Attn CORAL DIVERS...we wanna hear stories from you!

[SMB]

This will be image heavy as I have spent a lot of time underwater. I was certified in 1972 and stopped logging dives after 2000. That is not a brag just a statement as to how old I am. Other than being cold, seasick and learning how to hurl underwater, I never have had a bad time diving. They say there are two things you can't teach someone to like, golf and scuba diving. I have always loved being underwater and it became second nature, especially with a camera.
My favorite fish to photograph are clownfish, they just mug for the camera (and bite your knuckles). People always ask how deep do you dive, but that really has nothing to do with what you might see. (Divers know the deeper you go the less time you have in the water, which is not great for photographers.) My wife and I lived in Curacao for four years and there were not a lot of days that I wasn't in the water. 20-30 feet of water on a reef with a camera, can't beat it.
The first two images are of animals I had to rehome because they outgrew my tank. The Queen Angelfish shots are all the same fish. You will have to take my word on that, but I watched her grow up over a year on one spot on my favorite reef. She would come out to greet me in the evening; first as a cleaner fish, then when she got bigger just to say hello!
The rest of the images are just random shots I picked out.

 

[Kengar]

This will be image heavy as I have spent a lot of time underwater. I was certified in 1972 and stopped logging dives after 2000. That is not a brag just a statement as to how old I am. Other than being cold, seasick and learning how to hurl underwater, I never have had a bad time diving. They say there are two things you can't teach someone to like, golf and scuba diving. I have always loved being underwater and it became second nature, especially with a camera.
My favorite fish to photograph are clownfish, they just mug for the camera (and bite your knuckles). People always ask how deep do you dive, but that really has nothing to do with what you might see. (Divers know the deeper you go the less time you have in the water, which is not great for photographers.) My wife and I lived in Curacao for four years and there were not a lot of days that I wasn't in the water. 20-30 feet of water on a reef with a camera, can't beat it.
The first two images are of animals I had to rehome because they outgrew my tank. The Queen Angelfish shots are all the same fish. You will have to take my word on that, but I watched her grow up over a year on one spot on my favorite reef. She would come out to greet me in the evening; first as a cleaner fish, then when she got bigger just to say hello!
The rest of the images are just random shots I picked out.

Holy WOW!!!

 

[TonysReef]

* What's the coolest fish you've encountered?

Probably Great Whites. There is something amazingly humbling about being in the water next to such an enormous shark. And even more so with whites than something like a Tiger Shark, because GW's have darker colder eyes. It makes them seem more distant and impersonal. Tiger sharks have these giant soft eyes (although when they're really close they are certainly intimidating).

I actually have two great white stories.

The first time I ever went to see them was in Australia with Rodney Fox. It's an expedition and other than the sharks, there is absolutely nothing to see or do. During the initial briefing we were told that when a shark shows up, enjoy it from the surface for a bit, because often they just do a few laps around the boat and then leave. No reason to fight on your drysuit for nothing and miss the shark entirely. Well, after 6 days of NOTHING finally the bell rang in the morning. It was to the point where we thought somebody was just ******* around and didn't even take it seriously at first.

Once we realized there really was a shark I was the only one who decided to completely ignore the initial guidance and go straight for my suit. Within five minutes I had my gear and camera ready to go, nobody else even started to get ready until they saw me getting into the cage. For five minutes I was alone in there and it was amazing. I even got that quintessential shark grabbing the top of the cage and shaking it experience. Finally one other diver got into the cage (it holds 4), the shark did one more pass and then left. Everyone hated me for the rest of the no-shark trip. lol


Second story was when I finally got around to going on a cage-less expedition (unfortunately no longer available, the guy who ran them is banned from Guadeloupe Island). The format is they lower a cage down to about 45' with four guest divers who get to go out of the cage one at a time for five minute stints with two guide divers in the water to manage things and keep an eye on the sharks. One thing you won't be surprised to know is that being out of the cage with great whites and you're on pretty high alert. My first realization of that was sitting in the cage I was literally shivering waiting for my turn, the water is freezing. But once I got pointed to to get out of the cage the adrenaline warmed me up in a heartbeat.

