Bonaire is billed as a Macro paradise. Its probably won some award for that from one of the Scuba rags. Probably several.
The lack of any significant surge coupled with the fact that the reef is so healthy, and the western side most of us dive on being so protected - there isn't a lot of big pelagics. What you do get is lots and lots of small stuff.
And one species of Nudi...
There are some iconic Bonaire macro shots you see every time someone posts a Bonaire dive report. The smooth Trunkfish is on every brochure, there is the classic shrimp-in-the-anemone shot, juvi spotted Drum, Frogfish, Garden eels, Arrow crab, Jawfish, Flamingo Tongue, etc, etc. You've all seen them.
I wanted to get shots of all of these to be sure - just for my own log. But I wanted to not replicate what everyone else comes back with - I went in with bold plans. I was going to come away with a different take on Bonaire.
I essentially came back with what most everyone else does. It was a little depessing and a little liberating. Bonaire gets dived so much by so many really excellent photographers that I didn't have much to add to it. After about three days of looking for THE SHOTS that will define the place for me, it turned out I was trying too hard and not having enough fun in the warm, calm waters.
There were several dives when I (gasp) didn't even take my camera with me. I just went in to scoot around the place. I loved those dives every bit as much as I loved the "working" dives with the deathstar.
My many photo shortcomings came right to the forefront on this trip. I came back in a deep funk - I was really sad about most of the UW shots. But I also came back determined. I shot nearly 1100 underwater shots while on Bonaire. And because I didn't review any of them while there (I just dumped to the lapper and moved on) I didn't get a chance to see myself making the same mistakes shot after shot until I got home.
Now, armed with a better knowledge of the vast differences in shooting in SoCal vs the Caribbean, I know my next warm water trip will be more relaxing, less urgent and the shots will be even more satisfying.
Here are the macros.
Full Bonaire Gallery here: Bonaire, Baby!
Enjoy!
---
Ken
================================
The Blenny Brain Block - I'll have a shot of the actual block in the W/A gallery later. This is a large cement mooring block - probably a 3 or 4-foot cube. It has a piece of coral on it that looks like a brain. Its one of the first things you see as you follow the rope from the dock at Buddy's to Buddy reef. I just went over there to check it out - and I was stunned to find a zillion little blennys on it. So cute these things! There's nothing in the shot to provide scale. This guy is a little larger than a fat rice kernel. All of these are so small - I'm sure hundreds of divers go right by without ever seeing them.
Blenny Hill? - this is an iconic Caribbean shot - the Blenny in the coral. OK, so shoot me. I still think its silly, and I smiled every time I saw one. I have a tighter crop of this in the Bonaire gallery.
B-B-B-Blenny and the jets? - this was shot on a piling at Salt Pier in about 6 feet of water in the middle of the day. The surge was killing me, so the shot is a little soft. But I like this guy. They're so funny. I could watch these little fireballs for an hour. They dart out their impossibly small hole grabbing microscopic food that's floating by - when you have a bunch of them on a rock or in a coral its like a game of Hungry Hungry Hippo!
Shrimp and a buddy - lots of shrimp on every reef. I like this shot with the eel in the background.
Pederson's Shrimp - they live among anenomes. These corkscrew anenomes are my fav.
Pederson in the open - I love these guys. They set up the coolest cleaning stations. If you can't find one you can start your own by simply putting down a bare index finger and they'll climb aboard and start cleaning! If you ever wanted to see shrimp guts, here you go. No need to thank me. Its just how I roll. I'm a giver.
Speaking of Shrimp - here are some more shrimp shots. People called these Harlequin Shrimp. Not sure if that's their real name. They are often seen in large groups (4 to 10) deep in these white anemone.
Arrow Crab - I came home with a zillon shots of these critters, but this one is the silliest. I like that they also dive with blue gloves.
