After a great week with Sara I caught a shuttle down to Santa Cruz to spend time with past scholar Brenna Mahoney and explore Santa Cruz and Monterey. Following a great weekend of diving in Monterey I made a trip to Light and Motion to pick up my new videocamera housing! I was greeted by Paul Barnett and introduced to all of the Light and Motion people before starting a tour of the facility. Paul spent almost two hours showing me the various machinery and products used to create each of the housings and lights they manufacture. No details were missed as I was shown everything from the process used for creating molds to the tumbler machines used to finish the aluminum housings. I was blown away by how much production is actually done in-house and all in an abandoned cannery! Paul also spent time explaining the history of the company along with the progression of housings and lights over the years. After learning about the company and the work put into each product Paul excitedly presented me with my new Bluefin videocamera housing! Having always loved videography I was anxious to open the case and try everything out! Noting my excitement, Blaise Douros took some time to walk me through the setup/breakdown of the system and how to properly adjust the settings on my camera to take full advantage of the housing and each lens. The trip to Light and Motion was more than I had expected and a great finale to my first month on the road as the 2011 North American Rolex scholar!