Anyway, once you're out you really aren't close to the guides, probably 20' or so of open water in any direction, so you visually check in a couple of times a minute. Well, I'm watching three sharks swimming around and have a pretty good handle on where they are. But I do my check in look and the guide puts two fingers to his eyes (the signal for look) and then points down below me...

Well, I look down and there are two more great whites swimming side by side directly underneath me (probably about 30' down when I first saw them) swimming right up at me. It's difficult to explain, but there is something especially disconcerting about things below you. And when you're hanging vertically in open water it's not the easiest thing to maneuver yourself to be upside down (which is what you want because the big camera is all the protection you have). It all happened quickly, but as I was contorting myself upside down one shark broke off about 15' below me and the other probably 10'. I managed to snap off one blurry picture but it was an experience I'll never forget.

* What's your favorite coral to look at while diving?

Gardens of dendro/scleronepthya are hard to beat. The pinks and purples and yellows are gorgeous. Shame they don't do well in aquariums.

* Seen anything strange, unusual and UNEXPLAINED?

I saw a baby tiger shark in the Red Sea, probably about 6'. The guides probably still think I was wrong or lying, apparently they're quite rare there. Ooh, I also thought I was going to watch a Great Hammerhead kill a guy once. Fortunately after fending off its curiousity with his camera about four times it swam away, but that shark really wanted to see what was behind the rig.

* What's the BEST dive you ever had and why?

Really hard to say. Sometimes you see schools of fish or certain interactions that you know are special. I don't think I could say I have one single dive that stands out more than a dozen others.

* What's the WORST dive you ever had and why?

So so many dives suck. Honestly. The visibility is poor, the current is too strong, you're cold, you're hungry, the fish are boring, the corals are bleh. Seriously, half the time I wish I had stayed on the boat. But if I had to pick one it would be in the Solomon Islands last year. They have a problem with Crown of Thorns Starfish which can do a lot of damage to the reef. They're nocturnal, so you don't usually see them on day dives. Well, 7 days into a 10 day trip and not a single person on the entire boat has done a night dive yet. Which anyone who does live-aboard trips will tell you is rare. But we had just seen this nice reef and were anchored for the night and I had spotted one or two crown of thorns under crevices, so I was talking to the dive guide who said he has this whole backpack rig with a needle and some solution to kill them if I want. So we decided the two of us would go on a night hunt.

I thought it would feel good to make a difference to the reef, but we spent an hour underwater and killed like 30 of them. It was actually depressing. They just destroy corals and are ENORMOUS. We killed one that must have been 3' across, Like it was a lot bigger than the books even said they can get. That reef is probably half dead now.

Anyhoo... Here are some pictures. Clownfish are obviously the best subjects because they don't go anywhere and come packaged with an amazing background. After a few minutes of trying to get the shot I always thank the clownfish for being good sports and apologize for blinding them.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Attn CORAL DIVERS.....

I'm opening a Thread for YOU to tell us Non Divers some cool stories!! Maybe share some PICS!!!!!

* What's the coolest fish you've encountered?

* What's your favorite coral to look at while diving?

* Seen anything strange, unusual and UNEXPLAINED?

* What's the BEST dive you ever had and why?

* What's the WORST dive you ever had and why?

Stories, stories, stories.... we will all enjoy and be intrigued by your stories. And PICS!!

Please share!



.

This picture sent to me from Teau Faletau and Mele Fane from the beautiful island of Tonga , they make a living diving for corals. You'll rarely see these for sale, they dive for these for the upscale clients, aquarium institutions, etc..., odd and rare corals. Porties with stereonephthya softies. When's the last time you saw this, rare.

 

[Driftdiver]

Out of curiosity, what is everyone taking their photos with? I haven’t bought a new UW rig since before digital cameras became the norm.

 

[Oliver d]

Got certified in 1989 ,became dive master two years later First dives wear on the coast of South Africa and in the Comores.Worked in Mauritius for 6 months as dive master.In those day good dives dont know about today.Since Moving to the Middle East I have dived all over from Egypt and Israel down to Sudan ,Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE.My best dives have been in the Red Sea on the Thistlegrom wreck in the Gulf of Suez .Will load up photos later on.

