Images from Key Largo - New Years Morning

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kidsdream

Contributor
Messages
985
Reaction score
41
Location
Southeast Michigan and Key Largo, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
New Years morning brought clear skies and calm seas (albeit with a forecast of increasing winds in the afternoon). So at the last second I called Ocean Divers to see if they were running morning trip according to their posted schedule. My calls to my more favorite dive ops the day before proofed fruitless as most of the shops were not running morning trips so as to give their employees time to sober up.

I was happily surprised to find that Ocean Divers was running their morning trip to the Spiegel Grove with the second dive planned for the Benwood. As it was 7:30 and the boat was to leave the dock at 8:00 I needed to hustle. After paying for my dive (and the 2007 Spiegel Grove medallion - this is the first one I was requested to buy in years), I just made it on the boat as the briefing was being given to the other 14 or so divers on-board. Certainly a larger group than I usually go out with, but not bad for the big old green boat of Ocean Divers.

I ran into Keylargobrent on the boat. He was using Ocean Divers as a teaching platform as his partner was taking the day off to go sailing with a lady friend.

While the seas were finally calm (at least for a few hours), I did not expect much. But I guess this is what made for some unexpectedly great dives. Here are a few images of the trip.

As I descended on the aft boat deck, I found a few Moon Jelly's hovering under the crane boom.
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As these are usually hard to focus on, I took some time for a couple of images.
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I did not realize that we had a super hero disguised as a diver - check out this wet suit.
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I was looking for some interesting perspectives, so I was trying some different angles.
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I have never had much luck with images from the Benwood. My last trip there I had found a Mantis Shrimp in the sand near the starboard bow of the ship. I did not get a good shot of those elusive creature so I went to take a look again.

Sure enough I spotted one in a small crevasse. He was protected by this big Arrow Crab.
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I wish I knew how to use Layers with my Elements 5 as this would look good with a black background.

I will have to wait a bit longer for some good Mantis Shrimp shots as these were the best I could get. Those suckers are fast and with their big eyes; any time I move in for a shot they hid back into the sand. I spent over 15 minutes trying to get these images.
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This guy was popping up all over a 1 sq foot area making my efforts for a "capture" all that much more difficult.
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One last shot - Ugh!
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I guess you never know what to expect.
 
Nice!

enjoyed those
 
Hey, I have that same wetsuit. I picked it up in Hong Kong cause it reminded me of the suits from the movie TRON. :)

Great pictures!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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