On August 15th 2010 our seventh Bonaire trip sadly came to an end. We enjoyed a 14 night stay at Den Laman and dove with Bonaire Dive & Adventure. We rented our truck from Telerin; It’s always a pleasure stepping off the plane to be greeted by Poppy! We truly had an awesome trip and felt it was our best trip ever. This is saying a lot, because all of our trips have been great. The diving was awesome. It was fun to find and photograph creatures we hadn’t seen before. I could get long winded about what we saw, but as mentioned we do have some pictures to share. Our trip coincided with a Fish ID Challenge by Patti and Scott Chandler. They put together a fun program and were a great resource at BDA. It’s my understanding they will be back again next year. We don’t have any dinner recommendations, because most evenings were spent night diving and consuming late meals hastily prepared in our condo while reviewing pictures. In addition to bringing food from home, the Warehouse was a great resource for stocking the fridge. We also enjoyed several lunches at Eli’s Deli (great sandwiches!), as well as lots of ice cream cones & Roti from Lover’s. Not sure when we will be back again, but one thing is for sure - we will be back.

We are still going through and working on pictures, but he’s a few from our stay:

Decorator Crab:


Redlip Blenny:


The Scream:


Sea Urchin (not sure what kind):


Christmas Tree Present:


Jawfish with Eggs:


Eagle Ray:








Blue Headed Wrasse:


Head on:

Wow your pics are great!! What are you shooting with?

fabulous
es

amazing pictures!!

omg those are wonderful.........

Beautiful photos, what type of camera are u using?

I'm glad I don't take underwater pic's, the cam would be in the trash right now.

Nice work

just threw away two ikelite housings

Thanks for all for the comments. I use a Canon 20d in an Aquatica housing with Inon strobes. With the exception of one dive, shots were taken with the Canon 60mm Macro lens. I went wide angle for remaining dive to shoot some wider shots of the eagle rays feeding which I haven't posted yet. Susie uses a point and shoot Olympus SP-350 and has stackable inon macro lenses, so she can go super macro. I'll post some of her shots soon. Here's few other ones:

I suck!...at picture taking. Never had one shot close to that good.

Thanks for the great pictures!

Wow and wow. Great shots.

WOW - keep on posting, these are fantastic!

That turtle shot is fabulous - where did you take it?

Excellent work (as usual) Rick!

Amazing!
Stunning!
Reminds me of Ocean Realm photos. How I miss that mag.

Is that a green turtle?

Thanks

wonderful wonderful

I am in awe !!! Thank you for sharing .

Beck-eee - The turtle was photographed at Tori's Reef in the shallows north of the entry point. We were looking for the Eagle Rays when we spotted him enjoying a nice green salad.
Brenda - Yes, I believe the turtle is a green sea turtle.

Really nice !

Every shot is my favorite!
Great work!!

Wow, looks like Dixie has some competition.

e.

I'm with Linda...can't pick a favorite so they are all on top...although the octopus is a contender for first in my book!

Pictures like these would make a splendid book. Why don't you take some more, and then publish? You might not make much money, but you would surely make a great contribution to the diving community and to Bonaire tourism. If you do, don't forget copyrighting them.

Very nice work with those Inon's. Great balance with the ambient light.

I wanted to share a few of Susie’s photos. I was tempted to sabotage her gear on our trip when it appeared she was starting to show me up :-)

This little hermit crab was about the size of dime:


Notice the shell between the eyes:




This little decorator was found running around on the sand:






Tori’s Reef Green Sea Turtle






We actually found 2 different nudibranchs on the same dive (I have a different one that I’ll post later), which was very exciting as we had only seen one other nudibranch in six Bonaire trips. At less than ½ inch long the stackable macro lenses did good job bringing out some of the detail. Can anyone offer an ID?


Wrestling Hermit Crabs:




Can anyone Id this fish? He was very small as you may be able to tell by the size of the grains of sand:


We found two Mantis Shrimp this trip. Susie found this one:

Wow, Rick. Awesome pictures. Post many please!

