The Azul Ocean July and August 2010 Newsletter

Hello from The Azul Ocean by Arthur Koch. The week of June 12th I had the opportunity to attend the Stephen Frink Digital Masters Underwater Photography class in Key Largo Florida. Steve is possibly the most published underwater photographer in the world and a member of Canon elite list of Explorer’s of Light. The class consisted of 6 days of instruction. We started each day with 2 dives, afternoon instruction and evening photo critique of our images captured earlier that day. What I found excellent about the class. We have all heard horror stories about other underwater photography classes, where the instructor is more interested in their own diving, adding stock images or afraid to divulge techniques in fear of loosing business. Steve was the complete opposite and worked with each student to improve their skills by reviewing equipment, set-up and techniques’. Steve’s goal was to educate how to capture the image seen through viewfinders, to tell our story and reduce the number of “lucky” shots. We also received expert training on Adobe’s Photoshop CS5, Elements and Lightroom 3.0 by Canon Explorer’s of Light guru Eddie Tapp. Key lessons: Exposure test for my camera and strobes, white balance settings, subject zone classifications, ambient lighting settings and rear curtain sync. From the post productions side and new functionally in CS5: content aware, puppet warp, lens correction in camera raw 6.1 and HDR-High Dynamic range. For additional information about the class and the instructors check out their web sites. Stephen Frink, Canon Explorer of Light. www.stephenfrinkphoto.com/ Eddie Tapp, Canon Explorer of Light. http://eddietapp.com/blog/ The Azul Ocean had the opportunity to be part of Cedar Creek Galleries Ocean Awareness Evening June 26th. I cannot express my feelings toward the evening! It was the most positive and energy filled event I’ve been part of in a very long time. As an artist it was awesome to see 150 plus people come together to learn how they can help save the oceans. Special thanks for Kenny Shore for providing live music, Whole Food Markets for dinner, Alan and Rosemary Bennett for ceramic sculpting and raku firing demonstrations and donating the sculpture for auction, Dave Farrar of Gypsy Divers Aquatic Center for donating his staff for movie and food set-up, and open water dive certification for the raffle, Lisa Oakley for donating one of her glass bowls, The Azul Ocean by Arthur Koch for donating 2 limited edition prints and use of the documentary The End of The Line and the entire staff of Cedar Creek for all their hard work and attention to detail to make the evening an complete success! For further information on each of the organizations that donated goods and service please see below. Kenny Shore Whole Foods Market Alan and Rosemary Bennett Cedar Creek Gallery Oakley Glass by Lisa Oakley Gypsy Divers Aquatic Center The Azul Ocean The Blue Ocean Institute The End of The Line: We have added galleries on the web site for expeditions to the Galapagos Islands, Equator in 2004, Tahiti in 2004, Honduras Bay Islands in 2006, Key Largo in 2010, North Carolina 2007 – 2010 and undated The Solomon Islands images. We have also added a picture from each location to our portfolio. During September we will be at The Durham Centerfest 2010, In historic Downtown Durham Central Park District, September 18th - 19th, Saturday 10am - 6pm and Sunday 12 Noon - 6pm. One stop shopping for art lovers. Each fall for 35 years, over 150 juried fine artists, craftsmen and performers from across the country gather together in Downtown Durham to dazzle, inspire, delight and entertain you. Find your perfect match at North Carolina's longest-running outdoor arts festival, where it's easy to find the art you love. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $4.00 at the gate ($12 suggested donation for families of 4 or more). Proceeds go towards the Durham Arts Council Annual Arts Fund, which supports arts programs, artists, and arts organizations in the community. If you are on Facebook you can check for updates at The Azul Ocean Fan Page. ??Don’t forget the catalog is available with all the images. For images printed on matte paper: sizes range from 5” x 7”, 8” x 10” and 11” x 14”, priced from $25 to $72.50, with edition sizes from 40 to 50. We have 5 fine art images available with a price ranging from $645 for acrylic to $1,375 for Giclée prints; edition size is limited to 7. Bag tags: available individually for $5, or the complete set of six for only $19.95. All prices include shipping and handling. As always thanks for subscribing to The Azul Ocean monthly newsletter! For more frequent updates on our activities follow us on Twitter and at the Facebook fan page. Thanks, Arthur Koch