Behind the scenes...ISSUE # 20
Issue 20 begins shipping - May 2009
April 22, 2009
The mag is finally out of my hands and into the printers dirty mittens. Ya! This issue turned into one of the longest issues I have ever worked on. I took my time with each layout, making sure it looked good, but damn. I am just glad it is out of my hands now, and I now all I have to worry about is my back and forth emails and calls between me and the printer. Of course now I sit and worry about color and editing mistakes, and so on. Its a never ending thing. But at least I am done with this mag and I can somewhat rest for a day or two before it starts all over again.
I appologize for going silent much for much of this issue. Since this was the first edition of making the mag, I was not sure how to go about it, or what you all were interested in reading. I also felt guilty working on the web stuff when so much was left to do for this issue, and since i was so behind on getting this mag out, I decided to focus all my minutes on finishing this issue. Buts its done now, and out of my hands. No is the process where I wait... and wait... and wait, for those boxes to arrive.
Plans for mailing out this issue have already begun, I have gone out and purchased the brown envelopes you all are used to seeing, and stamping and labeling will begin on Monday. Whats left now is to archive these pages and prep for the next making the mag web page. Making the Mag for Issue 21 begins on Monday, April 27.
April 11, 2009
This mag has taken more time then I have ever experienced before. A lot has to do with the fact that I have been travelling quite a bit, more than usual during this time of year, and that we have been working with a few advertisers who needed a little bit of time to get their ads together, and so forth. But I have come to the tail end of the making of issue # 20, and I need to finish it up so I can move on to the next issue. Like with every issue I begin, it starts out with certain stories in mind and then ends up with others that I had no plans of putting in there.
This is mostly due to stories not being ready for print, or images that did not come in on time and so forth, or if I feel after looking at the story idea that it would better fit a later issue of SDM. The reason I bring this up is stories that were supposed to make it into this issue did not, and all the above is why I had to rearrange stories for this issue... So right now here is the current editorial for this issue;
-Chasing Sharks 2008 Highlights. With Paul Spielvogel, myself, Andy Murch and Nathan Meadows. (12 page report)
-To touch or not to Touch, by Jessica Spielvogel
-Sixgills in Seattle by Randy Peterson and Ed Gullekson.
-Shark Science by Jillian Morris
-Phantom Bulls by Eli Martinez, Images by Paul Spielvogel
-Marlin Baitballs by Nathan Meadows
-Fishrock by Nigel Marsh
Plus one surprise story... I am hoping I can get the article in this issue. It is an amazing encounter and the story is the very essence of what this sport is all about! When I first got the email about this shark encounter, I was excited about it, and also very skeptical, because who would belive an encounter with animal is possible. But then when they sent me some sample images I was on fire with wanting to publish this article. I truly hope I can get it into this issue because it will be the first time anyone gets to see anything like this...in any publication. So stoked! More firsts! If it does not make it into this issue, then it will be in the next one, but I truly want it to be in issue 20 because it is so mind blowing cool!
Anyway, this mag has also been taking a while to finish because I want it to be great, and my goal is always to make each issue better than our last, and I am so proud to say that it is! I know I say that with every issue, but this one truly is setting the bar for us. The mags that come out after this one are gonna be even harder to create because of what we did with this issue. All I can say is just wait and see... you will be pleased!
March 24, 2009
Here we are near the the end of the month and I am finally almost finished with this issue. I have been really working on this issue trying to make it look exciting and hip, and fun and so on... I decided to include a friend of mine in the making of this issue, I asked my good friend Tyler Ham to help me lay out one of the stories for this issue. For those of you that don't know who Tyler is, he contributed an article in our last issue of SDM (# 19 Island Time). Anyway Tyler is a shark junky and a talented artist, who spent most of his professional life working as a 3-D animator for ILM, which is George Lucas's studio. He worked on several monster movie projects like, The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, the latest Indiana Jones film, Transformers, and so on. He also worked on our film Summer of the Sharks. (I think that was his best work so far) Anyway, he had some free time so I asked him to layout one of the articles in the new issue, so he did, which was fantastic, and fun to include him in this issue as well. A surprise to find out which article was his.