Rick can you tell us just how close you are getting to these subjects?? the old rule is get closer and then get closer still......... these are fabulous photos and you should have your copywrite on them....

Rick -- great pics. Between you and Dixie ... WOW !!

Rick, in all my years on BT viewing some amazing pics, you just blew it away with these. My God man, they are off the charts. I agree with Freddie. Get them on a copyright. You don't want Freddie's husband George stealing them for his new book, "My Life With Fish."

http://www.nudipixel.net/photo/00029055/

I don't think I'm exactly right but I'm close. Will try to get the correct one. Love this site for nudis.

e.

We are flattered about the comments regarding copywriting our photographs. It is my understanding that photographs are automatically copywrited to the photographer that took them regardless of whether a name or logo is put on the photo. One needs to assume that with anything posted online, someone may grab it for unauthorized use. Even if a name is on the photo, it can often easily be removed by cropping or cloning. One thing I find very annoying is the photographer that puts a big distracting watermark across the center of their online photo. All that being said, pictures posted online are low res versions of the original, so obtaining a quality print of any significant size would be difficult. A business with a website would probably know better than to use an online image without permission. I’ve had some people ask me if they could use a photo as their screen saver – the answer to that is always “Of Course!” There is a joy that comes not only with taking pictures, but of sharing them. We have a few more we would like to share that I’ll post later.

Freddie – regarding how to close to subjects. Many pictures are taken at the closest possible distance, IE the minimum focus distance of the camera. For Susie’s macro shots she has her camera present on manual focus at the closest focus distance and will move the camera in until the subject comes into focus. She can then compose the picture by zooming in or out. She can also choose whether to use a single inon macro lens, or to stack two for greater macro. On most night dives she would leave both inon’s on for the entire dive – the minimum focus distance with both attached is less than 2 inches. For me, I normally shoot on autofocus since with an SLR the autofocus works better and I’m able to shoot pictures faster. I often keep moving in closer and closer until I get as close as I can. Sometimes I do disengage autofocus and manually focus at the closes distance to ensure that I’m getting the greatest possible macro out of my lens.

http://www.nudipixel.net/photo/00028461/

This is closer but still not quite right unless it is a juvi vs. adult thing. Interesting thing is that the site allows you to search by parts of the world and your picture does not match anything they have listed for the NA.

e.

I'd really start to lean toward the first option, Favorinus Tsuruganus, but it is listed as an Indonesian species.

e.

I think the nudi is austraeolis catina

http://www.nudipixel.net/species/austraeolis_catina/location/bonaire/

Brenda, what makes you think that? I'm not an expert by any stretch but I see significant differences between Rick's photo and the catina both in coloration as well as physical structure.

Location is correct but it just doesn't look right to me.

e.

The placement of the cerata on the body, the shape and graduated coloration of the rhinophores. With many nudis, their coloration varies according to the color of the food their eating.

Nudis are really tough to id, esp from photos, I can only guess at best. These little guys can drive a person mad!

My 1st thought was a Lynx Nudibranch, as I've seen them on Bon, and thats how they looked in real dive life, gonna go back to that, Cuss myself for second guessing my dive experience!

Lynx Nudibranch.

heres 1

http://slugsite.us/bow/nudwk536.htm

Last and final guess.



Thanks for adding your wife's pics, you two are a amazing.

More please!

Rick-- When I suggested copyright, I was referring to a hard copy book. The copyright notice would appear in the prescribed place (see www.copyright.gov/forms or www.copyright.gov/help/faq, for the details). As a practical matter, there's no way to enforce a copyright on anything that appears on the Internet. The cost of litigation would be far more than the recovery. Also, there's no way to mark a photo with copyright notice without defacing the photo. But a print book would no doubt include text (that you could easily research on Google) and so would be tempting to copyists who had not been warned. Marking with the copyright notice does not create the copyright: you already own the copyright.
It just makes enforcement easier; and registration of the copyright makes it easier still.

I am throwing my camera and housing away. I give up.

Rick's work is one of the reasons why I refuse to take a camera underwater with me!

Great pics Rick - as are the ones you posted last year.

