Capturing the Moment

On and isolated island way in the middle of the pacific some might feel a bit claustrophobic. My advice to those people is to look in the water. Once you realize how much there is to explore underwater your island suddenly feels expansive. I dove along the South shore of Maui off a very popular beach today with sea turtles, moray eels, all kinds of reef fish and a few nudibranchs thrown in for good measure. The highlight was when I came across this snowflake moray eel out in the open swimming along. Whether he was looking for a new home or on the hunt I'm not sure. I stayed with him for over ten minutes. We came face to face several times and a goat fish swam over and swam right next to the eel for a while seeing if it would flush out any little fish.  I took my time looking under ledges and in cracks and crevices for new nudibranchs. I managed to find some kangaroo nudibranchs and some phyllidias but nothing too out of the ordinary. A slipper lobster camouflaging in wit...

A very special encounter. You never know what might swim by.

The underwater treasure hunt continues. I headed off to one of my favorite muck diving locals for what turned into a 2 hour marathon dive and came out with some pretty fun pictures. These tiny juvenile Hawaiian damselfish on the right proved to be a very tough photo subject. They would dart in and out of their coral apartment stopping for just the slightest moment. They will grow to be about the size of my hand but these two were still about thumbnail size.    The octopus on the left could have engulfed my hand. I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye as this octo dipped into a little hole. I focus my camera on its eyes sticking out looking at me and I waited. Eventually the octopus emerged and darted off to another, deeper hole to hide in. I snapped a picture just as he emerged and with a super fast shutter speed the background behind him became black making a portrait-like effect. As always when muck diving I had my eyes open for nudibranchs. This swallow tai...

Taken in the rich blue waters off the back side of the island of Lanai this yellow margin spanish dancer nudibranch, Hexabranchus aureomarginatus, is the first I have ever seen. Found only in the Hawaiian Islands, this nudibranch can grow to 8 inches in length, making it one of the largest in the world. Up till now I have only seen the red margin spanish dancer. My friend Ben found this one climbing along a vertical wall in Lighthouse Cove during his reef tour. I jumped in to identify what type of nudibranch it was and was very excited to find a new one for me. It unfurled and danced a bit before my camera was brought to me. I tell people every day out in the water is like a treasure hunt...you never know what you will find.

Even though your classes will tell you to never do it, sometimes for the underwater photographer a solo dive can allow you to go your own pace. It does increase the risk a little but as long as you stay within a breaths distance of the surface the added risk is minimal. Today I headed out to visit one of my favorite location off the South Maui coast to get a different perspective. I often look for very small nudibranchs but today I aimed to get a bigger picture and different views. I punched up my shutter speed to get some fish pictures and worked with my white balance to get some contrasting reef scenes. And what turned out to be one of my favorites shown here to the right was taken from inside a cave where you can freedive into and then surface inside of. The light entering the cave is reflected off the surface of the water inside the cave. Two turtles shared this space with me as I set up for this shot. I don't often spend alot of time taking fish shots unless its somethi...

30 miles offshore of Maui where the ocean drops off to 10,000ft or more, any kind of debris drifting in the water can provide protection for juvenile pelagic fish. Today we came across a large green fishing net under which many different fish were hiding. Even though I feel a little bad about taking these fishes' makeshift home away these net can prove disastrous for marine mammals, sea turtles, and ocean going birds. So I turned around the research boat to grab the net and get a little ocean karma.  That is when we saw it. Flashes of yellow streaking through the water. It was the bright yellow fins of mahi mahi, or dolphin fish. Until now I had only seen the silhouette of one jumping near a kelp raft off Catalina Island or on a dinner plate. Never before had I seen one under the water, much less had an opportunity to take its picture. I was very lucky as these three mahi mahi did not seem overly scared of me. They circle back a few times and I was able to snap this picture bef...

At the end of the road past Kihei, Wailea, and even Makena you get to an impassable lava field. This lava flow is less than 1000 years old and it still very barren. While the rugged, uneven terrain stops all vehicles and most travelers, some people persist and step foot onto the ancient 'King's Highway.' This is an old coastal path that led completely around the island. Legend has it that warriors would patrol the coastline day and night to make sure they were never surprised by a war party from a neighboring island. Some people claim to see the spirits of these warriors still this day. These ghost-warriors are commonly called 'the Night Marchers.' It wasn't the night marchers that made me caution my spur of the moment decision to take this adventurous hike...it was the fact that I was wearing little rubber sandals! If you take a close look at the picture of the actual trail you can see how uneven the loose lava rock is that you tread upon, not to menti...

WHAT AMERICANS DON'T UNDERSTAND ABOUT TRAVELING   All I wanted to be growing up was a traveler. I thought nothing could be as exciting as seeing new places, meeting different people, and getting out of my comfort zone. The only problem was I was so excited about the adventure that I didn't get out of my comfort zone. Without anyone telling me to be scared about being in a far away land or to be worried about getting lost I instead soaked up all that was around me. Through these eyes the true wonder of new experiences could be enjoyed. I was lucky.   So many people do have those around them telling them to be scared. Some will say 'its dangerous.' or 'you shouldn't travel because you are American.' I bet the people saying this have not traveled.   Whether or not people liked American was one question I was very curious about, being American and all. The years after 9/11 Americans all over were stitching Canadian flags to their backpacks while I was being init...

Shore diving Maui can be very rewarding. There are many spot on the south shore in the Wailea/Makena area that are very worth exploring. My favorite to take visitors to is a place called 5 Graves. It is just north of Makena Landing and also known as 'Turtle Town' because of the number of turtles there, and '5 Caves' because of the numerous underwater caves and swim throughs created by lava.   The caves are perfect resting spots for Hawaiian Green Sea turtles and White Tip Reef Sharks. So if you are looking to see it all on one dive this is the place. My friends Nate, Kelly, and Brian all joined me on this dive and we were extremely lucky. Turtles were everywhere! Some were resting in caves, others coming up to breathe at the surface, and another very hungry turtle chomping on some of the shallow growing algae. The first cave we checked out housed a good sized white tip reef shark pictured above. I went down first, saw him, and gave the shark sign to the group. Th...

 The road to Hana here on the rain forest side of Maui is already an off the beaten track kind of adventure. But if you have that drive to explore you can find yourself under a 400ft waterfall with no one else around. The beauty of this place is that except a few of the bigger, well known sites most of waterfalls, swimming holes, cliff jumps, and other incredible sites don't see too much foot traffic. But unless you are a local or have done your research there won't be any signs that point your way.  One of my favorite hikes here that is a pretty easy skill level is the Waimoku Falls hike above Seven Sacred Pools. This is a little beyond Hana and is also a great place to camp. If you do camp here don't just set up in the parking lot, set off and follow the trails. They lead to beautiful, secluded camp sites on the cliffs overlooking the raging seas. We had an owl, the first I've seen here on Maui, fly right into the tall grass near our camp site here. The pools ...