Tuesday May 17, CUPS Meeting

Howard Witkin will be presenting. “I've come to realize there are 4 distinct disciplines all of which play a very important part in being a really good underwater photographer; photography, computer work (Photoshop or other software), printing, and diving.  During the presentation I will try and tie all 4 together and how I increased my knowledge in each and eagerly continue my education in all 4”.

Also New members Chas Isenhart and George Panagos have offered to present 10-15 mins of edited HD video that we could show and then talk about our experience.
Whale sharks, bottlenose dolphins, Galapagos, silky, white tip, hammer-head, silver tip sharks and a lot of giant mantas all there on tape.

CUPS April Meeting: Bring 5-10 images to be critiqued for the A-1 May sale show .

Meanwhile, CUPS Meets on Third Tuesdays at Reed Photo Imaging
6:30PM  (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. We highly recomend using them for your imaging needs. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

March Meeting features Nick Ferris on Anemonefish

For the March 18th meeting CUPS member Nick Ferris our very own Anemonefish aficionado will present a specially focused discussion on Anemonefish their habitat and behavior.

The talk examines the relationship between the fish and their host anemone; why the Anemonefish are immune to anemone stings; true and false clowns; the "skunk" Anemonefish confusion; the white bonnet hybrid; and the color/pattern variation in the Clark's.

For the second half of the meeting members are encouraged to bring with them 5-10 images of Anemonefish to discuss.

Here are some links to some Google’s most popular Anemonefish websites.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/clown-anemonefish.html

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=29

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/apercula.htm

Meanwhile, CUPS Meets on Third Tuesdays at Reed Photo Imaging
6:30PM  (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. We highly recomend using them for your imaging needs. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

CUPS February Meeting

This February 19th Meeting will be a free for all of the most interesting, exciting and unique images in your collection. The theme is “Any Thing Goes” this will offer you an opportunity to be creative and share your more unusual photos with CUPS members. Time limits will based on participation so bring aprox. 25 images and 15 minute maximum presentation; be prepared to limit it to less. We will provide a digital projection setup, if you need to project with slides please bring your own or email jgdiver51@hotmail.com ASAP and we will try to get one. Images should be on labeled thumb drive, CD or DVD with file titled “CUPS Any Thing Goes 08“. Time permitting we will incorporate discussion into each presentation. - See you there, CUPS Presentation Committee

Meanwhile, CUPS Meets on Third Tuesdays at Reed Photo Imaging
6:30PM at Reed Photo Imaging  - (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

New Links: http://imagingfoundation.org/     http://innovativeimagemakers.com/ Denver Based

January Meeting will be on 4th Tuesday the 22nd we will have a presentation on the Philippines from Lynn Taylor of A-1 Scuba and Travel. This should be a very EXCITING PRESENTATION because we have never had a presentation on the PHILIPPINES. I recently talked to a diver who had just come back and were raving about it. Members please bring 5-10 images on disk or thumb drive to share for the second half of presentation. New Members that haven't attended a meeting yet this would be a great way to start.

Meanwhile, CUPS Meets on Third Tuesdays at Reed Photo Imaging
6:30PM at Reed Photo Imaging  - (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

CUPS AUGUST 21st Meeting

Doug Sloss, a local resident and underwater photographer has developed Photoshop® techniques that are unique and available to members. Some of these techniques will be shared at our next CUPS meeting as the featured presenter. More details on this link click here.

Meanwhile, CUPS Meets on Third Tuesdays at Reed Photo Imaging
6:30PM at Reed Photo Imaging  - (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

Mark your calendar for July 17 Meeting
Amber Blecker will be presenting "Palau and Truk - It's More Than Sharks and Wrecks"
Presentation on Truk & Palau, the diving, logistics (how to get there, options on where to stay, liveaboard vs. land based, the diving), and the culture and history of the islands.

The second half will be 5-10 slides or digital images of  Sharks and Wrecks by our members.

Meanwhile, CUPS Meets on Third Tuesdays at Reed Photo Imaging
6:30PM at Reed Photo Imaging  - (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

CUPS and A-1 Scuba & Travel Center Competition Winners announced!