 

[MombasaLionfish]

I have not dived yet but my Dad tells the best stores of when he used to scuba dive.

One time he was scuba diving and he had his spear with him. He was hoping to get some sheepshead they are delicious fish with huge human like teeth. The females are all pink a when they are older they turn male and are black with a pink stripe in the middle. Well he was looking for them and he swam right in the middle of a huge school of them. Suddenly he had second thoughts before catching one because if he caught one the others with their huge teeth would come after him.

Another time he was exploring and swam in to a large cave. When he looks down he sees two large sharks. They were either black tip sharks or nurse sharks ether way scary. They were both asleep so he slowly backed out of the cave.

Some of his favorite dives were the ones in the kelp forest. California's state fish were everywhere the orange damsels would come up to you and you would feed them peas and they loved it. Looking up in a kelp forest was beautiful.

The coolest fish he ever saw was a mola mola fish or ocean sunfish. He saw it I think three times. It is an alien like fish. It looks like a fish that's been cut in half and has two fins on top and bottom that it uses to swim.

 

[CDavmd]

Long time diver- but here’s a funny story kinda.

Back in the early 90’s there was a shark dive on Walkers Cay. This was an uncontrolled dive where you essentially kneeled on the bottom -40 ft depth-with your back to the reef and the dive company dumped a bucket of dead fish and blood into the water. The sharks would frenzy for the next 20 minutes or so.

Well after completing the dive we board the boat and head back. We get to shore and the captain realizes two different people did the head count! Well you guessed it- they left two divers out there. In shear panic they threw us all off the boat while they hauled butt back to find them. They were both floating on the surface with there BC’s inflated grateful the sharks were all full and well fed!!

Here’s some pics from my most recent dive in the Virgin Islands.

 

[Kengar]

Well, I look down and there are two more great whites swimming side by side directly underneath me (probably about 30' down when I first saw them) swimming right up at me. It's difficult to explain, but there is something especially disconcerting about things below you. And when you're hanging vertically in open water it's not the easiest thing to maneuver yourself to be upside down (which is what you want because the big camera is all the protection you have). It all happened quickly, but as I was contorting myself upside down one shark broke off about 15' below me and the other probably 10'. I managed to snap off one blurry picture but it was an experience I'll never forget.

Re sharks, doing a safety stop with the dive master off of Midway Atoll. (They no longer run diver operation there; it was pretty sucky as such.......) We're the last two in the water, just burning off air. There is a squadron of Galapagos sharks cruising leisurely over the reef about twenty feet below us. Suddenly, three of them break off and come straight up at us. I have never crapped my wetsuit, but my guts turned to jelly on that one and I almost did, and we made a VERY FAST beeline back to the boat with them tailing us....... really scared the bejeezus out of both of us, as the DM had never had that happen before, either.....

Re photo, LOVE THIS ONE

 

[Kengar]

This thread is most definitely NOT good for my productivity on a Friday morning....... I have made ONE dive since November 2005 (a sunken Boston whaler off Sanibel Island, FL, in pure muck) -- marriage, kids, yada yada yada -- but really miss it. Tank was supposed to be a surrogate, but it's limited in that regard.

 

[Kengar]

I LOVE this video. Play it on the highest resolution possible. If possible, play it on a widescreen TV. I love the way the key changes to ominous when shark comes cruising through at 2:03

 

[Kengar]

Diving fun: on my hands and knees on a large sand flat, trying to sneak up on garden eels and get face to face with them...... never works! They always retreat! LOL!

 

[MartyF]

Probably the most memorable single dive was the manta ray dive in Kona. Something about a huge ray with a 16' wingspan brushing the top of your head sticks with you.

Wow! Thanks for sharing that video, so awesome? Was that a night dive? How deep were you?

