This report is a bit late, but better late than never I guess.

Flew out of Atlanta on Air Jamaica, all in all a pretty good experience. The plane was about an hour late arriving and the seating was a bit uncomfortable, but compared to some of the horror stories I have heard this was a good flight. I have flown American through San Juan on one occasion, but I prefer the Air Jamaica route and schedule.

Stayed at Happy Holiday Homes for the third time; I can't say enough good things about these accommodations and their owners. Since I do not care about staying ocean front nor care about a pool these bungalows work out perfect for me.

I'm not much of a restaurant reviewer since I keep things pretty basic when I am on island; I'm primarily there to dive. Did experience some good meals at Donna & Georgio's, Cactus Blue, Rib Factory, and Passa Bon Pizza. Ate in the bungalow most of the trip.

This was my first opportunity to stay two weeks and it worked out perfect . . . forty-six dives and about the same number of hours of bottom time and I can honestly say I was tired of diving by the time I left. Of course I was ready to return about the time I got back home.

The diving was spectacular as usual although the visibility decreased steadily during our stay. Seems like the southern sites suffered more than the northern ones. Because we stayed longer this time I even managed to get up to Taylor Made and Nukove, as well as another unmarked site in the Taylor Made area. The diving around Taylor Made is awesome, will definitely hit this site multiple times in the future.

Fish and creature diversity was fantastic this trip and I took a lot of pictures with my Canon A85 (internal strobe only). Finally saw the elusive frog fish, thanks to a guided night dive at the Town Pier.



Got a great tip from some of the locals regarding the location of a seahorse.



Lot's of turtles this trip:







Here are a few more assorted shots:













I'll post some more picture soon.

Like everyone I've been suffering from PBD since I returned home. Hopefully I'll make another two trip next summer.

Loved the pictures. We too are staying at Happy Holiday Homes. Which location were you in. Do you have any pictures to share of the bungalow.

We stayed in the purple unit.



Here are a few more pictures from the trip:

good pics!

Great pictures!!! Thanks for posting

Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures!

Great pics and report! Thanks.

Richard..Really great shots, especially bearing in mind the decreased viz when you were diving!

WOW, great pictures.

Thanks for the compliments. Here's another set.

THANKS...I HAVE PRE BONAIRE DEPRESSION. I NEEDED A PICK ME UP. FEB SEEMS SO FAR AWAY.

Hi, wonderful shots, what camera/housing and did you use an external strob/flash. Thanks Lydia

Hi Lydia, the camera equipment is nothing fancy. I use a Canon A85 with internal flash only. Housing is the Canon WP-DC30. This setup is easy enough to carry with me on every dive and I'm not burdened by it when I'm not taking pictures.

Almost all shots are taken in manual mode, most in macro. I will use the underwater mode for shots greater than 3 feet and for some shots in shallow water when the light is good. Best pics are almost always in manual mode though.

Here are a few more:

Your pictures are so beautiful. I could sit and look at them all day! Thanks for the trip report and for sharing your pictures with us.

Great pictures and report!!!

great shots, thanks. We will be going to Bonaire for our first time jan 21st, Now I wish it was tomorrow...thanks again, Scott

What kind of editing software are you using on these pics, they are great?

The donkey made me smile. GREAT shots.

photos are GREAT!! thanks for sharing them.
Can't wait to get back to Bonaire in 30 days.
Now the countdown really begins.

Mike,

I used Microsoft Digital Image Suite for the initial editing. It's pretty user friendly.

I also just loaded Photoshop Elements 4.0 and used this new software to resize the images and save reduced size files for this site. I've had better luck with Photoshop saving 50KB images for web viewing. The Photoshop software is much harder to use though. I'm still trying to figure out most of the editing tools.

Here's another set of pictures:

Well, as you can see I had some problems with that post. Here goes again:

Hmmmm ?? Tried posting a test photo in the Newsgroup Software section but had no luck; suspect some temporary problems with this site. I'll try again later.

pics are pretty decent and welcome to pic posting heck

photoshop would appear to be the way to go for pic processing - stick with it;)

Richard, great pics! Keep trying. Try posting just 2 at a shot and see how it goes. With a group of photos, if even 1 is too bigs, sometimes the software doesn't like it and will kick the whole thing out.

What fabulous pictures. A real treat to view. Thanks for posting. 24 days until our first trip to Bonaire. SRT

Richard - great trip report & pic's
Thanks for sharing

Please don't give up, Richard! i think your photos are great and want to see the rest of them! You either have a great eye for composition, or you photoshop the heck out of 'em, but either way I'm enjoying them!

Thanks again for all the feedback. I don't have access to my pictures from the laptop I am using today so I will have to wait until tomorrow to post more pictures.

You have a good eye for composition, Richard. Thank you for sharing the beautiful pics. I think I'm going to have to try out uw photography on my next dive. Please post more pics!

Richard, how do you frame these pics?