Chuck Catlett	Salt Pier / The Grandeur	1ST PLACE
Mark Adams	Bob the Pygmy Seahorse	2ND PLACE
Amber Blecker	I (heart) Octopi	3RD PLACE
Allan Vandeford	Turtle Cleaning Station	PEOPLE'S CHOICE

Many thanks to A-1 for allowing us to use their space and Denver Digital Imaging Center  for donating prizes! Thanx, too, to CUPS member John Warn for his leadership and judges Holly Alentado, owner of Island Photo in Cozumel, Mexico, and Greg Gephardt, representative for Sea & Sea underwater photo products. (Read the full details here)

The Best Coral Reef Diving So Far 
Komodo in May 2007 on the MV Tarata
by Mel Cundiff

The MV Tarata is a 79-foot Indonesian Bugis-style wooden live aboard ship with a 17-foot beam and six cabins for 12 divers below deck.  The cabins are of moderate size and have AC and ensuite bathrooms/showers with ample hot water.  The two dive masters, Sebastian and Johnny, among the 11-person Indonesian crew could speak good English and were very helpful in locating fish and critters for us. Read the full story here

CUPS and A-1 Scuba & Travel Center Competition Winners announced!

Many thanks to A-1 for allowing us to use their space and Denver Digital Imaging Center  for donating prizes! Thanx, too, to CUPS member John Warn for his leadership and judges Holly Alentado, owner of Island Photo in Cozumel, Mexico, and Greg Gephardt, representative for Sea & Sea underwater photo products.

Photographer	Photo Title/Subject	WINNERS
Chuck Catlett	Salt Pier / The Grandeur	1ST PLACE
Mark Adams	Bob the Pygmy Seahorse	2ND PLACE
Amber Blecker	I (heart) Octopi	3RD PLACE
Allan Vandeford	Turtle Cleaning Station	PEOPLE'S CHOICE
Larissa Roorda	Palau Pipe	Honorable mention
Wes Underwood	Shy Seahorse	"
Lee Ann Holwager	Lazy Turtle	"
Michelle Catlett	Monkey Face	"
Ken Harbert	Nudibranch, Risbecia tryoni	"
Carl Brownd	Grey Reef Shark	"
Dave Louch	Joelle's 100th Dive	"
Melanie Moore	Don't Get Eaten By A Whaleshark	"
John Gordon	Tiny Dancers	"
Debra Wolff	Dolphins -- Follow the Leader	"

Nick and Mid Ferris return to Cozumel after 24 years 
by Nick Ferris, 10 Feb. 2007

Mid and I returned to Cozumel last week, after a 24 year absence. We had some equipment to check out before we did any expensive diving on the other side of the world. Yes, we had to give up snow shoveling. There’s a drawback to everything. We went via Frontier Airlines, direct 3 hours, Apple Vacations. Mark Stephenson at Rocky Mountain Diving made the arrangements. We stayed at the 3 Star Casa del Mar. Not at all bad – good service, excellent meals. Lots of divers, wet suits draped over railings and bushes. And across the street past some hurricane wreckage is a dock where the dive boat picked us up. That avoided cab rides with heaps of wet stuff.

Diving was with Alison Dennis of Alison@scubawithalison.com. No cattleboat, her 25 (or so) foot open boat, the Enigma, with two outboard motors zips right along to wherever the six (or fewer) divers want to go. We mostly stayed away from the major wall dive locations. Our three dive days were all different because of changing weather, from crummy to excellent. Current is always there, sometimes a bit too much for housed camera photography. But the big, beautiful queen angelfish, (and gray, and French), and filefish, grunts, snappers, and barracuda are present regardless. A hawksbill turtle was close enough to touch,   we got next to a barracuda being cleaned, and saw our first big nurse shark.

Meanwhile, the patch reefs on a sloping sand base still have some sand on the coral and sponges, but are gradually “coming back”. Small gorgonians are sprouting up. Water temperature was 79 to 80 degrees.

