Capturing the Moment

Camouflaging orange sea star   Scuba Diving Cape Town: Macro Photography Diving in the cold waters around Cape Town mean reduced visibility and low light, but a lot of life. Macro photography, a kind of specialized close up photography, is wonderful for these conditions. Most point and shoot cameras can do this, it is the little flower symbol on the round dial, but to get professional quality shots some more specialized equipment is needed. I use a canon 5d mark ii, with Ikelite Housing, and a canon 100mm macro lens with the corresponding underwater lens port. I also use an Ikelite DS161 underwater strobe to bring light down into these dark places. Janolus nakaza n udibranch on the reef Tambja capensis   Working very close to your subject means that you don't have to worry about your flash hitting all the suspended sediment and bouncing back at backscatter. Plus your light reveals the hidden colors where normally these colors can't be seen this deep. Imagine l...

Kahuna nudibranch  After our first successful nudibranch search at Honolulu's Magic Island dive site we decided to head back to see what else we could find. The water viz is usually pretty low at the entrance, around 15ft, but opens up to 30-35ft as you round the corner. We explored the Ala Wai boat channel, which you can see to the right of Magic Island in the aerial picture, on our first dive. This time we skipped most of that and jumped in almost all the way out of the channel. Indian Nudibranch Kahuna Nudibranch ( Thorunna kahuna)   Before rounding the corner of the breakwall we stumbled upon our first nudibranch finds, a Kahuna nudibranch. This beautiful nudibranch is white with a brilliant purple fringe. We have found it a few times already here on Oahu, however it was very rare to see on Maui. It's funny how shifting 80 miles away can have a noticeable impact on wildlife. Heidi spotted an Indian nudibranch shortly after. These are one my favorite nudib...

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...