A photography book publication by Weigold Photography
The 2013 Expedition was easily our best yet and yielded hundreds of fantastic images and dozens of video clips! We’re busily processing them and beginning page layout for the book so we’ve been head down and nose to the grindstone, but we thought we’d take a quick break to share some of our favorites:
Friends of Underwater Sombrero:
As departure for the 2013 expedition to Sombrero is just days away, we find ourselves a bit frustrated at the lack of results we’re getting in our crowdfunding efforts. To date, the project has been blessed by the fact that the project team has covered the expedition travel expenses and we’ve had a few supporters chip in which has helped with some of the other project expenses, we are a far cry from being able to publish this book.
Please remember that once we get our book published, sales of the book will benefit the 
education and conservation mission of Reef Relief and images from the project will be contributed to the Marine Photobank, also helping others in their mission of conservation.
Based on current estimations, we’ll need to raise about $4000 to reach the next phase of our project. We still have plenty of images to capture and process, and we need to look forward to expenses such as obtaining an ISBN number and printing costs. We could really use your help.
You may remember that we’ve already tried the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and they failed us. While we reached out to our network, what we expected from Kickstarter was some assistance expanding that network. We received none. You can read more about the Kickstarter results here. Since then, we’ve been managing our crowdfunding efforts on our own, and while we’ve had some success, we’re still dealing with the fact that our network isn’t as big as it needs to be.
You can help! We aren’t asking for donations. If you wish to make one, you can do so on our donations page. We certainly won’t turn it down. What we’d rather do is have you buy a piece of the project and have something to show for your support! Our funding incentives page details how you can do just that. We have funding incentives starting at just $10!
If a financial contribution isn’t in your budget, you can still help by telling people about our project. Get your friends to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. The more people that know about our project, the more likely we are to find some that are willing to help with the crowdfunding.
Don’t forget that everyone making an effort to help out our project will be recognized as a project backer, both here on the website and in the book itself. Be sure to check out our backers page to see those that have already helped out!
Watch for more images soon! As I write this, it’s less than 48 hours until we’re headed to Sombrero again!
As always, we thank everyone for the support!
Steve, Dee, Elizabeth, Dennis and Robert – The Underwater Sombrero Project Team
As our October expedition looms, we’re availing ourselves of every opportunity to hone our skills with our recently acquired equipment. Our most recent opportunity was an underwater photo session we set up with a local model. The hot sunny day made for excellent conditions. Here’s some of our favorites from the session:
The October expedition is looming and we’re excited to be working with newer and more awesome equipment to replace the gear that failed. Since practice is never a bad thing, we set up a pool session yesterday with the lovely Kenzie to do just that. Here’s the results:
Underwater Sombrero photographer Steve Weigold is a photography instructor for the Middletown Arts Center in Middletown Ohio and is being featured along with the center’s other instructors in the upcoming Instructors Exhibit.
Images from the Underwater Sombrero project will be on display and on sale at the exhibit! Sales of any of the prints will go directly to support the project.
We hope you join us for the opening reception Friday August 23, 2013 starting at 6pm. Light refreshments will be served.
Check out this infographic we put together for Facebook shares for Underwater Sombrero. Even just a few shares dramatically increases the number of people that see the post!
Have you “liked” the Facebook Page yet? If not, would you?
Project Friends,
As we begin to push toward the funding goal for the next phase of our project, we are working on materials that we want to distribute to organizations and businesses that are willing to help support us. We’re particularly interested in businesses and organizations in the Florida Keys and South Florida, but we’ll work with any businesses that think their clientele would be interested in our project.
In general, we’re looking to place, at minimum, some brochures about our project on site. If the organization is willing, we’d also consider placing a larger display and or some of our already captured artwork from the project.
All support to the project whether financial or otherwise will be recognized in the book and on our website.
If you know of a business that might be willing to help, please provide us with a business name, location and contact information if possible. You can reach us at info@underwatersombrero.com
As always, we thank everyone for the support!
Steve, Dee, Elizabeth, Dennis and Robert – The Underwater Sombrero Project Team
Please enjoy our gallery of 2012 expedition images. These are behind the scenes images of the area and the expedition in progress.
Check out our new project marketing card! Want some to pass out for us? Send us your address to info@underwatersombrero.com and we’ll send some out to you!
Just in case you’re wondering, the Underwater Sombrero book, when published is anticipated to be a full size, hard cover, dust jacketed publication. We’re planning to include about 200 pages of Sombrero Key beauty and information! The below image shows a good representation of scale. Won’t you please consider one of our funding incentives? It’s not a donation, it’s an advance purchase, and it helps us get our project done!
