Southern Exposure
Today I went diving at three spots along the southern coast of Okinawa. The weather wasn't the best; it was chilly for here, and we felt a strong tidal surge at each site that left me spent this afternoon. It was well worth it, though, as always.
I played around with my new color filter, and after determining that I could in fact extract truer color from an image with it attached, also learned some ways to best use my new tool.
The more soft coral I see, the more charmed I am. I feel like just stopping and watching, trying to capture these strange and beautiful creatures' movements, either with still photographs or video. Here are some attempts at each:
I hope the video gives you the barest taste of how it feels to hang motionless in the water as the sea sways you and the coral both.
This is a shellfish known as a sea rabbit. Similar to a conch, it congregates near reefs, consuming food.
It's the black shell, below the soft coral.
This is a shellfish known as a sea rabbit. Similar to a conch, it congregates near reefs, consuming food.
It's the black shell, below the soft coral.
This is a stonefish, so called because it's very difficult to differentiate from a rock when motionless.
As for people, today it was just me and Otis. Otis became bored with my photography, and stopped to blow a bubble ring or two:
This is not to imply there wasn't excitement. We saw a school of nice-sized barracuda, and they hung out long enough for me to get a few shots:
As for me, I spent much of my time darting inside dark caves:
And out of dark caves:
Since this will have to be a quick post -- it's an early day tomorrow -- here are a few decent shots of the coral and colorful fish that rely on them:
Three dives today. Lots of swimming. With luck, another two or three dives tomorrow. looking for the elusive dugong. Wish us luck.
And out of dark caves:
Since this will have to be a quick post -- it's an early day tomorrow -- here are a few decent shots of the coral and colorful fish that rely on them:
Three dives today. Lots of swimming. With luck, another two or three dives tomorrow. looking for the elusive dugong. Wish us luck.
Comments
I have a friend who is currently spending the next few weeks vacationing in Okinawa. Do you have any travel suggestions I should pass on to her? She doesn't have a car, if that would make a difference.
Can I ask what equipment you use underwater? I've tried my trusty (but crap) digital and a waterproof Navy SEALS bag and that worked out OK, but now that I'll be in the water a lot more, something a tad less ghetto would be nice - so long as it doesn't mean $800 worth of new stuff to buy.
You can get all these items at Deodeo. There is one on Highway 58, and one on the Ginowan bypass. I think you might be able to go a bit cheaper with a Canon outfit, but I like the Sony camera for a few reasons.
I used to shoot with a Sea & Sea Seamaster Pro film camera, but that camera's pretty old, and digital shooting is vastly preferable underwater. For one thing, you can see what you just shot (a nice feature when the lighting situation is tricky) and you can shoot virtually as much as you want (you can't reload film underwater, but you can shoot forever on a 1GB card).
Here's all my diving posts, which have other underwater shots.