X-Ray Mag

X-Ray Mag #80

Andrey Shpatak
Cover image issue 80
90 spreads (double pages)
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X-Ray Mag Global edition   ~50 Mb

Feature articles in this issue with stand-alone pdfs

Don Silcock   Don Silcock
Travel & Trips

World War II came to the Australian territory of Papua New Guinea in January 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Rabaul in New Britain, followed shortly after by the taking of Kavieng in New Ireland. The invasion turned Papua New Guinea into a major theatre of war in the battle for the Pacific, and there were many brutal encounters between the invading Japanese and the defending Allied forces.

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Don Kinney   Don Kinney
Equipment

The article, “UK under pressure to test cylinders annually,” published in the previous issue (#79) was informative, but appeared to be unfairly attacking standards in the United States.

Without getting into some of the specific arguments, since they are subjective, I would like to address the misinformation on how annual cylinder inspections are conducted in many countries.

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Edited by Gunild Symes   Derek DeYoung
Abstract Brookie – Summer Night, by Derek DeYoung
Lifestyle & Art

American artist Derek DeYoung creates unique and spell-binding paintings of fresh and saltwater fish, which spur viewers to see and appreciate marine life in a different way. X-Ray Mag interviewed the artist to find out more about his work and his perspectives.

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Barb Roy and Wayne Grant   Barb Roy
Travel & Trips

Referred to as the Salish Sea by local aboriginal people, the coastal inland waters stretching from Puget Sound to Johnstone Strait provide a vast and diverse area for scuba divers to explore. Not only are these temperate, nutrient-rich waters teeming with colorful marine critters of all sizes, visitors can enjoy underwater activities like photography, shipwrecks, deep walls and drift diving.

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Andrey Bizyukin   Andrey Shpatak
Travel & Trips

With sanctions in recent years placed on Russia by Western governments, divers, once used to traveling abroad to exotic dive destinations, turned to their own country for inspiration. In doing this, Andrey Bizyukin discovered a diving paradise practically in his own backyard.

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Don Silcock   Don Silcock
Sperm whale with calf
Travel & Trips

Like the tips of icebergs, the islands of the Azores archipelago are just the visible peaks of a remarkable chain of underwater mountains that rank among some of the highest in the world. Those mountains rise up from the Azores Platform, a huge area of nearly 6 million km², which in itself is just a small part of the amazing Mid-Atlantic Ridge that runs the complete length of the Atlantic Ocean—from the far north and the Arctic Ocean, to the deep south and the Southern Ocean.

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Edited by Gunild Symes   Lilian Koh
Photo & Video Profiles & Interviews

A close encounter with manta rays in 2000 inspired Lilian Koh of Singapore to take up scuba diving and underwater photography. Also drawn to tiny critters, her macro photography has won top awards.

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Edited by Gunild Symes   Lilian Koh
Photo & Video Profiles & Interviews

A close encounter with manta rays in 2000 inspired Lilian Koh of Singapore to take up scuba diving and underwater photography. Also drawn to tiny critters, her macro photography has won top awards.

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Aleksei Kondratuk   Aleksei Kondratuk
Travel & Trips

In many science fiction movies today—those with alien spaceships—the aliens look very similar to some of the underwater inhabitants of our own planet. Indeed, there is no need to invent some mythical creature to stir up the imagination of the viewer; it is enough just to show an image of a jellyfish, an octopus or a giant crab. And this story is all about the king crabs. There is no need to make deep dives, requiring special training and techniques, to see these aliens underwater. All you need is a little luck and to be in the right place at the right time.

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Michael Menduno  
Wrecks & Archaeology Tech and Training

June 2017 — Fifty-six-year-old explorer Martin McClellan is determined to revisit the SS Tahoe to conduct an extensive photogrammetric survey of the wreck. The 169ft (52m)-long 19th century steamship, which was scuttled in 1940, rests intact on a steep underwater slope at a maximum depth of 470ffw (144mfw) beneath Glenbrook Bay in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA.

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Michael Menduno  
Wrecks & Archaeology Tech and Training

June 2017 — Fifty-six-year-old explorer Martin McClellan is determined to revisit the SS Tahoe to conduct an extensive photogrammetric survey of the wreck. The 169ft (52m)-long 19th century steamship, which was scuttled in 1940, rests intact on a steep underwater slope at a maximum depth of 470ffw (144mfw) beneath Glenbrook Bay in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA.

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Gareth Lock  
Tech and Training

Diving is a sport which has an inherent risk of death or serious injury due to the aquatic environment in which the activity takes place. These risks are not just limited to drowning or decompression sickness, but many other issues like entanglement, injuries from the flora and fauna, or trauma. However, the positive side is that there are massive benefits that can be realised, including exposure to amazing underwater creatures from macro-level fauna to whale sharks and everything in between, wrecks full of interesting artifacts and life, cave systems with unique and marvelous geology, or just the serenity achieved by floating in the water, watching the world go by.

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Mike Bartick   Mike Bartick
Photo & Video

Supersize your macro images by going beyond 1:1. In the past, going beyond the limits of shooting true 1:1 macro seemed nearly impossible. Homemade magnifiers increased the subject size for sure but lacked in quality, while other “wet lenses” did not offer much in the way of magnification. However, with the surge of wet lenses on the market over the past few years, diopters in varying strengths have managed to achieve both magnification and increased quality, making super macro readily available to anyone wanting to go beyond 1:1.

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Matt Jevon  
Tech and Training

There may not be an "I" in team, but there's one in "win", "live", "first" and "dive"!

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Simon Pridmore  
Tech and Training

In 2005, Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman wrote his book, The World Is Flat, describing the epoch-defining effects of technological globalisation in the early 21st century. He explained his use of the word “flat” as meaning “equalising.” That is, equalising power, knowledge, opportunity and the ability to connect, compete and collaborate.

One consequence of this flattening that Friedman did not cover in the book is the worldwide expansion of scuba diving as a recreational activity.

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