I also finished up the hardest part of this issue for me, which was our reader trip journals. That one was hard to do, but it was so much fun, and it looks really good! The last article to finish was on our journal notes from our mako and blue shark trip in California. I had finished it, and was ok with the layout... I was not happy with it, but I felt I had spent too much time on it, so I needed to move on, and get working on the next article. Well so far this magazine has been an amazing experience and everything about this issue kicks ass, so I guess the shark diving god, Tibius, was not going to allow me to publish an article in this issue that is not amazing! Late last week, my good friend and the photographer who shot the images for that article, Heather Ryan called and told me she was going to make a surprise visit to our office (SDM HQ) here in Texas. She is going to be here for a week to help me kick off our Gulf of Mexico shark conservation project, which is a project we had been talking about for a while now. Anyway, she is also a talented artist and I asked her to sketch a drawing of her blue shark image I am publishing in this issue. She said no problem, so now she is going to draw the shark for this issue, which I am going to add to the story to finish it and give it that extra kick it needs to make it perfect...So when you see the drawn image, just know that it was done in my office, days away from going to print. Right before we headed out to the Gulf of Mexico to kick off a save the sharks campaign! That is just cool shit!
March 11, 2009
The hardest layout for this issue is cutting together our reader trip stories. I am putting together a photo and journal essay from all our travelling shooters who were out there with us this year...me, Andy Murch, Paul Spielvogel, and Nathan Meadows are all contributing to different stories from our adventures this year. The idea was to make it a 4 page spread but it has evolved into a 10 page story spread, which is kind of making me worry about fitting in certain stories now. So I am torn on what to do, and how to do it. I guess I just need more pages! I do not have the budget for it, but screw it, I will figure it all out.
Andy Murch, SDM shooter has not seen a recent copy of SDM in a while. He has been sailing around the world and has not had an address for me to ship him any mags. He was in Playa Carmen, diving with bulls and Chino, owner of Phantom Divers, gave him a copy of the latest issue, here is his email to me...
I got a copy of the mag from Chino. I thought this one looked really good. I haven't read it yet but it is well presented. Thanks for the spin you put on my angel article. I liked the presentation and the angle. It was a nice touch and it really summed up my world right now. Funny, sometimes it takes a third person's perspective to help you see how awesome your life is.
I see and read that and it makes me proud that here we are 19 issues in and I can still get our guys excited about the mag...can't wait to blow some minds with this issue as well!
February 26, 2009
As with each issue, I have to be organic, and willing to make neccesary changes. A couple of stories did not come in so I have to find alternate articles to fill in the missing spots. Eldad was not able to get me the conservation article in time so I had to find an alternate conservation piece to take its place. So I asked a shark diving friend if she would help us out. She said no problem... Jillian Morris is a field shark researcher who spends a lot of time at the Bimini Shark Lab, helping out with their tagging program. She has travelled abroad, helping different scientific teams with their research, spending some time tagging sharks in Australia as well.
Holding a juvenile lemon shark in a field pen off Bimini Island
This is her first article for us, and it won't be her last. In fact, expect a series of articles that will dive into the not so known world of field research work. It is extremely important and a thankless job. When we talked about this article, she mentioned how people react when she tells them they hook sharks and bring them up to the boat, they often cringe, I know I have been guilty of that in the past. But after reading her article, I am sure everyone will get a better understanding of why this work is so important.
I just sent the article off to Jessie for grammer editing, and should get it back in a couple of days. Which means I will be editing this article on a boat in the Bahamas. I am taking off for a few days to show a field reporter from NBC's The Today Show, some sharks. So in between, and after shooting, I will be editing -at least I will try to edit! Depends how insane the shark action is.