Geez Eric - I didn't realize there was a competition going on. My intent on posting is to share photos with the people who love Bonaire, hopefully encourage everyone to keep on taking photos, maybe learn a few tips and to make some new friends!!

I'll get some more posted on the weekend - leaning towards "Turtle Week" !

Dix.

there is only one word that comes to mind when looking at Rick and Dixie's pics...."ARTIST"

I'm thinking that Dixie, Rick and Susie should put together a book! They all have a superb talent that should be showcased!

I am with everyone above! I thought I had some great pics till you showed us these
Are you doing any editing to these besides any cropping?
HELP I want to know the secrets

I think Eric is right and the nudibranch is a Learchis poica. I’ve looked at other pictures online as well as my Reef Creature Identification book for verification. Here’s a few more shots from out trip:

Eagle Ray feeding, Tori’s Reef


Playful Hawksbill:








Teardrop Crab:




Lost in the maze:












Teardrop Crab:


Like the Nudibranch, this flatworm was very small


At the end of one of our dives we were amazed and excited when we found this hitchhiker anemone. We didn’t know that it was called a hitchhiker anemone until we talked to Patti and Scott from Reefnet


We were pleasantly surprised to find a 2nd hitchhiker anemone on a different dive. Notice the small hitchhiking crab on the hitchhiker anemone.


After a long night dive and depleting my tank, I unloaded the usless weight, switched to the snorkel and found this slipper lobster - another new find for the trip:

Ellen Muller might be able to identify the nudi if someone would ping her (Freddie?? ) she's sort of the resident "expert" on all things tiny.

These pictures are phenominal - astounding!!!! Thank you so much for sharing them with us... keep posting - it's as close to underwater as I'm bound to get for a while!

Hi Dixie. I can think of no higher compliment on this board right now that to say someone is achieving your standards in photography underwater. I'm just excited that we have two different styles to choose from now when we come get our fix of amazing sea life pictures.

Thanks to both of you.

e.

Wow ! Loved your photo's !
Thanks for sharing!

Rick-
Outstanding shots. Had intended to post my pics from our trip in July, but yours are way above my class by far! Excellent stuff.

Do you shoot in a RAW format and "develop" in Photoshop?

Neptune Nick

speechless. absolutely stunning!

Beautiful work. OMG I am tempted to also throw my setup away, however I am just stubborn enough to keep trying. Rick and Dixie your pictures are inspiring, something that I can strive for (However would be surprised if I ever took an underwater shot to equal these) Keep posting and thanks for sharing the pictures as well as some of your secrets.

Those are the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen from Bonairean waters. And I have seen a few. Hell I need glasses to just find all that stuff, forget about the camera. Rick's the man!

Rick, seeing these pics makes me realize how much I do not see on the reef, and I usually go slow looking for little critters. This is also why I do not own an uw camera. They are all fantastic and I will just live thru your lense if that is OK.

Please post more, and thanks.
Patrick

Thanks for all the nice comments - they are most appreciated!

Nikki & Neptune Nick - Proficiency in photoshop can help your good pictures look their best. For my Camera I shoot in Raw. For post processing, I'll make adjustments in Raw, then photoshop. For most images Photoshop involves cropping if needed, levels adjustments, resizing, sharpening and adding a frame. Susie shoots straight to jpeg, and we go through the same workflow process.

Sorry, I'm not posting any of my pic's here.

Who wants to see a blue fin?

I hope I'm not going too overboard with picture posting, but here's a few more pictures from our trip (that's the problem with digital cameras and large flash cards!):

Open Wide:


Maybe not the greatest shot in the world, but this little box crab was fun find. When sitting on the sand they are nearly impossibly to see, but I saw this one running – about the size of a nickel.


Guarding his den:


Bucktoothed:


Our other Nudibranch find:


Isopods - ouch


Another Hermit Crab:


Lovers:




Juvenile Trunkfish:


Red Ridged Clinging Crab:






Filefish:


Little puffer, identity?


Mommy:


MMM lobster:

So Rick, When did you say that book was being published?

Rick - WOW
you can NEVER post too many!

Absolutely amazing Rick. Thanks for sharing those wonderful photos.

