I really like my new fish-eye lens. I fixed all my technical issues, and now this lens has started to shine. Except for some slight blurring of the corners, this lens is very sharp: much better than my old setup. I captured this image coming out of a cut through on the appropriately name "Hole in the Wall" dive site.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 3
We arrived in the Eleuthera Islands late last night. I started out this morning still shooting with the fish-eye lens. I fixed my auto-focus problem, but quickly learned how easy it is to get debris on the sensor while installing the camera in the underwater housing. The way this housing is designed, I have to install the camera body and lens separately into the housing or they don't fit. Somewhere during that process I got something on the sensor. All my shots from the morning have a blurry spot in the same location. I just need to be more careful. For the afternoon, I switched over to my macro lens and caught this Tobacco Fish. I need to try a smaller aperture to try and get more if it in focus next time.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 2
The boat left port early this morning, and we arrived at our first dive site in the Exuma Islands a few hours later. This site is a drug running twin propeller airplane that "crash" landed in 20 feet of water. It gave me the opportunity to try out my new fish-eye lens. Unfortunately, I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to set the lens to auto-focus mode before putting it in the underwater housing. Fortunately, with a wide angle lens, focus is fairly lenient. This guy (or girl, I didn’t really bother to check) was hanging out near the wreck and was the best photo of quite a few blurry ones. We head for the Eleuthera Islands tonight and will dive our first site there in the morning.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 1
I have arrived in the Bahamas. No, I'm not going to the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, but I can see it from here. I have boarded the Bahamas Aggressor SCUBA live-aboard dive boat, and will be spending 10 days SCUBA diving the Eleuthera and Exuma islands.
This particular boat is actually the original Cayman Aggressor boat that started the Aggressor fleet back in the 1980s and was recommission the Bahamas Aggressor when the Caymans got a new boat. These boats were originally crew boats used to transport people to and from offshore work sites (usually oil rigs) that have been rebuilt with a few more comforts. This boat usually sleeps 14 guests plus crew but there are only 12 guest this week. We will eat, sleep and dive on the boat and won't step off the boat until we get back to port a week from now.
We will head to our first dive site in the morning somewhere in the Exuma islands.
Stay tuned...
Photograph of the Week
Back in 2006, my father and I were on a Jeep trail ride in Palo Duro Canyon. We’re moving along when we hear someone from the back of the line come over the CB radio, “Did someone lose a coil spring?” Turns out my father had so much down travel in his Jeep’s suspension that the springs were just popping out. He fixed it later by installing limiting straps to keep the axle from dropping too far.
Photograph of the Week
During a trip to Indonesia, we came across large schools of these fish blanketing the reef. They would roll across the reef like fog rolling across the countryside. It was quite amazing to see.
Photograph of the Week
My sister, Heather Heflin Hodges, D.Min. Here she is doing what she calls a "Paint and Preach" where she combines art with worship. She recently successfully defended her doctoral thesis, "A Renaissance of the Visual Arts in Worship for Churches of Christ."
Photograph of the Week
This photo was taken in December, 2016 during a trip to Belize. I was standing on the Belize Aggressor IV getting ready to depart for a week of SCUBA diving.
Photograph of the Week
During a previous dive, the Dive Master speared a Lion Fish in this exact spot. A couple hours later, we are back in the water and this guy shows up. He still smelled the essence of the fish that was killed and checked out each and every person in the water looking for it. Nurse Sharks are not known to be aggressive, and the're bite is far from serious. They have no real teeth: just two bony plates they use to suck up animals from under the sand. If they do manage to get a hold of you they leave a bad bruise or something akin to road rash behind.
Photograph of the Week
This guy was just hanging out at the Dallas Zoo. I like this photograph because you can see the individual feathers and other fine details.