Dinner with Some Giants in the Industry 11/30/07

Most of my blog entries so far have been about our activities on the water with fish and marine mammals, but today I'm going to write about how I spend some of my free moments on dry land with the two-legged critters. Masa and I were invited to a dinner party at the Kona home of our friend, Steve Drogin, who is also one of our SeaPics.com photographers. He and his wife, Hiro, reside in La Jolla, California, but they have a lovely house here on the Big Island, which they visit between boating excursions around the world.

Steve Drogin is first and foremost, a fantastic photographer, and SeaPics.com has over 300 of his images in our database. His work has been featured in BBC productions, the Discovery Channel, Disney's Living Seas, as well as in countless books and dive magazines. He is also an environmentalist, and he gives lectures on marine life and the environment around the world. Besides this image of blue sharks, SeaPics.com has great photos from Steve of manta rays, Hawaiian monk seals, nudibranches, and more. Click this link–Steve Drogin pix-to see all of his amazing photos on our site.

Steve was in town after a visit to Easter Island. Before that, he had been in Costa Rica at Cocos Island, where he actually has a submarine that can take passengers to depths of 1,500 feet. Now many of us dream of having a nice boat to cruise the world, but Steve has his own submarine! Of course, it's a commercial operation, so he doesn't really have unlimited use of it, but still… What undersea photographer wouldn't love to have their own submarine? Anyway, if you are ever interested in going 457 meters deep off the coast of Cocos Island, and you've got about $2,500 to spare for a ticket, then consider the Deep See excursion. Prices actually start at about US $600 for a 100-meter dive. Check out the Deep See website here for more details. And no, I'm not getting a cut of the sales; this is just a friendly link to a friend's site! The sub photo, by the way, was taken by Steven's friend, Mark Conlin, a SeaPics.com photographer with nearly 1,800 images in our database (see Mark Conlin pix).

While at Steve's dinner party, we had the opportunity to meet Bob Talbot, another well-known person in photography and film. He's a world-renowned marine photographer and an award-winning film-maker. His film credits include "Free Willy," "Flipper" (1996), the Imax motion simulation film "Dolphins-the Ride," and most recently, Imax's "Oceanmen-Extreme Dive." For those of you who don't read film credits, you may be familiar with Bob Talbot from his iconic images of marine life and seascapes that have appeared in posters throughout the world.

Talking to Bob that night was fascinating, as he's a true visionary in future environmentalism, and he's committed himself to ending our destructive treatment of the planet. One of the reasons he's in Hawaii is because he's shooting in the Northwest Hawaiian islands for a film project on the health of the oceans. According to Bob, this will be a kind of "Inconvenient Truth" about the marine environment, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it. To learn more about Bob and his activities, visit his website at the Talbot Collection.

Besides Bob Talbot (center) in this photo, there are some other people of note. Masa, the SeaPics.com photographer and tech expert, who appears in every fishing excursion blog with me, is there, center left (see Masa Ushioda pix). And on the right are Carlos Eyles and his wife Margaret. Carlos is another amazing SeaPics.com photographer (see Carlos Eyles pix). His photos are notable for their artistic composition and the amazing underside angles he often gets. Carlos and his wife are both excellent freedivers, and they can swim below the animals and look up to see them silhouetted against the surface. Amazing, the depths they can reach and the unique shots Carlos can get. Margaret is famous in Kona for being a rolfing therapist, and Carlos is an accomplished author. Finally, that's me, Kona Sue, on the left. You didn't actually think I was a green fish, like in my profile photo, did you? Well now the secret's out!

Are you all tired of me name-dropping yet? Well, you'll have to bear with me, as an upcoming blog will be about Wyland, the artist, who was in town recently, and who went out on the boat with Masa and me. Watch for that soon!

Kona Sue

Links
http://www.seapics.com
http://www.underseahunter.com/uh.htm
http://www.talbotcollection.com/

Bob Talbot sponsored or affiliated environmental organization links:
www.seashepherd.org
www.oceana.org
http://www.legaseaproject.org/
http://oneearth.org/