POTW Winners: 2021
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 the island that is. The manager...
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 angles to capture this final...
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 which is the top and which is the...
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 possession of the shell, but...
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 possible to minimize the...
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 large group of divers, I had...
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 strobes / 60mm / f22.0 /...
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 combination of location and body...
September 2021 | Week 1
If you dive at night in Bonaire, the odds are with you that you will see a Tarpon or two (or three). The tarpon are attracted to divers because they eat the fish that are attracted to a diver's light. It can be a bit unsettling at first - a large silver fish whizzes past you. Then you settle in...
August 2021 / Week 3
Due to health issues, it's been awhile since I've posted a POTW - but I'M BACK BABY!!! I had been dry docked for about a month and on my first dive back, David found this Mantis Shrimp at Invisibles in Bonaire. He stood guard as I was shooting something else at the time and David was afraid...
July 2021 / Week 2
Photos of the Pederson Shrimp are pretty common, but I like the perspective of the shrimp in this image. The head and antenna of shrimp are in focus and at eye level. The soft, blurred background helps to emphasize the focused parts of the image. Equipment and settings: Nikon D850 / INON z330...
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...
June 2021 | Week 4
David and I had an amazing "frogfish" week where we saw six different frogfish across two different dive sites in Bonaire. We saw one of the frogfish at "The Lake" and our dive guide Jolanda from Beyond the Corals found five frogfish at Salt Pier. While at Salt Pier, I stayed with this little guy...
June 2021 | Week 3
This week we are featuring a Creole Wrasse being cleaned by a couple of juvenile Spanish Hogfish and a juvenile Bluehead Wrasse. This is a common occurrence however I haven't been able to capture a good image of this behavior until now. Equipment and settings: Nikon D850 / Nikon 16-35mm / INON...
June 2021 | Week 2
You have to get up early to dive Atlantis in Bonaire in order to minimize the encounters with the kite surfers, but it is worth it!! On our first visit we spotted several turtles and rays. The reefs are pristine and teeming with fish in both the deep and the shallows. This friendly Green Sea...
June 2021 / Week 1
David and I went out early to dive Atlantis in Bonaire before the kite surfers hit the water and it paid off. It was a beautiful day - the sun was out, the water was clear and there was no current to speak of. David spotted this Crinoid atop a green sponge at a perfect angle for a sunburst shot....
May 2021 | Week 4
Angelfish are always a favorite to photograph, especially when they are friendly. This pair of French Angelfish didn't seem to mind that I was following them around for quite awhile snapping photos. Equipment and settings: Nikon D850 / Tokina 10-17mm / INON z330 strobes / 1/250th / f13 / ISO...
May 2021 / Week 3
Since diving the ABC islands this past year, we have noticed an interesting behavior between Trumpetfish and Parrotfish. The Trumpetfish follows the Parrotfish while it is scavenging for food. I'm not sure how mutual this relationship is because it often appears the Parrotfish is trying to shake...
May 2021 / Week 2
While diving Oil Slick Leap, David came across what he thought were 2 post larval juvenile Smooth Trunkfish. As I started shooting, I found there were actually a total of four juvenile Trunkfish which is a rare find indeed (at least for us). These fish are so small (about the size of a small pea)...
May 2021 / Week 1
After 6 weeks in lockdown in Curacao, David and I relocated 2 weeks early to Bonaire in order to get back in the water. With only a few dives this week, I had a limited opportunity to capture images for POTW consideration, but fortunately I was lucky enough to have some unique encounters,...
March 2021 / Week 2
This week's POTW is a macro view of a cup coral captured under the pier at Tugboat Beach. We typically don't see cup coral at any other sites in Curacao, but they can be found in abundance under the pier. The pier is a wonderland of marine life - the sponges and corals are a kaleidoscope of shapes...
March 2021 / Week 1
Spotted Drumfish are hard to resist for an underwater photographer. They are typically shy fish, found under coral heads swimming endlessly in circles and "figure eights", making their movements very predictable. In addition, the Spotted Drumfish go through very dramatic changes as they grow from...
February 2021 / Week 3
This week's winner was shot at Playa Piskado, which is my favorite dive site on Curacao. David and I always seem to run across something new here or we see old favorites. Our last dive started by seeing a group of squid, followed by turtles swimming towards and around us. Next I spotted a green...
February 2021 / Week 2
This week's Photo of the Week is a school of Glassy Sweepers. I selected this photo because of the technical and timing challenges photographing these fish. They are extremely reflective, so trying to get the strobe lighting correct along with the shutter / aperture / ISO settings is very tricky....
February 2021 / Week 1
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...
January 2021 / Week 4
It was very difficult to choose this week's POTW winner. In fact, there was a split decision amongst the judges - however since I am the photographer and the author of this post, I am also tie breaker. I love cephalopods, and this octopus was extremely playful. In this photo, the octopus looks...
January 2021 / Week 3
For this week's POTW, I had a limited number of photos to choose from. After an eight day surface interval due to a severe sore throat, I was finally able to get in the water yesterday and fire off some shots. Awwww - it felt so good. The fish in this photo is a Sharknose Goby, common throughout...
January 2021 / Week 2
This week's photo of the week is a juvenile Slender Filefish. I spotted two of these filefish in a gorgonian soft coral. The one in the photo is approximately 1 1/2 inches in length and was doing a phenomenal job evading my camera lens. The fish were very tricky to shoot because they were hiding...
January 2021 / Week 1
It's been a rainy January here in Curacao. It's my theory that the universe is trying to cleanse itself of the stench that was brought on by the year 2020. Happily 2021 brought on many changes and provided new diving adventures. Daan, of Rebel Diving introduced David and me to 4 additional shore...