Frogfish - Bonaire

Quick post of a nice orange Frogfish perched on two branches of coral I managed to capture near the island of Klein Bonaire near Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles.

If you look closely you can see the lure tucked back on his head. (Click picture for larger image)

When diving, Orange is the second color to loose resolution (remember the old adage for the colors of the Rainbow - "Roy G. Biv"). As you dive deeper, it is the same. The colors fade in sequence, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

A flashlight (or a camera strobe) will instantly restore the natural colors. Without a flash, this little guy has perfect camouflage and is almost impossible to detect.

The image below shows the same Frogfish without the benefit of a Camera strobe.

CoCo View Resort

Picture of a Banded Coral Shrimp taken in Roatan, Honduras.

Selected photos from the trip can be found here

The Bones Family says hello

Shot taken today of the world famous Bones Family at the Divers Ramp - Lake Jocassee, Upstate South Carolina. Did a couple great Solo dives today with the Standard Gear, and Pony bottle.


Conducted thorough pre-dive check (since solo), and gave me an opportunity to practice running guideline, finning and bouyancy. Carried new Sartek light as blogged previously.

Only highlight of the day was when I was reeling in on Dive Number 1, noticed that I seemed to have something tugging on the other end of my guideline. I thought for a second that maybe I might have caught a fish, but you guessed it, some stroke was trying to pull himself along my line.

Remember the guideline rules of etiquitte:

1. If visibility is good, there is no need to ever touch a guideline.
2. You should never pull or tug on a guideline.
3. The guideline is meant as a directional reference, not a means of propulsion.
4. If visibility is bad, you should circle your index finger and thumb around the line, managing your bouyancy by touch contact on the line.
5. Finally, never remove or cut a guideline that you have not personally placed.

Over 3 dives, max depth was about 80', and bottom temperature 61 degrees F. The Bones Family was in full force today, and asked me to pass along the important message above to the diving community!


Until next time - Dive Safe.


Caribbean Blue.

Lake Jocassee

A quick picture from my dive last weekend. Enjoy!

Angelfish

Quick post for one of the most spectacular Caribbean fish, the Queen Angelfish. Shot taken in the Bahamas.

Waiting to Exhale...

(Click photo for larger image).

Wanted to provide the "story behind the picture" for this shot. Picture was taken in the Bahamas this past summer on a live aboard dive cruise. The first dive was a Dolphin dive - but no guarantees that they would even show up. As we motored through the area in about 40 feet of water with a nice sand bottom, the wild Spotted Dolphins started to appear and ride the bow wave. Sometimes they would join as a single dolphin, sometimes in pods of 3 - 4. Pretty soon, there were about 30 - 40 dolphins riding the bow wave.

We all got ready on the dive deck, and jumped in - snorkel gear only - and I probably took 50 pictures on that fantastic dive! Because the Dolphins are so fast in the water, I actually did not realize until reviewing the pictures that I had captured this Dolphin just starting to exhale before he broke the surface. The weather was a little rough that day (OK - really rough judging by the number of people that got sick) but a neat aspect of the composition is that you can see the choppy surface, and a slight reflection of the dolphin in the waves.

Only thing I would do different next time on the dive would be wear a weight belt with a couple of pounds of lead to offset the buoyancy of the wetsuit. This would have helped on some of my free dives to go deeper to get better angles shooting up.

So I thought the caption "Waiting to Exhale" was fitting. Taken with Canon A620 with Canon housing.

Enjoy, and dive safe.

Waiting to Exhale...

(Click Photo for Larger Image)

Camera - Canon A620 with Canon Waterproof housing.

Prints available for sale.

Octopus

Here's another photo post to add to the Blog. This is a shot of a Caribbean Octopus taken late this summer on a Nekton Pilot Scuba Liveaboard Dive trip.

When I first spotted this guy he was free swimming, and his color was a mottled grey. He quickly settled in to this piece of coral, and started to change colors almost immediately to blend in with the surroundings.

Overall, I would say that was about 3 feet long and was swimming in about 70 feet of water on the top of a deep wall.

Prints avaialable for sale.

First Post - Caribbean Blue Dive Services

Decided to get in the swing of things and start my own Blog to shamelessly promote my new venture, Caribbean Blue Diving Services (CBDS).

The main purpose of this blog will be to promote and discuss Scuba Diving related topics such as equipment, techniques, training, underwater photography, accident prevention, and the best part - Travel.

Your feedback is encouraged for topics of interest.