Mangrove saplings in pond on the Caribbean island of Bonaire
While poking around for more images I wanted to process, I came across this shot from last March when we were down in Bonaire. I thought this pond was interesting because it had a lot of young mangrove trees just starting to take hold. I photographed this because all of the mangroves I have seen were quite well developed. This area seemed unique. These young saplings in the wide open space of a Caribbean shoreline seemed to represent a new beginning. The cycle of nature repeating once again and taking hold.
In making images like this, it causes me to ask questions. I don’t know much about mangroves except for their protection of shorelines and providing habitat and protection for many small ocean animals when they are young. In doing a little research, I picked up a new vocabulary word, viviparous. This means the seeds from these trees start their germination on the parent tree versus in the soil. The seeds are buoyant , an obvious property given their habitat, which helps them drift and spread.
For me that is a rewarding benefit of photography. The more we photograph, the more we ask questions, the more we learn about the world around us.
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Georgian Bay at dawn
My second day photographing in the Bruce Peninsula was a bit more productive than the first. The blowing rain was gone, but the wind was still present. The bay was still going like the washing machine I described in my earlier post. This is a pretty neat spot on the eastern side of the Bruce on Georgian Bay. With the entire region being part of the Niagara Escarpment, the coast tends to be quite rocky and rugged.
I was able to plan out part way on getting here the day before in the rain, I only passed on the hike part as I didn’t feel like getting soaked. I had to estimate how long it would take to hike the trail to the coast to time being at the shoreline just before twilight, then add a little more buffer time since I would be driving and hiking here in the dark. I needed to leave my campsite no later than 5:45 am. Boy I love late sunrise time in the fall! (more…)
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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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Bonaire's Northwest coastline and the Caribbean Sea
As I mentioned in my previous post, I really only had 1 morning on our diving ‘day off’ to do some landscape photography around the island. There are a couple difficulties in doing topside plus underwater photography in the same morning. For one, the only SLR I brought with me was usually stuck in the housing in preparation for diving. I try avoid removing this out of the housing in the field as much as possible to reduce risks of contamination of the o-ring seals. I could have used my little Canon G10 or another SLR, but that would have meant leaving those in the car while diving, along with my tripod and other equipment, which is not recommended due to potential breakins to vehicles. You basically take everything valuable with you underwater.
So this is Bonaire’s Northwestern coastline, quite a bit different from the flat regions shown in the images from the prior post. For such a small island, it does undergo some rather dramatic changes as you move into the more volcanic northern areas. The landscape is quite different here, filled with cactus and other thorny plants on a very rugged, rocky terrain. Wild goats wander about in the brush and there is much less development here. Much of the northern part of the island is an ecological preserve and part of Washington-Slagbaai National park.
Diving this part of the island involves some different challenges for shore entry. A few dive sites are outfitted with ladders fastened to the sides of the cliff. Many are designated as accessible by boat only. One popular site is called “1000 steps” that has a rock stairway down to a coral beach. While the actual number of steps is around 72 (depending on what you count as a step!), it certainly feels like 1000 when trying to lug your gear back to the car after a long dive.
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