My husband Larry and I
started scuba diving on our honeymoon. We were on a Caribbean
cruise that stopped in St. Thomas. A dive shop there offered a
"discovery dive," where they basically strap the gear on you and toss
you into shallow ocean. We loved it enough to take the
certification course.
Now, I'm not your typical diver. I'm
too pale to be in the sun, I get seasick easily and I'm not a strong
swimmer. But I love to dive--in warm ocean water. I want to
see cool fish and coral. Our favorite dive locations include: the
Turks & Caicos Islands, the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Roatan, and
Belize. We have done several liveaboard dive trips and are
particularly fond of the Aggressor fleet. Admittedly, we've never tried Peter Hughes, Aggressor's chief competition, but we've always been pleased with Aggressor.
Early
on, we bought a Sea & Sea Motormarine II underwater camera. I
didn't think I'd like taking pictures underwater, but I admit now, I
hog the camera. Getting a great shot is as much fun to me as
seeing the critters.
Here are some of my favorites:
I
took this photo of a loggerhead turtle in West Caicos. I had the
macro lens (closeup lens) on the Motomarine II when the boat captain
pointed the turtle out to me. Fortunately, you can remove the specialty
lenses underwater on a Motomarine II, since they screw onto the 35 mm
lens. This fellow was just loafing, so I had time to take off the
macro lens, adjust the strobe, focal distance and f-stop.
When
I first saw this jellyfish, I thought it was a plastic bag. We
were at the end of a dive and I was lucky to have three shots left on
my roll (I know--film, how quaint). I kept drifting toward its
tentacles while I was lining up the photo. Your I.Q. drops about
fifty points when you have a camera in your hand.
Here's
a classic example of I.Q. drop. Actually this photo was taken on
a shark feeding dive in Roatan. I highly recommend trying a shark
feeding dive. It's a rush. We had about twenty sharks,
ranging between four and eight feet long, circling around us while
someone in a chain mail suit fed them fish.
Last
year for Valentine's day, Larry and I treated ourselves to digital
underwater camera. We're still getting the hang of it, but here
are two photos we took on our first trip. The zoom lens rocks!
 
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