back home...

trip report maybe tommorrow?



;)

Bob, you are such a tease.

Glad you made it home safe and sound. Can't wait til tomorrow.

Great picture. Looking forward to your trip report!

That is one handsome turtle!

Awesome photo! We want more......

Loved your turtle Bob, I'll be watching for more!
Thanks!

ok...

AA/AE again, thru miami and san juan - a long travel day but easy flights (short) and comfortable layovers (short but not too short). the miami terminal (near the AE gates has an outside smoking area for us butt-heads;)

my luggage was delayed a day going down (i assume it was left in san juan) - first time in more than a dozen trips that i have had any sort of luggage problem with AA/AE. so it happens...but as a result (going back the next day to pick it up) i caught cynde lee trying to "sneak" onto the island - a delightful surprise (not sure how she managed to keep that kind of secret)

so anyway, i got some shave kit stuff at lisa gas and a pair of trunks and some t-shirts at the bonaire baazzar(sp?) - i was advised to get the t-shirts at some place that starts with a "V" - and NOT to shop at the baazzar (really cheap stuff) but could not find the other place in the 10 minutes i was willing to look for it...

photo tours/yellow sub loaned me dive gear for a day (free) - thanks guys

so really, the delayed luggage just delayed my first dive by about an hour...

i chose to not rent a cell phone, mom does not talk any more (trache tube - sp?), judy was also on vacation so i figured there would be no one to talk to...wrong...a cell would have came in handy trying to line up dives with cynde lee and with bas - next time i just rent a cell phone just in case...and besides, michael at chat-n-browse probably thinks i was being anti-social

stayed at coco palm garden/casa oleandar as always, nice studio apartment with garden and everything you need for a "civilized dive camp-out" on bonaire;) two rinse buckets and a charcoal grill - simple living;)

this january was not as wet as the last two january trips and hence was not quite so buggy. did not need the air conditioning. a couple of early afternoons got a bit warm but for the most part it was comfortable weather.

the water was noticably cooler. 78 vs 82-84 degrees that was the case last june. must have been an upswell, water was mixing at the surface at north belnam, there was more current at the southern dive sites than i have seen previously, vis was a little off but always at least 30' and certainly more than enough for crystal clear pics...

i'm not big on going out to dinner (especially when i am by myself) so not too much to report in the way of dining. bas took a couple of us over to a local place, "the columbian" yummy dorado at a very reasonable price. did gibi's one tuesday, excellent snapper also at a good price but still close to double what it once was...coco palm does an indonesian buffet on mondays for $10 US/person - best deal on the island - did that twice...did t-bones and tenderloins on the grill most of the time - acceptable meat (from the warehouse)...ate lots of fake crab salad on toast (a fav) ;)

the diving - mostly southern dive sites, including first time dives at "sweet dreams" and at that unmarked site on the south end of pink beach - typical southern dive sites. did north belnam lots of times, that site is near the apartment and is where i typically go to "try" something out (my "class room")

did lac cai with bas and we also did candyland (north of bopec) - just had to be shown where the entry actually was, turns out i had only missed it by about 10 feet or so previously but that can make a BIG difference...local guides and even probably that shore diving book are resources one needs to use...anyway, dive sites where busy (even packed) at times, vis was off a little, water was cooler and a little more current - still plenty of fish, turtles, free swimming morays, eagle rays (in the distance), etc...the divers in the apartment next door got to witness a green moray fighting with a chain moray then eventually swallow the chain moray - they showed me a pic - that must have been awesome to see...

BT'ers...of course there was cynde lee attempting to sneak in, met josie at gibis, cynde lee had jerry (the wine guy) stop by at the coco palm buffet and say hello - i asked about "bob" - asked if they had left him out on a reef or something but jerry said no that "blue harley" had shot gunned "bob"...i had to wonder for what - stealing chickens?

photography - yeah

did not flood anything this time;), had some better luck with the macro focus though still some "soft" focuses (see turtle above). had some more learning curve issues with the wide angles and with the strobes - looks like the best results come with the metering set to center area or center spot (just do not use matrix - at least on a 20mm). use aperature mode, set the aperature between say F11 and F16 depending on depth (brightness) and set the strobes to TTL control. i used both strobes, the second one with a slave sensor - not sure how/if the camera can manage both strobes properly but the thought was a better chance of lighting up the subject with two instead of one strobes (also the risk of "cooking" something when both strobes where actually pointed correctly)...so i did finally achieve the "studio" look i was after on a couple of coral head/sponge shots...

