The Bloody Bay Wall Mural Project

For our test mural we chose a site known as Bird Rock on the north side of Catalina Island. My brother, Larry Hellemn, flew in from Washington D.C. to spend a week with Peter Neubauer and myself testing the equipment, making the test mural and preparing for the trip to the Cayman Islands. By this time, both Peter and Larry had agreed to make the trip and help complete the project. We chartered two different boats to do our test dives, The Psalty V, a small "six-pack" charter out of San Pedro owned by Gary Jackson, and the 80 ft Bottom Scratcher based in Long Beach and operated by Greg Elliot. The Bottom Scratcher afforded lots of work space for our test dives, but the Psalty V was the more important test, since it was closer to the size of the boat I had chartered for the Cayman trip.

On each day of the Catalina test, we did a scout dive and three dives with the equipment. The "wall side" of Bird Rock is mostly a shear rock face lightly scattered with starfish, sea cucumbers, black sea urchins and sparse vegetation. While it lacks the abundance of marine life we were looking forward to in the Cayman Islands, it is quite flat and proved to be an ideal test subject. We photographed two separate murals, each approximately 9 feet high x 15 feet wide. Our two lens and standoff configurations were tested, as well as variations in lighting and exposure. In spite of the fact that one of the reasons for choosing a site near Catalina was good visibility, conditions were poor on our test days. Although water visibility was 10-15 feet at best, our results were encouraging. When the test murals were assembled at high resolution, the image quality from both of our test configurations was acceptable for life-size reproduction.

Preparation for the trip to the Cayman Islands was more involved than I'd imagined. By this time, our list of required equipment, supplies and spares had grown large enough to present a real packing challenge. Shipping restrictions required everything to be packed in air shipping cases and packed efficiently to save space. Custom cases were built for the camera and lighting gear.

© 2000 Jim Hellemn, all rights reserved. Written permission required to use any content of this page.




		For our test mural we chose a site known as Bird Rock on the north side of Catalina Island. My brother, Larry Hellemn, flew in from Washington D.C. to spend a week with Peter Neubauer and myself testing the equipment, making the test mural and preparing for the trip to the Cayman Islands. By this time, both Peter and Larry had agreed to make the trip and help complete the project. We chartered two different boats to do our test dives, The Psalty V, a small "six-pack" charter out of San Pedro owned by Gary Jackson, and the 80 ft Bottom Scratcher based in Long Beach and operated by Greg Elliot. The Bottom Scratcher afforded lots of work space for our test dives, but the Psalty V was the more important test, since it was closer to the size of the boat I had chartered for the Cayman trip.



		On each day of the Catalina test, we did a scout dive and three dives with the equipment. The "wall side" of Bird Rock is mostly a shear rock face lightly scattered with starfish, sea cucumbers, black sea urchins and sparse vegetation. While it lacks the abundance of marine life we were looking forward to in the Cayman Islands, it is quite flat and proved to be an ideal test subject. We photographed two separate murals, each approximately 9 feet high x 15 feet wide. Our two lens and standoff configurations were tested, as well as variations in lighting and exposure. In spite of the fact that one of the reasons for choosing a site near Catalina was good visibility, conditions were poor on our test days. Although water visibility was 10-15 feet at best, our results were encouraging. When the test murals were assembled at high resolution, the image quality from both of our test configurations was acceptable for life-size reproduction.
		Preparation for the trip to the Cayman Islands was more involved than I'd imagined. By this time, our list of required equipment, supplies and spares had grown large enough to present a real packing challenge. Shipping restrictions required everything to be packed in air shipping cases and packed efficiently to save space. Custom cases were built for the camera and lighting gear.

		© 2000 Jim Hellemn, all rights reserved. Written permission required to use any content of this page.