If this doesn't make someone want to go scuba diving, I don't know what will.

And you can never post too many. Awesome pics.

e.

whose eye is that just below the shot of the turtle from underneath? can't place him & driving me crazy!

peacock flounder??

that's what i was thinking, too.

Just Awesome!

Holy mackerel. Those are spectacular. Please post more. Can't get enough of your pictures.

wow...........wow!

The picture of the fish in the sand that you are trying to id, is that a baby laying on its back? It has two dark circles that look like eyes and a clear body.

Hi Mike,

The picture of the fish in the sand has a little shrimp above it's eye. With some help from Ellen Muller we have an identification: "a transforming lizardfish larva just settled becoming a juvenile" In case anyone missed my intro, the third round of our posted photos are my wife Susie's shots and this was one of her finds. The fish was extremely small, but Susie was able to get some nice macro by double stacking inon macro lenses in front of her Olympus SP-350.

And...yes, the eye is from a Peacock Flounder.

The little crab with the pinkish claws and burnt orange spots is a Juvenile Batwing Coral Crab.

Susie and I have really enjoyed sharing some of our images and experiences from our recent Bonaire trip. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to look and post comments. Many pictures from some of our previous Bonaire trips can be seen on our website at www.ricksusie.com . Very soon, we’ll also have our 2010 trip posted with additional pictures. I have some final ones that I wanted to post here. These are all needlefish reflection shots, photographed near the surface during a night dive. Actually, all these photographs are from the end of our very last night dive. We are both missing the diving terribly and can’t wait to return again.

unbelievable. do you dive with some type of temporary fish/crustacean/mollusk/etc tranquilizer to get your photos? just wondering why they hold so still for you when half my collection is fish butts???

you MUST submit one of the needlefish photos to some photo contest or another..they are different and extraordinary ! thank you for sharing your artistic captures with all of us on BT and keep taking photos ....

Thanks for all the beautiful pictures. Due to an inner ear condition, I snorkel only----not even able to go underwater. While I do feel that I see tons of undersea wonders by simply floating,very slowly, along the top, I know I miss many gorgeous creatures that divers do encounter on their adventures. So, again, thanks for sharing your pictures! Really awesome!!! peace. mellen

WOW... the needlefish pics are amazing. I agree with Diver Debbie... you should consider entering them in a contest. Digitaldiver.net and wetpixel.com have some great contests with cool prizes I'd vote for you!!!

Thanks so much for sharing all of your amazing photos! I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them.

Rick & Susie--you are an inspiration to the rest of us! Thanks for sharing. Your photography is beautiful.

How do I post a photo, would love your imput on how to make future shots better....love yours

Lynnette -

scroll to the bottom of this page and you'll see icons detailing out actions - you are looking for the "formatting" icon - click that one and scroll down to Images, Attachments, and Clipart - dont forget the image has to be under 100K

or - you can always ask a friendly MOD to help!

Wow, truly enjoyed all of your pics but I must say the needlefish pics blew me away. We'll be there in Dec and i will have to try this. What settigs did you use for those? Also loved the eagle ray shots and all the gobies.. thanks, just lovely. Scott

/image{BonaireMay 2009 293}

Wow Rick...you guys are blowing me away with these shots! You truly have some of the best eagle ray captures I've ever seen and the detail on your macro shots is outstanding.
Admiring your stunning captures surely makes me want to be in Bonaire right NOW...but I am booked for this December and now my excitement has been raised a few notches!
Thank you for sharing these masterpieces. :-)
Robyn

Lynnette - use the other slash \

you're almost there

(Message edited by modtim on September 3, 2010)

Scott - Thanks for your comments about the needlefish shots. I shoot with all manual settings and remember tinkering quite a bit on the needlefish shots. I believe I shot most of them from F11 to F14, and adjusted the strobes for proper exposure.

