photo Friday
This is my entry for this week’s Photo Friday topic: Perspective. One of the things that makes diving so appealing on the island of Bonaire is the access to sites from shore. The story is a little different on the east side of the island, where the shoreline is rough and in most places, high above sea level, making entries difficult. The camera, placed in a rather small hole, creates an interesting perspective; the ancient coral reef, long exposed to … Read more
Our submission for this week’s Photo Friday topic: Alive is tiny a Flamboyant Cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi), about to hatch. We’ve shot this several times over the years; the first time was in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia in 2006. At the time, we had no idea how to tell when the cuttlefish would hatch, so we spent hours and hours over many days, watching them. We finally learned that when they are ready, the developed cuttlefish would turn these dark red, purple … Read more
This is our entry for this week’s Photo Friday Challenge: Twilight. Spawning hamlets can be seen at twilight. This is an interesting time on the reef – daytime fishes have bedded down and the night-time feeders haven’t yet emerged from their hiding places. A few fishes, like the normally solitary hamlets, take advantage of the low light (presumably to avoid predators) and pair up at twilight to spawn. Ned calls it the best peep show on the reef.
Underwater, I am usually on the hunt; moving quickly and looking for unusual animals. But dense schools of fishes will stop me every time – I give pause to contemplate the mesmerizing movement.
Fire urchins, belonging to the genus Asthenosoma, are found throughout the Indo Pacific, typically on mucky bottoms. Their spines are venomous and though not lethal, brushing against one accidentally can result in an extremely painful and “fiery” wound.
This week’s Photo Friday challenge is “Swift”, as in what one must be in order to capture a jelly plankton drifter, at night, in a current. Ned took this shot on an open water night drift dive through Ambon Harbor, Indonesia. Although he was drifting with the current, most of the animals were swimming and moving much faster than he could. He shoots with manual focus, which adds to the difficulty.
This is my entry for the Photo Friday: Delicious! challenge. Aboard the Dewi Nusantara, fresh green coconut was one of my favorite after-dive snacks. Nothing processed, no additives – just fresh and succulent, right out of the husk. The crew demonstrated how to eat the coconut meat by cutting off a small part of the green husk to create a scoop. Delicious!
Photo Friday: Activity is the challenge this week. Our favorite activity underwater is “critter hunting” – the search for unusual fish and invertebrates. Finding cool critters like this crocodile fish above and the rare melibe nudibranch below are what keep us diving.
This is my entry for the Photo Friday: Structure challenge. This is an interesting relationship between the coral and sipunculid worm. A coral larva settles on a shell already occupied by a sipunculid worm. The coral grows over the shell, leaving an opening on the bottom for the worm. The worm feeds through the hole and drags the coral structure around, righting it if it gets turned over in the soft sediment. If you are interested in reading more, take … Read more
We were lamenting leaving home during our favorite season, late spring, until we woke our first morning in Indonesia to the sun rising over Manado Bay. Just around the corner we found little mudskippers, from the goby family. Mudskippers have adapted to life in shallow, muddy areas by breathing through their skin. These occasionally made a funny little flip, presumably to wet their skin for protection from the very hot sun.