shooting in RAW format...might want to consider setting the camera to do both, RAW and a low res JPEG, RAW format just is not supported in enough ways to make the work flow - flow...tim over at fish eye photo pointed this out to me initially - that guy REALLY seems to know his stuff - a good resource. so anyway, i do have a bit of a mess on my hands, lots of good pics but hard to locate on my media player and then they all need imported, converted, resized...be patient, i do have a couple of really good ones

from the shallows at margrate bay...



more later, at least more pics

ok...the work flow:

1. import media player folders into Adobe Lightroom program

2. the folder contents now have a thumbnail - pick photos to export to jpeg

3. "fix" and resize the exported photos with Adobe Photoshop (can be done directly from Lightroom)

4. post...



what a mess;)

Great report and especially photos (as usual)

Thanks for the "tease" and I'm definitely looking forward to more photos!!!!

rush hour at belnem...



more on the workflow...

the imported folder pics are imported as digital negatives, at least white balance can be checked. after export as jpeg, photoshop is a little easier to use to set levels (for us dummies;)) (rather than "develop" in Lightroom)

got to go;)

one more...grouper from lac cai (w/Bas)



;)

Wow, Bob, great photos and a great report! The water has cooled down since December (82 most dives). Looking forward to seeing some more of your dives!

YEAH...thanks for sharing more! Love the photos and glad you had a wonderful time.

back from a mom visit...she approves;)





still have some nice eels and some various shrimp somewhere and a few nice coral heads/sponges - maybe a little later over on the photo thread...

thanks,

Wow Bob! Thanks a bunch. Can't wait for the rest. I'm having a bad PBD day. Bring on the pics!

Ahhhh seeing those makes me really wanna be south! Oh BTW....please tell me that's a rubber lizzard your feline friend has in it's grips?! I looks real & maybe it is. Are you gonna post about that meal under another thread? I do know many FL Yorkies that snack on lizzards often Ewwwww.....LOL!

real lizard...i had to clean up a "mess" afterwards...

felix managed a couple of more lizards...one, he bit the tail off of and the detached tail was jumping around for several minutes afterwards

did hear a story about an iguana actually intimidating felix - good for the iguana;)

he played with the scorpions too...

some topside pics with my telephoto...









other underwater pics over on photo thread...

some topside pics with my telephoto...









other underwater pics over on photo thread...

some topside pics with my telephoto...








other underwater pics over on photo thread...

some topside pics with my telephoto...






other underwater pics over on photo thread...

some topside pics with my telephoto...





other underwater pics over on photo thread...

???

Bob,

Love the pics - especially the shallows at Margate Bay. One of our favorite dives.

-David

Bob, great report and photos. Keep them coming.

couple more notes:

still not sure why any one would like the dive at red slave, this time there was no current but no reef either and dirty stuff all over what reef was there - not worth the trouble in my opinion...

did a night snorkel (with a neighbor) at winsock starting to the north of the pier and ending around the yellow building. i do not have hardly any snorkel experience but i put on my wetsuit and 6 lbs of weight, stuck that snorkel (dry) in my mouth and did not take my face out of the water for 60 minutes - saw red shrimp, octopus (i got inked), a family of various sized (but all small) trunk fish, and tons of cup coral - really quite a nice experience - and NO camera

flamingos were in flight every morning to the south - never could remember to go down with a camera ready but what a great photo opportunity

pretty good trip

my first thought on the the cat & lizard picture is that it would be a good anti-Geico ad.

did you use any filters on the Margate Bay & Belnem shots?

Sponge...thanks for dinner Great pics btw

The night I had dinner with sponge at Coco Palm, Anonymous and his wife Danielle, Brigitte, and Richard all joined us for a late night conversation Good times Coco Palms is a beautiful lush property, very nice

sue,

did not use filters this trip, margate bay shot was like f18/180 with a strobe and the belnem shot was f11/60 with both strobes...did touch up the belnem photo with photoshop (brighten and sharpen but no color correction...

i think i need to spend a little more time in the shallows;)

lizard at work and play

cocopalm garden apts:

Bob, great pics, and it was very nice talking with you, Cynde, Brigitte & Richard at the Indonesian (Chinese?) buffet at Coco. And Windsock is a great snorkel indeed - night and day - you just keep looking and seeing new things. Wonderful! And also, very close to Coco, which came in handy...