Karpata

Dara and I are always making tentative plans to go diving together but most of the time never get around to actually doing it! We finally made a definite plan to do a dive in the late afternoon on new years eve. Originally it was to be just Dara and myself but my husband got off work early and my son also decided to come along. We piled all our gear and ourselves into the pickup and our dog also jumped into back of the truck wanting to escape the ever present sound of exploding fireworks and off we went. My husband is a dive master at the Plaza Resort and had been telling me of seeing 3-5 turtles at Karpata for quite some time so we decided to go there because it had been a while since I had a close encounter with a turtle. Lately I had only seen a few turtles swimming by, keeping their distance.

We arrived at Karpata and it was jam packed. I had never seen so many cars and trucks there! My son looked down at the platform and said how are we going to get in?!! The platform was completely covered with divers. Luckily most of the divers were just finishing their dives and preparing to leave. I am not very fond of underwater traffic jams! I asked one of the women divers if she had seen the turtles and she said no. I thought to myself...just my bad luck! We leisurely prepared our gear, waiting for everyone to leave and when the platform was empty we made our entrance. My husband stayed behind to snorkel because he had already done two dives that day.

We checked around the mooring block for the resident seahorse but didn't see it. It was probably well hidden that afternoon from the onslaught of divers! Heading south the first thing that caught my eye was a Glasseye Snapper and I took a couple of shots of it and an Orangespotted Filefish. Two minutes later I saw a turtle swimming up near the surface. I pointed it out to my son and the Dara. It was fairly far off and we continued on. Minutes later I came across another turtle under some coral, resting in a sandy spot on the reef . I took a picture and he slowly swam off where he promptly met another turtle and they did a slow greeting dance together for about a minute and they both swam off, one up into shallower water on the reef and the other into the blue but not too far off, where some other divers enjoyd a leisurely swim with him. We continued swimming along, encountering the turtles off and on the rest of the way. We turned back and I swam along for a while with two friendly French Angelfish. After a while Dara tugged on my fin and was making a sign for me to look at something. I couldn't figure out what she was signing but I thought maybe a crab or something! I was looking for something small where she was pointing and it took me a while to see that it was another turtle resting in the sand a little deeper than where I had been searching (the last turtle picture)! I should mention here that Etienne from Sand Dollar had given me the nickname Stevie Wonder because the first time I went to Mi Dushi Reef I didn't find any seahorses until he pointed them out to me! Needless to say Dara "cruelly" teased me after the dive, taunting me mercilessly, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder she cried!!

We were almost back to the mooring and after checking once more for the missing seahorse we ended the dive. As we got back to the truck and the parking lot that was now almost empty there was a beautiful rainbow waiting for us. What a fantastic way to end the year!!!!

Pictures.....

1. Hiding behind some soft coral. Oh shoot, she saw me.
2. Swimming off.
3. Face to face.
4. The dance.
5. Coming and going. For Cecil.
6. Listen up. You go south and I'll go north and we'll shake these guys.
7. Beauty in motion.
8. Gliding over the reef.
9. Dara's fins off the reef pose.
10.Please, can't you see it's my nap time.
11.Rainbow.

BTW For those of you that don't know Dara, she is the sweetest person and the word cruel is used only in jest. Dara identified the turtles we saw as Green Turtles.

Awesome photos!

Ellen,

Dara told me about the dive when she came for the party, but I guess it didn't sink in that some of the turtles were together. Excellent photos! And Happy New Year to you, Erwin, and Jason!

Jake

Great dive and great photos, Ellen!

Seems to have stirred up my PBD even more. How long does it last?

Steve

IMHO, it lasts until you return. Then when you leave...well you know what happens then, right?

Ellen, Thanks for the wonderful description of your dive and the pictures are incredible as always!!! I feel like I just got out of the water myself!

Dear Ellen,

My name is Saskia and I am the project coordinator of Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire. These pictures make my heart go boom! Absolutely gorgeous. We collect photos from turtles for our Photo Identification Project. The Karpata green turtles are becoming better models every time!
Thank you,

Saskia

Ellen, absolutely beautiful pictures.. thank you..S

Ellen, great pictures, that little camera is the best. I really starting to love mine, it's so cute. I only wish I could download to my computer, I was able to get the camera downloaded to a friend's computer. Still working the issue although I seem to be at an impasse right now. I'm actually starting to think about rebuilding the system as much as I hate that thought. Step 1 would be buy a new hard drive to back up the old one.

On the accessories front; I'm working on the underwater case and should have it in a couple of weeks. I still need another 64 meg card, an extra battery and a storage device. I'm starting to lean towards the digital wallet idea, even thou I bad mouthed it the first time I heard about it. The idea has germinated and seems like a good way to go vs. the laptop approach.

Thank you so much for the wonderful photos. My daughter and I are coming to Bonaire for the first time in a couple of weeks and we can't wait. (We find ourselves on this website more and more as our departure date approaches looking at all the beautiful photos) What kind of camera did you use? Thanks again for sharing these pictures!

Ellen,
We were also at Karpata that afternoon diving from a boat. We saw two turtles, one at approximately 50 feet and the other at about 25-30 feet, swimming towards the air bubbles of a group of four divers descending at the wall - it could have been you! The two french angelfish were also around when we were there. We saw two rainbows later, before and after diving Oil Slick Leap. I agree - it was a fabulous way to end 2001. Thanks for the gorgeous photos.

Ellen:
Outstanding photos!
I am sure you have provided this information before (I cannot locate it in the BT archives), but will you tell me which camera and housing you are using. I am thinking about adding a digital to the arsenal (limited as it is) and would love to have some input.
Thanks!

