New Blog
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 28 2008, 10:06 AM
Moved to Blogger and my own domain ...
The blog lives on at wwww.jeremypayne.net
Enjoy!
Thinking about a trip to Mexico in May or June ... stay tuned ...
Back home ...
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 13 2008, 08:27 PM
I'm back home ... the night dive was fun and a bit scary ... went deep (82 feet) and explored a fun rock wall outside of English Harbor.
Instead of linking up the photos, just head to my flickr site ...
Antigua 2008
This has everything from the trip.
Thursday (Part Deux)
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 10 2008, 06:47 PM
Here are a few more shots from the morning dive:
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
After the dive and before lunch I took a snorkel on the beach and witnessed one of the coolest things I have ever seen underwater. As I came around the same small rock jetty where I shot the crabs the other day, I noticed a Sand Diver's eyes poking out of the sand ... just as I was approaching for a better look, he lept into action from his hideout and bagged a small yellow-tail snapper that was passing by. He bit the tail and held on as the small snapper struggled ... moments later the sand diver sucked him half way down .... moments later the only the head was sticking out of his mouth and then **slurp**, the snapper was gone. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me at the time ... but I jumped out and grabbed it to take a picture of the predator lounging with a full belly.
I used the "underwater" mode and white balance setting with no filter for this shot. Works pretty well! Not sure it would work well at depth, but for shallow snorkeling, this is a nice option.
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Bye for now!
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
What a nice day!
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 10 2008, 06:36 PM
Today was gorgeous ... sunny and warm with glassy seas. As we rode out to "Morgan's Anchor" - our second trip to this site - I was amazed at the lack of swell and wind.
The dive began well with visibility markedly better than the day before. As we hit bottom (about 65ft under the boat), I powered up the camera and went through my checks and set my custom white balances ... except the strobes didn't fire. After three minutes of trying to figure out what was wrong, I got frustrated and gave up.
Soon thereafter, a HUGE snapper of some sort came cruising by ... I'd say he was 40-60 pounds. Next came a couple of large French Angelfish:
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Never one to give up THAT easily, I started taking apart my rig underwater trying to figure out why the strobes were not firing. I became convinced I had somehow broken my fiber optic cable ... so I took it off to examine it and lo and behold I discovered a couple grains of sand stuck inside one end. A couple shakes and a reconnect and we were back in business.
I was very happy to have my rig back in working order as the dive master found a cool crab at about 80 feet and scared him out of his hiding spot long enough for a nice portrait.
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
The dive was long and deep - max depth was 87 feet and total dive time almost 4 minutes. My air management is good after a week of diving - even with the camera and all the maneuvering for shots - and I got back in the boat with tons of air in my tank. Given the length and depth of the dive and per the advice of my computer, I took a nice long safety stop under the boat at about 20-15 feet. While there I took some nice shots into the sun (and a couple movies as well!)
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr[/i]
Wednesday
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 9 2008, 05:42 PM
The seas were very calm today as we rode out to Bluff Cut on the Cades Reef. Just as we got to the site, clouds rolled through and darkened the skies a bit.
The dive was nice ... the area we dove had a big sandy cut through the reef. Visibility was fair ... the lack of sunshine and abundant particulates made for hazy flat light ... and the lack of big critters meant it was time for JSP's favorite Caribbean pastime ... Flamingo Tongue portraits! I'm getting much more comfortable with using strobes underwater.
5 minutes into the dive, we found a big 5-6 lb spiny lobster ... while the dive master was bringing the lobster up to the boat, I swam around a small patch of sand looking for Flamingo Tongues ... needless to say I found a few.
Here are some shots from the morning dive:
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Stay tuned!
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Late afternoon snorkel
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 8 2008, 06:02 PM
Out at the end of the beach is a small pile of rocks with lots of critters hanging around. I took a quick snorkel with the camera in the late afternoon with my camera ... the little crabs were fast and very skittish, but I finally got one to stare me in the eye long enough to get a good shot ...
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Stay tuned!
P.S. Can't get out on a night dive until Friday, but at least I found an dive boat that is going out while I'm here ... that should be really interesting with the camera!
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
More ...
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 8 2008, 05:56 PM
Here are some more from the morning dive ...
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Third day diving
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 8 2008, 05:51 PM
Today was a really beautiful morning on the reef and for the third day in a row I was the only person on the boat aside from the captain and the dive master ... the ocean was very calm and we got out nice and early.
The wildlife this morning was abundant ... I saw:
>> Two southern stingrays
>> Two Eel (spotted moray I think)
>> A small nurse shark (couldn't get the auto-focus to lock - even with my focus light ... rats!)
>> A HUGE puffer - missed the shot
>> Beautiful file fish
>> Cute little trunk fish
>> Another beautiful flounder
>> Tons of flamingo tongues
>> And we brought home a nice sized lobster
... all in 35 minutes.
Although the natural light was good, I worked on using the strobes for the most part.
Here are the day's scuba shots:
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Stuff from yesterday
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 8 2008, 05:39 PM
Here are some other shots from the snorkeling yesterday ... all shot with the Magic Filter and ambient light.
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr
Another beautiful day in paradise ...
Posted by jeremypayne, Jan 7 2008, 05:30 PM
Second full day, second dive ... a lot smoother all around. Camera and strobes were much easier to handle and my air management was significantly better.
Today we dove another site inside the barrier reef. 70 feet max depth, 55 feet average depth, 79 degrees - visibility was fair to good.
I also snorkled with my camera out on the Cades reef ... it is in bad shape, almost entirely dead as far as I could see. The highlight was definitely the stingray at the end of the swim.
Here's some shots from the dive: (more later ... internet is SLOW here and the uploads take a long time ...)
All pictures hosted on Flickr .... Link to Flickr