These are all from last months trip

A grouper close up



Spotted Moray



Squid



Trumpet Approach

WOWWEEE Brian! I love that grouper face! That's one only his mother could love!

Brian.
Cool close-ups. How did u make them?
Never took photo's under water yet (could have something 2 do with the fact I'm busy getting my PADI open Water ) but getting so close seems impossible. Or are u using a Hubble-like zoom-objective?

Amazing photos, Brian!

I always seem to be taking pictures of fish tails. How DO you get such nice closeups?

WOW Brian. great photos.. thank you...

Great shots Brian, Keep them coming!!
on a side note, sorry we missed you at Ditta's informative coral spawning talk at CDH. We were in the second row!!!! I guess we should all wear our BT shirts all the time!!!!

Neato stuff, Brian! That is what one would call "Up Close and Personal"! Great shots, to sy the least. Looks like you caught the spotted with a mouthful of chow....right? Very nice work...what equipment were you working with that day? Thanks for the shots and please let us see a lot more, OK? Masha Danki! Carole

Great shots Brian. Please send more. Thanks, Debbie

wow, the squid is awesome! we've never gotten that close to one...

Outstanding!, always curious about the equipment if you care to share…

Just look at those teeth on the Grouper, and the Squid is nice and great composition with the Trumpetfish looking for a snack.

Freddie

Strange we were in the front row on the right of the room for Ditte's presentation, her last slide was one of shots of the 3 rowed sea cucumber. We are planning to go again next year for the coral spawning and maybe dive through the night rather just the 17:30 - 19:00 & 21:30 - 23:00 (ish) which we did this year. Anyone fancy doing shift dives of the spawning???

Renee

I have quite a few fish butt pictures too, it is hard to get head on shots but now and then you can get close the grouper was within 12 inches of the lens.

The pictures are both from Sue and myself, I am sure the squid was by Sue as my squid shots all were under exposed :-{ Sue has a Sea&Sea MMII with all the extra lenses 16mm, 1:3 & 1:2 Macro, I have a housed Nikon F80 with a new Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro lens. We have nicknamed the camera Godzilla as the Ikelite housing and dual strobes is massive. Still a lot more slides to scan in and we will post a few more as we go. Thanks for your comments.

These are fabulous pictures -- may even give me enough courage to show up at my PADI open water check out dive tomorrow and sunday ... in a cold dark rock quarrey, somewhere in north western virginia ... and I'm having a real problem with the take-off-the-mask-and-put-it-back-on-under-water skill. I'm okay with the off part, and okay with breathing until I go to put the mask back on -- and it won't go easily, and I panic and involuntarily breathe through my nose. any hints from you experienced divers???

Most people when learning to clear their mask push too hard and then panic when they can't clear their mask in one or two breaths. Play with your mask on dry land having someone watch the sides and bottom of your mask while you are pushing on it. You only need to keep it snug against your forehead, not keep your forehead from falling off.

Then try doing this: in a pool with just your snorkel, sit on a step so the top of your mask is just barely under water. Keeping your eyes closed, pull the mask away from your face just enough to let the mask fill up with water. Don't remove it, just barely loosen it enough so water will leak in. Then let the mask reseat on your face and inhale thru the snorkel and blow out thru your nose while GENTLY holding the top of your mask against your forehead. Don't push hard as that will break the seal on the sides and bottom. Practicing that while knowing all you have to do is standup and pull your mask loose will reduce your tendency to be nervous. Once you can do that, try repeating at the same spot on scuba, and as soon as you can repeat that with your eyes open, trying going deeper and deeper as you gain confidence. Then going back to shallow water, try it taking your mask off completely and repeat until you can do it at the bottom of the pool with confidence.

GREAT pictures...

Excellent tips, Linnea. Thanks for explaining it so nicely and easily. Carole

These pics are among the very best I've seen here! Seriously!! great color and contrast and so close up!! Thanks, and I look forward to seeing more. :-) Denise

Linnea, I passes! the trick for me was just what you said -- don't panic and push too hard. also, when the mask was fully flooded, it helped to clear it in stages -- took about three times, but as long as I stayed calm, no problem.

I passed!!! thanks for the tips.

Congrats Janette. Another happy diver...

Janette

Very well done - Bonaire soon I hope!!!!!

Denise
Thanks I had a lot of bad un's too, I am planning on trying to make slide show.

Brian

Linnea, Denise, Olaf, Brian, et. al, Thanks for your encouragement!! I'm headed for Bonaire the first two weeks of march -- will be looking for a dive buddy. My traveling companions are wind surfers. Should I email buddy-dive and see if they can arrange for me to go with a group they have scheduled? or just wait til I get there?

Janette, when you check in at the dive shop, tell them that you are a new diver and don't have a buddy. The dive master/guide on the boats are quite willing to show new divers the ropes and will assign you to a buddy for each dive. The guides are always willing to point out things during the dives if you tag along with him/her.