February 20, 2009
One of the most difficult cover selections I have ever made. I was fighting an internal battle for this one. This past November and December, our staff photographer, Paul Spielvogel took so many amazing shots of shark diver interactions at Tiger Beach, with so many images that were cover worthy, I really wanted to choose one for the cover. But I have already published tiger sharks on the cover, and I convinced myself that I did not want a tiger for the cover, at least for a couple of issues. So as good as these images were, I over looked them, and was searching for the right image for the cover of issue 20. Paul knew he had some cover shots in his portfolio and was itching to get another shot for the cover. He kept campaigning for it, ( I don't blame him) but I never commited to giving it to him. I explained to Paul about my distaste for over using a shark species. He understood, but knew he had some great images, so he persisted. Well this week I finally commited to an image, and unfortunately it was not Pauls.
I chose an image by Nigel Marsh, who has been sending me articles from the Land Down Under - Australia. Nigel has his own column called 'Nigel Marsh's Down Under Series', and has had articles in these past issues. (# 14, 'The Mysterious Colclough's Shark', # 15, 'A Swell Little Shark', # 16, 'Tawny Nurse Shark', # 17, 'Ihotiki - The Giants of Sogod Bay', # 18, 'A day with the Nurses'). He did not have an article for # 19, because he was travelling and did not submit an article in time for it. But he did for issue 20, and he got his first cover for us! This is also the first time a sandtiger shark (or grey nurse, or raggie) has graced the cover of our mag.
I was worried about publishing his story in issue 20, because it was about the grey nurse shark, and I had just published a story about grey nurses in issue 18, by Nigel. But the grey nurse encounters were from different parts of Australia so I decided it was ok. Plus when Nigel sent me his images for the article I knew he had an image that was cover worthy - actually there were a couple of cover worthy images in his portfolio, but the one I chose was my favorite. Once I saw that image, I knew it was going to be the cover for 20, it just felt right.
Nigel's article is about diving with grey nurse sharks at a shark spot called 'Fish Rock.' Our staff shooter, Andy Murch had just written a cover story about Fish Rock for issue # 16. However Andy wrote about the thick wobbegong population there, and only brushed lightly about the grey nurses. Nigel is totally focused on grey nurses for his story so I felt it was a great part 2 feel for that sharky dive spot.
I have never dove with Nigel before and we have talked about somehow making that happen in the near future. Nigel currently lives in Australia, and I am in Texas, so it is a long drive to find each other, but it will happen soon. Nigel is a hard core shark junky, and loves shark- period, regardless of size and/or habitat. I know a lot of shark people who claim to be solid shark lovers, but only love the big swimmers, and don't care about the bottom dwellers. Nigel is a core shark diver, and to him, a shark is a shark. I am looking forward to the day we can share a dive together.
Issue 20 cover
On a side note; The first person I shared the new cover with was Paul. He was disappointed that it was not his shot, but took one look at it and said I had made the right choice, it was a beautiful cover. Paul is a great shooter, and it won't be long before he has a second cover under his belt...
Paul's cover (Issue # 17).
February 16, 2009
I started working on the magazine again, after a 2 week lay off. I was off on an exploratory trip looking for bull sharks in Mexico which kept me too busy to work on the magazine. The currents are ripping over there, so the diving is laborous... But the story is also going to be added to this issue, and we came back with some amazing images that I am looking forward to sharing with you all.
I started working on an article this weekend, which is a piece about our 2008 shark diving season chasing sharks. It is really a "Notes from the Road" piece, that I normally write for the web, but this one will also contain writings from SDM shooters Andy Murch, Nathan Meadows, and Paul Spielvogel. So it is going to be a fun piece about our better moments during the 2008 season. I will be ending the piece with our first trip of the 2009 season, "The Bull Run" which is of course about our bull shark dive in Mexico.
