Finding a path into the Caribbean
Well, I started to write this post to try to tie in something about photography into the US holiday today, Independence Day. I thought there were some parallels in the paths we take as photographers and those that founded this country took. The writing started to get too deep and heady even for me! 
Let’s just say it started out with ideas around wandering into a sea of billions of images and wanting to find your own path, etc, etc, etc. I was a couple paragraphs into it and thought “Where the heck am I going with this??!” Writer’s block set in, I deleted and started over. So here I am, writing about what I couldn’t write about.
I have been having a lot of these blocks lately, both in what to write about and ideas for photographs that just don’t quite gel together.
So I am taking the easy way out today, will enjoy the holiday day off, and perhaps work on some older images. Have a nice 4th!
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Rugged coral beach with rainbow, Bonaire, Netherland Antilles
There is an interesting dichotomy between the shoreline and the life existing not too far away underneath the water’s surface. The shoreline… a rough, textured crusty surface that is for the most part, dead rock. Remnants of animal life that used to exist around and on these large hard structures. In essence, it is a boneyard. Walking through here is like walking through a graveyard of history of many shapes and forms.
Walking along here isn’t just your casual stroll along the beach. You definitely feel the uneven surface beneath your shoes. No barefoot walks here. It becomes a little more unnerving when you start to think about what you are walking on. Skeletons of a reef long gone.
I saw a lot of ironies in making this image. The rainbow in the distance often associated with happy feelings, hope, a refreshing rain, and bringing of life giving water. Yet scattered across the foreground, lit with warm morning light, are these reminders of life that is often hidden from our view. Life that once needed the water so close by to survive.
So many questions come to mind. What animals used to call this “rock” home? How long ago was this piece of dead coral surrounded with vibrant life? Were human beings even present when this piece was thriving at its prime? It is a lot to wrap your head around for a simple walk along a shoreline just looking for pretty pictures.
Venture a bit off shore, and travel downward about 50 feet, and you see the structures you saw on shore hosting the most diverse set of life one can imagine. Living structures that are likely hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years old.
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Life in the grand aquarium, Bonaire, Netherland Antilles
I imagine for most people, a walk through the forest is one that involves mostly observing trees and other plantlife, and an occasional animal. Imagine just the reverse, where your field of vision is surrounded by animal life, and only an occasional plant or two. Sound only like a Disney film? What you just imagined is much of what it is like on a reef.
This aspect of the ocean just mesmerized me when I first started diving. Everything I was looking at was some form of animal life, with rarely a plant seen. Things that moved, things that didn’t move ,and things that looked more like some alien planter than an animal. Your definition of what is an animal is becomes a lot broader, no matter how much you studied biology.
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Yellownose Goby Trio in sponge
This image is from a night dive in Bonaire. Diving at night as you might imagine is quite a different experience than daytime. Not only is your field of vision limited by only the power of your dive light, but many creatures you never see during the day are out and quite active at night when there are fewer predators lurking about. It can be a bit spooky at times and visually disorienting.
I spotted some of these Yellownose Gobies darting about inside this tube sponge. However, approach these tiny fish during the day, or at night with a bright light, and they will quickly retreat deeper into the sponge. This is where a new toy of mine came in very handy…. a Light & Motion Sola 600 Photo dive light. This very light and portable dive light has the option of switching to red LEDs. This feature is supposed to be for underwater critters that tend to be spooked by a full spectrum normal light. It certainly worked here. I hovered down to these little guys like I was invisible.
Read MoreAs much as I cherish photos from Bonaire that did turn out the way I expected, there are some that simply serve as great memories. Recently reading Richard Wong’s post on the Pictures you don’t take brought to mind this particular experience. except I did take one picture. The picture is forgettable, perhaps not even necessary, but the events that unfolded will be cherished as one of the more memorable dives I have had.
This particular site was one of the most northern dive sites on Bonaire, one that requires you to drive through Washington-Slagbaai National Park. In our prior trips to Bonaire, we have never dove the sites in the park, and were determined to change that this time. Forget about paved roads, RV’s, and touron traffic jams here, and you better have a high clearance 4WD vehicle. It requires navigating what some might loosely call roads with many pits, boulders, and steep grades, surrounded by thorny brush and cacti on both sides. When we arrived at the first site, it was in an isolated cove with fairly heavy surge. A dive boat was moored off in the distance.
Passing dolphin pod
While we were evaluating whether we wanted to enter from shore here, or move on – we suddenly saw dolphins approach the dive boat. A dolphin sighting meant the surge was suddenly classified as a MINOR obstacle. :-) However, by the time we geared up and were ready to enter, the boat started to leave, and the dolphins along with it. Such is life. With a sigh of disappointment, we entered anyway.
If there is one significant Achilles heel of underwater photography (particularly with SLRs), it is deciding which lens you are going to be shooting with since you obviously cannot change them underwater. Murphy’s Law of Underwater Photography states that “no matter what lens you select, there will be subjects that require the other lens.” Of course I was outfitted for macro for this dive having shot wide for the past 2 days.
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