Diving the Kona Coast: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Couple of Photos I Really Like

Obviously, I take a lot of photos and I'm pleased enough with many of them to share them on the internet with you. While they may be technically "good" usually they're not anything particularly special to me. This past weekend, however, I got a couple captures I really like...

For over a month I've been regularly visiting a group of six juvenile moorish idols that remain in the same general spot on the reef. Like many fish, they get skittish when approached and scatter and disappear within the coral. Over several dives, I've taken hundreds of photos of this group with only a few decent results. But on Saturday, I got this image of three of the idols in good position over the coral with gentle early morning sunlight filtering into the frame from directly behind. Maybe it's not high art, but it's a pleasant enough image.

Near the end of that same dive, I happened upon a green sea turtle swimming along near my exit point. I followed and caught this image at the moment she surfaced for air. Although I have several photos of turtles taking a breath, most of them are from almost directly below. Here, I was swimming alongside and only slightly below allowing for a nice reflection of the turtle on the surface and nicer blues and greens. Also, the strobes didn't fire as I had taken a shot only seconds earlier. This was good as there was plenty of ambient light and flash would have just caused a lot of backscatter.

Anyway, hope you like the photos. Barry

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Quick Change Artist

I snapped these two photos of a Common Bigeye (Heteropriacanthus cruentatus) literally just seconds apart. That was all the time it took for the fish to change from its blotchy red and silver resting color to its blood-red active color. The Hawaiian name for this fish is Aweoweo which translates to "glowing red". It is most active at night and is a popular food fish.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Fun With Photoshop

Aloha Everyone,

Between the winter surf and various minor ailments, I haven't gotten too many dives in recently. To amuse myself, I've been doing a bit of experimenting with my images on Photoshop. Here are a few of them for you to check out.