The shark diving trips that we offer here at SDM are more than just regular trips for me and some of the readers who join us on them. They are complete and total breaks from the realities of our everyday lives. We have many business people from all walks of life who join us out there. But they join us to forget about that world. Out there... we're all just Shark Divers. Conversations on the water are never about what a person does for a living. Maybe those conversations happen when meeting each other for the first time, but they are not the core conversations you hear when on one of our trips. What you hear, and what matters most to your fellow Shark Diver is; "where have you been diving?", "what sharks have you seen?", and "where you are going next?" Those are the things that matter on these trips. So my hope is that this piece will capture much of what we feel out there for you all.
January 30, 2009
I finished laying out an editorial which I had not mentioned before. It is an article on the controversy of whether it is ok to touch sharks, or not ok. The editiorial was written by Jessie Spielvogel, and the images of course are by Jessie's dad, Paul Spielvogel. I was pretty excited when Paul mentioned having Jessie write the article for us, (ok, and a bit nervous too). It was because I have never seen Jessie's work, so I was nervous she would not know what our readers would like to read. Jessie emailed me a rough draft of the article about two weeks ago, and I was floored, not only was the article good, it was also an important topic, that has sparked up some debate on the shark chat lines, on whether it is ok to touch sharks. It all started with some images Paul took of freediver, Wolfgang Leander, touching some tiger sharks. They are beautiful images and Wolf started showing them around... and that is what started the debate.
This is the image that started the debate.
As you all can guess I am pro touching sharks. I do not see anything wrong with it, and if a shark ALLOWS you to SAFELY and gently touch it as it swims by, and if you know what your doing...then hey.
When I say that a shark allows you to touch it, I do mean that. Sharks control the encounters, and can swim off if it feels threatened, or uncomfortable, or does not want anything to do with you. So if a shark chooses to swim close enough for you to touch it, and allows it to happen then its ok, because the shark chose it. I do not approve of people grabbing sharks, and riding sharks. I believe that it is wrong, because you were not invited to do so, and you are forcing yourself onto the shark. So I don't like those images, and I will not publish them in our magazine.
I shamefully admit that I have rode sharks in the past. But I have evolved and have moved past that, understanding it is disrespectful, and is another way for man to try and show its dominance over nature.
Anyway, the article along with the images will give the readers an opportunity to read and insert their own opinions on the subject, and I will publish them in the next issue of SDM.
January 24, 2009
I started working on the 'Sixgill in Seattle' article. They just did an article in a UK mag entitled Sixgill in Seattle, so it ain't original that I am calling it that, but it really is a great name for this story and I am rolling with it. I never follow any rules anyway.
I had to find the right mood for this story because I wanted the story and the layout to feel good together. I don't know a lot about Seattle, except that its cold and rainy, and aside from its exciting and hard to find sixgill population, it's the birth place for grunge music, and the most famous band ever to emerge from the Seattle scene was Pearl Jam. So I broke out my I-pod (man's greatest invention) and turned on and up, Eddie Vedder, and music from the 'Into the Wild' sound track. This was also our music of choice to borrow when we were making the rough cut for our film Summer of the Sharks.
I have chosen a darker background for the story to give it that rainy cold cloudy feel, and I had Ed and Randy send me some topside images to help tell the tale. Like I said when I introduced Ed and Randy on the January 12th report, this is going to be a 2 part series. This story is about their encounters with sixgill sharks, and the quest to try and find more of these sharks. They have commited to chum for these sharks over the next 12 months and will report back to us at the end of the year and hopefully will be bringing us an amazing adventure from their 2009 shark diving season!
January 23, 2009
I finished the striped marlin layout. It is ready for print. I am very happy with the layout, and it feels good. It took me 3 days to get it done. Which may seem long for a layout, but it is a 6 page layout, and before I would start, I had to get in the mood to work on it. So before I began, I would take out my Ipod and drop in the right song to get me in the right mind set to begin working on it. The story is a hard core pump you up to go diving kind of story, so I really wanted to give it some personality. So my song choice was Jimmy Buffett's, 'Mexico.' Once I played that it would get me in the travel mood, and I would just get creative. You will notice a pattern for me, and the layouts. I have to liten to music while I work so that I can try and get the right feel for the story.
