish took turns approaching the baitball of sardines, slashing individual fish with their bills and wounding them enough to separate them from the safety of their school. Isolated sardines were consumed within seconds by sailfish moving at incredible speeds. In some cases, the sailfish would actually spear sardines instead of slashing at them — the precision with which they hunt is truly awe-inspiring.

Now all we need is for the sun to come out! (read more »)

I finally upgraded from WordPress 2.8.x to 2.9.1. Luckily, I had checked WordPress out using SVN, so all I had to do was issue the command:

svn switch http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/branches/2.9/

… to upgrade to the latest version of 2.9.

I prefer to check out branches over tags because I am out of town so often and can’t switch to different tags when I’m away. I have a cron job that runs ‘svn up’ regularly so my site is always up to date with security updates within a major WordPress version, and I make the assumption that no -.-.x release will break my install.

Switching major versions is to big to do without my guidance, so I save those updates for when I’m sitting at my computer.

As a reminder, you should always backup your database and WordPress files before doing any update. Alex King wrote a good blog entry about maintaining and upgrading WordPress. It’s worth reading.

Tony Wu (in 3D) poses with two Reefnet diopters

Photographer Tony Wu arrived today from Japan. He is jetlagged and isn’t quite thinking properly. I’m sure he’ll be functional after a good night’s rest. He did, however, have enough energy to write a blog entry about his arrival.

If you’re having problems seeing the 3D effect, there is a larger version of the image on Flickr. If you still can’t see it, here is a page that has some hints.

3D image of baby Liam

I’m going to have a lot of fun with the LOREO 3D Lens in a Cap.