Thanks again everyone for all your other comments!

thanks rick, can't wait to try this out in December. Look for my post. One more question, how do you post pics with nice frames???? Anyway ,thanks so much, here is my last trips to Bonaire. Scott

http://www.photodex.com/share/scott_nielsen/97d84mg4

http://www.photodex.com/share/scott_nielsen/6gm64mg4

Hi Scott, I just noticed that I forgot to answer your question about making a frame. The frame I used is made by increasing the canvas size with the desired colors. I usually use a black frame with a thin line that is a color selected from the picture with the eye dropper tool. Here's a link I found that describes what to do:
http://www.photos-of-the-year.com/articles/frame/
Now, it would be tedious and time consuming to go through this process on every picture. So, I've created a photoshop action, so I only have to select my color(s) and hit one button and my frame is made. Here's a link I found that describes how to create a photoshop action:
http://blog.epicedits.com/2008/03/07/how-to-create-photoshop-actions/

Good luck, I hope this helps!

Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.

I feel like I'm fumbling all over myself for words, but these are quite frankly the best pics I've ever seen posted - anywhere.

The macro is absolutely amazing - and I am a huge macro fan.

The variety of critters, the rare critters, the shots we never get to see 'cause our eyes don't go that small - again, simply fabulous.

Thank you for sharing them.

We have a little more tinkering to do, but we finally have our Bonaire 2010 photo gallery posted at www.ricksusie.com

Thanks for all the supportive comments! With some luck, we'll have many more trips to share in the future.


- Rick and Susie

I was referred to this site specifically for this thread,and I registered here just to say that these really are some of the most amazing macro photographs I've ever seen. The last series, with the reflections, is utterly amazing and beautiful. Thank you SO much for the effort involved in processing these and posting them for the rest of us to enjoy.

These are just the most amazing pictures I have ever seen!!!!!!!!

Do you WORK for National Geographic or WHAT???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just fabulous!

AWESOME!! I am Beth from Denver and going in 6 months - switched from Nikonos V to digital - do you have trouble with autofocus with the 60? I do with the 105. Also, what lens did you use for the eagle ray? LOVE the black & white. Also a macro fiend, so do you have a fav. site for little stuff?

Thanks for posting!! You give me hope! LOL

Hi Beth from Denver,

You will have a much easier time with autofocus on the 60mm lens than the 105. That being said there are times where getting autofocus to engage is a challenge. To some extent, practice helps. I've learned though that yelling through the regulator for the camera to focus doesn't help. The 60mm lens will also give you more versatility - you can get very close for macro, yet back up a little for larger subjects. The eagle ray shot with the sun rays was captured with the 10-22 lens - all the others were with the 60mm lens. The best advice I can give for macro is to do a lot of night dives. I don't think the site really matters. Hit it at night, go slow, look close, and don't be shy about spending time covering the sand in the shallows...

andy looks to me that one of those photos is over 100kb... try naming them so you know which one.......ie: \image{seahorse} mind the slash and the curly brackets

Nice pictures to look for the best places on the island including GPS coordinates.

http://www.bob-photos.com/gallery/v/travel/Bonaire/

Have fun !

Regards,

Bob

I've found that a focus light is a necessity with the 105, day or night. I used to think that the 105 was the way to go for macro but have changed my preference over the years. I still use the 105 with a wet lens for super macro but like the 60 now better for regular macro.
You can get much closer with the 60 thus less backscatter. I also have started aiming my strobes facing at a large angle away from the subject and even facing the rear a la advice from Martin Edge's book. Drastically cut back on backscatter.

they look great Andy........ very nice.....all you people make me want to throw my camera away!!!

(Message edited by modfreddie on September 22, 2010)

All these pics ROCK..I'm with you Freddie..my pics NEVER look this good.....

Wow and more wow. I'm torn... do I throw away my camera and housing, or HIT THE BUTTON for another trip??? hmmmm.....

Great great shots. Great isn't the right word... they are extraordinary !!

That's an easy one Kelly..Just hit the button for another trip & get down there and practice. And if the pics aren't as good as Rick's, well just have a cold beer and watch the sunset!

andy you are my idol...

Rick, the pictures are beyond gorgeous. Thanks ever for sharing them. And no, you certainly didn't go overboard!

Rick, have you ever entered any competitions? Best shots I have seen in a long time