I took this one while snorkeling in Belize a few years back. Like most sea turtles, the Pacific green is an endangered species. Many factors, including hunting, poaching, and egg harvesting are to blame. But even bigger threats come from accidentally boat strikes, fishing nets, pollution and habitat loss and destruction. A pretty grim picture, but at least they are now globally protected. Sony RX1005 at 25.7mm in Ikelite housing, ISO 125, f/10 at 1/100th of a second.
This one goes out to my friends at No Fish (nofishcardgame.com) doing their part to bring awareness to our vanishing sea creatures. This school of blue-striped grunts were in the protected waters of Hol Chan Marine Reserve in Belize. Definitely looking forward to getting the camera under water again sometime soon. Sony RX1005 at 8.8mm (in underwater housing) ISO 125, f/4 at 1/320th of a second.
A southern stingray drifts across the top of the seagrass at Shark Ray Alley Marine Reserve in Belize. These guys have quite a range in coastal Atlantic waters, from southern Brazil in the south on up to New Jersey in the north. Sony RX100V at 8.8mm (24mm equivalent) with wide angle wet lens and Fantasea Underwater Housing, ISO 250, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second.
Shark Ray Alley Marine Reserve off of Ambergris Caye in Belize is aptly named. Plenty of sharks. Plenty of rays. The sharks are mostly nurse sharks like this guy. We spent a few days snorkeling in the area with plenty of sightings as the sharks come by for the chum tossed into the water by the local tour guides. Sony RX100V at 8.8mm (24mm equivalent) plus wide angle wet lens, ISO 125, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second, Fantasea housing.
These formidable iguanas were everywhere around the beachfront hotel we were staying at in Belize. They can be very fast. In fact they are known as the world’s fastest lizards. This guy was challenging me to a bit of a stare down.Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/250th of a second.
2018 saw a lot of everyday life circumstances getting in the way of my photography. Hopefully things will get back on track in 2019 and I can return to where I enjoy being most — in the wild. That said, the year did start strong. Karen and I took a “non-wildlife” trip to Belize, which ended up yielding a surprising amount of incidental wildlife, especially of the under water variety. Shortly after that, I travelled to the southern tip of South America for a week of puma tracking. Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile clearly ranks toward the top of the most spectacular wild places that I have ever visited. Unfortunately, the remainder of the year consisted of the birds in my backyard and a single trip with my father to view seals off the coast of Cape Cod. I was busy with photos from other locations around the world, however, as I had quite a backlog of processing to do on all the images I’ve captured over the past 15 years. Lots of home time enabled me to tackle this ongoing challenge. That said, the following ten photos are the highlights captured this year.
The southern stingrays that I photographed in Belize were, at times, quite curious and would swim right up to me. I didn’t even notice those two big conch shells on the ground until I started looking through my photos on my computer.
Sony RX100 V with FantaSea underwater housing with wide angle wet lens, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second
As I mentioned in a few recent posts, I took a new compact camera underwater while in Belize. Being the first time I used it, there were plenty of mistakes to be had. The main screw up being that I kept inadvertently hitting the video record button while snorkeling, thinking that I was taking stills. I ended up with lengthy video clips of unusable (and unexpected) footage. But amidst all the shots of nothing-in-particular, there were glimpses of fish, sharks, stingrays and turtles. I cut together the bits that made sense into this short video of Shark Ray Alley. Music be Neil Young for no particular reason other than I like the song, it seems to fit the slow motion vibe and it’s called “On the Beach.” Next time I’ll take an intentional video and see how it goes. (Sony RX100 V with Fantasea underwater housing with wide angle wet lens attached.)
Another one of the black howler monkeys that we saw at the Caracol Mayan ruins deep in the western rainforest of Belize. Note the way the baby has its tail wrapped tightly around mom’s.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/320th of a second
Back to Belize and Shark Ray Alley for this one — a Pacific green sea turtle feeding on the underwater grasses. You can see another shark silhouetted back there to the left.
Sony RX100V in Fantasea housing and wide angle wet lens, 8.8mm (24mm equivalent) ISO 125, f/10 at 1/100th of a second