The science of wreck photography
BSAC MEMBER AND SCUBA CONTRIBUTOR Simon Brown has been awarded Science Photographer of the Year by the Royal Photographic Society . The results were due to be made public as SCUBA went to press .
The accolade was made in recognition of Simon ’ s groundbreaking photogrammetry , which was employed to create highly detailed orthophotos and 3D maps of the Thistlegorm wreck in the Egyptian Red Sea .
Thousands of photos were taken during an expedition with marine archaeologist Jon
Henderson in 2017 , which aimed to establish a base line picture of the wreck and its famous cargo of Second World War military equipment .
Simon ’ s work succeeded in documenting the Thistlegorm ’ s holds as well as its exterior . It took 15,005 high resolution photographs to cover the external parts of the wreck , including the anchor , port and starboard locomotives and the remains of hold number four . The images were then stitched together into detailed ‘ orthophotos ’ and extrapolated into 3D models , creating new perspectives of the world ’ s favourite wreck dive .
The work featured in a landmark SCUBA feature – Thistlegorm 3D – published in our September 2018 issue , as well as a new book , Diving the Thistlegorm , published by Dived-up and reviewed in SCUBA ’ s January 2021 issue .
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