Pic your best shot

[LioKai]

Aloha All!
So I got the idea of sharing photos after looking at DennisW's gallery link from his trip to Hawaii.

I always look at my wife's pics, but I rarely get to see anyone elses, so please share.

I'll start the "Show and Tell" with a pic of the Frog Fish named "Super Grunge".

Yeah, I know I already posted this pic, but it is way to cool to only show it once.

You are looking at Super Grunge's right side, and his mouth is to the right, and it is open. After you find his mouth, look to 11 o'clock, about an inch away from his mouth you will find a little star burst, it is his eye.

Photo by Kendra Choquette-D'Avella

Matthew J D'Avella

 

[DennisW]

You've already seen my best shot so far. The Green Turtle is a really good one and I was lucky at that.

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/500/673Green_Turtle_3_sm.jpg

I also like my Lined Butterflyfish.

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/500/673Lined_Butterfly_1_sm.jpg

 

[justleesa]

Wow, that Frogfish is hard to recognize...very cool pic!

Here is my gallery and here is turtleguys gallery, both from Hawaii

 

[DennisW]

Lisa, Both galleries are very good. How do you get the 3-D look on your copyright text?

 

[justleesa]

Dennis, I use photoshop elements. I first write my text. I then use the layer styles option. Pretty much all the time I use two different styles at one time, a beveled edge layer and a drop shadow...I don't think it matters which I use first. After that I choose a color that matches a color that appears in the photo. When that is all done you need to flatten the layer and presto a 3-D signature .

Here is a pair of cool frogfish from this week. I just love the green coloring (Kewalo Pipe, 45'). In the first pic (hope is shows up first) there are 2 behind each other. We first saw the one and then at a closer look we saw the other one...so much fun! the second pic...I guess they didn't want to be disturbed

Also a piture of a diver with a baby frogfish, just so those of you that have never seen one get an idea of how small they are...to the left in the pic, the yellow smudge is the frogfish.

 

[LioKai]

Cool shots. To bad they got spooked. I hope they got the idea to swim on their own without any other help.

Two together like that,... Could be a possibility of courting and mating. Did you get to sit and watch them for a while? I have never seen it with frogfish. I wouldn't know what signs to look for.

I once sat and watched a Finescale Trigger on a nest. 6+ hours waiting for the spawning to occur. When it finally happened I was so nervous that I couldn't hold the camera still. Luckly I shoot video. a few seconds here and there was all that I needed. I'll try to extract a few stills from the video. It was an AWESOME experience!

Ok, so here are the frame grabs. (Pic 1)The cottage cheese looking mess in the sand is the fertilized eggs. (Pic 2) The dust cloud around the Finescale Trigger is the eggs hatching.

Sorry for the poor quality. Video frames are never good still pictures.

Matthew

 

[justleesa]

Cool moment...I know all about nervous! lol... But 6+ hours how did you do it?

I have seen the darker frogfish a few times and he just doesn't like to be bothered, the one that was with him usually just hangs out....looks what you're doing, but generally will stay put.

 

[LioKai]

Cool moment...I know all about nervous! lol... But 6+ hours how did you do it?.

It helps to have your own compressor. LOL

The water was only 30feet deep max. An hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, 1.5 hours late afternoon and early evening, and 2 tanks late evening and into the night @ about 1.5 hours+ each tank.

The beauty of video is that I need not be behind the camera to shoot. I have a remote monitor from L & M, with a long cable. With the exception of when the surge would topple the camera, most of the footage was shot from a perch. The last hour was shot with me holding the camera.

That day was close to the best day of diving ever. At the end of the episode with the Finescale Trigger, I had a 7-11 crab with eggs walk through the scene. As I finished the last of the safety stop I had a male Hawaiian Monk Seal (M34) enter the area and use my lights to hunt. Very bloody scene. I shot about 2 minutes of video of him before my camera batteries ended the evening.

"M34" was his tag. He was around for a while, looking for a mate. He started molesting divers and snorklers in a somewhat sexual manner. DLNR caught him and shipped him off to Kahoolawe. Two days later he was in Maui and as horny as ever. About a month later he was captured again and sent to Johnston Atoll. A death sentence in the opinion of many, but that is another story for another time.

Now that the day of diving is over, I enjoyed it. At the time of the diving, I was not very happy. I ordered a drysuit less than a month after the Finescale Trigger dive. I have no desire to be that cold again.

Justleesa, is there a way to load video to SB?

Matthew

 

[Tobagoman]

This is one of my favorite pictures of my wife next to the massive propeller of the Spiegal Grove wreck. The other pic is of a ledge in BVI with golden cup coral on it. I don't have much experience with photo imaging software, so I haven't done anything to enhance the photos.

 

[justleesa]

It helps to have your own compressor. LOL

The water was only 30feet deep max. An hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, 1.5 hours late afternoon and early evening, and 2 tanks late evening and into the night @ about 1.5 hours+ each tank.

You had me goin' there, I thought it was all at one time!...Blond moment...lol

The beauty of video is that I need not be behind the camera to shoot. I have a remote monitor from L & M, with a long cable. With the exception of when the surge would topple the camera, most of the footage was shot from a perch. The last hour was shot with me holding the camera.

Now that's handy!

That day was close to the best day of diving ever. At the end of the episode with the Finescale Trigger, I had a 7-11 crab with eggs walk through the scene. As I finished the last of the safety stop I had a male Hawaiian Monk Seal (M34) enter the area and use my lights to hunt. Very bloody scene. I shot about 2 minutes of video of him before my camera batteries ended the evening.

"M34" was his tag. He was around for a while, looking for a mate. He started molesting divers and snorklers in a somewhat sexual manner. DLNR caught him and shipped him off to Kahoolawe. Two days later he was in Maui and as horny as ever. About a month later he was captured again and sent to Johnston Atoll. A death sentence in the opinion of many, but that is another story for another time.

Wow! I have yet to see a monk seal, they are more to the east....Lucky you

Now that the day of diving is over, I enjoyed it. At the time of the diving, I was not very happy. I ordered a drysuit less than a month after the Finescale Trigger dive. I have no desire to be that cold again.

I hear ya. Cold is definately NO FUN!

Justleesa, is there a way to load video to SB?

The only way I know would be is you loaded it to a website that allows that size and posted the link to here. You could ask Dee or Rick, they would know more than I about that.

I get to go diving today and it's looking like a double....Can't wait to get wet

Have a good one,
Aloha!