Diving – Jett Britnell Photographics

Antarctica: Circle and Weddell Sea Scuba Expedition 2024

Jett & Kathryn Britnell July 18, 2023 Comments are off

with Jett & Kathryn Britnell aboard Aurora Expedition’s Sylvia Earle March 8 – 25, 2024

Life changing Antarctica! Join us for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to Antarctica’s Circle and Weddell Sea, one of the world’s most remote, wilderness realms!

The time to book for 2024 is NOW!

Scuba diving in Antarctica is a mesmerizing adventure like no other. Descending into the icy depths reveals a breathtaking world, from penguins gracefully swimming past to extraordinary ice formations. It’s an unforgettable journey into an untouched aquatic wonderland.

So long as the current 20% off discount is showing online at Aurora Expeditions, an additional 10% off is available for our group. That’s a sweet 30% off the standard trip cost. This discount is available for anyone, divers and non-divers. Just say you want to book under Jett Britnell’s Group.

This will really be a life-changing on so many levels. Condé Nast Traveller has named Aurora Expeditions’ Sylvia Earle (launched in December 2022) to its ‘Hot List’ of the cruise world for 2023, a selection of what the publisher calls “a curated collection of the world’s best new cruises”. Aurora Expeditions was also voted the #2 Best Adventure Cruise Line in the prestigious 2023 @USATODAY 10 Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest.

Booking Link: Here

Itinerary Details: Here

Scuba Program Details: Here

Antarctica: Circle & Weddell Sea Scuba Expedition Media Kit: Here

Route Map

Please note: Our exact route in Antarctica will depend on ice, weather conditions and wildlife. Aurora Expeditions will always strive to maximize your experience. Please remember that flexibility is the key to a successful expedition!

Guest Speakers

Jett and Kathryn will be participating onboard as a Guest Speakers for this expedition, as well as scuba diving in order to document Antarctica’s undersea realm.

Conservation Diving

A Dive in the Clouds

Jett & Kathryn Britnell July 12, 2016July 23, 2021 Comments are off

Cloud Sponge - Jett Britnell — Cloud Sponge, British Columbia

Cloud sponges (Aphrocallistes vastus) are a prehistoric sponge typically found only in deep cold seas. Their unique and fragile skeletal formation makes cloud sponges extremely sensitive to the slightest touch, sedimentation, and to physical disturbances from bottom trawling fishing activity. They are sometimes called “glass” sponges because their structure is made up of very sharp fused spicules of silica. Cloud sponge are found in the northern Pacific Ocean and their range includes Japan, Siberia, the Aleutian Islands and the west coast of North America from Alaska southwards to California and Mexico. It is a reef-building species found in deeper waters on the western Canadian shelf growing on sediment-free rocks. They grow in fiords off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, beginning at depths of 25 metres (82 feet), or more.

Diving Photography Tips

Rare Photo Capture – Elegant Coastal Shrimp

Jett & Kathryn Britnell June 1, 2016April 10, 2019 Comments are off

Rare Photo Capture

An elegant coastal shrimp. This was something we had never seen before on a sea pen. Intent on capturing a marine life photo that was something beyond the ordinary, I quickly focused my camera’s macro lens on the discover several elegant coastal shrimp’s (Heptacarpus decorus) shrimp’s bulbous eyes.

Negative Space

One key element in creating successful underwater photographs is to use negative space to artistic effect. Negative space is defined as being the area between and around objects in a photo that can help strengthen your composition and add extra emphasis to the main subject. Since elegant coastal shrimp have mostly translucent bodies, the orange sea pen’s colonies of polyp formations provided both a colorful backdrop and some superb negative space for my main subject.

Heptacarpus Decorus

Elegant coastal shrimp have a prominent hump on their back and are relatively small at 2.3 inches (6 cm) in length. Ranging from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska to California, they are but one of more than 85 shrimp species inhabiting British Columbia’s Emerald Sea. While most local shrimp species are easily recognized, you have to take a longer look to accurately identify the elegant coastal shrimp as they are sometimes mistakenly identified as being threespine costal shrimp.

Underwater Camera Settings

Photograph made in Queen Charlotte Strait’s famed Browning Passage, off the north coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, using a Nikon D200 digital camera in a Sealux underwater housing fitted with a Nikon 60mm macro lens and a single Sea & Sea YS-110a strobe. Exposure f/16 at 1/125th of a second at ISO 200.

Category Diving