Juvi Smooth Trunkfish - these are the cutest things ever. EVER. They range in size from about a BB to a pea to about thumbnail size. This one was between BB and Pea - very, very small. They don't as much swim as they pinball off of stuff. The flit about in little holes and hovels. Very tough to spot, even tougher to shoot. We considered these the prizes of each dive. We spotted a total of 6 while we were there, and we consider ourselves very fortunate to have seen that many. Hands down, my fav find on any dive. The sign for when we found one was an erratic hand gesture and shouting "bing bing bing" into your reg.
Flamingo Tongues - we saw these often. I really wanted to shoot one on the move, with its foot extended - as its so pretty. On one night dive we finally saw one on Buddy's reef. The shot below it was taken on Salt Pier. I like the way it looks like its on a rib cage in the second shot.
Octo! - yes, we saw some Octos. Not many - I think three or four, with two of them coming on the Salt Pier dive. Here is the large one from Salt Pier. They are really beautiful. I have two shots of this guy, taken about one-half second apart. They are so close that my position in the water doesn't change - the composition is precisely the same. The only difference in the two shots of the color of the octo. After the first strobe burst he wasn't impressed and completely changed his color.
Eel Coil - speak of unimpressed, this guy was not happy to see me.
Garden Eels - this is the best I could do. I was far away, had to throw crazy amounts of light (hence the shadows) and shoot really slow. OY!!!! I don't know how you Carib divers shoot these things. Super-duper skittish. I would sneak up very, very slowly and they'd pull back in. So I'd wait, and wait, and wait and they would win every time. This was shot from the scooter.
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************* Bonaire Dashboard *************
There will be 5 parts to the Bonaire pics:
1. Dry Stuff - just shots Jaye and I took on our dry time
2. Dry Stuff - shots of me getting the shots
3. Dry Stuff - Buddy's resort
4. The Macros - the small stuff (there is also a Bonus Macros (call it 4-A) set)
5. The Wides - the big stuff
Bold = You are here. Links to the others as I put them up.
Kenny's Bonaire Blog is here: Linky
Full gallery of Bonaire Pics is here: Bonaire, Baby!
*******************************************
.
.
.
.
.
The lack of any significant surge coupled with the fact that the reef is so healthy, and the western side most of us dive on being so protected - there isn't a lot of big pelagics. What you do get is lots and lots of small stuff.
And one species of Nudi...
There are some iconic Bonaire macro shots you see every time someone posts a Bonaire dive report. The smooth Trunkfish is on every brochure, there is the classic shrimp-in-the-anemone shot, juvi spotted Drum, Frogfish, Garden eels, Arrow crab, Jawfish, Flamingo Tongue, etc, etc. You've all seen them.
I wanted to get shots of all of these to be sure - just for my own log. But I wanted to not replicate what everyone else comes back with - I went in with bold plans. I was going to come away with a different take on Bonaire.
I essentially came back with what most everyone else does. It was a little depessing and a little liberating. Bonaire gets dived so much by so many really excellent photographers that I didn't have much to add to it. After about three days of looking for THE SHOTS that will define the place for me, it turned out I was trying too hard and not having enough fun in the warm, calm waters.
There were several dives when I (gasp) didn't even take my camera with me. I just went in to scoot around the place. I loved those dives every bit as much as I loved the "working" dives with the deathstar.
My many photo shortcomings came right to the forefront on this trip. I came back in a deep funk - I was really sad about most of the UW shots. But I also came back determined. I shot nearly 1100 underwater shots while on Bonaire. And because I didn't review any of them while there (I just dumped to the lapper and moved on) I didn't get a chance to see myself making the same mistakes shot after shot until I got home.
Now, armed with a better knowledge of the vast differences in shooting in SoCal vs the Caribbean, I know my next warm water trip will be more relaxing, less urgent and the shots will be even more satisfying.
Here are the macros.
Full Bonaire Gallery here: Bonaire, Baby!
Enjoy!
