From a family of avid photographers, our get togethers had slide shows most nights. I was focused on physical activities, dreaming to be in the Olympics &/or National Geographic Explorer. At age 28 I spent late winter living on a frozen lake 25 miles below the Arctic Circle in central Alaska. I bought a full Canon A-1 kit before I went to the airport and it's a good thing it was an automatic because I was clueless. As a portable oil & gas exploration surveyor, I was lucky enough to be in so many incredible places it didn't matter that I only shot the 50mm in Auto. I was hooked! It was with me the next couple months surveying the Utah & Nevada mountains by chopper. The camera gear just went in for a dust cleaning when I was sent back to Alaska for a summer job. It was so humid in the bush my theodolite had to sit in front of a fan all night to stay dry enough to work. My camera would have likely fared worse, but every time I came upon an amazing sight I felt the emptiness. Helicopters in the desert mountains, mogul skiing, extreme snowboarding and motorcycles pushed me away from SLR's. I don't remember my first P&S, but I do remember shooting over the shoulder at a slab slide as I snowboarded out from under it! After moving to Maui, I got a Nikonus V to prove I was seeing sharks on my free dives into the caverns. Whales led to a fast SLR and super zoom for surface intervals. Inheriting dad's Nikonus SB-101 strobe brought the underwater colors out and sucked me in for good! I read lots of magazine articles and sponged a few sage tips (don't bother with ttl). I was blessed to have spectacular subject matter, as well as more that a little luck (right place right time). A few years in Monterey put the SLR back in my hands, for whale watches and coastal wildlife, but I yearned for Maui. A couple months in Key Largo earned my SCUBA instructor credentials, and a Stephen Frink photo-pro course from Michael Waters prepared me for 16 great rebreather dives with my new Nikonus V/20mm lens/Ike SS200 rig. Returning to Hawaii, the world was going digital. I surfed the web extensively to decide on the Oly 5050. I knew I needed wide angle and my Ike strobe was more than competent shooting manual. Soon I had photo's on display in the dive shop gallery where I worked, and sold many matted prints to neighbors, tourists and craft fair patrons. Unfortunately that was Oahu's North Shore and I just had to be on Maui. There's more good scuba instructors here and more good underwater photographers as well, so getting noticed requires more effort. I need to find a dive model/girlfriend with a gift for marketing! http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/My-Smug-Mug/Supermano/243133721_eTiXk-Ti.jpg http://halemano.smugmug.com/popular/ 2010-01-06T12:34:04Z Copyright 2010, the copyright holder of each photograph. Some portions copyright SmugMug. All rights reserved. SmugMug <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />SpookyDescent</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Sea-Tiger/4157254_RCKYZ#242679813_2pDcz" title="SpookyDescent"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Sea-Tiger/-/242679813_2pDcz-Th.jpg" width="113" height="150" alt="SpookyDescent" title="SpookyDescent" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:11:43Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Sea-Tiger/-/242679813_2pDcz-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />IMG_2965</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Dolphins/4157322_PJfpc#242683268_gtyAq" title="IMG_2965"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Dolphins/-/242683268_gtyAq-Th.jpg" width="113" height="150" alt="IMG_2965" title="IMG_2965" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:08:49Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Dolphins/-/242683268_gtyAq-Th.jpg 2006-05-02 15:28:33 <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />IMG_2966</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Dolphins/4157322_PJfpc#242683269_fxV6h" title="IMG_2966"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Dolphins/-/242683269_fxV6h-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="IMG_2966" title="IMG_2966" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:08:22Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Dolphins/-/242683269_fxV6h-Th.jpg 2006-05-02 15:29:16 <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />DoubleDigitCleaners</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Underwater/Helms-Canyon/4157317_EQVoX#242682880_7vJjo" title="DoubleDigitCleaners"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Underwater/Helms-Canyon/-/242682880_7vJjo-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="DoubleDigitCleaners" title="DoubleDigitCleaners" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:08:31Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Underwater/Helms-Canyon/-/242682880_7vJjo-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />EagleRayEats</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Underwater/Helms-Canyon/4157317_EQVoX#242682875_nsSsm" title="EagleRayEats"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Underwater/Helms-Canyon/-/242682875_nsSsm-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="EagleRayEats" title="EagleRayEats" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:08:35Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Underwater/Helms-Canyon/-/242682875_nsSsm-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />SanPedroWhiteTip</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/KewaloBasin/4157299_oX3hV#242682293_x2WBQ" title="SanPedroWhiteTip"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/KewaloBasin/-/242682293_x2WBQ-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="SanPedroWhiteTip" title="SanPedroWhiteTip" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:12:04Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/KewaloBasin/-/242682293_x2WBQ-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />MahiEagleRay</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Mahi-Wreck-Dive/4157296_Ct5hg#242682218_8NRzd" title="MahiEagleRay"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Mahi-Wreck-Dive/-/242682218_8NRzd-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="MahiEagleRay" title="MahiEagleRay" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:07:51Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Mahi-Wreck-Dive/-/242682218_8NRzd-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />P1010012</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/4157276_WsQ2U#242682158_NUHC8" title="P1010012"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242682158_NUHC8-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="P1010012" title="P1010012" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:09:45Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242682158_NUHC8-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />CuriousCutie</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/4157276_WsQ2U#242682143_Q3L87" title="CuriousCutie"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242682143_Q3L87-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="CuriousCutie" title="CuriousCutie" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:09:28Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242682143_Q3L87-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />BabyBreach</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Maui/4157289_rm5rk#242681898_jrNG9" title="BabyBreach"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Maui/-/242681898_jrNG9-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="BabyBreach" title="BabyBreach" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:08:34Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/Maui/-/242681898_jrNG9-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />Seal</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/4157276_WsQ2U#242681160_DXUst" title="Seal"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242681160_DXUst-Th.jpg" width="150" height="103" alt="Seal" title="Seal" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:10:15Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242681160_DXUst-Th.jpg <p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com">halemano</a><br />Hitchhiker</p><p><a href="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/4157276_WsQ2U#242681151_x5cDM" title="Hitchhiker"><img src="http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242681151_x5cDM-Th.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="Hitchhiker" title="Hitchhiker" style="border: 1px solid #000000;" /></a></p> 2009-01-20T16:07:40Z halemano http://halemano.smugmug.com http://halemano.smugmug.com/Other/PhotoMail-Uploads/-/242681151_x5cDM-Th.jpg