Hi all,

I finally managed to get into the water with my new Ikelite housing for my Sony F707. 51 pictures later I have about 15 I don't mind showing. Have a lot of things to still work out, proper strobe use being among them.

Take a look at: http://www.bonairediving.com/richter/20021103-SmallWall

Jake

PS The Bonaire-stored Cam archives have been uploaded to the main server archives in the U.S. for all to see.

Note to the above - the photo of Charlotte and of me cleaning the ReefCam were taken by Martin DeWeger :-)

Jake

Oh, and Martin also took the one of the ReefCam and its replacement signs (same content as before but just uncoated by marine life).

Jake

nice octopus! where'd you find him? the first shot, with him wrapped up in the corals -- I like that one... (second one's not bad, either...

Faith

Great pictures Jake! Makes me wish I was going to Bonaire soon!

I really like the Xmas Tree. It looks like your system has excellent macro capabilities. Very sharp, outstanding detail.

Hey Jake,

One word - "INCREDIBLE":-{)}

Tom

jake, thanks for sharing, the photos are great.

Wonderful stuff (as always)!

Say, how many domains do you have???

You're a busy guy.

Incredible is right!!! Thanks for sharing!!
Jake is that a seahorse to the left of the flamingo tongue???

Jake, You really should be a professional photographer!!!! If that is your first time out with that camera, I can't imagine what the pictures will be like when you know the camrera!!!!!Thanks for sharing the awesome pictures!!!!

Jake, excellent pictures, can't wait til Nov 22. See you at BT dinner on 25th.

jake,

thanks for the samples...i did manage to see another collection from the red sea using the ikelite housing and the DS-50 strobe:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=245354

thanks again...

Great stuff, Jake. Thanks for taking us on your dive with you and Martin. At least we can dive with you guys vicariously! Have fun with the new toy.....I know how much fun it is experimenting with new camera equipment...one of my favorite pastimes. Thanks again. Hi, to Martin, too. Carole

Jake...great photos....it's starting to hurt to see these photos. I need to be there for a couple of weeks soon.
Come on 2003...can't get here fast enough.

Snorkleguy - I have more domains than I can shake a stick at :-) (in my name or that of one the many companies I'm involved with I'd guess at probably about 200+)

Bob - Thanks very much for the link. Looks like the photographer is having many of the same lighting problems I've been seeing.

For all: thank for your kind words.

And more pics, but a story to go with them first:

I was lucky enough today to have been invited to go diving with an old friend, Mark Stanton of the Divers Down TV show (see http://www.diversdowntv.com - shown exclusively on NESN - the New England Sports Network) and his wife, son, and crew. Mark & Divers Down are here on Bonaire this week shooting for an upcoming show, and are being hosted by Plaza.

This mornings dive was a two-tank boat dive on one of Toucan Diving's boats (I'm guess Blue Moon, but I forgot to look!), which was well equipped for our dives. Our dive master was Erwin (Ellen Muller's husband) and captain was Jackson. The two sites we went were Hilma Hooker and Joanna's Sunchi (off Klein). Great dives in both cases. Spent much of the Hooker dive working out a few more kinks (see my technical comments in this topic under Photography Issues) with my new photo rig, but still got a few interesting shots off.

Joanna's Sunchi (and I'm probably misspelling it - too lazy look it up this late at nite) was fantastic. Beautiful dive, great conditions and visibility, huge diversity of critters. And, we found (or actually, located known) frogfish (2 of those, but I wasn't able to get a good shot of the second one) and a seahorse.

Photos from today's dives are at:

http://www.bonairediving.com/richter/20021104-HilmaHooker+JoannasSunchi/

I won't be doing another pleasure dive with camera in hand for at least a week or two, so you won't need to look at yet more pics after those above, at least not from me :-)

G'night,

Jake

Faith - I forgot to answer you - the octopus was right near the Small Wall dive mooring. Just hanging out. I also got one of him in motion jetting from the first position to the second, but it's filled with backscatter and motion blur and therefore not something I care to post.

Jake

Oh, and Freddie - no seahorse I can see in that flamingo tongue shot (had me going for a minute though!)

Jake

Erwin...now THAT'S what I call talent!! I've never seen anything like it....truly neato!! Carole

Interesting sand diver shot -- never saw one with blue eyes before! And glad to see that Mark Stanton left his drysuit at home... I hope Mark & Jill's trip is going well...

Faith

A+ on the bubble ring. Nice frogfish and sand diver too.

Nice shots Jake!!! You could see the teeth on the Sandiver and the frogfish has a face that only a mother could love!!

Awesome pictures Jake! Can't wait to get back to Bonaire.

jake, fantastic pics as usual...as i am sitting here with the flu, it has made my day a little brighter...i love the ones looking back up at the boat and the divers....thanks for sharing, and i'm glad that martin got wet

Jake, thanks for sharing the pics. I REALLY like the flamingo and the octopus. Nice to spend my lunch hour at work checking out the pics here :-) Any news on when the t-shirts will go on sale? And are you speaking this year at the Sea Rovers show? Denise