POTW: July 2021 | Week 1

I was fortunate to spot this adorable juvenile Smooth Trunkfish at Bari Reef in Bonaire. It was about the size of a marble and was moving all about, making the image a bit challenging to capture. But I was up for the challenge and fired off a number of shots with a variety of backgrounds. Given the size of the subject, I should have used a narrower aperture in order to ensure I was able to capture the details of this little guy, but I deliberately used a larger aperture in order to blur the background and to prevent it from being too dark. And I am happy to say I’m quite pleased with the final results.  In fact I receive a compliment from Erin Quiqley, of “Go Ask Erin” regarding the use of negative space on this image.

Equipment and settings: Nikon D850 / INON z330 strobes/ 60mm / f11 / 1/200th / ISO 125.  
Location: Bari Reef, Bonaire

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...