St. Andrews (PCB) Dives 5/16/10

[Hetland]

Recharge, XRay and I headed to Panama City yesterday to get in a few dives at the jetties. We found temps near 75, and viz from 10 to 20 depending on location. Despite the stormy conditions topside, the currents were manageable, and no oil slicks were encountered. We saw the usual suspects: octopus, snapper, grouper, toadfish, flounder, angelfish and everything pictured below. Debrief was at a new Thai place. The food was fantastic, and the lunch specials were easy on the wallet.

We also stopped by Captain Pat's new dive shop and picked up a t-shirt. It was good to finally meet captain Pat in person, and his shop is coming along very nicely. I look forward to going back and checking out the new gear as he expands operations.

Giant Hermit (I think)

Arrow Crab

Mantis Shrimp

Mantis Shrimp

Mantis Shrimp

Anemone

Anemone

Anemone

Anemone

Anemone

Cubbyu

Scorpionfish... or maybe a ninja, not really sure here

Sheepshead

Damsel

Damsel

Damsel

Damsel

Damsel

 

[GROUPER321]

I hate, that I missed the dive.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Great pics. Thinking about going there in the next few weeks.

 

[jviehe]

Nice pics. You should report that Scorpionfish to that group that catches them.

 

[jhayes75]

Thanks for the report and pics.

 

[YiNYaNg]

Thx for the report and post up a thread before you guys go out there next time I'm down to dive anytime I'm free.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thanks for the report

Nice pics. You should report that Scorpionfish to that group that catches them.

Why are people catching scorpionfish?

 

[jviehe]

Oh, i must be thinking of lionfish.

 

[Dave C]

You got some nice photos, despite the particulate matter. I particularly like the damsels; you have some spot-on focus. I think you could easily spiff up some of these a little by using an auto fix in most any photo-editing program, such as "auto levels" in Photo Elements. This will bring out the true colors more. I tried it on one of your photos, and it helped.

 

[Hetland]

You got some nice photos, despite the particulate matter. I particularly like the damsels; you have some spot-on focus. I think you could easily spiff up some of these a little by using an auto fix in most any photo-editing program, such as "auto levels" in Photo Elements. This will bring out the true colors more. I tried it on one of your photos, and it helped.

Thanks!

I'm unreasonably snobbish when it comes to post processing. I generally like it when other people do it (as long as the touch is light) but I never really like my results on my own photos. I know that's weird, but I haven't been able to change.

The best I usually do is clone or heal out individual sand grains, but I'm becoming too lazy to do that as well. If I could have salvaged anything from my red mantis shots I would have broken my own rule, but there just wasn't enough to work with. That little bugger was just too shy to let me get his mugshot.

You getting down to Destin anytime this season?