Capturing the Moment

Soldier fish, unicorn fish, pyramid butterfly fish, and a snapper all together    Maui has wonderful shore diving opportunities but for wide angle photography it's best to find the clearest water, and that is offshore. Luckily we have Molokini Crater, a volcanic vent which shoots up from the submerged slope of Haleakala Volcano from 300ft deep to a height of 162ft above the surface. The beauty of this for underwater photography is the fact that this rocky crater is about four miles offshore set right in the middle of very clear water. Descending into the sun lit blue Yellow margin eel on the hunt  I have kayaked out here before with scuba gear, and I drive out here for work all the time, but there is nothing as great as taking a dive boat on a day off for ease and comfort. I hitched a ride out with my friends on Maui Diamond II on a beautiful sunny day to find some great wide angle photography conditions. Blue fin trevally at the dinner buffet T...

    Winter is an exciting time here in Maui. Humpback whales are showing up in increasing numbers every winter to mate and have babies. While the humpbacks are here they perform incredible acrobatics, the males will fight to impress the females, and the mysterious whale song can be heard from miles away if you dunk your head just a bit under the ocean.   One behavior that I rarely see is called a spy hop. This is where the whale slowly rises its rostrum (head) out of the water. Scientists presume it is for the whale to look around at their surroundings hence the name 'spy hop.' It is a rare behavior here in Hawaii. In fact in all my time with these whales over the past three winters I have only seen this a handful of times. That was until these two whales pictured here.   On a special day out on the water in Maui you may have a chance to be mugged by a humpback whale. This is when a whale swims towards the boat and comes within the 100 yard zone. It is un...

 Maui has a plethora of shore diving opportunities which keeps me very busy, but whenever I get a chance to go out on a dive boat I jump at it. Today I went out with Maui Dreams and was happy to see both divemasters were my good friends, Josh and Jess. The sunset was beautiful on the drive to the harbor and an early morning sugar cane fire made the scene more breathtaking. It was a sign of things to come.   Not burning to come, rather beautiful sights. As the frigate birds perched on Molokini watched over us we descended along the Enenue side of Molokini. A white tip reef shark awaited us about 100ft down on the sandy slope below the reef line but I was interested in smaller things today. Nudibranchs! And lucky enough for me I found a couple of really good ones. The blue dragon nudibranch is common to find on Molokini dives, but rarely seen anywhere else on Maui. The I came across a beautiful white nudibranch with a gold rim which I had never seen before...which is a bi...