{"id":1407,"date":"2024-01-17T09:07:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T09:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/?page_id=1407"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:50:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:50:41","slug":"methods","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/bb-observations\/methods\/","title":{"rendered":"Methods"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAVIGATION
\nThis page is a sub-page of ObsI<\/a>, a top-level page on
\nthe website Barbados Fringing Reefs and Seagrass Beds<\/a>
\n(www.versicolor.ca\/barbados).
\nGo to Obs I<\/a> for a list of other subpages in this section
\nof the website.<\/small><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>My “Methods” are pretty informal, natural history types of observations. My “equipment” consists of two underwater cameras, one with GPS, the other not.\u00a0 Currently these are an\u00a0 Olympus TG6<\/a> (with GPS) + PT059 Underwater Housing; and a Sealife Micro 3.0\u00a0<\/a>.\u00a0 The TG6 is “waterproof” but I always put in it the Underwater Housing,\u00a0 a kind\u00a0 double jeopardy insurance.<\/p>\n

The SeaLife Micro has a 100 degrees lens (relatively wide-angle) and must be at least 15 inches from the subject. The benefits of this camera are its incredible robustness\/\/easy to maintain, compact size, high storage capacity (64 HB) and long battery life (3 hours plus).\u00a0 I purchased it mainly as a backup for the TG6 which produces better quality GPS-tagged images, close-ups etc. As it turned out, in early 2024, the TG6 went on the fritz, so it was a good strategy!<\/p>\n

In general I find that the photos as delivered on these cameras can\u00a0 benefit from a few adjustments. I use either a\u00a0 2008 version of Photoshop, that on an old desktop computer;\u00a0 or Photoshop Elements 2023 (one time purchase\/\/not subscription) on my laptop. I routinely process sets of photos using the Process Multiple Files option in Photoshop Elements, choosing one of more of Quick Fix Auto levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Color\/Sharpen; that process reduces file size by\u00a0 50-80% with essentially no loss and usually with some improvement of quality.<\/p>\n

I use a depth gauge to measure depths on occasion. I use low resolution videos to record comments, numbers etc.<\/p>\n

So the typical output is a set of photos in sequence with the locations shown on Google Maps. I like to post them in Google Photo albums, although it’s clunky\u00a0 in regard to uploading, sorting etc. But for the viewer, I think its’ an effective way of presenting ‘the data’.\u00a0\u00a0I also create Projects on various themes on iNaturalist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My initial reason for coming to Barbados in 2015 (and to Carriacou in 2016) was to conduct formal, scientific surveys of seagrass beds, repeating\u00a0 sets of observations I conducted in 1969 and again in 1994. There are several papers coming out of that process, one published, one in press, and the third in preparation. I will make use of some of photos from those studies\u00a0 on this website\/iNaturalist.<\/p>\n

‘Have to say, I enjoy the ‘Naturalist option’ much more that the formal scientific processes – at least at this stage of life. Both have their place and time I guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAVIGATION This page is a sub-page of ObsI, a top-level page on the website Barbados Fringing Reefs and Seagrass Beds (www.versicolor.ca\/barbados). Go to Obs I for a list of other subpages in this section of the website. My “Methods” are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":116,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1407","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4837,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1407\/revisions\/4837"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}