Jan 1 & 2 Monterey pics

[Larry C]

Here are a few pics from the Holiday. My wife and I were just about alone on the water. Nobody missed much. Eight feet of sand clouded water, 52 degrees and cool and breezy topside. Some pretty good stuff out there though. PS'd out as much of the silt as I could.

Painted Greenling, hiding in a hole to get out of the surge

Goby and a Lemon

Spanish Shawl

Rocky in a Pipe

It came from outer space. (Sunflower star)

This one's new to me. It's about the size of your pinky nail.

Count the claws. There are four little deco crabs fighting over these two San Diego Dorids. Lunch time maybe?(OOPS, I missed the little tiny one, there are three Dorids in the picture. I think the Crab is holding one.)

Two nudies for the price of one! A Shawl and a Lemon.

A potted plant, perhaps?

And finally, future baby nudies-missed being born on New Years Eve, though.

 

[TSandM]

"Rocky in a pipe" -- That's an absolutely beautiful picture. It's that kind of "aha" photograph that we all love to see.

 

[parabolic]

VERY nice Larry!!! I see what you mean about the crab/dorid conflict, what a coincidence . Your Spanish Shawl photos are particularly good. The nudibranch in #6 is Tritonia festiva.

PS I just want to tell you how fortunate you are that your wife dives with you, particularly in cold water and those conditions. I am really serious about this, it is great that you two have found something that you both love doing. My wife, who I love dearly, is a diver but she is not as serious about it as I always was. She supports my diving habit but most of my dives are solo. Photographs are great but it's nice to have someone to share it with "on the spot".

 

[Larry C]

Thanks, TS&M. I really enjoy finding them hiding in there, and getting a decent picture while they're inside puts a nice finish on it.
Ken, thanks again for the kind comments. Actually, my wife was the one who dragged me into this. She grew up in a diving family and spent her childhood on the ocean. I never had any special interest in it, and started diving because she wanted something she could do with her Dad and a good friend of ours who had started diving. Now that we're both going from Assistant Instructors to our current Instructor Cert. Course, and have invested in tens of thousands of dollars in a boat, dive gear and photographic paraphernalia, I guess I'm stuck with it. Got nothing better to do with my weekends, I guess. (Yeah, right...I've become a total dive junkie too.)