 

[acropora4u]

I have diving a reef on the bucket list, hope coral reefs recover

 

[MombasaLionfish]

I LOVE this video. Play it on the highest resolution possible. If possible, play it on a widescreen TV. I love the way the key changes to ominous when shark comes cruising through at 2:03

When I saw the blue ribbon eel I jumped I really want one of those guys. Also seeing all of those fish you usually see in you tank out in the wild it is incredible.

 

[clown and friends]

This will be image heavy as I have spent a lot of time underwater. I was certified in 1972 and stopped logging dives after 2000. That is not a brag just a statement as to how old I am. Other than being cold, seasick and learning how to hurl underwater, I never have had a bad time diving. They say there are two things you can't teach someone to like, golf and scuba diving. I have always loved being underwater and it became second nature, especially with a camera.
My favorite fish to photograph are clownfish, they just mug for the camera (and bite your knuckles). People always ask how deep do you dive, but that really has nothing to do with what you might see. (Divers know the deeper you go the less time you have in the water, which is not great for photographers.) My wife and I lived in Curacao for four years and there were not a lot of days that I wasn't in the water. 20-30 feet of water on a reef with a camera, can't beat it.
The first two images are of animals I had to rehome because they outgrew my tank. The Queen Angelfish shots are all the same fish. You will have to take my word on that, but I watched her grow up over a year on one spot on my favorite reef. She would come out to greet me in the evening; first as a cleaner fish, then when she got bigger just to say hello!
The rest of the images are just random shots I picked out.

Wow what amazing shots, can I ask what you use to shoot the macro shots? I am looking to get a macro lens and flat port for my camera.

 

[TonysReef]

Re sharks, doing a safety stop with the dive master off of Midway Atoll. (They no longer run diver operation there; it was pretty sucky as such.......) We're the last two in the water, just burning off air. There is a squadron of Galapagos sharks cruising leisurely over the reef about twenty feet below us. Suddenly, three of them break off and come straight up at us. I have never crapped my wetsuit, but my guts turned to jelly on that one and I almost did, and we made a VERY FAST beeline back to the boat with them tailing us....... really scared the bejeezus out of both of us, as the DM had never had that happen before, either.....

Re photo, LOVE THIS ONE

Yeah, sharks are funny. I absolutely love them, but I'm not comfortable knowing they're around if I don't have a mask and fins on. As long as I can see them with my knowledge of how to behave/react then it's amazing, but they can really be dangerous if you are uninformed or make poor decisions. I did a bunch of dives early last year in the Red Sea and loved being in the water with oceanic whitetips, they were a bucket list shark for me. But when I went back later in the year the dive operator said that two or three people had been attacked by them and now they're not allowed to dive those sites for a while.

And yeah, that lionfish shot was something I ALWAYS wanted to capture. So difficult to get them head on. Truth be told, I didn't exactly get that shot, the raw image has a couple of the outer fins chopped off ever so slightly. But I got it on a dedicated photo expedition (which I had joined as an extra since they didn't fill up the charter themselves); fortunately they included me as if I were a part of the club and the woman who ran it was a photoshop wizard (Erin Quigly) who was able to "fix" the shot for me and teach me plenty of new stuff about lightroom/photoshop.

 

[SMB]

Wow what amazing shots, can I ask what you use to shoot the macro shots? I am looking to get a macro lens and flat port for my camera.

Thanks.
I have had several Nikon cameras all housed in Aquatica housings. Inon strobes. Lenses: Nikon 60mm 2.8 macro, Nikon 100mm 2.8 macro, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, and Nikon 17-35mm 2.8 wide angle zoom.

 

[clown and friends]

Thanks.
I have had several Nikon cameras all housed in Aquatica housings. Inon strobes. Lenses: Nikon 60mm 2.8 macro, Nikon 100mm 2.8 macro, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, and Nikon 17-35mm 2.8 wide angle zoom.

I've heard good things about the 60mm macro, I think that is what I am gonna go for. I have the tokina 10-17 which I love for wreck shots

 

[SMB]

If you have a crop sensor camera it is perfect. (Allows you to get some larger fish as well.)
You can add a +5/+10 diopter to work with smaller stuff.
Fx sensor then maybe the 100mm. Allows a little working distance.