Sea of Cortez 2004

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  Pincushion Urchin, San Francisquito Reef, Sea of Cortez

  I probably spent more time on these urchins than any other subject this trip. As photographic subjects, they have a lot going for them. They're plentiful. They're not the swiftest things on the ocean floor, hence they're not wriggling their way out of focus. But the best thing about hen is that they're complex and interesting. I've got pictures form lots of different angles, but my favorite is this one, which shows the five-sided symmetry, the varying sizes and angles of the spines, and the texture of the body itself.
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/36, ISO 200.
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  Gorgonian, Los Morros, Sea of Cortez

  I don't remember taking this picture. I remember doing some more-classical gorgonian shots, and I remember fiddling with the strobes to see what I could do with a little backlight. When I got back to the boat, there were four substantially-identical pictures like this on the flash card, but I don't remember looking at this image in the LCD on the back of the camera. In this digital age, with instant feedback, it's rare to look at an image after the shooting is over and gasp a surprised "Wow," but this image did that for me.
  
  One of the great things about photography is its ability to surprise and delight the photographer. Every photographer over 40 will wax mystical about the first time they saw a print come up in the developer. In spite of all the Ansel Adams devotees (and I'm one sometimes) out there pre-visualizing the final print, the world is too complex to be put in that little box. Years ago, I asked John Sexton, one of the principal proponents and teachers of pre-visualized photography, how he knew when a project was over. He told me, "When I don't have an intense hunger to develop the images and see how they came out."
  
  Nikon D100, 60mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/32, ISO 200.
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  Snowflake Moray, La Reina, Sea of Cortez

  The Sea of Cortez must be the moray capitol of the world. Or maybe we were there at the time of the International Olympic-Year Moray Convention and Beauty Contest. In any event, we had lots of morays on nearly every dive, mostly the boring big green ones, but often some with most interesting patterns. This one was swimming freely across a broad slope of rubble as Betty and I finned overhead looking a a big school of what the locals called "Machete" which look kind of like Barracuda, and seem to behave exactly like barracuda. After we'd gawked for a while, I looked down and this little guy was swimming back and forth under me, seemingly saying, "And what am I, chopped liver?" Never one to disappoint a fish seeking attention, I dropped down to his level, and he folded himself up so I could get twice as much moray in the frame.
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/18, ISO 200.
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  Chocolate-chip Starfish, Las Animas, Sea of Cortez

  Who remembers Campbell's Alphabet Soup? When I was in elementary school, I'd get it for lunch a lot. I'd always stare at it for a minute before I'd dig in, trying to see how many words I could spot. These starfish were a little trickier, since the markings aren't guaranteed to be letters. Still, there's the same old thrill to the game.
  
  Nikon D100, 60mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/45, ISO 200.
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  Green turtle, La Reina, Sea of Cortez

  Betty and I were swimming over to a little wreck when this green turtle swam up behind us and beeped for the passing lane. When we didn't pull over fast enough, he went around on the right. It was a great photographic opportunity, but all I had was a 105. What's the old saying? "If all you have are lemons, make a portrait."
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/18, ISO 200.
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  Pacific Seahorse, San Francisquito Reef, Sea of Cortez

  This is one of those "I was there and so was the seahorse" pictures, with not much going for it in terms of composition or transcendent artistic impact, but it was my first full-sized seahorse, and I had to capture it, if only for documentary reasons. If this one could have been coaxed out of his crevice, he probably would have been about six inches long, maybe eight is he'd unrolled his tail.
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/25, ISO 200.
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  Hydroid, Las Animas, Sea of Cortez

  When there wasn't much going on on a dive, and I got tired of urchins, I'd spend a few minutes on hydroids. Backlighting works pretty well.
  
  Nikon D100, 60mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/25, ISO 200.
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  Fine-spotted Moray, San Francisquito Reef, Sea of Cortez

  One of the things I like best about morays is their deliciously dopey appearance from head-on.
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/45, ISO 200.
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  Conch eyes, Morritos Reef, Sea of Cortez

  Except for this picture, this was a thouroughly unsatisfying dive. When the divemaster handed me my camera, the strobes and focus light fell off. I gathered up the pieces while clinging to a rope and fighting a 3 or 4 knot current. I caught up with Betty at about 15 feet. Betty held the camera while I clung like a limpet to the rope and re-assembled it. Then the two of us spent ten minutes and a whole lot of air pulling ourselves down the rope to the bottom at 65 feet. Vis was maybe 40. Green morays every few feet. and precious little else. We were cowering from the current in the lee of a big boulder when Betty spotted this conch flipped over on its back (There were some divers on this boat who were, shall we say, ecologically carefree. Or maybe I'm being small-minded and it was just the current.). I took the picture, and Betty flipped the conch back the right way, and then we started for the surface. Dive time: 30 minutes. Bottom time: five minutes.
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/45, ISO 200.
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  Green turtle detail, La Reina, Sea of Cortez

  After the close encounter of the turtle kind, the subject circled us, then lay down on a ledge and let me approach close enough to do this little abstract study.
  
  Nikon D100, 105mm f/2.8 AF Auto Micro Nikkor, Subal D-10 Housing, 2 Sea and Sea 90 strobes, f/14, ISO 200.