Surfacing was a new experience. All the dives are drift dives – no anchorages or mooring buoys. Theoretically, the dive boat drifts along above the divers. But maybe not, for a variety of reasons. So Alison takes divers low on air (700 psi) up to 15 feet and inflates a yellow tube on a string. The tube shows the boat operator where the divers are preparing to surface. After 3 minutes the divers surface, Alison goes down after more divers, and the boat arrives. This seems overly protective, but it contrasts with the indifferent practices of 25 years ago which lost 50 to 80 divers a year. If seas are running the boat lays to and rolls, making climbing the ladder a strenuous adventure. Still, I’d like to go back. (Ed. This article has also been added to the Dive Trip Reports section)

Chuck Catlett posts pix from Bonaire
Check them out on the CUPS Forums

February 20 - Next CUPS Meeting
Tuesday February 20, 6:30pm at Reed Photo Imaging
(socializing until 7:00pm). 

Program details to be announced.

We meet on the third Tuesday of each month, at Reed Photo Imaging , 888 Federal (map).

CUPS August 15 meeting featured:

• Feature Presentation: Converting Film to Digital - Nick Ferris
• Second presentation: Composition Tips & Tricks - John Gordon and Wes Underwood
• Update on August 1 Organizational meeting

AUGUST MEETING:  Tuesday August 15th, 6:30PM at Reed Photo Imaging (socializing until 7:00pm).  A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30 and 7:00.  We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed, and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. For directions, see:   http://www.reedphoto.com/find-us.html

Feature Presentation:  "Converting Film to Digital",  CUPS Member Nick  Ferris will give a presentation on canning slides and film for  converting to digital format.

Second Presentation:  "Composition Tips & Tricks",  John Gordon and  Wes Underwood will present different techniques and ideas for giving  your photos better composition and "Wow".

Business Meeting:  A status report from the Organizational meeting  held on August 1st.

Archive - CUPS Organizational Meeting - August 1
Posted July 26, 2006 - Wes Underwood

We will be meeting on Tuesday evening the 1st August for an  organizational type of meeting (Margaritas and Business).  We will  continue discussion on the details of forming the organization, board  members, dues, upcoming events, etc?  Meeting will be held at 7:00pm  at Senor Sol's (across the street from the Downtown Aquarium.)

For those of you who missed the meeting on July 18th, we received a  status report from Brandt on the organizational efforts taking place  to establish CUPS as a non-profit entity.  Initial paperwork has been 
filed, and more of the required documents are in process.

In order to proceed with organizational details such as officers and directors, it was suggested to get an idea of how many of our current  members might be interested in participating at this level.  It has  been suggested that we would operate with a group of possibly 5-7  board members who would participate in the organizational efforts of  operating and guiding the group.  This number would allow the work to  be shared so as not to overly burden anyone, and make participation in  the board a good experience instead of a burdensome task.
In order to get an idea of how many people would be willing to  participate as an officer or board member, a link will be situp on the  website which will take a poll of those interested (this is not a  final commitment), and also to gather ideas.

Please RSVP if you will be attending the meeting on August 1st so we can make the appropriate arrangements.
wes@scuba-stuff.com

Great lineup for the Fall
Posted June 22, 2006 - John Daigle

At the June meeting and social Tuesday June 20th, John Gordon led us in a discussion of "plannng ahead" for future CUPS meeting programs. The tentative line up will have lots of tips from "Digitizing Film/Slides" to Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Photoshop tips, Video tricks and of course, great photo-trip reports from our members.

A partial list of programs so far: John Warn (still techniques and Video Techniques from Betty!), Amber Blecker (Cozumel coverage) , Brant Davis (Basic Photoshop), Nick Ferris (Digitizing Film/Slides, John Daigle (Video technique) and Carol Harper.

CUPS to become a formal organization.  Since it's inception, CUPS has prided itself in not "fussing" over organizational formalities. Rather, the idea is to concentrate on sharing underwater photographic ideas and experiences among our members. However there are advantages to becoming a formal entity and CUPS members are taking steps to create one.A "provisional" set of officers is in the making.  Wes Underwood, president, John Gordon vice president, Loren Laureti as secretary-treasurer to get things going. More provisional officers will be announced pending their acceptance of nominations.

Jack Kirk will research possible structures used by other UPSs that we may want to emulate. Brant has also done a ton of research and may have a "pro bono" lawyer available to help. Loren has volunteered to assist with QuickBooks for the accounting so we are off and running!

The best way to be sure you are counted among the "charter" members is to register for the CUPS Online Website. It's free and easy to do. Just click the "Register" link at the top right of this page (if you haven't already!).