January 22, 2009
I have been focused on laying out pages these past few days. I got two articles back from our story editor, Jessie and have been busy getting into designing the look and feel of this issue. Its been fun, I have a lot of great material to work with. The first story I tackled was the striped marlin story. Nathan sent me a lot of images to choose from, and some of them are just amazingly cool. I have already gotten a few looks from some of the office crew, saying this is not a shark? But I am not worried about it, because a cool animal story - is a cool animal story, and marlin chewing on a bait ball is a dream encounter that any shark diver would love to be part of. Plus the beauty of being who we are is we never followed the rules and carved our own path, so a magazine dedicated to the sport of shark diving will have an article about diving with marlin!
This is also the first time I start on a mag and do not have my story board notebook ready. Normally I know exactly what page number each article will be on before I start laying it out, but for some reason I decided that I wanted to wait to layout the first few stories before I did that.
Right now I have about 13 articles to choose from for this issue, remembering that I am only publishing 9. So I am trying to decide which ones are the best fit for 20. The goal of the mag is to stay loose and fun, and to get you all fired up about the new diving season...
Tomorrow's Making the Mag, # 6 of 9 articles -Interview with Dean Karr)
January 16, 2009
(# 5 of 9 articles - Kathy Cope) Kathy has written an article for us before, and she has actually graced SDM's cover with her work as well. Issue 11 was her cover story issue. I remember when I decided that I was going to use that image. I was in Fiji, in this little suveniour shop, with lots of local art, and I was talking to legendary shark diver, Gary Adkison, we were talking about Kathy, (as she has gone diving with Gary on different occasions) and I was telling him about her article, and the fact that she was in the running for the cover for that issue. He told me, "oh she would love it if she got the cover." And that was it, I decided right there to use her image. Sometimes my choices are that simple. I remember the details of that day because I was in Fiji diving with Gary, one of my shark diving heros... It was awesome.
I have traveled to a few places with Kathy and she has supported us from the first year of our magazine till now. Her photography has also improved through the years, and her impressive list of where she has gone diving has as well. She was there when that very first dive group spotted and documented the whitetip reef shark's night time - feeding frenzy at Cocos Island.
She retold the tale of being in the water at dusk, buddied up with Stan Waterman (It always sucks when your diving buddy is a legendary diver). Anyway, it was towards the end of the dive, and she looked over the shoulder of this reef, and saw the whitetips swarming, she tapped Stan on the shoulder to show him, he freaked and grabbed her video camera. She had it strapped around her neck so she was pulled through the water towards him. His camera was out of film, but Stan begin Stan had to film it. I don't blame him!
Her article for issue 20 is from her adventure in Indonesia. She was on a dive when the dive master spotted a cat shark. Of course its a shark so she had to photograph it. The problem is, or was, that cat sharks in these waters are not common. So when she returned from Indonesia, and went to find out what kind of shark this was that she photographed, she could not find it in any of the picture books! She sent the image off to experts, and they were left scratching their heads as to what kind of cat shark this was. So for now her mystery shark remains a mystery.
The cool thing about this shark is it is also one of those rare sharks that walks along the bottom of the ocean, using it's fins... and everybody loves a good mystery!
January 15, 2009
I got my first article back from our new copy editor, Jessie Spielvogel. She is a journalism major at Texas State, and was looking to build up her resume. You all might recognize her last name, she is SDM shooter, Paul Spielvogel's beautiful daughter. She agreed to help me edit the stories for this issue, because she thought it would be a lot of fun, plus she was bored and needed something to do! She is an avid diver, and knows our magazine very well, of course sometimes not by choice, as her dad has force fed
SDM to his entire family. Especially
Issue 17! (Paul's first cover issue.)
