Northern Channel Islands photos

[AUTiger]

Just got back from three days in the Channel Islands. The bad weather blew away our itinerary, so we ended up at Catalina (not San Clemente) and Santa Cruz (not Anacapa or Platform Grace). I haven't had time to process many photos, but here are a few.

Hilton's Aeolid nudibranch

Festive Triton nudibranch

A cold-water anemone (need to look up a more proper name)

Strawberry Anemones (they also come in orange, pink, yellow, and other colors)

We also saw a couple of blue whales.

 

[alijtaylor]

Despite the crap weather looks like an excellent trip! Thanks for posting - can you tell us what they are (apart form the Blue Whale - I worked those ones out) and what you were shooting with?

Alison

 

[AUTiger]

I added captions.

The underwater photos were all shot with

Nikon D80 dSLR in an Ikelite housing
Nikon 60mm macro lens, with a Woody diopter for the two nudibranches
Dual Ikelite DS125 strobes

The whale photos were shot from a long distance with the D80, a Nikon 70-200VR lens and a 1.7x teleconverter. Even with VR, it was hard to hold the heavy lens steady enough to get clear photos. That and the whales not staying in one place or appearing where you expect them too.

David

Despite the crap weather looks like an excellent trip! Thanks for posting - can you tell us what they are (apart form the Blue Whale - I worked those ones out) and what you were shooting with?

Alison

 

[parabolic]

Nice stuff AUTiger. The Hilton nudibranch is very pretty, not seen too often anymore. What boat were you on? ++Ken++

 

[AUTiger]

The Vision from Truth Aquatics in Santa Barbara. The Hilton Aeolid was at the Arch Rock dive site at Santa Cruz island.

They're a good dive company. The boats are well designed and the limited load outting are uncrowded with great food.

David

 

[AndyT]

# 1 - Great capture !!!

 

[Larry C]

Great shots, David. If you want real crap weather, try the Lobster season opener. You get crap dive sites, too!