Slowly, the skirt lifted, revealing a soft, milky white...

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MaxBottomtime

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Scuba Instructor
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Location
Torrance, CA
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edge of the Tritonia festiva as it crawled along a red gorgonian.


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Now that I have your attention, we rushed out this morning at the crack of 9:00 to get some shots of octopus hatching. We were inspired by Walter Marti's wonderful video from yesterday. As we approached the barge there was another boat anchored on our spot! Walter had beat us back here. Doesn't that guy ever sleep? After telling Walter that they were giving away free ice cream at the Manhattan Beach Pier Merry and I dropped for our chance.
Visibility was poor, but Merry was able to get a few shots of the delivery room. By the time I was allowed in I saw only one baby. I tried for a shot but my camera focused on the proud Mother instead.


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We headed to the top of the barge where Merry concentrated her efforts on getting Mola Mola shots in the gloomy water. I found the usual suspects with my macro lens.


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We motored over choppy water to Haggerty's with plans to shoot wide angle of more Mola Molas getting cleaned. I switched lenses and dropped into a sandstorm. My camera makes the visibility look way better than it was.


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If I could take just one picture like these I would never take another.
 
I love the anemone shot in the first group, and the cabezone in the second. Cabezone are such strange fish -- they really aren't "pretty", but when they go into threat display and show off all their fins, you can't help but love them.
 
Awesome series Phil! The festiva is incredible. Lovely pose, great composition. The wide angle of the superstructure with the Sheephead peeping out came out really nice.

I did a solo run to Haggertys this morning. No go on the diving :( Swell was minimal, but brownish water in the shallows. 2nd weekend in a row Neptune threw me a curve ball. Charlie is off next weekend so we'll make a crack at it then. This work week is going to be hard. Oh how dry I am.

Oh... And how did Merry's captures come out ? :D
 
I wrote eight feet vis in my logbook using the Patented Bottomtime Visibility Scale. I told Merry that the next time we dive in poor vis, I'm going to take a picture without looking in the viewfinder just to see what it looks like when the strobes light up the wreck. It's amazing how much better it looks in photos.
 
I wrote eight feet vis in my logbook using the Patented Bottomtime Visibility Scale.
Note to self: Double Phil's estimate of visibility. From the truck photo, it looks closer to 20 feet.

Thanks for sharing. Oh, and what a catchy title LOL
 
Note to self: Double Phil's estimate of visibility. From the truck photo, it looks closer to 20 feet. Thanks for sharing. Oh, and what a catchy title LOL

The Patented Bottomtime Visibility Scale measures 100 percent clear horizontal visibility only. Foggy or shadowed distant objects are not factored in. :no:

Yeah, I thought the title was pretty "catchy" myself. His last post was "Happy Ending", now this?! I know what Phil has on his mind lately.

My gills were really starting to ache after work today, so I dipped into Sacred's Cove for a free-dive. Visibility was actually quite nice 10-15ft. The normal cast of characters were about. Only thing out of the ordinary was a massive school of zebra perch off the north point. Must have been more then a hundred individuals. I've never seen them school in such large numbers.

I scoped Marineland afterwards and would have guessed the vis there would have been about the same. If conditions hold, I think a pre-work dawn patrol solo is in store for tomorrow :)

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The Patented Bottomtime Visibility Scale measures 100 percent clear horizontal visibility only. Foggy or shadowed distant objects are not factored in. :no:
Then our vis is ZERO :worried:

We are happy when we can see 10+ feet horizontally thru the floating detritus :D
 
awesome pics!
 
Then our vis is ZERO :worried:

We are happy when we can see 10+ feet horizontally thru the floating detritus :D

:shakehead: Bummer to hear. There's a good chance I'll be moving to Santa Rosa "Windsor area" in 2013 for at least the first half of the year. Was hoping the coastal sites between Bodega Bay and Salt Point would offer some good diving.

Then again, I am mostly a macro photo-og so anything more then a few feet of vis is enjoyable :D
 

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