Jessie on a shark dive... Costa Rica
Anyway, she has already turned in the first article, which frees me up to begin my layout, which I will work on tonite. I normally work on layouts in the evening as it is quiet, and I am not bothered by the phone ringing, or emails that need to be sent. So I am pumped, once the first article is filed away and ready for print, then the rest of the mag just flows...
Tomorrow's making the mag... # 5 of 9 articles, shooter profile, Kathy Cope
January 13, 2009
(# 4 of 9 articles - Walter Heim) Walter emailed me last week about an article he had been talking to me about writing. The article is a photography piece entitled Reflections. This article is about shooting surface shots of sharks, and having the animals reflection mirrored on the waters surface above it. This is a very difficult shot to take when your seeking a perfect mirrored reflection, and often times it is just pure luck that you get an image like that. However Walter has dedicated his time to trying to create those images, seeking out the calmest days to try for those sought after images. He decided to wait to write the articletill the end of the mako/blue season so he could try and capture better images.
This image is by Andy Murch, and is an example of what a reflection image looks like. The shark swims right below the surface, and the image is taken with the camera angled up towards the sky. The photographer's goal is to capture the shark and the shark's reflection on the water's surface.
I have known Walter for a few years now. He started sending me emails updating me about the mako and blue shark activity around the San Diego area. Walter is a mako madman, and is very good at finding mako's and blue sharks around the San Diego area. He will spend hours out on the ocean, often alone, chumming up sharks, looking for players. The goal is to find them, then photograph and tag them. Tagging sharks is one of his hobbies that he truly enjoys. The excitement for Walter is in tagging a shark, then finding out exactly where that shark goes. One of the blue sharks that he tagged in Cali. was later found off the coast of Japan.
Walter 'The Mako Man' Heim
Walter has this 19 foot bay runner boat that he goes out in. It's a little fishing boat, and seems like the ultimate sea sick machine, but it is a great shark hunting vessel. It is still one of my very favorite boats in the world to go shark chasing on. Because it is so small, it is not intrusive and the sharks are not intimidated by it at all, so they come right in to find out where the smell of chum is coming from. I love it, all the SDM crew loves it.
The SDM crew heading out on Walter's boat; Raf Flores, Paul Spielvogel, Walters at the helm, and Andy Murch in the back right side
Walter is a very quiet guy, and super humble. He is also an amazing shooter, and has taken plenty of first class images. He captured the image that every shark photographer dreams of snapping at least once in their lives; an image of a shark swimming towards the camera, with their impressive display of dentures wide open. Many of you will remember Walter's image, as it was issue # 13's cover shot.
The thing about this shot, is that it was not just a pure luck of the draw image he captured, this is one of several that Walter has taken. Of course this image is one of his better images and deserving to be the cover art for our publication. But I don't think this will be the last great image from Walter that will make the cover of SDM. In the email he sent me last week, he also added these words, "I also have a mako shot from this season that could be a cover. It will probably take a few weeks to get it all together."
...I am drooling already!
January 12, 2009
(#3 of 9 articles - Ed Gullekson and Randy Paderson) I spoke to my good friend Ed last week about putting together a 'Sixgill in Seattle'story for us. Ed said he would do it, but wanted to include his partner in crime, Randy Pederson in the writing of the article, I said "Hell yes, lets do it!" Ed and Randy live in Seattle and have been diving these waters for years. Sixgills are the apex predators in these waters and these guys, along with their friends, PJ and JD have been chasing and obsessing over sixgills for a long time. The problem with sixgills is that they are so hit and miss. Bottom line, they are hard to find. So countless hours of night diving are required - searching in cold, murky water. Imagine spending hours in 40 degree water looking around in vis that averages 15-30 feet, in search of a shark that can grow upwards of 18 feet, AND has a bad reputation as an ambush predator. Well that is what the
sixgill in Seattle crew's (a nickname I gave the boys) diving life is like in Seattle.
This is a clip pulled from Ed's video file of the sixgill . The images for the article in the mag are from JD.