---
Ken
================================
The Blenny Brain Block - I'll have a shot of the actual block in the W/A gallery later. This is a large cement mooring block - probably a 3 or 4-foot cube. It has a piece of coral on it that looks like a brain. Its one of the first things you see as you follow the rope from the dock at Buddy's to Buddy reef. I just went over there to check it out - and I was stunned to find a zillion little blennys on it. So cute these things! There's nothing in the shot to provide scale. This guy is a little larger than a fat rice kernel. All of these are so small - I'm sure hundreds of divers go right by without ever seeing them.
Blenny Hill? - this is an iconic Caribbean shot - the Blenny in the coral. OK, so shoot me. I still think its silly, and I smiled every time I saw one. I have a tighter crop of this in the Bonaire gallery.
B-B-B-Blenny and the jets? - this was shot on a piling at Salt Pier in about 6 feet of water in the middle of the day. The surge was killing me, so the shot is a little soft. But I like this guy. They're so funny. I could watch these little fireballs for an hour. They dart out their impossibly small hole grabbing microscopic food that's floating by - when you have a bunch of them on a rock or in a coral its like a game of Hungry Hungry Hippo!
Shrimp and a buddy - lots of shrimp on every reef. I like this shot with the eel in the background.
Pederson's Shrimp - they live among anenomes. These corkscrew anenomes are my fav.
Pederson in the open - I love these guys. They set up the coolest cleaning stations. If you can't find one you can start your own by simply putting down a bare index finger and they'll climb aboard and start cleaning! If you ever wanted to see shrimp guts, here you go. No need to thank me. Its just how I roll. I'm a giver.
Speaking of Shrimp - here are some more shrimp shots. People called these Harlequin Shrimp. Not sure if that's their real name. They are often seen in large groups (4 to 10) deep in these white anemone.
Arrow Crab - I came home with a zillon shots of these critters, but this one is the silliest. I like that they also dive with blue gloves.
Juvi Smooth Trunkfish - these are the cutest things ever. EVER. They range in size from about a BB to a pea to about thumbnail size. This one was between BB and Pea - very, very small. They don't as much swim as they pinball off of stuff. The flit about in little holes and hovels. Very tough to spot, even tougher to shoot. We considered these the prizes of each dive. We spotted a total of 6 while we were there, and we consider ourselves very fortunate to have seen that many. Hands down, my fav find on any dive. The sign for when we found one was an erratic hand gesture and shouting "bing bing bing" into your reg.
Flamingo Tongues - we saw these often. I really wanted to shoot one on the move, with its foot extended - as its so pretty. On one night dive we finally saw one on Buddy's reef. The shot below it was taken on Salt Pier. I like the way it looks like its on a rib cage in the second shot.
Octo! - yes, we saw some Octos. Not many - I think three or four, with two of them coming on the Salt Pier dive. Here is the large one from Salt Pier. They are really beautiful. I have two shots of this guy, taken about one-half second apart. They are so close that my position in the water doesn't change - the composition is precisely the same. The only difference in the two shots of the color of the octo. After the first strobe burst he wasn't impressed and completely changed his color.
Eel Coil - speak of unimpressed, this guy was not happy to see me.
Garden Eels - this is the best I could do. I was far away, had to throw crazy amounts of light (hence the shadows) and shoot really slow. OY!!!! I don't know how you Carib divers shoot these things. Super-duper skittish. I would sneak up very, very slowly and they'd pull back in. So I'd wait, and wait, and wait and they would win every time. This was shot from the scooter.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
************* Bonaire Dashboard *************
There will be 5 parts to the Bonaire pics:
1. Dry Stuff - just shots Jaye and I took on our dry time
2. Dry Stuff - shots of me getting the shots
3. Dry Stuff - Buddy's resort
4. The Macros - the small stuff (there is also a Bonus Macros (call it 4-A) set)
5. The Wides - the big stuff
Bold = You are here. Links to the others as I put them up.
Kenny's Bonaire Blog is here: Linky
Full gallery of Bonaire Pics is here: Bonaire, Baby!
*******************************************
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.
.
.
.
