Best of Mike #57

Some days you just have to hang out.

If today's that day and now's that time, there is a beach, in the Caribbean that's ready for you.

The sun on your face, making the inside of your head glow red thru your closed eyelids.

The powdery soft sand between your toes.

The soothing sound of the waves breaking against the shore.

Ahhhh ..... priceless

Best of Mike #56

Curacao is part of the Dutch Antilles (along with Aruba and Bonaire) a group of islands that lie just a few miles off the coast of Venezuela.

On this particular trip, we were on our way to Venezuela. But we had decided to stop over on Curacao,  for a couple of days of diving on our way.

Like many places in the dive world, the diving on Curacao is a morning, 2 tank boat dive, activity.

So we had lots of time for sightseeing.

One of the islands attractions, is a small but well stocked marine park and aquarium.

This is a pixture from our afternoon there.

Best of Mike #55

I'm not sure you could take a bad pixture of a sunset, even if you wanted to.

Here's my formula for getting good ones.

A nice warm day with clouds.

A comfortable chair.

A good pair of sunglasses.

At least one, but maybe as many as 3, cold beer.

Any camera set to one of the automatic modes (Aperture is my favorite).

This is one of the few times that you actually want your camera to be fooled. There are always rich colors in a sunset that aren't seen by the naked eye. And you want anything that isn't lit by the setting sun to be a black shadow (so no flash).

Find a scene that appeals to you, point your chair directly into the sun, lower your sunglasses, open one of your cold beers and snap away at regular intervals, checking your view screen to see what you get.

Things will happen fast, especially as the sun nears the horizon.... so don't get to mellow, at least until it's dark.

I use this formula on every trip. And ..... have always gotten good sunset pixtures and occasionally some great ones.

Best of Mike #54

I have never seen my brain.  But I can believe that it looks a lot like this very close up pixutre of Brain Coral.

Brain Corals are found in warm shallow water.

Each head of coral is formed by a colony of genetically identical polyps, which secrete a hard skeleton of calcium carbonate. This makes them an important reef builder.

Sadly, we seldom see brain corals that are this healthy anymore. As they are easily bleached by the warmer oceans that we are currently experiencing around the world.

Best of Mike #53

This is a pixture of Branching Anemone, taken very close up.

One of those many things, underwater, that looks like a plant but is really an animal.

Most often they are found tucked into cracks and crevices along the reef in shallow water.

It has tentacles that end in clusters that look a lot like fingers. And, like all anemones, you will often find small shrimp or crabs in amongst those tentacles.

But what I really think about each time I look at this pixture is.... "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before ..."

These are the voyages of the Starship Mike, a lifelong mission .....

Best of Mike #52

I agree with this Balloonfish, every day underwater is a great one ..... and well worth smiling about.

These fellows are found in grassy areas or on the reef swimming slowly near the bottom.

Occasionally, they can be found in small schools but more often they swim alone.

They are pretty shy and will generally retreat into a protective recess if approached. But will hover near the entrance giving you chance to observe them closely, if you move slowly.

If molested, they will inflate as that is their defensive mechanism. I have heard that inflating is kind of tough on them, so I have never teased one to see that happen.

Best of Mike #51

I know it's coral, I know I took this pixture really close up and I know it's pretty.

But what I don't know far outweighs what I do know.

I don't know what kind of coral it is ..... or what caused the turquoise coloring.

Something that I haven't seen before or since.

Best of Mike #50

We've moved on, again, in our scuba travels ..... to Curacao.

2001 was a big dive year for us, a total of four trips that year.

There were also a couple of other big events that year. In August, we sold our McDonald's Restaurants. And in September, on the 11th to be exact, terrorists attacked America.

Sometime between those to big events we had booked a two part dive trip (Curacao and then Los Roques) celebrate the selling of the restaurants.

We left in mid October, so, post 9/11 travel restrictions had been lifted ..... but there was still not a lot of people moving around the world.

One of the sites we dove in Curacao was Bottle Bay.... named that because there are lots and lots of bottles both new and old, in a pile on the bottom.

Some are very old.... dating to the 1700s.

Why the bottles had been dumped there, I don't remember.... or maybe we weren't told because no one remembers.

But there were definitely lots of bottles down there.... all sizes, shapes and colors.

Best of Mike #49

My camera and lighting equipment has evolved over the years.

Generally, because, I found that there were pixtures I wanted.... but just couldn't get with the equipment I had.

Oddly enough, moving up can mean that you actually sacrifice something.

The "point and shoot" cameras that I started with had a a minimum focus distance of 0.9".

Meaning, if the critter would let me, I could get really close.

The camera and lens, I use today, gives me many more options for managing light and exposure.... but doesn't let me focus much closer than 12".

I like close, almost to a fault. I think it makes for a more dramatic pixture in almost every situation.

And, close is always good underwater.... because water is so much poorer than air at transmitting light.

This is an Arrowcrab.... usually called that because of the shape of it's head and body. But sometimes because of the it's long legs it is also known as a Spider Crab.