ce4jesus

Forum username: ce4jesus
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Posts: 1,547 across 1,088 threads (126 threads started)
Active years: 2005–2013
Camera: Olympus E-410, Olympus SP-350
Housing: Olympus PT-E03
Primary forums: Photography Gear and Technique (29%), Photo/Video Showcase (17%), General Chat (10%), Beginner Forum (10%), Trip Reports and Travel (9%), Lights/Strobes/Lighting (8%)
Specialization: Olympus compact and DSLR systems, community mentoring, strobe configuration, conservation
Comments: 6 article comments
Mentioned in: 1 article

Community Role

ce4jesus was one of Wetpixel’s most well-rounded community members, with a remarkably balanced posting distribution across six forums — no single forum exceeded 29% of their posts. This breadth reflects someone who engaged with every aspect of underwater photography: gear selection, image sharing, travel planning, lighting technique, helping beginners, and conservation advocacy.

Based in Aurora, Colorado — far from the ocean — ce4jesus exemplified the inland underwater photographer who traveled to dive and invested heavily in the online community between trips. Their peak activity came during 2006–2009 (389, 355, 430, and 269 posts respectively), with 2008 being their most prolific year. Their 161 Beginner Forum posts (10% of total) made them one of Wetpixel’s most active mentors, consistently helping newcomers navigate gear choices and technique fundamentals.

ce4jesus was a dedicated Olympus user who progressed from the SP-350 compact through the E-series DSLR lineup, building deep expertise on a camera system that was less common in the underwater photography community than Canon or Nikon.

Notable Contributions

Olympus system expertise

ce4jesus became Wetpixel’s primary knowledge resource for Olympus underwater photography systems:

• SP-350 strobe configuration — extensively documented the complex strobe triggering behavior of the Olympus SP-350 with the FL-20 flash, investigating pre-flash behavior, TTL-Auto mode, and slave strobe synchronization with the Sunpak slave strobe. Their posts revealed the painstaking troubleshooting required: “I thought I had all this pre-flash stuff down pat until I read Stephen Frink’s article… Then I re-read what you posted Larry and I think I’m more confused than ever.” This hands-on debugging, shared in real-time, helped other Olympus users avoid the same pitfalls (^[1])
• Olympus E-3 evaluation (thread 22405, 9 posts) — assessed the flagship E-3 DSLR for underwater use (^[2])
• Olympus housing releases (thread 24538, 9 posts) — tracked new Olympus underwater housing announcements (^[3])
• PPO-E03 macro port (thread 30277, 11 posts) — detailed port compatibility guidance (^[4])
• PT-E01 housing configurations (thread 49444, 7 posts) — continued Olympus housing support years after initial threads (^[5])

DSLR transition discussions

ce4jesus participated actively in the community-wide debate about when to upgrade from compact to DSLR systems:

• “To DSLR or not to DSLR” (27 replies) — contributed 8 posts to this foundational upgrade discussion (^[6])
• “Second Thoughts!?” (thread 30199, 12 posts) — DSLR upgrade debate (^[7])
• TTL vs. slave strobe technique (thread 10799, 7 posts) — addressed strobe triggering methods across camera systems (^[8])

Community and safety discussions

ce4jesus started several widely-discussed community threads:

• “Dive Solo” (100 replies) — started this significant safety discussion about solo diving for underwater photographers, noting the tension between creative freedom (“I can spend the entire dive with a subject if I want”) and vulnerability. The thread drew thoughtful responses from wagsy, camdiver, and many others, becoming one of the forum’s most-replied General Chat threads (^[9])
• “What brand of computer do you use?” (48 replies) — technology survey (^[10])
• “Console or Wrist computer” (30 replies) — dive computer discussion (^[11])
• “Snorkelling with the mermaids” (thread 11825, 10 posts) — snorkeling photography techniques (^[12])

Conservation advocacy

ce4jesus started the “Spear fisherman kills tiger shark” thread (93 replies), sharing a video of a spear fisherman killing a tiger shark and noting “I’m always a little suspicious when I know something is being filmed because it has a staged feel.” The thread generated passionate debate about shark conservation, diver attitudes toward marine predators, and the ethics of spearfishing near photographers (^[13]).

Overall, ce4jesus contributed 43 posts to Conservation and the Environment and 26 posts to Critter Identification.

Beginner mentoring

With 161 posts in the Beginner Forum (10% of total), ce4jesus was one of Wetpixel’s most active mentors. This placed them among the top beginner-forum contributors in this era, consistently helping newcomers with gear selection, basic technique, and camera configuration questions — particularly for Olympus systems.

Activity Profile

• Activity score: 1,942 (person_matrix.json)
• Thread participation: 1,088 threads, averaging 1.4 posts per thread — extremely broad engagement
• Forum balance: No single forum >29% of posts — the most balanced distribution in this batch
• Gear progression: Olympus SP-350 compact → Olympus E-410/E-3 DSLR

References