Coral beach at Red Beryl dive site, Bonaire
In my prior trips to Bonaire, I didn’t spend a lot of time at the shorelines doing land photography. I always seemed to be busy diving. I see them as opportunties lost from the past. It was difficult to coordinate being at some of these places during the soft light times because it conflicted with when I was supposed to be underwater. I see that as unfortunate, because Bonaire has a lot of beautiful land features worth exploring. It is the typical dilemma for someone who photographs both on land and underwater – trying to fit both in can be difficult.
Well, this time around I wasn’t going to let it pass again. I haven’t seen many landscapes from Bonaire taken during times of the soft, but dramatic light of the morning twilight hours. So I wanted to put my own vision to work in representing these spots where we typically wade beneath the waves.
At the end of the trip, you typically need to allow 24 hours between your last dive and your flight to leave to make sure you breathe off any residual nitrogen that might be lurking around in your blood. So I took advantage of this time, even if just 1 day, in getting nitrogen out of my blood to do a little twilight exploring of the shorelines.
The southern shores of Bonaire are mostly flat regions, but the beaches around most of the island are filled with coral. They don’t make for easy, casual strolls, but I happen to love a coral beach versus a sand one for photography. The coral provides so many more interesting shapes to work with and is a better representation of the islands’ abundance of natural habitat.
Bonaire western shore / coral beach
I also put to work a lesson learned many years ago in photographing in the Caribbean during morning twilight. Typically the great sky isn’t taking place in the east where the sun will eventually rise. It is to the west where the sun will be illuminating the sky from across the horizon. I had the added bonus of a good cloudy sky this morning. The prior morning of diving it was clear blue with not a cloud to be seen.
So presented here are two different landscapes around the same general area on the southern West coast of Bonaire. Both are single exposures with the use of Singh-Ray ND Grad filters and a Singh-Ray LB Color Combo Polarizer. The vertical here with more soft tones was during the early minutes of civil twilight. The more dramatic horizontal image above when the western sky is beginning to light up from the sun in the east.
In a future post, I will show some images of the more elevated northern coast.
I’m loving these images Mark and as you mentioned the western skies at sunrise hold wonderful beauty as well.
Thanks Brad. I find that especially true in the tropics. I am sure there is some atmospheric / light explanation.
Wow, you folks are too kind. I appreciate the supportive comments.
Suzy – Doubt it. Divers just don’t like getting up early. 🙂 actually, scratch that… u/w photographers need to get up 3 hours early for camera prep!
Earl – well, your spring is going to continue much longer – and yes, still jealous.
David – nothing can beat those Caribbean tropical aquas, blues, and turquoise for sure.
lol. I do the camera prep the night before. A morning person I am not!
I tried to get as much out of the way also. Prep usually takes so much time. I don’t know if I am overly paranoid, but anytime a seal is opened, I get nervous about any little spec that may get in there on closure again.
I prefer the term cautious 😉 but I am the same.
Time well spent! With your stunning landscapes the picture of Bonaire is much more complete. What a marvelous place. I’m glad you shared these with us. This is an ideal occasion for overusing the work, “amazing”.
I am enjoying your Bonaire series of posts. I was wondering what the place looked like above the waves and now I can see it is beautiful. It must have been fun to photograph there with all of the colors and combinations of colors, both in the water and the sky that we never see in North America.
A real “WOW” image, Mark — great work. You must be very pleased with these results. And to think after spending time in Bonaire you were trying to convince me you were jealous of a bit of an early spring here in NC. 😉
Beautiful images, Mark! The reflected colors in the first shot are really amazing.
Two more excellent images and they show the beauty of the area. I’ll be interested in seeing other scenes of the island.
beautiful images. I’m sure bonaire didnt look like that when I was there 😉 Perhaps its just talent I’m missing though lol.
hi Mark! this is what I was waiting for and I like it, very good work! thanks for sharing
I am glad I was able to do the island justice Marco!
Much as I hate to use the same words the other commenters are using, but these are amazing.
Hi Mark,
Your photographs are always amazing and very beautiful. It is always inspiring.
Simply beautiful shots Mark. You must be glad you took the opportunity. That coral is really amazing!