marine slide library

[elaine vytopil]

Dear Coral–listers,
I have recently starting working for Image Quest, a
natural history photographic company in the UK, and I
thought I would let you know about their new slide
library since much of the subject matter pertains to
the topics that are discussed on this coral list and
the images really are quite magnificent.
This collection of images is based on thirty years
work by Peter Parks, and more recently by some of his
younger associates, and strongly reflects his
fascination with the smallest and arguably the most
important critters of our oceans. Peter has won two
technical Oscars for his work in the past and
continues to push the bounds of photography by
capturing so precisely these plankton on film. The
growing library now also has an impressive and diverse
collection of larger marine life. Most of the images
have been captured over numerous expeditions to field
stations in Bermuda and Lizard Island on the Great
Barrier Reef.  
Below is an introduction to the library written by
Peter.  It is worth visiting Image Quest's web site to
have a look at some of these images. 
http://members.aol.com/iq3d/

Cheers, Elaine



Pelagica


With thirty years of accrued origination and
experience 'in the can', Image 
Quest 3-D is now in a position to launch its 2-D and
3-D stills and film library and support service into
the marketplace. Designed primarily to initiate
informative and entertaining stories in depth, the
library, to be known as Pelagica will generate
articles, displays, books, film sequences and features
based upon its huge wealth of material collected over
all those years and not, until now, exploited.
Pelagica's collection of open ocean pelagic plankton
stills is unique in its breadth of coverage.

Pelagica though is not a passive collection awaiting
requests. It will be an active collection with which
we hope to entertain, educate and intrigue readers.
More than one book, we hope, will come from this
effort. A travelling 3-D, 3,000 square foot exhibit on
plankton has been requested by several venues and we
aim to complete this by Easter 2000. A permanent
exhibit based on the work and inspiration of Sir
Alister Hardy is being discussed here in Oxford and a
Deep Sea exhibit will hopefully materialise from
discussions being held for a venue in Seattle and a
Millennium site here in the UK.

Our strength lies not only with our own origination
and experience, but also with a number of well
respected marine biologists who are part of the team
of individuals who form the core group of Pelagica.

Roger Steene, author and originator of such beautiful
books as 'Coral Seas' and 'Coral Reefs', as well as a
host of specific Reef Guides is our main
co-originator, also with an unexploited 30 year
collection of photographic product which he is pooling
with ours.

Dr. Peter Herring of the Southampton Oceanographic
Centre is one of the UK's most senior and experienced
deep-sea biologists and world authority on
bioluminescence. Peter has accompanied us on many
expeditions and has himself led and partaken in over
50 deep sea cruises from which unique photographic
material has arisen, much of which is unexploited.

Peter joins another marine biological author, Andy
Lewis out of James Cook University Townsville,
Australia,  and together we will generate most of the
stories to be told. Andy is one of the most widely
experienced and respected teachers of marine ecology,
conservation and Reef adaptation. With his Wife
Daniela he leads a company called Tevene'i Marine
which specialises in eco-expeditions, educational
programs and tropical aquaculture consultancy. Also
contributing to stills and filmic origination , when
they get a chance, will be Howard and Michelle Hall,
with whom we have just
worked together on a Nova Imax film directed by Howard
titled 'Island of Sharks'.
Howard and Michelle's reputation in this field is much
too well known for me to add more credits here.
Suffice it to say, they're the best!










Our combined intention is to form a nucleus of
imagery, scientific and anecdotal information and
overall storytelling to promote the greatest and most
under-explored biome on this planet. We hope others
will join and help contribute. The open oceans are
after all this world's most extensive habitat and
contain our most common and alien life form. Those of
us who have been fortunate enough to work in this
field have the chance to make our knowledge common to
all and share with others stories and characters that
no one has even dreamt of. A very few of them some of
us have encountered.

It is our sincere hope that others will make available
some of their work, on 
a non-exclusive basis, to broaden the scope of a
subject that is almost limitless and for which there
seems to be an ever-increasing demand for good quality
visual material. We would welcome material on
planktonivores as well as planktonic species
themselves and the adult forms of many of the
juveniles and larval stages that make up a lot of the
plankton community. We would also greatly appreciate
receiving material on, or be told of the existence of,
specialised habitat species and communities, like
those found in caves, semi-saline estuaries, very
saline seas and lakes, ephemeral pools, ice pools etc.

More information on our work and imagery can be found
on our web site at:
http://members.aol.com/iq3d/
Regards,
Peter Parks
Image Quest 3-D

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