Jeremy Payne

Forum username: jeremypayne
Real name: Jeremy Payne (from profile website/email)
Location: New York City
Posts: 1,122
Threads started: 92
Active years: 2007—2011 (peak 2008—2009)
Primary forums: Photography Gear and Technique (341), Shooting Technique/Workflow/Editing (218), Photo/Video Showcase (165)
Specialization: Compact camera systems, post-processing ethics, Caribbean dive travel, copyright advocacy

Community Role

jeremypayne was an intense burst of Wetpixel activity during 2008—2009, contributing over 1,000 posts in just those two years before departing almost entirely by 2011. Arriving during the compact-camera-to-DSLR transition era, he combined enthusiastic gear discussion with a distinctive interest in the ethical and philosophical dimensions of underwater photography.

His 218 posts in Shooting Technique/Workflow/Editing and 165 in Photo/Video Showcase indicate someone who was actively learning and sharing in equal measure. His 91 posts in the Beginner Forum confirm he was also mentoring newcomers. With 92 threads started, he was a prolific initiator of discussions, often raising provocative questions about post-processing ethics and photography practice.

jeremypayne was based in New York City and particularly active in documenting Caribbean dive destinations, sharing detailed trip reports from St. Croix and Playa del Carmen that combined personal narrative with practical dive site information.

Notable Contributions

• “Times of London Stole my picture!” (27 replies): Started a significant thread after discovering the Times of London had used one of his photographs from Flickr without permission. The thread became a community resource on copyright enforcement, with Drew Wong providing detailed advice on how to document the infringement and draft a formal letter to the newspaper’s legal department (^[1])
• St. Croix trip report (29 replies): Detailed account of diving the Frederiksted Pier with local guide Marjo, documenting seahorses, frogfish, and night diving on an Olympus 8080 with Ikelite housing and DS-125 strobes (^[2])
• Playa del Carmen trip report (23 replies): Caribbean dive destination experiences and community discussion (^[3])
• Lumix DMC-LX3 thread (25 replies): Started a discussion on this Panasonic compact camera’s potential for underwater use (^[4])
• Ikelite G10 housing thread (25 replies): Contributed to compact camera housing evaluation for the Canon PowerShot G10 (^[5])
• Post-processing ethics discussions: Started threads including “Photoshop. Unethical?” and contributed heavily to the “Perspective on HDR” thread (29 posts), engaging with questions about where legitimate enhancement ends and manipulation begins
• Active in Lights/Strobes/Lighting (82 posts) and Conservation and the Environment (18 posts)
• Contributed to Copyright Issues/Non-Payment/Fraud/Theft discussions (17 posts), drawing on personal experience with image theft

Activity Profile

• Meteor pattern: One of the most intense short-term contributors in Wetpixel history, concentrated almost entirely in a 2-year window
• Thread initiator: 92 threads started in ~3 years, averaging nearly one new thread per week during peak activity

References