I finally got out for a pleasure dive with Dan & Faith on Thursday. We decided to take my boat over to Klein. After finding the first 8 moorings occupied, starting at Nearest Point going clockwise around Klein, we finally found a free mooring at Ebo's Reef.

The dive was simply incredible. Must be fish spawning season or something because I've never seen so many schooling fish during a dive. Schools included Boga, Silversides, Brown Chromis, Goat Fish, Masked Gobies, lots of small fry, etc. The reef was frequently so heavily populated that it was difficult to see anything of detail through the piscine biomass. Diversity was incredible, with (at a rough estimate) over 80-90 easily discernable species of fish (and that's without working up a sweat dealing with fish ID minutae).

I took my video camera with my, and then captured interesting frames from that video. The results can be seen at:

http://www.bonairediving.com/richter/20011004-EbosReef/

G'night!

Jake

PS A replacment ReefCam cable arrived Thursday, so we'll be testing it out Friday to see if the cable was our original problem or not.

Good stuff Jake. I see now why you were burning the minight oil.

My favourite was No.24 but by the time you got to No.27 it looks as though you were getting too tired to focus.
I've resisted posting "grabbed" video stills so far. It seems like cheating. Still, I guess since Ellens input, anything goes.
Let's see......25 frames a second & about 50 hours of video tape on the shelf. I must be able to find something half decent there, surely?
"Piscine biomass", eh?

Jake,
That was wonderful! Now I'm really getting excited! Number 18 - was that 2 fish or are we looking at some kind of mutant?

Jake, thanks for your time and energy posting that page of captures. Like Susan, it makes me crazy to get there...6 more days 'til touchdown.
BTW, what camera were you using? I never imagined still captures from video could be so sharp.

Andy, your pictures are breath taking! There was one of a shrimp? Looks like it has a flower on its tail??? I labeled it flowershrimpthing. Wonder if Paul Humann would approve? Anyway, I showed it to everyone at work. They too, were impressed. Keep posting those pictures!

Jake, Awesome pictures... I never check this Bonaire Talk - Now I am hooked here as well.
Denise

Andy - the photos were placed in random order. A lot of the fuzziness that you can see is the result of motion blur. Some of the images were digital stills. All images shot with natural light and a color correction filter. No strobe used (or available for this configuration)

Susan - Foreground is a tiger grouper yawning, background is a queen parrot fish finishing a munch on some algae.

2Nancys - A Sony PC100 MiniDV Cam in a Mako housing - also offers the ability to do still image captures directly onto a MemoryStick, or from video onto the memory stick. Images were color, brightness, and/or contrast adjusted and sharpened in Photoshop.

Jake

We've got that camcorder (well, its a PC100 anyway) - do you know if the housings are easily available?
We had one made for our previous Panasonic (analogue) video camera (what a lot of money 'wasted' now we've changed the camera!) by a company in the UK. Meant we could specify what could be controlled from outside, and also we had it made big enough to mount a small 'TV' in it to act as a viewfinder. It was excellent and we could go back to them and ask about the new camera I suppose,but off-the-shelf should be cheaper!

Lots of folks have housings for them. All it takes is money :-)

Try Ikelite, Bright something, Light & Motion, etc. - prices range from around $800 to $4500 (depending on options, lighting, etc.)

Jake

And many have built-in or optional LCD viewers if they don't allow use of the cameras built-in viewer. Try http://www.steves-digicams.com/ for info and links, forum, etc.

Really enjoyed the pics, Jake. Thanks for posting. Showed Alan and we're discussing how we can get there in Feb (now that Canada3000 confirms they are NOT doing the Bonaire/Curacao run this year - they've added Delhi and Bombay instead, apparently!).

I'm looking for suggestions on the best way to get to our favorite island from Rochester, NY -- any ideas anyone, based on the current schedules?

If you do end up taking the Delhi & Bombay alternative Josie, I should get some training in wearing a full face mask before you dive there :-)
Rita, I guess the UK firm you mentioned was either Birchley or Seapro (Greenway Marine) who are obviously relatively local to me. I used them to house a Panasonic NV-DX100 video camera for me. Despite recording over 30 hours of film with this combination, I've never been happy with it. It takes wonderful film but the controls are all manual & are about as user friendly as picking up soup with a pair of chopsticks! I've almost(& I stress almost) succeeded in replacing them with electronic switches. I've mounted the cameras remote control inside the housing & run wiring from it to switches mounted on the housings handles. It works great for a few dives, but despite trying a couple of different manufactures, the switches eventually leak or break down. If any of you out there have any ideas, they'd be much appreciated.

Jake,

Loved the photos....I'll be there for Thanksgiving and can't wait to use my new sony dsc-p1. Will try it out first in the pool here.

"Flowershrimpthing" eh, 2Nancys? How could you!?





It's actually a juvenile Rock, or Spiny Blue, Lobster (Panulirus Versicolor). It grows to 14 inches & I can't believe you haven't seen adults on your travels, as they inhabit virtually all warm water reefs. The colours vary dramatically as you can see from the 2 pics. The second pic is of an adult & was taken in a fish market. I can hear your cries of dismay..... but they do taste really good! When ordering one in an Indonesian restaraunt you ask for "Udang Barong".

Wow! Jake you are soooo good to us! Thanks again for entertaining and educating us. Carole

Ha, Andy, I wouldn't know a shrimp from a lobster except when I eat them! 1Nancy would. She's the diver... as you can tell, I'm just ignorant! It still is a gorgeous picture. Thanks for the edification. My EWA bag should arrive on Monday. I think I will try it out in our pool before we go to get use to how to use it. Armed with dig pics and Pual Humann, I should be able to label all this stuff.

Thanks for the pictures, Jake. They were awesome!!!

Thanks Jake, now I am REALLY DEPRESSED!!!...PBD bigtime! We are going diving locally tomorrow morning, but I know it will be nothing like it was on Bonaire

Jake,

On a non-related topic...how is Linda doing with her knee?

And...thanks for sharing your WONDERFUL pics. They were really, really nice!

Wow! I also took the liberty of playing with the URL, and discovered your March photos, which are equally impressive. Thanks for sharing!

Steve

Andy, you are darn good at this game of photography, too! I am just green with envy. Thanks for posting all of the ones you have and don't stop now! Carole

Andy - yes, it was Greenaway Marine. I'm not the photographer in our household but my husband doesnt seem to have had too much trouble using the manual controls with this housing; presumably a new generation of cameras/housings means electronic controls are now commonplace?
(Greenaway Marine doesnt sound that convenient to Norfolk!!)

Ah that's a relief, Carole. You're talking to me. I was worried that I might have gone too far with the "Mom driving the bus" comments. My (Marcia's) pics seem so poor now in relation to Ellens digital stuff that it's hard to raise the enthusiasm to post more. But, as Arnie would say, "I'll be back!". As soon as I've sorted out the problems I'm currently having with the connection between my digital video camera & the PC, there'll be more...... many more!
Well, Rita I guess it's not convenient, but at least it's a little closer than Amphibco in Canada, which was the supplier I really wanted to use. Yes, electronic controls are commonplace now, but needless to say... at a price.

No sweat, Andy! If you can't maintain a sense of humor in life, you might as well just "pack it in"...know what I mean?! I think there was a gauntlet on the front of the bus being driven by my Mom, by the way!! LOL. Carole