Regarding the framing, I used the "frames and mats" feature of Microsoft Digital Image Suite. This is actually a mat that I have chosen, not a frame. Once you select the basic mat design you select the width and color . . . an easy edit with this software. I've also been trying to figure out how to frame pictures using the Photoshop Elements 4.0 software that I just added, but haven't figured it out yet. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Adobe software is not as user friendly as the Microsoft, at least for me. Here's another try at posting some more pictures; hopefully the problems I had earlier have disappeared.

Thanks--wow--great pics

Most excellent pictures Richard. Once again proving that premo shots can be had will a simple point and shoot. My hats off to you, sir.

Now we need a slideshow because we have no life. You might want to look at Picture to exe at wnsoft.com. A great program for creating stand alone slideshows.

For putting frames and matts using Photoshop, I have no idea other than I know it will do it. It is not an easy program to use but it makes up for it by how powerful it is. Have you tried unsharp mask yet? It's under filters, try it and you will not believe the difference.

Thanks for the info Cecil; I think I have figured out how to add frames using Photoshop and will try it with pictures from my next trip. I'm aware of the unsharp feature in Photoshop but haven't used it on the pictures posted to date. For the ones I'm posting I used the unsharp feature in the Microsoft software. I have been creating slide shows using Roxio's Easy Media Creator and burning them to DVD. I'll have to look into creating a slide show on line so that I can create a link for viewing by visitors to this site.

Once again, thanks for the tip regarding use of the unsharp mask; this is indeed a powerful tool.

I'll post more pictures this evening.

Lovely pictures Richard, thanks for the trip report!

Excellent pictures; I'm surprised you have so little "backscatter" from using the built-in flash, given the equipment you have done an amazingly good job. Thanks for the inspiration

Thanks again for your pictures and information. I just bought a Canon A85 and underwater housing on ebay and I am excited to start using it. I have to wait until June to return to Bonaire and start trying it underwater, but hopefully in the meantime, I get good at learning the controls above water.

Janet,

Since you are also using the Canon A85 here are some tips I put together for my local dive club. Some of these tips are specific to Canon cameras, but many apply to all underwater cameras.

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

Helpful Web Sites:
• http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3 (Scuba Board Underwater Photography forums)
• http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/index-e.html (Canon Digital Camera Underwater Photography Guide)

Tips for digital cameras using internal flash (no external strobe):

1. Get your buoyancy down before attempting underwater photography. Your first obligation as a photographer is to stay off the reef. Breathing control is a critical element of moving around the reef without damaging things.
2. Set your camera at the highest resolution. Buy big memory cards.
3. Get used to changing your camera settings on land so that it is second nature when you are underwater.
4. Get close, then get CLOSER! Try to use macro mode for the majority of your pictures.
5. Use manual mode for pretty much everything closer than 3 feet. Use a fast shutter speed (e.g. 1/250) and a starting aperture setting of 5.6. Experiment with the aperture to get the effects you want. You will have to adjust the flash depending on how close you are shooting and the aperture setting.
6. Use underwater mode for more distant subjects, e.g. other divers, passing rays, fish that won’t let you get close. Your camera is going to try to avoid using the flash in this mode by automatically increasing the ISO setting; this results in less crisp images and your colors will also suffer since you are not lighting up your subject.
7. For Canon cameras, turn AIAF “Off.” This forces the camera to focus on the center object in the viewfinder and allows quicker focus.
8. Get used to your focus ranges when using macro mode; you can focus real close when at the wide end of your telephoto, but the focus range increases as you zoom in. Practice taking close up pictures of things around the house.
9. In low light and when there is little contrast, your camera has a hard time focusing. I leave the infrared focus assist turned “on” to help, but this light can also scare the fish. Make sure you are getting the focus indication in your viewfinder before taking the picture.
10. It is difficult to remain stationary when taking underwater pictures. Once you get the picture pre focused by halfway depressing the shutter button, the focus locks. If you delay your shot to compose the picture, chances are the distance between the lens and the subject is going to change and your picture will be blurred. For moving fish I frequently fully depress the shutter button to allow the camera to take the picture as soon as focus is obtained. There are at least two problems, however, with this approach. 1) the fish is rarely turned the way you want when the picture is taken, and 2) the camera will take the picture even if focus cannot be obtained.
11. The good thing about digital is that you can take LOTS of pictures. Shoot hundreds and you will wind up with a lot of good pictures that you are proud to share.
12. Don’t forget that a good picture can become a great picture with any of the good software programs that are out there. You can get PhotoShop Elements or Microsoft Digital Image Suite at Sam’s for $60 to $80. With some practice, this will make a huge difference in your pictures.

Tips to Maintain a Water Tight Seal on Your Underwater Housing:

1. Remove the o-ring every time you open the underwater housing. Clean both the 0-ring and the groove in the housing. Lightly lubricate the o-ring with the silicone grease provided with the housing.
2. With most housings you can see the o-ring sealing area through the housing after it is closed. Make sure you have uniform contact all the way around.
3. Leak check the housing in the sink every time you reassemble it. I also check it when I enter the water each time.

Thank you so much for the info. I did buy Photoshop Elements and a book to help me learn how to use it. I really appreciate all the helpful tips you gave. I hope I have a great trip report to post with pics next summer!