How do you take a picture of something above the surface of the water and below at the same time? Well if you had the “underabove” camera, it would be a snap. The concept design features two lenses; one on the top half filled with air and one on the bottom half filled with water. It sports a flash and even a “time wheel” so you can take an underwater self portrait. The camera then stitches the images together and displays them on the LCD screen.

The design won a Red Dot Design Concept 2010 award.

UNDERABOVE (via engadget)

What’s with underwater photographers getting mugged by large sea creatures these days? Dutch photographer Karin Brussaard was doing ocean photography off the Bahamas recently when a 7-foot-long shark decided to grab her DSLR camera rig and swim off. Luckily, like the other animal thieves we’ve written on in the past, the shark decided to drop the rig a little while later relatively undamaged. What’s even cooler is that they managed the capture the above shot of the klepto shark.

(via Gizmodo)

P.S. Tiger sharks are the second most dangerous shark to humans after the Great White.

Remember back in April when we shared a story in which an Octopus stole a point-and-shoot camera and led the owner in a 5 minute chase? Well now there’s a story that’s crazier and bigger in almost every aspect.

Travis Matteson was recording underwater footage of manta rays during an underwater night dive off Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, when a gigantic manta ray suddenly approached and stole his Canon 5D Mark II underwater rig worth about $10,000. Luckily, another cameraman was nearby to capture the whole incident on film.

With the camera still running, the manta ray made a 8 minute run, and finally dropped the gear off completely undamaged just yards from the dive boat. Apparently the manta ray just wanted to contribute some footage of its own.

Elena Kalis is a Bahamas-based photographer that specializes in underwater photography. Among her projects are a series of photographs that put an underwater twist on Alice in Wonderland.
Read the rest of this entry »

Chuck Patterson was SUP surfing with friends one day when two sharks joined them and circled around for 15 minutes. Rather than have the encounter deter them from surfing there again like it would for mortals, he returned to the same place the next day at the same time with a Go Pro HD HERO camera at the end of 10 foot pole.

Within 5 minutes a Great White shark approached him, and this time he was able to capture the encounter on film. The footage is pretty creepy, and reminded me of a Godzilla movie I saw when I was younger, where a scuba-diver runs into a freaky looking Godzilla-tadpole thing underwater. No ocean swimming for me.

Here’s a really neat video about the making of a Speedo ad campaign that is running all across Europe right now. The video traces the production from its conceptualization to its final post-processing and illustration. The actual shoot and filming took place at the Pinewood Studios Underwater Stage in the UK, where several major films were also shot, including many 007 and Harry Potter movies. It’s pretty remarkable to see so much equipment underwater.

(via f stoppers)

In 1998, this US Navy photo was published, showing a Nikonos camera no one recognized from the IPTC caption:

NAVAL AIR BASE CORONADO, California (June 8, 1998) — Navy SEALs attached to SEAL Team One, Naval Air Base Coronado, CA, conducts training using the Nikon/Kodak DCS 425 underwater digital camera which can sends real time digital images to decision makers, and an LPI LPD tracking device uses brevity codes to send both mission status and precise longitude/latitude. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Ted Banks. (RELEASED)

The enigmatic photo and description sparked much interest — this is a digital SLR that requires no underwater casing, and was far advanced for its time with its built-in tracking, real-time uploading, GPS, and communications. The underwater film Nikonos RS camera existed on the market already, but this futuristic iteration was unheard of in 1998.

What’s more, Kodak denied existence of the camera altogether. When Jarle Aasland of NikonWeb did some research into the matter in 2005, Kodak told him:

“I’m sorry but those cameras never existed here at Eastman Kodak. We never made cameras for that specific use. The information you have is incorrect.”

Another Kodak source told him:

“I think the issue is who they were made for.”

After further investigation into the mythical camera, Aasland finally found photos of the camera listed on eBay, hard evidence of the cameras existence. He published a story on his findings.

Days after Aasland published his article, he was contacted by Kodak’s lead engineer for the DCS cameras, Jim McGarvey. As it turns out, the camera was not quite top secret, but it was so low-profile that few knew about it, including Kodak Professional, McGarvey said. Quite simply, the specialized cameras were not advertised on a consumer level, since they were designed for government use, McGarvey wrote:

“The Nikonos body cameras were made by Kodak’s Commercial & Government Systems division. Through most of the DCS years, that group would take our commercial camera designs and adapt them for government and other special needs. Some of that work was secret, but most of the products were simply only marketed in limited venues and didn’t appear on the commer[c]ical photography radar screens. I don’t think the Nikonos cameras were ever actually secret.

…I have no idea how many Nikonos units were built, but I doubt the total would be over 100. They had no super secret special communications stuff, just standard DCS420 features.”

While it’s still highly unlikely that we’ll see such a formidable does-it-all camera on the mainstream market anytime soon, it’s pretty fascinating to see how today’s consumer products are taking a step in that direction. Some 12 years after the legendary digital Nikonos, we’ve got cameras equipped with GPS, wi-fi enabled cards for real-time uploading, and a plethora of hardy, underwater point-and-shoots on the market.

(via Nikon Rumors)

American vacationers John and Patti Muldowney took a snapshot during a snorkeling excursion off the coast of Aruba last fall, and turned up a photo that shows what appears to be human skeletal remains.

Five years ago, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway went missing while on vacation in Aruba. Aruban authorities suspected the remains may belong to Holloway, and have renewed their search for a missing girl’s body last weekend with little luck. However, forensic experts do not think the photo is of a body at all, but might be a product of rock formations and overactive imaginations.

In any case, this mystery might have been easier to solve if the Muldowneys’ camera was equipped with a GPS capability.

(via CBS News)