Grand Cayman East End and Kittiwake Wreck

Back from the Thanksgiving run down to Grand Cayman. We stayed on the East End of the island this time. Driving on the left side of the road always takes a couple days to get used to for us yanks. Lot's of fun driving back and forth from Georgetown. The winds were blowing this week but I did get in 4 days of diving, 3 on the SE side of the island and then I did the Kittiwake Wreck the day before our departure. The east end diving is great with lot's of great reef and ironshore formations below the surface. Not much for large fish or marine life on this trip but there was still plenty to see with all of the awesome swim-throughs and steep drop-offs. There were certainly plenty of lionfish on the top of the walls.

Came across this sponge at about 85 feet on the edge of the wall over on the East end. Composition came out pretty nice. One of my favorites from this trip.

© Jason C. Sawicki   www.underwateroutdoors.com   All rights reserved
     Photos and prints are available   contact: jason@underwateroutdoors.com

After several days of deep diving it was time for a break and we made the visit to see the stingrays. It was crazy windy but they were there and playful as always.

I had been "jonesing" to get down on the Kittiwake since it was placed off 7 mile beach in January of 2010. Its a great dive and very interesting. Most of the photos I took were minus the flash as the ambient light and some black and white images seem to work well with the wreck.

Here are some of the divers I was with entering the wheelhouse.

Moving down the side of the wreck on the port side B&W.

Looking down on the wreck aft section w/ water cannon.

Clearwater Beach and Crystal River

Wrapping up a week down in the Tampa area. Made a stop up at the crystal river and found a few manatees including this mother and calf. These were very docile animals, feeding on vegetation and occassionally coming up for a breath. The water in the channel was low visability with a lot of particulate in the water column especially with other excited divers around. There was also a bit of current so I had to position myself upstream numerous times, make a drift and hope they would rise for air when I was nearby. It took awhile but eventually all the others on the trip with me headed back to the boat for hot coffee leaving just me with the animals. On my second pass, up they came.

The calf was busy feeding but seemed inquisitive towards the group snapping photos of him. Notice the dive guide in this photo capturing video for DVD burning. The mother of junior here is just below and beyond. If you wonder what the dark shape is on the bottom that is her feeding along contently.

After a brief warm-up, we swam up into three sisters spring and had some excellent over under opportunities that I wanted to work on with the new dome port. (Olympus OMD-EM5, Nauticam Housing, 4" Dome Port, Panasonic 8mm Fisheye lens, ambient light) 



Back in Clearwater, I spent most evenings on the beach and found quite a few shore birds around actively feeding on the edge of the surf.



Photographer:

Jason C. Sawicki   Copyright 2012

www.underwateroutdoors.com

California - Channel Islands

The trip out to anacapa turned into a bit of a struggle as I was nursing an injured back. That coupled with being under-weighted on my first dive of the day increased my discomfort level and ended my diving prematurely on this trip. I managed a few quick shots. The visibility was not the greatest but there was a good amount of life in the kelp. Garibaldis, Sheapshead, large carpets of purple urchins, nudibranchs, seastars, and few sea lion fly byes highlighted the short time I was under.

Photographer: Jason C. Sawicki   Copyright 2012

www.underwateroutdoors.com

LA - Universal City Walk

Continuing with the LA theme.. A few pics from City Walk.. Headed out to the Channel Islands tomorrow..

Photographer: Jason C. Sawicki    copyright 2012
    www.underwateroutdoors.com

LA - California Science Center

Made it to LA and traveled down to the California Science Center today to check out "Cleopatra - The Exhibition".

Interestingly, many of the artifacts in the exhibit were gathered via an underwater archaelogical dig led by Frank Goddio at the Alexandria site.

             



   

                          



Exiting the Science Center via the Gardens adjacent to the facility.

Photographer: Jason C. Sawicki   Copyright 2012

jason@underwateroutdoors.com

www.underwateroutdoors.com

 

South Tahoe - Labor Day Weekend

South Tahoe was busy over the long weekend. There was a display of older cars at the heavenly base camp that were neat to see. We stopped by had a look and grabbed a couple of beers at the brewery before continuing up the shoreline.

There were also some clydesdale horses providing rides to tourists in drawn carriages. I never saw any in action but they were there, ready and able. The size of these horses always amazes me.

The shoreline of Tahoe was extremely busy today but still managed to sneak a few lake shots in like this.

 www.underwateroutdoors.com
Photographer: Jason C. Sawicki   copyright 2012

 

Lake Tahoe

Spending a few days here in Lake Tahoe. Life out West is just horrible as you can see. We dropped by the aptly named Jason's Beachside Grille to enjoy a few cold Sierra Nevada drafts fresh from the tap this afternoon.

Today we took a drive around the lake scoping out some decent locales for landscape and panoramic photos. The lighting is best towards mid-morning and afternoon so tomorrow's shooting should prove better.

This photo consists of three 14 MP files parsed to form the single panoramic image. We were at about a 1000 ft higher vantage than that of the lakes surface at 6,223 ft.

Photographer: Jason C. Sawicki   copyright 2012

 

www.underwateroutdoors.com



View from the hillside Above Incline Villlage

www.underwateroutdoors.com