Everybody in the pool!
Brant Davis has suggested we commandeer Wes Underwood into leading a "pool meeting" next Fall so Wes can repeat a terrific class on camera/buoyancy issues. More soon, stay tuned.

B&H Photo and Popular Photography announce Denver Digital Days Workshop September 23-24. (Details soon). Thanx to Richard Barthorpe and Sonia Atwood for submitting this news.

JULY MEETING
The July Meeting for cups will be a presentation on Multi-location in Fiji By Member John Warn The second half of the meeting will be Proposal of Bylaws, Nomination of officers.

JUNE MEETING
Tuesday June 20th was held a El Senor Sol for organizing the next 6-12 presentations and socializing. Details on the Forum here.

APRIL MEETING
Feature Presentation:  "The ABC's of Bonaire" CUPS Members Chuck and Michelle Catlett with give a presentation covering getting there, places to stay, getting around, and the yes, the diving.

March Meeting News

Presentation : Sea of Cortez  Now and Then

CUPS Members Nick Ferris, Carol Harper, Brant Davis, John Gordon and Ed Sauer & Sandra Schroth have all traveled to the Sea of Cortez and captured photo images and Video.

Nick Ferris was there in the late 80's and early 90's and photographed on film the topography and underwater sites to share historical archives of the time. More recently Carol Harper covered the same area on film. Most recently Brant Davis and John Gordon covered the same area near La Paz with digital imagery.  Ed Sauer & Sandra Schroth captured video of this destination in the recent time period.

The presentation will cover historical events in this area but the majority of images are underwater. We will start off with some travel tips and Nick's historical stills followed by Carol's film captures, then Brant and John's Digital stills. After an intermission the crescendo will be Ed and Sandra's video.

Please come join us for this unique adventure featuring the playful sea-lions.

CUPS meets on the third Tuesday of each month, at Reed Photo Imaging , 888 Federal (map).

The January meeting will feature a presentation By Holly Alentado of Island Photo-Video Center, on Cozumel and their progress after the latest hurricane. The second half of the presentations will be "Solutions to U/W Photo Problems" and "How to Market Your Photography" also by Holly. Please send questions to Holly before the meeting at photocozumel@ecozumel.net

If you have registered with cupsonline.net you were automatically given a gallery to upload to, please do so at your earliest convenience.

The Reed Photoart show has been put on hold for the time being it may be resurrected for a fall show or may not happen at all. If any of you know of a gallery that might be interested in hosting a CUPS spring show please let us know.

For those who made it to the holiday party hosted by Brant and Mary, it was a wonderful event, and great thanks for hosting this event!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday and is making lots of plans for SCUBA travel adventures for next year.  See you in January...

•    WELCOME ALL!!! December Meeting is a Christmas Party Social  Friday December 9th at 6:30pm
•    Member Brant Davis has graciously offered to host !

Drop-in for Holiday Cheer and Diving and U/W photography conversations and image sharing

You won't believe the decorations Brant and his wife put up!!!!!!!!!!!

And there will be special mystery guest!

For Directions and RSVP contact Brant here Click to Send Email
Update from Brant Link

• John Warn on Lembeh and Bali topside
• Orientation on how to use the new CUPS Online Website!

Tuesday November 15, 6:30 pm at Reed Photo Imaging - (socializing until 7:00pm). A CUPS member will be at the door to let you in between 6:30and 7:00. We are very lucky to be invited to use the facilities at Reed and to continue we must maintain the utmost respect of their facilities and employees. For directions (888 Federal Blvd), see: http://www.reedphoto.com/ 

The November meeting will feature a presentation by John Warn on Lembeh and some of Bali topside. Also Wes, Lee Ann and Chuck will give a tutorial on our new website for the second half of the evening.

Other News Items: Scuba Diving Magazine Photo Contest: The 2006 photo contest rules and entry details are posted online at http://www.scubadiving.com/photocontest/ Deadline is Dec 31, 2005.Exhibit Divers

Volunteers Divers Needed: The Downtown Aquarium is currently recruiting volunteer divers. Volunteers work through the Deep Blue Sea Foundation which is a non-profit organization.  Call the volunteer coordinator at
303-561-4429, or visit their website for more information.
http://www.downtownaquariumdenver.com