Bonaire May/June 2010 Trip Report with pics

[Paul Lenharr]

I recently visited Bonaire for the 2nd time, this time staying for two weeks. My dive buddy Tom and I flew down for the first week and took TDI trimix training through Rec-Tek with Walt. My Wife and Tom's two daughters flew down and joined us for the 2nd week.

As expected, our Bonaire visit was absolutely wonderful. Tom and I were able to dive the Windjammer as part of our Trimix class with Walt. As with our first experience (October of last year), Walt was great. Everything went very smoothly and the island is lucky to have the knowledge of Walt Stark and Rec-Tek.

Through the recommendation of Walt, Tom and I hired a local photographer / Videographer to visually document our final class dive and visit to the Windjammer. Zsuzsanna Pusztai and her husband Leo joined us and produced an absolutely wonderful video of our adventure.
Windjammer Tech Dive - Diving the Windjammer - Bonaire 2010 on Vimeo
Zsuzsanna - zsuzsannapusztai's Photos- powered by SmugMug

Zsuzsanna gave me some pointers for my photography and I believe it helped immensely. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to taking underwater images and video.

During the 2nd week, we got to dive a few sites that were new to us. Candy Land and Nukote beach were two of my favorite. It is definitely worth the extra drive and tricky entry to enjoy these reef systems.

After diving some of the North sites one day, we decided to go through Rincon and see if we could find some lunch. Be it fate, or just plain good old luck, we found LeMaSe. Norman and his family host this small restaurant. I can't say enough about how polite and just plain nice Norman is. The food was wonderful, and we paid Norman another visit for milkshakes later on that week. I would definitely recommend LeMaSe to everyone.

On Saturday, we stayed topside to assist with off gassing before flying. My Wife and I decided to drive the island to see what Bonaire has to offer above the water. We drove around and took some pictures. During this adventure, we visited the butterfly sanctuary. A nice little non-diving activity to enjoy, well worth the admission fee.

After being directed by a Friend that is a local, we visited Antriol Catering service for lunch. OMG! Amazing food. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I think I'm more excited to visit Bonaire again because of the food at Antriol than I am about the diving! (Ok, maybe not, but darn close). My Wife had the Sword fish and I had the Barracuda (Yes, I like to eat fish, even the ones I swim with). It was absolutely the best fish I have ever eaten. I will be back!

We stayed at Golden Reef Inn during this visit. Liz and Ed were very nice and were always able to answer questions. The accommodations were nice, and I firmly believe that I got my moneys worth during my stay. It's nice to stay somewhere smaller where you don't have a million people running around.

As always, everyone on the island was very nice to us and we can't wait to get back.

Here are some of the pictures I took during my stay.

 

[KBeck]

Those are gorgeous photos; thank you for sharing! I just love the anemone shrimp and the teeny blennie. We have a large group headed down in two weeks and have been counting down the days!!

A question....can you give a beginning pointer as to how you begin to get the photos with the stark black background like you have? I understand that strobes are necessary, but still struggle with understanding shutter speeds and apertures.

 

[Paul Lenharr]

Those are gorgeous photos; thank you for sharing! I just love the anemone shrimp and the teeny blennie. We have a large group headed down in two weeks and have been counting down the days!!

A question....can you give a beginning pointer as to how you begin to get the photos with the stark black background like you have? I understand that strobes are necessary, but still struggle with understanding shutter speeds and apertures.

Glad you enjoyed the pictures. I'm sure you will have fun on your trip. I really wish I was joining you!

The key to getting the darker / black background is to use a faster shutter speed, small (higher f#) aperture, and get close to the subject. For instance, the picture of the baby puffer on the coral head, I used a shutter speed of 1/200, aperture f32, and was only about 4 inches from the coral head. My strobes were set on full power. This setup lets the image censor (film) catch only the light that has time to reflect back to it during the shutter opening, so it catches the foreground and the shutter closes before the light from the background can reflect back and create an image.

It takes some time, but once you have it down, the images created can be quite stunning.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[fuggler]

Stunning pictures!

 

[diverrex]

When you are using both of the Inon UCL165s are you using manual focus? I just bought a second one for my G9 and I'm having a hard time getting the focus right with it. Any tips for when you are using both? Of course I've only used it so far in our dark murky green California waters.

What camera do you use for the topside photos on the redbubble site? I like all the airplane shots.

 

[DennisW]

Beautiful pictures.

 

[Maine Diver]

Wow! Wonderful pictures.

 

[ScubaSam]

WOW...I don't know what else to say about your gorgeous pics but WOW!!!!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[gypsyjim]

DAM! Wish I could take a photo 1/2 that good.....:depressed:

Thanks for sharing. Now it's going to be really hard to wait another 2 weeks!

 

[Paul Lenharr]

When you are using both of the Inon UCL165s are you using manual focus? I just bought a second one for my G9 and I'm having a hard time getting the focus right with it. Any tips for when you are using both? Of course I've only used it so far in our dark murky green California waters.

What camera do you use for the topside photos on the redbubble site? I like all the airplane shots.

I probably should have clarified that I was using my Canon Rebel Xti with ikelite housing for these pictures. That is also the same camera I used for my topside pictures on Redbubble.

I do however, still use the G9 quite often. The trick to getting the focus when stacking the Inon lenses is distance from the subject. I found the auto focus and manual focus to be too cumbersome when using both lenses stacked. What I do most often, is get close to the subject, move closer or farther to get a basic focus, then let the auto do the rest. It's tricky at first but after some practice, it becomes second nature.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I still have 16GB worth of RAW images to process, so I will post more as they come available. Wish the day had more hours! =)