Capturing the Moment

Hungry Whale Shark      Whale Sharks, ( Rhincodon typus ), are the world's biggest fish. They are a shark, but unlike their more well-known relatives the whale shark does not have teeth. Instead it uses gill rakers to filter out tiny plankton from the ocean water. While it may seem daunting to jump in the water with these gentle giants the truth is you couldn't be with a safer, more harmless animal. And if you are lucky they might just stick around long enough for you to get a feel for just how big they really are. Emerging out of the blue    This is what happened on a recent trip to Baja, Mexico. I was sent on a photography assignment for UnCruise Adventures on their small ship cruise down in the Sea of Cortez . Every week the passengers have a chance of encountering whale sharks as the Sea of Cortez is one of their favorite haunts. It is never guaranteed but this week we were lucky. The upwelling brings in nutrients which powers the phytoplankton...

Can you see the pipefish?   As you have seen from the last posts, there is amazing biodiversity in Indonesia's waters. A lot of these unusual animals are very small so it takes a trained eye to find them. This post focuses on some of the more bizarre and colorful fish that are found in Indonesia, specifically ones that I came into contact with while diving off Tulamben with Phoebe, Erica, and Heidi. These fish came in all sizes from a blade-of-grass sized pipefish to an eighty pound bumphead parrotfish. Robust Ghost Pipefish But what connects all of the fish pictured here is the fact that they are either beautifully colored, or have extraordinary body shapes which fit them into the bizarre and wondrous category by yours truly. Bumphead parrotfish among the wreckage of the US Liberty Pics for Sale   Anemone fish like those pictured to the left always make for some of my favorite photographic subjects. Not only are they beautifully colored but their ane...

  With the morning off I had my pick of adventures. I knew the waves would be big on the North Shore, it is that season, but I hadn't been under the water in a while. So I grabbed my underwater camera housing and headed off to the southeast corner of Oahu. There are a couple of decent snorkeling and scuba sites around this side of the island, as long as it isn't too windy or wavy. I like the little beach next to the Halona blowhole, and the area under the Makapu'u Lighthouse is beautiful as well. But I figured enough time had passed since I had been to Hanauma Bay that I should give it another chance. When Heidi and I first moved out here we went scuba diving in Hanauma and were pretty underwhelmed. This time was much better. The visibility was pretty darn good, about 60 feet and once I was out of the cut into the deeper water I started to find some interesting marine life. Green Sea Turtle in Flight   I stuck with this young green sea turtle for quite awhile. ...

Dauin (Dumaguete), Philippines Scuba Dive Destination Wide angle madness! Apo Island's clear waters Stilted bungalows of our resort   Dauin is a tiny municipality of Negros Oriental, Philippines. Except for tourists coming in for scuba diving the small fishing village vibe still rules here. Ladies set up stalls by the road in the afternoons with all the fresh catch of the day. The men and some women too take out big seine nets right around sunset time and drag them along the shallows. Ten villagers hauling in these huge nets on either side made me wonder how any fish are still out there in the shallows. I got my answer when they pulled the net in the first time and I overheard someone say, "stonefish....we got 1 stonefish." They are hoping to get tiny little fish about the size of anchovies on our pizza here in the States to make little fish pancakes and rice for the next mornings meal. I couldn't believe all the work that went in to such a small...

  Oh man. We had signed up for a 2 dive boat trip deep into the heart of Komodo National Park, home of big fish sightings and walls of beautiful coral gardens. This trip would not disappoint. Our first dive was a wall dive with immense amounts of beautiful, healthy, vibrant coral. There was no bare patch of rock or sand. Every place that hard or soft coral could attach it had. As my friend Nate said when he saw this picture, it's "coral growing on coral growing on coral." This does give smaller creatures alot of places to hide but we still spotted some nudibranchs and a couple of beautiful leaf scorpionfish like the white one above.   Our second dive was all about the mantas. We could actually see them from the boat as we counted down our hour surface interval between dives. All of us were just itching to get back in the water to see them close up. We had no idea yet just how close we would get! The current at this site, called Manta Point, is very strong. It...