the largest aquarium

Hi, upon request I would love to share some of the photos I have taken, and will take, of some of the sights in one of the largest aquariums, the pacific ocean. They can be viewed in the gallery. While most of you here care and culture aquatic life at home, I have taken up viewing it in person. My camera is nothing special, as the photos will attest, a simple point and shoot. It isn't even qualified to go as deep as I have taken it. When it gets to 60 feet it give me the big ol' finger and shuts down until I ascend to a more reasonable depth that it believes is above 60'. Until I get a flash unit to eliminate backscatter, and a proper case too let it go deeper, taking shots of the hydrocoral at 75 feet is off the menu. So this is just a taste of what you can see. There are some things you can not capture, like the tail end of a passing thresher shark 20 or more feet above you. Moa moa that fly's by because it thinks you might be sea lions. Funny you wouldn't think they could move so fast. Often i just go down and look around with my buddy and not take the camera. So much to see in just the 40 or so minutes you get down there.

 

Welcome to 3reef Winter! I look forward to seeing these pics.

 

yes, welcome and post those pics!

 

Thanks, hopefully in the near future I will get a better camera setup. A lot of folks I dive with have some sweet rigs for taking photos but then I notice they are not seeing the forest because of the trees, if you catch my drift. They often look at the world underwater in a camera frame and don't often enjoy the dive as much. I was with one guy and he was so focused on the picture of an anemone, he missed the wolf eel in the crack less than 1 foot away! Wolf eels are very cool, scrunched up faces in the rocks. Every time we go out to Eric's Pinnacle there is a resident eel to look for near the bottom of the pinnacle. Bluefish love to school above it. Eric's is a favorite spot, always something different to see. Top is at 40' and bottoms out at 65', think massive boulder with kelp on top and a school of blues hanging out.

 

I saw these guys apparently talking. The mouth parts, which are very hard to see in the lighting, are moving quite a lot. They are definitely in a huddle about something.

 

Video is set to private Winter.

Where do you do most of your diving? What is your favorite spot?
Where are the pics?

 

oops, fixed the setting. Should be able to view it now.
Snce I learned to dive in June this year I have been diving in Monterey Bay. There are so many places just in the bay and then there are more just around the corner towards and in Carmel, Point Lobos, Monastery Beach. Every site I have been to has offered something new and exciting. Out at a site in Carmel called the Pinnacles depth is about 100' at the bottom of the structure, there was purple hydrocoral everywhere. Incredible site to see! And the rock fish just hang out everywhere you look. Ling Cod are ubiquitous to almost all of the structures because once they stake out a turf they do not like to move, thus you can practically swim up to their noses to take a photo. I have no favorites as of yet though I am very fond of Point Lobos reserve. The fish you see are fully mature in size so when you see an adult sheeps head male it is stunning to say the least.
I like to dive from a charter boat that does open charters from K Dock in Monterey. It's fun because we often don't know were we might go until we get there. Always a good time and the variety is great. Cost is that which you might spend at a golf course and on a set of good clubs, but a much higher excitement factor. Diving is a lazy man's sport. Huh? yea the name of the game is slow slow slow. The less you move ( more neutrally buoyant, streamlined, etc.) the less air you breath, the longer you can stay down the better it is. Some one on the boat said they enter a meditation state while diving. That's cool everyone works it out for themselves. My longest time at depth was 51 min @ 46' on 100 cu ft of 32% nitrox. I average 40-48 min usually on 100 cu ft. My logs are available at edivelogs. Yea slow is good, but density of water sucks the heat out of you even with 7mm wetsuit hood and gloves. I am looking at a dry suit very seriously in my future.
I am waiting on a better camera as well, to get truly good photos these are nice but limited to under 55' and the scatter you see from the flash is atrocious. So as you can see I have a long toy list like everyone else.

 

Whoa. Those are big crabs in that video sir.
I can only imagine what it must be like to dive in Monterey Bay. Some day I hope to start diving. Seeing 'Jaws' as a kid has me spooked still. lol

Hey you should read this by the way:
http://www.3reef.com/threads/going-bold-with-coldwater-marine-aquatics.155123/

Might give you ideas about what you can setup at home.

matt

 

So true what you say about UW photographers getting lost in the forest and not seeing most of the trees. As a long time divemaster with hundreds of dives in the spots you speak of, I've seen it all (in terms of what people do, you can never see all the ocean has to offer, even in the same spot).