Capturing the Moment

Beautiful Malapascua Beach Adorable Beach Babies Everywhere Heidi and Dive Master J.N. Ornate Ghost Pipefish Orangutan Crab   If beautiful sand beaches, happy hours, friendly, laid back locals, and excellent diving are what you are after, then look no further than Malapascua Island in the Philippines. After flying into Cebu Int. Airport it is a three hour car ride to the tiny port of Maya. From there a 30 minute boat ride takes you across the normally calm channel and deposits you right on the beach in front of all the resorts. Each resort has its own bar, restaurant, and dive center. Heidi and I chose Ocean Vida since we had a package deal with Sea Explorer Divers already and that was the resort that houses that dive company. Denise's Pygmy Sea Horse  Malapascua has been a familiar name in the diving community because of its incredible macro wildlife. Sea horses, nudibranchs, sea snakes, and frogfish can be found here, especially on the nearby isla...

A Loving Couple On the search for a mate    Mission accomplished! Ever since first seeing a photo of a rare fish called a mandarinfish, ( Synchiropus splendidus ), I have wanted to see one for myself. I had high hopes for seeing them in Lembeh, Indonesia last year but both Heidi and I came down with sickness that kept us from scheduling a mandarin dive. That just made me double my efforts at my next dive destination, the Philippines. I wasn't sure where in the Philippines these fish could be seen but I committed myself to the mission.  First a little about the mandarinfish and why it is such a rare fish to encounter. It lives in tropical waters in the Pacific, and is a bottom dweller spending most of its time hiding in rubble or coral. One might think that their bright colors would make them easy to spot but their small size, about 6 centimeters, makes it tougher still. The best time to find and take a photo of these timid fish is right after sunset. This is ...

Mandarinfish School of batfish Fish of the Philippines come in all shapes and sizes. Some look like fish a child might draw but many others are like visions out of your wildest dreams. Diving in a biodiversity hotspot like the Philippine archipelago gives me a rare chance to encounter some of these strange and wild animals. Do keep in mind as you are reading this post that all the animals pictured here, no matter how different they look, are ALL fish. Blue spotted stingray Sea Moth Horned Bannerfish Ribbon Eels, Moray Eels, and Snake Eels Moray peering out from its lair Ribbon moray , Rhinomuraena quaesita     Moray eels have long been one of my favorite photo subjects. They look menacing enough with their razor sharp teeth but have yet to show any kind of aggressiveness towards me. I am used to moray eels in Hawaii and California but here in the Philippines we have a few other eels to keep an eye out for as well. Sn...