Incredible pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Ellen...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Wow! Absolutely Fabulous What a way to end the year...I have to agree with Steve and Sandy though, stirred the PBD even more, I am going to have to "make" my husband look at these pictures to prove there really are turtles there (as the only one I saw was diving from the surface on our way to hilma)...I am of course now going to "make" my office mates look at the pictures too! Now, when i am really PBD'd out, I will come to this post...may hold me for a while...gotta ask, did Dara get a good chuckle through her reg?

To answer Robert's question, it's a Sony DSC-P1. It was discussed quite awhile ago at Link and Link.

Cecil:
Many thanks...most helpful and has led me to seek other links. Off we go in search of erudition...or at least a good housing.

Ellen...you just get better and better!!!!!Copy of everything for me please. Happy New Year to Dara...you already have all the best wishes I've wished... for you and the family.

Ellen...what a great report and the photos are beautiful. Hope to see you in February.

Kay

Great pictures! the water clarity is awesome, plus the turtles helped alittle!

Jake and Saskia, Erwin tells me that he also has been seeing a small, about 7 inches in diameter, turtle at Karpata. That would be neat to see! Oh well, there are still 361 days left to explore and search for neat critters in 2002! Jake, Happy New Year to you and Linda and Yana and Bas, too!

Cecil, sorry to hear about the problems with your camera. I would still recommend that you get a 128mb memory stick instead of a 64!

Cynde, of course Dara had a good chuckle! Your husband sounds like mine. I have to drag him kicking and screaming to the computer to look at my pictures! He tells me "I see them every day "live" what do I want to look at fish on a computer for?"!!!

Kay, we will definitely have to get together! Maybe I can even talk you into letting me try out your video light!

Ellen, Just beautiful pictures!! Thank you!

Ellen, we are visiting Bonaire at the end of the month for the first time. We are also in the process of buying an underwater camera. I've used a couple from friends, but we just hadn't bought one yet. What kind did you use with this? I'm also interested in film speed and where you got them processed. The pics are great and so clear. Thanks for your help.

Steve, I use a Sony DSC P1 digital camera, so no film processing!

Ellen, You've done it yet again. My students and I just finished "oooing and ahhhing" over your pictures. What a great way to start our morning! Although we saw turtles while snorkeling on Bonaire, we never saw them that close or clear. We have GOT TO learn how to dive!!! Thanks for inspiring us once more.

Ellen, thanks for the info. I love my digital that we use daily. SeaLife Reefmaster is coming out with a digital, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get my hands on it before we leave since their shipping date is scheduled for January 20. If you have this camera, did you buy the housing separate and where?

As you can tell, I'm pretty anxious to get an underwater digital. I never thought I'd give up my Minolta 35mm, but this new camera made me do it. Now I need the one for underwater. Thanks.

Ellen, Michael was really impressed with the photos...of course I had to go find what kind of camera you use for him...we have a Reefmaster, nice to know that they are coming out with a digital, processing film is expensive!

Steve, I bought the housing for my camera in Aruba, last June, because at that time it was out of stock on all of the online sites. What kind of digital camera are you using now? You may be able to find a housing for it.

Ellen –

The photos look very nice. I am impressed with what the Sony is capable of. You seem to be in the minority, as most underwater digital users seem to be using the Olympus or Nikon cameras. I will be trying my Olympus 2040 and PT-010 for the first time in Bonaire in February. I hope I can get a few pictures that look as nice as yours. I wonder, are the above photos un-retouched, or have they been photoshopped?

Thanks,
Greg

Greg, you are right about me being in the minority. The Olympus digicams do seem to be the most popular choice for digital underwater photographers.

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements and adjust auto levels, brightness, contrast, sharpness and color.

Since this will be your first time using your camera underwater you may find this link very helpful. Jeff Farris has posted a great primer on shooting with a housed Olympus digital camera with no external strobe. Though he is referring to Olympus cameras the first 7 paragraphs will hold true for the Sony P1 and many other housed digital cameras too. It took me three months to figure this out on my own(duh!) so I figure that it might be very helpful to some of you using a digital camera underwater for the first time.

Olmpus Digital Camera Underwater Primer

Thanks Ellen,

I had already caught Jeff's primer. He posted this on Rodale's Scuba Diving message board as well. There are some others postings over there about some of the new digital strobe if anyone reading this is interested. Do a search over there (www.scubadiving.com) and you will find them.

The pictures you have posted look great, but the colors just look too bright to not have been through photoshop. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

Ellen, You are soooo good at this! Awesome, totally awesome. Thanks for taking the time to allow us to enjoy your magnificent dive! See you in May, hopefully. I "need" that camera!! Have to see what is available for the Fuji FinePix 6800 at this point. Absolutely outstanding shots. Thanks again. Carole

Ellen, YEEEEE-HA!!!!!! I'm so happy the turtle encounter was captured to share with everyone! A perfect ending for 2001!

I was thinking of you today, so at ease in the water with camera in hand, as I struggled to make my first exposures holding the Nikonos V with bulky stobe at arms length, squinting at the viewfinder! Kept wondering every few seconds - okay what are my feet doing????? Are they off the reef???? Time to develop a more innate sense of "fin awareness" so I don't look like an underwater version of "The Flying Nun"!!

See you later by the seaside!

Ellen, Super pics! Thanks so much for the primer link. I have stumbled across some of the discussions on Steve's site but never really looked for anything related to technique. I will be trying out my digital and housing for the first time at the beginning of February and expect that you have made the learning curve considerably shorter for me. Masha danki - Eric