Monthly Archives: February 2016

Grenadines, Macro, Uncategorized, wide angle

Where are the turtles? Tobago Caye of course

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In the Grenadines, the government has created a marine park in and around Tobago Cayes.  Although the park is not particularly large, it is well placed.  The marine park is bounded by several small islands and the depth of the water in much of the park is relatively shallow.  With  shallow water and a white sand bottom, this creates some amazingly pretty turquoises water.

Sailing in to Tobago Cayes with just a hint of the turquoises water that we will see
Sailing in to Tobago Cayes with just a hint of the turquoises water that we will see

We had barely had time to anchor and we spotted several green sea turtles surfacing for air, only to return to the bottom to feed on turtle grass. We arrived in the afternoon and after lunch we were picked up by a local dive shot to go diving.

I did two dives with a macro set up.  The first dive was horseshoe reef.  With alot of newby divers we had some challenges, particularly since the current changed twice in about a half an hour.  I did manage to get a few interesting critter shots.

This banded shrimp almost reminded me of an old west gun fighter with her guns drawn; I guess you could call her "Two guns". I say her, because I think if you look closely you can see eggs.
This banded shrimp almost reminded me of an old west gun fighter with her guns drawn; I guess you could call her “Two guns”. I say her, because I think if you look closely you can see eggs.

After the second dive I switched the camera to a wide angle set up for the next morning when we would go to the marine park looking for green sea turtles.

If you have to anchor somewhere, Tobago Cayes is pretty spectacular
If you have to anchor somewhere, Tobago Cayes is pretty spectacular

Unfortunately, no diving was allowed near the island where the turtles were, but on snorkel we were successful in finding sea turtles with which to swim.  Below is a video from our swimming with green sea turtles at Tobago Cayes.

Grenadines, Macro, Uncategorized

The Grenadines: A macro shooter’s paradise?

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A relatively small percentage of my time is spent underwater shooting macro subjects. Why? In large part it is much harder for me to spot the small critters that are on a dive and most of the time we do not go to the same dive sites more than once. That means that if I am trying to keep up with the rest of the group of divers, I either shoot wide angle close focus and get quite a few shots, or I shoot macro and get very few shots many of which don’t turn out for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is I often rush the shot.

peppermint gobey A peppermint gobey resting on star coral. Take a look at this at 100% and see the incredible detain in his pectoral fin and in the star coral polyps

Nevertheless, I found when I was down in the Grenadines that the amount of small critters to shoot was quite substantial and I didn’t have to wait too long to find shots. Chrismas tree worms have fascinated me for years, so I do take quite a few shots of them. Their structure when spread out in the water allows them to gather the plankton on which they feed very efficiently. The extraordinary detail in each little branch is just amazing. christmas tree worms

Fire worms also have amazing detail in tuffs which carry their venon which when you look, closely resemble small whiskers. fire worm-2

If you want to get a real sense of what a fire worm looks like, look that this version of the image which is just a 60 percent crop; got to 100 percent crop and in addition to the fire worm you will see a couple legs of an arrow crab.
cropped wormEach little fiber can pack a punch with its venom — look but don’t touch

Of course, the dimensions of the creature can get very small. I found a secretary blenny who was not much wider than 1mm who made a christmas tree worm look large. The christmas tree worm is on the top right and the blenny is on the bottom left of the image.

A secretary blenny hiding out in his hiding hold in star coral
A secretary blenny hiding out in his hiding hold in star coral

But as I mentioned in an earlier post on the blog, sometimes you see something that just isn’t a macro subject ordinarily, but because I can’t change lens underwater, I shoot it with the macro lens and see what we get. Hence, the next image is LOBZILLA, who deserved wide angle treatment because he was huge, think two dinner plates, but he was relegated to macro lens shooting.
lobzilla At this range, LOBZILLA looks like something from outer space

Thus, there is quite a variety of small creatures to shoot in the Grenadines. But, you should be prepared to shoot the big critters with a macro lens when the opportunity presents itself.

Grenadines, wide angle

Is diving in the Grenadines fun? absolutely !!!

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sponges, arrow crab, brittle star and fish

Not long ago, I got back from a trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Getting to the Grenadines from Dallas gave me an odd sense of replaying the old John Candy movie:  “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”. Only thing was, it was three planes, and a ferry to get to our starting point. That is, Dallas to Houston (an hour) Houston to Trinidad (almost 5 hours) Trinidad to St. Vincent (an hour) and a ferry from St. Vincent to Bequia where we picked up the sailboat  that we lived on for a week (1 hour). Dragging my camera and underwater housing along on the trip was a bit of a beast.  Thirty pounds of camera gear in my backpack, 45 pounds of underwater housing in a pelican case, and almost 50 pounds of suitcase filled mostly with dive gear, a couple of swim suits and a few tee shirts for surface time.

I will write more about the individual dive sites later. We had four divers on the trip, my wife, one of my daughters Megan, and cousin Dave who was going to experience his first “blue water dives”. Now Dave, while not having many dives under his weight belt, has to be considered a pretty committed diver. In order to get certified in time for the trip to the Grenadines, he did his check out dives in less than 37 degree water (2 degrees Celsius) and finished the week before we went on the trip. By the end of the trip to the Grenadines, Dave had gained  a lot of experience, 8 dives back to back can help you get better pretty quickly.
Dave's 2nd blue water dive-1
Of course, Chandre, the captain of our ship “Freedom” joined us on most dives. Chronologically, Chandre was the youngest person on the ship, but was mature and wise beyond his years.

In general the dive sites in the Grenadines were full of sea life. Vast schools of a variety of fish joined us on most dives. On some dives it was creole wrasses. Most dives there were what can best be described as clouds of brown Chromis. The sponges were numerous, colorful and ranged widely in variety, size and texture. The sponges were healthy and reminded me of some of the colorful dives we had in Dominica a few years ago. We saw relatively few lion fish, but the ones we did see were enormous. The real attractions on many of the dives were the little “critters”. The sea horses, the arrow crabs and such.  And, I do not remember ever seeing so many moray eels. So the short answer to the question of: is it worth going to the Grenadines, it is, and because it is, I will have to write more about it in the coming days.

small hiding places