This photo was taken during my first trip with the group from Lone Star Scuba back in 2004. We went down to Costa Rica and spent the first half of the week diving the Pacific side, then went inland for the second half to do some sightseeing. Our hotel was located at the base of the quite active Arenal Volcano. At night you could see lava coming down the sides, and shortly after we left, the volcano erupted again. The photograph itself was taken from the back porch of my hotel room with the original digital Canon Rebel: Canon’s first consumer grade DSLR camera.
Photograph of the Week
This is my Jeep parked on the canyon rim at the northern entrance to the Moab Valley near Moab, Utah.
Photograph of the Week
Humans use facial recognition to identify other humans. That’s tough underwater. Everyone is wearing a mask, and all the dive suits tend to look the same (i.e. black). Instead, we are taught to learn what fins the other divers are wearing. SCUBA fins are much more varied in design than wetsuits and tend to come in more colors. Therefore, they are more easily recognizable. Learn which fins your dive buddy is wearing, and you can spot them from quite a distance underwater.
These fins are lined up on the dive deck of the Bahamas Aggressor ready to be donned for the next dive.
Loggerhead Sea Turtle
Travel Log - Bahamas - FINAL
After a short adventure trying to get out of Miami, I am finally home. Ironically, it was not due to the hurricane, but rather storms that came through DFW that canceled all the flights.
Anyway, as promised I have nearly 100 more photographs ready. I hope you enjoy them.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 10
Today is our last day of diving. Just before sunrise, the boat left anchor in the Exuma islands and headed northwest back to Nassau. On the way we stopped to do two more dives. Belize has The Great Blue Hole, but the Bahamas has The Lost Blue Hole. The Great Blue Hole is larger and deeper, but the one in the Bahamas has more marine life.
This photograph is of the lip of the hole showing the sparse reef and a school of fish. Besides the fish, there are also sharks, turtles and rays in and around the hole.
That’s it for now. We all head home tomorrow. I will be posting a page with many more photographs very soon.
Stay tuned…
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 9
We still can't get out to do some wall diving, so I spent the day looking for small stuff.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is a Secretary Blenny tucked into his hole in the coral. For scale, the head is smaller than the nail on your little finger.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 8
The crew says they are trying to get us out to the windward side of the Exuma islands to do some wall diving, but apparently it is too rough. There are limited dive sites on the leeward side, so we have started duplicating a few of the dive sites.
There is still some interesting diving here with plenty of reef and fish to photograph. I caught this stingray just as he was turning.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 7
We played with the sharks again this morning. The dive site where we visit the sharks is called Split Coral Head, and it was suggested I should actually check it out instead of focusing on the sharks. So I did...for a few minutes before heading back to the sharks. The coral head is fairly shallow as you can see. During lunch we transitioned back over to the Exuma islands where we will spend the rest of the trip.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 6
This photograph will definitely need some explanation. The day was cloudy and gloomy, so I decided to shoot with my macro lens. I was head down in the reef looking for small critters to photograph when I shadow fell across me. I looked up over my shoulder, but I didn't see the water's surface: instead I saw a small remora. But, the remora was attached to something which took me a few seconds to identify. It was the underbelly of a turtle: a VERY LARGE Loggerhead sea turtle. He was practically sitting on top of me. I swung my camera around and snapped this picture. I doubt even with my fish-eye lens if I could have capture his entire body. He was very big and very close. I have a few better shots of his head which I will share later, but I'm hoping this photograph gives you the idea of exactly how close he was.
Travel Log - Bahamas - Day 5
SHARKS!!!
We spent two dives today exclusively with Caribbean reef sharks. Lots of them. The crew hung a metal pyramid in the water that contained food which attracted the sharks. The sharks couldn't get to the food, but they could smell it. Some of the photographs I took during these dives are my favorites of the entire trip. I will share more of these other photographs later. For now, this photograph helps explain the atmosphere with which we were dealing.