Hamlet Portraits from San Salvador,Bahamas

These images were taken while on the liveaboard boat Explorer Ventures I, both in 2005 and 2006. Hamlets are in the Bass-like family of fishes. They are colorful with interesting markings.
I think the Indigo Hamlet below expresses an attitude in its appearance. There are a few more species of Hamlets whose images I hope to capture.

Indigo Hamlet

Barred Hamlet

Shy Hamlet

Juvenile Drums - From My Dive Archives!

I was looking for some images to post. Not that I don't have any, since my catalog has grown to nearly 40,000, but its been nearly a week since my last post. I've been busy, most of my images are now stored on external HD's and I wanted something easy. Opening up some files looking for some dive images, I ran across some prepared shots of juvenile drums. These are some unique fish and express God's unique creativity. The drum has an interesting metamorphosis with a variety of changes thoughout its life span.
A few years ago while on a boat in the Casa Banks, an area about 30 miles north of Cuba in the Bahamas, I was able to get some great pics of the youngest form of this fish I've yet to see. I was returning from a dive doing my safety stop while heading back to the boat in about 15-20 ft. of water and hugging the sea floor in order to see any macro creatures that were out and about. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some really small creatures in the mouth of an opening in the coral shelf(sea floor). I stopped like a curious kid to investigate, a surprise and a treat. These juvenile drums were like little Star Wars space ships. So, I began trying to take their picture. Because they were so small and moving around the opening, it made it extremely difficult to get what looked to be, in the LCD, a useable image. With some cropping to get them to a size that can be viewed, you'll be able to see the resemblence to space ships. As for the rest of the intermediate forms of the fish you'll also get a chance to see why I think it expresses God's creativity. In the adult form a fish that starts with black and white strips, grows a streamer, then sheds it, ends up in what the icons of fashion would consider a no-no, wearing strips and poka dots together. You can compare these next images with the already posted image from February 25th, actually the kick-off post for this blog. It will be the center image of those posted on that Wednesday.

Portraits of the Week

Here are some of the shots that I took this week. It's amazing to see just how much a person can miss and how much is going on around us when we pick a small area and focus on the creatures in it. When beginning divers get to a reef, its not uncommon that they try to cover as much of the reef as fast as they can. This results in a great deal of missed reef life. In time, some find that you can settle on a small section and just hang out. Instead of you covering the reef, you stay put and let the creatures come to you or at least reveil themselves. Now, I wasn't diving this week, unfortunately, but I had been at a marsh area shooting small dragonflies. They were sitting on the leaves of plants when out of the weeds climbed a praying mantis. It basically came to me saying take my picture for your blog. I was very happy to do so. So, I know we are all busy, but the phrase,"Stop to smell the roses" can provide a nice respite during the day and remind us that there is so much we miss as we speed around.