Tue - July 29, 2003

Back at Sea



Detail of an Anemone, Santa Cruz Island

I realize the higher education is important and that it is somethings that the proverbial "they" can never take away from you. However, if I had known that the Masters Program at Brooks would have gotten in the way of my diving, I probably would have resolved myself to the cliché "ignorance is bliss" and been to take my ignorant hindquarters on more dive trips. Griping over. For the first time in almost a year I was able to go diving out at the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. Regarded by many as some of the best cold water diving any, the Channel Islands are home to sea lions, seals, dolphins, rays, a myriad of fishes, countless strange critters, and are located 23 miles from my front door (21 of those miles are across the ocean). This trip was as a guest of Brooks Institute's Undersea Class. The great thing about trips with the class is that they concentrate only on photography and therefore spend long periods of time working one area. The classes are always aboard the Truth , part of the Truth Aquatics fleet. The Truth is comfortable, has great food, a fun crew, and a film processing machine on board, everything a growing underwater photographer needs.

The conditions were decent. I was shooting mainly close-up work so I didn't care if the water was clear or not. I shot some cool macro video shots of hermit crab faces and some interesting still detail shots of anemones like the one above. Hopefully it won't be so long before I can get back out there.

Of course, the trip wasn't all work:

Eric, one of the crew members, provided free suplexes to anyone interested


Posted: 06:35 PM   Home    

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