POTW: February 2021 / Week 1

Yellow Headed Wrasses

This was another tough week for judging the POTW. Again it came down to two photos and again yours truly served as the tie breaker. The subject for the two photos under consideration were the same. It was a couple of Yellow Head Wrasse engaging in either aggressive or romantic behavior – I’m not quite sure which. As I was observing the fish, I notice they both were locking open jaws – somewhat resembling a kiss. However when I opened the images in LightRoom and noticed the exposed teeth, it seems they are exhibiting some sort of dominance behavior.

Regardless of the behavior, I think the photo turned out great – especially considering I didn’t have time to change any of the settings on my camera fearing I would miss my window of opportunity.

Equipment and settings: Nikon D850 / 60mm / INON z330 strobes / f16 / 1/160th / ISO 320.  
Location: The Garden at Blue Bay, Curaçao

Other winners in 2021…

November 2021 | Week 3

November 2021 | Week 3

David and I were looking for a dive center that was open for diving. This can be hard to do in Grand Cayman while COVID is raging and a quarantine is required for visitors. We found that Lighthouse Point was operating regular hours - probably the only dive center on...

October 2021 | Week 4

October 2021 | Week 4

David and I had to wait in line to get a shot of this little beauty. It was one of two seahorses at The Cliff in Bonaire. It was a little shy and conditions weren't the best on this day - visibility was pretty poor, so it took a number of shots and trying different...

October 2021 | Week 3

October 2021 | Week 3

I was on fire spotting cryptic teardrop crabs on our last night dive at Salt Pier. This little guy was one of three crabs I spotted that night - pretty good considering I had never spotted one on my own before. These critters are so small, it is difficult to know...

October 2021 | Week 2

October 2021 | Week 2

While in the shallows at Salt Pier in Bonaire, David noticed a group of crabs that were fighting over an empty shell. Given the number of crabs and the level of interest, we assume the shell was not empty, but contained some sort of food. The 2 larger crabs dominated...

October 2021 | Week 1

October 2021 | Week 1

While making our way to Turtle City on the East Coast of Bonaire, I spotted this turtle with a couple of hitch hiking remoras and made a bee line to capture an image. While the conditions were pretty mild, the visibility suffered requiring me to get as close as...

September 2021 | Week 4

September 2021 | Week 4

Expecting to capture large animal encounters while diving with East Coast Divers, I brought my 16-35mm wide angle lens, so it was a bit of a shock when our dive guide pointed out this lovely frogfish sitting on top of a group of sponges. Since we were with a somewhat...

September 2021 | Week 3

September 2021 | Week 3

Although we were very disappointed in the dive site Front Porch, I managed to find capture some interesting images, including this week's winner. I found this adorable Secretary Blenny peaking out of its Fire Coral den. Equipment and settings: Nikon D850 / INON z330...

September 2021 | Week 2

September 2021 | Week 2

This shy red Sea Horse was spotted by our dive guide Jolanda of Beyond the Coral Dive Center in Bonaire. Jolanda is amazing at spotting great u/w subjects like seahorses and frogfish. This lovely critter was one of a pair of Sea Horses at Chogogo dive site. The...