Eddy's Scuba Blog

Today, our luck with creatures turned on the bright side as we found one of a kind guys throughout the four dives I did. I even had nice surprises on the shore dives right in front of Captain Don's Habitat. Today I did two boat dives, and two shore dives, one of them a night dive. The first boat dive was a deep dive to the Hilma Hooker wreck. The second boat dive was a dive organized by Sue Drafahl: almost all the people in the class joined this dive to Sharon's Serenity on Klein Bonaire.

The Hilma Hooker Wreck

The Hilma Hooker is one of the few diveable wrecks in Bonaire. Captain Don, the founder of Captain Don's Habitat had a hand in having this wreck in Bonaire. According to the divemaster in our briefing, the Hilma Hooker, a cargo ship, was seized by the Bonaire government after discovering an illicit cargo of pot. Eventually the government took ownership of the ship and did not know what to do with it. At this point, Captain Don suggested to make the Hilma Hooker an artificial wreck. Months later when the ship was moved from one location to another, it mysteriously sank on 70 feet of water. The shallowest part of the wreck is at 50 ft of water. The ship lies upside down with its propeller side on the deeper side.

Since this was considered a deep dive (max 70 ft), it was our first dive of the day. We went down a mooring line, as there was some current. The visibility was poor compared to other dives we had so far. The visibility was about 40 ft or less, with a lot of silt in the water. Creature sightings were not many either, so this was a somewhat disappointing dive. But we did one of "must dives" in Bonaire. I was told that this wreck is even doable as a shore dive, a rarity for the size of the wreck.

This is a picture of the Hilma Hooker's propeller. A diver can be seen in the background, between the propeller blades. This was shot originally in color, it was later turned into gray scale with Photoshop.

Wilma Hooker Propeller. 1/125 at f/5.6, ISO 400, 8 mm focal length

Sharon's Serenity (Klein Bonaire)

Sue Drafahl organized an exclusive dive for the Digital Photo Adventure group. Essentially we had one of Captaind don's smaller boats to ourselves. Sue did some on-water tutoring on each of us: checking our buoyancy and underwater photography "manners". At this point of the week, the instruction turned more into reviewing our work and individual tutoring, and less formal lecturing.

Coincidentally, on this dive is when we saw one of the unique creatures found in Bonaire: frog fish. We were lucky to see two of them on this dive: a blue one and an orange one. We put in practice our "manners", that is we took our turns, took a couple of pictures and move "to the back of the line". In that way, we all had a chance to take a picture of this hard to find guy, as it takes the color and blends with its surroundings.

Blue Frog Fish. 1/320 at f/7.1, ISO 100, 24 mm focal length

I was lucky to be right behind the divemaster when he discovered the frog fish, so I took the first turn to take pictures. However, that puts some pressure on you as you have to get the settings right and not take too much time because there is a line of other divers waiting in line. Unfortunately, for this next picture, my strobe was too close. You can see some blown areas on top of the fish.

Orange Frog Fish. 1/320 at f/7.1, ISO 100, 8 mm focal length

After being done with the frog fish, I turned around and changed direction heading back to the boat. This is when Sue caught up with me and "audited" my photographing technique. I was lucky to run into this pair of golden moray eels. I have never seen then in a pair like this.

I took about eight pictures of these guys and Sue observed the whole episode and then gave me a sign of "approval" for this rare find. After I was done, we signaled the other divers so that they could take pictures too.

Pair or Golden Morey Eels. 1/500 at f/8.0, ISO 100, 18.7 mm focal length

More Surprises on our Backyard

In the afternoon, I paired up with Tom, a New Yorker in our group. We headed north (right side) from Captain Don's deck. On this dive I decided to practice my macro skills, shooting at feather dusters. I spent considerable time one feather duster after another, while Tom was taking pictures of a moray eel. I eventually ended up at this coral head by accident. It had a surprise host inside: a spiny head blenny.

Spiny Head Blenny Living among Feather Dusters. 1/800 at f/8.0, ISO 100, 8 mm focal length

The blenny comes out of its hole on occasion and then hides. This combined with delicate sensitivity of the feather dusters made it a test of endurance, patience and buoyancy control. A wrong move could cause the feather dusters to clamp down and the blenny to hide. My camera was only inches from the coral head. I was using the super macro feature of the SP-350. This setting allows you to be as close as 0.8 inches from your subject. The fast shutter speed (1/800 sec) makes the background really dark.

On the way back, Tom and I noticed a couple of divers pointing to a barrel sponge. What was so special about a barrel sponge? It turns out that they were looking at a scorpion fish comfortably sitting on the barrel sponge. In the past, I've only seen scorpion fish on sandy areas or holes where it was hard to photograph. This was indeed a lucky find. The scorpion fish was almost posing for us. We spent the next 15 minutes taking pictures of this scorpion fish from every angle.

Scorpion Fish from Above. 1/400 at f/8.0, ISO 100, 8 mm focal length

Scorpion Fish and Diver. 1/160 at f/8.0, ISO 100, 8 mm focal length

I wanted to highlight the eyes and the pectoral fins (as they are very colorful) of the scorpion fish, but it was hard to do. If I got the fins, the eye got kind of lost. While Tom and I were taking pictures, I also took one of him as a background, it turned out to be a nice picture.

Scorpion Fish Peaking from a Barrel Sponge. 1/320 at f/8.0, ISO 100, 8 mm focal length

After twenty-something pictures and trying a variety of settings, the last picture ended up being my favorite one. It really highlights the eye of the scorpion fish and you can see the tube sponges as the background and the barrel sponge as the "pedestal".

That night I went for a night dive with Jamie, one of the gals in our group. The dive itself was somewhat uneventful, but I noticed these orange cup corals near the dock stairs. They are fun to photograph as close-ups. Orange cup corals only open up during the night, so it can "eat". They remain close during the day.

Orange Cup Coral at Night. 1/250 at f/8.0, ISO 100, 24 mm focal length