This is going to be a two part series, the first story they are bringing us is about their experience with the sixgills; what it was like when they have seen them, and what they went through to find them. The second part of their story will be for issue # 22, which is released towards the end of the year (in October), and will be about their season searching for sixgills in 2009. It should be fun.
Ed (brown shirt) looking at the lemon sharks at Tiger Beach getting fed scraps. Ed recorded his 1,000 dive on this trip!
Randy prepping for his night dive at Tiger Beach. The sixgill in Seattle crew are hardcore divers!
I first met Ed and Randy back in August of 2007 on our mako shark dive in Southern California. They went out there to experience some warmer water and see the bad boy of the open ocean. Randy got a solid taste for this shark when trying to get a close up shot of a mako chewing on a hang bait. He accidentally floated in TOO CLOSE to the mako and got more than he bargained for.
Here you can see the mako's head above the water right behind the white bouy as it is thrashing for food. Randy realizes how close he is and reacts by pulling his head out of the water (big mistake, you lose sight of the shark that way) and tries to swim away.
The mako started thrashing as it was ripping a chunk out of the bait. Randy was into the action when he lost sight of the mako, due to all the bubbles and fish blood. He realized he was too close and tried to swim back from the action. The mako ripped a chunk of bait off the hang line, and swam off in the same direction as Randy. The shot below is Randy getting bumped in the face mask, then Randy pushing the mako off of him. I think there were a few screams thrown in there for effect, but it was all sort of garbled into his snorkel. The laughter and huge smile on his face on the boat after the incident is priceless.
January 9, 2009
(# 2 of 9 articles -Nathan Meadows) This issue is coming together! I got the images yesterday from SDM shooter, Nathan Meadows and I was blown away, I can't wait to lay out that story. This story is not about sharks, it's about striped marlin chewing on a bait ball in Baja. This is the first article I am publishing in our mag that is not about sharks, or kin to sharks. It's about encountering free swimming marlin in a feeding frenzy. Just knowing about the adventure without the story (I get the first rough draft early next week) is hands down an amazingly cool experience, and I had to publish it. In fact you all will be seeing more articles about diving with some of the more exciting and scarier marine animals that are out there in the oceans, branching our stories out a little. I won't be straying too far, but if an exciting article crosses my path... I am publishing it.
Here is a little bit more about SDM's contributing writer, Nathan Meadows. I met Nathan back in 2004 on a white shark dive in Guadalupe. On the boat, he was this really quiet guy, who was very passionate about sharks, like to listen, and was just a nice guy. - I can honestly say I liked him instantly. Both me and Nathan are family guys so we had a lot in common, and through the years we have gotten to be really good friends.
Nathan Meadows on a greenland shark dive
Me and Nathan have talked back and forth through the years, travelling together on SDM trips when he had time, and he would always keep me informed on what he was up to and where he was going. . Nathan got the travel and adventure bug hard core, and at every opportunity, he drags his family along with him to experience unique and off the beaten path adventures.
In Canada looking for black bears. Image by Lindsay Meadows
Nathan loves to try different things and see different animals, but sharks remain a true passion for him. And the one thing that was important to Nathan was to give back to the animals and the sport he loves so much. He was looking for a way to help them, and finally got an opportunity to do so in August 2008. He donated a sat tag to the Canadian Shark Conservation Society, and helped them deploy the tag onto a porbeagle shark in the Bay of Fundy. This was the first porbeagle shark to get sat tagged in these waters, allowing them to study the migration habits of this shark. The hope is with the research these sharks will find Government protection in the Bay of Fundy and abroad.
A tagging and diving trip for blue sharks... Nathan brought his kids. Raising them right! Image by Lindsay Meadows
Nathan continues to do what he can for sharks when he can, involving his beautiful family every step of the way. With each season his images and articles get more amazing as he travels to more places off the grid and sees more things!
