Marine life madness!!

Well where do I begin? The last week I have been in the water everyday. I went out with turtles, octopus, eels, and dolphins on my birthday. I got to snorkel with my son Kai, Nick, Bandera, Don and Linda over the last week. It's always great to do what you love but to get to do it with people you love make it even better.

In the shot above "I call Charlie bit me" I watched as one turtle bite another. I don't know why.

This was another thing that I haven't see before. This eel was curled up with a turtle. I think he just thought the turtle was part of the reef.

The octopus above was just minding his own business posing for me until the turtle came over to see what I was doing and spooked him. I feel bad that the poor guy had to ink to get away. I don't think the turtle was coming for him. This turtle was coming over to check me out every few minuets to see what I was doing there with that big camera case.

I had a lot of time to play with above below shots as the turtles were shallow, close to shore and circling me. I haven't tried to get this type of shot before, just took me a little while to work it all out. I like these shots a lot, as they are challenging to capture. I'm sure you will be seeing more of these from me as I perfect my skills with this difficult shot.

The spot I've been going out at has so many turtles that almost every frame has 2 turtles in it.

On my birthday I got to spend it in the water with Nick Selway and Bandera. We were surrounded by dolphins the whole morning. As an added treat we had a manta swim by and I saw an octopus deep below.

This is how different each of the turtle photos could be in this one spot. 

There are so many turtles and they are so curious you can just hang with them for hours. Most of the time you have to back up as they are swimming right at you and to close to frame up.

What I am still looking for is a active turtle cleaning station with yellow tangs. It will happen one day and I'll be stoked. Until then the one I have below will have to do.

Below are some photos of my son and of my good friends that have spent the days out with me. It has been a fantastic week and I look forward to many more like it before surf season gets here soon and I will then be spending my days in the pounding surf having fun that way.

Lastly here is the eel that Don was photographing above.

Back in the Bay

Finally after over a year and a half away from Kealakekua Bay (the bay I spent the previous 10 years in guiding tours) I have returned. I got the opportunity to visit the bay again on the Fair Wind 2. It was so nice to return to the bay on the boat I worked with for years. It was as beautiful as always and the Fair Wind is still the best platform to enjoy Kealakekua from. After a nostalgic trip down with the captain and crew of the Fair Wind I was able to hop in and enjoy and photograph the shear beauty of Kealakekua bay.

The first thing I came upon was this little baby puffer fish. He was such a little chunk, not much bigger the the yellow tang around him.

The next thing I found was this eel  swimming around on the hunt. He was definitely on the move and not to concerned with me and my big yellow camera.

This ulua on the other hand was quite interested in my camera and swam by be many times to check it out. 

The fish were as beautiful as always and out in mass quantities. These saddle backs are rare but I can always seem to find them in Kealakekua bay.

My final find was Case of Living Ocean Productions filming the multitudes of fish in the bay for all the guest on the Fair Wind 2. They make a great high quality dvd that makes an awesome souvenir. What a great Day out.

A golden weekend

I had a quick trip over to Oahu this weekend and was able to shoot a few shots. It turned out to be quite a golden opportunity. The sunrises were golden and beautiful on all three days and made for waves that looked like liquid gold.

The first day there was a north and a west swell hitting the island at the same time. This caused the surf at sandies to be a bit of a jobbled mess. So in a last ditch effort I headed to to Makapu'u to check the conditions. Well the surf might not have been cooperating the sunrise was spectacular. I quickly removed my camera from it's water housing and shot a few of my first hand held sunrise landscapes in years. With no grads to balance the light or tripod to shoot off of I was limited in my creativity but I still got a few keepers. Mainly because the sunrise was so beautiful it was almost impossible to take a bad shot.

The images above were some my favorite from the next day in the water. The north swell was dropping and as the north decreased in size the south shore cleaned up beautifully. In the series above you can see the progression of light as the sun rises on Sandies beach.

In the shot above you see my friend Kimo holding his ground as a wave comes his way. Unfortunately I have no shots of my buddy Jon who was behind me in the line up as we shot. He has a great shot of Kimo and I as were were right in his shot as he got the shot of the day. If you check my Facebook page you can see Jon's amazing image as I was tagged in it with Kimo. It was by far the shot of the day. I was stoked to get to be out with friends in the water on this day.  It turned out to be Kimo's birthday.  What a way to start it off.

The images above and the first image that started this blog are from my last day in the water. I was all alone in the water for about 45 minutes as the sun came up. The conditions were perfect. The sunrise was amazing and the waves were gorgeous. I got one of my personal favorite wave photos on this weekend so it was truly a golden weekend.