Best of Mike #178

My heart did a little skip and jump.... the first time I saw one of these underwater.

I was thinking sea snake and that had to be all bad.... at least it always was in the Tarzan movies.

But as it turns out, I was diving in the Caribbean.... and sea snakes live only in the Pacific.

So what I was really looking at was.... a Sharptail Eel.

They are most commonly encountered swimming near the bottom, in clear water.... and can be found, anywhere from harbors to reefs.

Best of Mike #177

I don't keep the bad pixtures.... but I do keep the mediocre ones.

Here's a pretty good example of why.

If this was a better pixture.... you would see clearly the Red Snapping Shrimp, hiding under this Corkscrew Anemone.

Although it's the Anemone that's in focus, I'm sure that my intended subject was the really the Shrimp.... for two reasons.

I've seen lots of Corkscrew Anemones.... and have some good pixtures of them.

But I have never actually seen a Red Snapping Shrimp.

Doing  the research, to figure out what that "red thing" might be, I figured out what it is.... and also learned that they live in symbiotic relationships with this kind of anemone.

So when we see a Corkscrew Anemone, in the future.... we will be looking underneath with much more interest and care.

Then, it's just a matter of being patient enough to get the right subject in sharp focus.... and you end up with a good or great pixture.

Best of Mike #176

It's kind of amazing.... and one of the reasons that I really love her.

You put a mask on her face, a regulator in her mouth.... take her down to 57ft.

And when you look over, there it is.... a smile that will light up your world.

Priceless!

Best of Mike #175

Downtown St Maarten.... on a bustling Saturday afternoon.

Now.... that's a pace that I could get used to.

Best of Mike #174

The last dive day of this liveaboard trip.... we spent off the island of Saba.

We did five dives that day, to finish our trip with a flourish.

The boat then anchored for night.... and this is the scene the next morning as we weighed anchor and headed for St. Maarten.

That's a pretty big boat that you see in the lower right corner of the pixtur .... probably holds 20-25 divers.

But it's a bigger.... and very rocky island.

I bet you already guessed what all that white stuff on the rock is.... yup, it's a whole lot of bird poop.