This is going to be Nathan's 3rd article for SDM. His first article was published in Issue # 10, 'Dive at Dusk.' His second article was published in Issue # 18, 'Ahh Venice.' Issue # 20 will be his 3rd article for us. He also has a travel essay about his porbeagle experience in this issue as well.
January 7, 2009
(#1 of 9 articles for issue 20 -Eldad Cohen)
I just got confirmation of a conservation article for this issue. My shark diving buddy Eldad Cohen went to visit one of his really good friends Tza Chi, who lives in China, and while he was there visited the Shanghai Fish Market. He told me about some images he had taken when we were on a boat together at Tiger Beach. It was a good story, but a heart breaking first hand account of what is happening to our sharks.
Shooter - Eldad Cohen
Eldad shooting a tiger, his best friend Tza Chi, behind him
Eldad is a good shooter so the images he brought back are very graphic. Of course this is only part one of his traveling photo essay. He is leaving to China this weekend, and while he is there, he will be visiting the restaurants that sell shark fin soup and shark products in the medicine stores. I am afraid to see the images he's bringing back for the rest of this photographic travel essay... I am sure you will too.
A picture taken from the fish markets in Bangkok
January 6, 2009
Today is officially day one and the work has begun. Issue # 20 is a very special magazine to me...because??? well - because its our 20th issue! Many people thought we would not have made it past our first year in business, and here we are going into our 7th year, and publishing the 20th issue of SDM.
The majority of the magazines out there in the corporate world, and I am talking about the big boys with monster budgets; National Geographic, Vogue, Rolling Stone, all plan their editorials and covers - months in advance, so that when the time comes to lay out their stories, or pick their cover shots, everything is right there in front of them. All they have to do is have the talented layout artists that work for them put the stories together, all based on their tried and true formulas. Within a week or two, presto! They have the new issue ready for copy edit, then print.
Here at SDM... I do not have any of that in my arsenal; no giant team, no real editorial planning schedule, and no real budget to brag about. But what we do have in bucket loads is heart, a passion for this sport, and plenty of exciting and gifted shark diving contributors who love this magazine.
So when I am ready to begin a new issue - I am always looking for stories and images that will go in the new mag. I normally have a few stories on file, but I am always one or two short and need to go through my talent file of travelling shooters who contribute to the magazine to finish out each issue. Along the way, if I have not already picked a cover shot, I will choose from the hundreds of images I have on file to decide which image will grace the cover on the next issue of SDM.
Today is officially day one and the work has begun. The first thing I need to do is find out what stories I already have and how many stories I still need to aquire. Oh yea, - I still have not decided on a cover for issue 20 yet, so that still needs to be done. Over the next few weeks, I will make a final selection.
Currently I have 5 full articles already chosen. I still need to aquire 3 more articles, plus a cover. Those will be interviews from some of the travelling shooters who have already agreed to being interviewed. Once I confirm that they still want to be part of the mag, I will let you know who they are.
List of stories and images I already have on file...
1. Article by Kathy Cope on a mystery shark which was photographed in Indonesia.
2. Article by Ed Luterio, working title 'Fish Painter'
3. Nigel Marsh with a story about Wobbegongs.
4. Nathan Meadows, I actually have a couple of articles from Nathan, one is his encounter with striped marlin (I know it is not sharks, but damn it is cool)
5. A photo essay called 'Notes from the road' which will give highlights from our 2008 chasing sharks diving season.
6. Conservation Article by Eldad Cohen... A phot essay from the fish markets in Bangkok
7. Still Needed.
8. Still Needed.
9. Still Needed
Please note; The article selection are working titles and the articles may be subject to change at any given time, due to another story that needs to be told, or the writer or photographer leaving on an adventure somewhere and I could not find them in time for our print deadlines.
I normally publish nine articles and each story takes between 1-3 days to work on. So part of today will be spent confirming via emails, if the shooters still want to do the interviews. I hope so they are pretty exciting people. I will talk about each article and the shark we are featuring more in depth when I begin working on those layouts.
Until then!
