Anyone who knows me, knows how I feel about diving in Orange County (OCal.) It just hasn't been too great the FIVE previous times I've gone.
So last week, our resident OCal shore dive guide Robert Philips sent me a PM, telling me there were some Trapania velox Nudis in his home waters, and he wanted me to shoot them. He also sent out an invite to HBDiveGirl as she has Fridays off, and he knows she has a nose for Nudis.
Trapania velox?? I have no clue - so I go look it up. AH... kinda cool, and one SoCal Nudi I've never shot. So I tell Garth I'm in, and Chica and I set up a very early AM dive (6:45 AM today) to go find these rascals and shoot them.
I've been having troubles with my Sync cord (fires the strobes)
so I set up last night, fire off a bunch of test shots, and all is good. I'm pretty excited, except for the drive-55-miles-to-get-to-the-divesite-by-6:45AM part. I underestimate the time it takes to get there, and I roll in at about 6:59... I HATE being late, but its all good.
I need to make this a quickie, as I'm working today and need to get home as soon as possible. So I'm speed dressing and in a few minutes, I'm ready to go.
After I dress, I test the cam again - all working good. I may get some shots! The three of us take the Scooters down the stairs, out through the minor surf and I'm stunned at the clarity of the water.
Can this be OCal?
I drop and look up at Claudette, and tell her to hold - I want to test the strobes. I fire off a test shot, both strobes fire.... 'sall good!
As we're scooting to the site, we see EIGHT bat rays (3, then 1, then 2 and then 2 more)... the Viz was at least 30 feet - maybe more. I'm awestruck by the beauty of the reef. There are huge schools of sardines, lots of Garibaldi, lobster molts, Octopus, a huge school of Barracuda and more. What a beautiful day to dive.
Can this be OCal?
At about the 14 minute mark, Garth deposits us on a rock with some red sponge on it. And sure enough, there - faithfully parked (still in "sit" command from Garth, the "Nudi Whisperer") are a couple of little, white Trapania velox.
VERY COOL!!
I drop, compose, shoot. NO STROBE. :furious: Again. Again. Again.
NOTHING.
I take a lap to cool down. I have two sync cords - one is finicky and one is just rude. I have them numbered - so I tool out the finicky one. Guess it decided to sleep in. DAMMMMMIT.
Hmmm... :idea:
So I call over Chica and Garth. Between the three of us, we have three 21W HID lights. If I open things way up, and slow things way down, I can probably get some shots off. I direct them where to point their lights, imagining the circus that's going on above me.... There is significant surge, as we're pretty shallow. 2 divers with scooters, one in doubles, the other holding her light head AND MINE on the subjects (these guys are about 3/8" when fully stretched out) while I move all around, huge camera rig pressed to my grill trying to brace so I can shoot something smaller than one-half an inch at 1/60th of a second in the surge by flashlight.
It must have looked like three clowns swinging from a trapeze trying to perform surgery as they swung by the patient.
I was cracking up.
I squeezed off some shots. I look closer, and there are THREE of them. One teeny one (maybe 1/16th of an inch) way in back. I pulled out my DIR broken-off Steak Knife to move some sponge and some Nudi slime out of frame, and snap some shots. I then nudge one of the guys to a better position in the frame (remember Wild Kingdom: "all scenes whether actual or created depict authenticated facts...") and I get some more shots.
Nudi Relocation Program
Claudette motions to me, asking if I want to NRP one of the guys. I wave her off, as I'm waiting to get another shot of the three of them. I take a couple of shots, then motion her over, and she takes the knife and lifts Nudi#1 onto the top of the sponge (about 3 inches away from his buddies) so I can get an iso shot. These guys were buried so deep in the relief of the sponge it was very tough to light with the can lights.
So Nudi #1 goes for a short ride. She cups her hands around the guy until he finds purchase in the surge, and I get some more shots off.
We're about to leave, and I take one more stab at the Sync Cord - I'm shaking it and pulling and pushing.... I take a shot. IT WORKS. So I get off about 3 shots with my strobes, then it goes back to sleep.
We wave bye bye to the three Trapania velox and Rob takes us on a brief tour of the area. I'm in a time crunch, so I dig out the wet notes to make that clear to the team.
Then Claudette finds something much rarer and something documented much less often than even these little special Nudis. She takes my wetnotes, opens it AND STUMBLES ONTO A BLANK PAGE. How the heck she, in her 5mm Akona 5-thumbs Neo gloves turned effortlessly to a blank page, I have no idea. I haven't seen a blank page in my Wetnotes in a year. She jots a note, and I can't even read it... I'm paralyzed by the beauty of a couple of blank pages. I eventually awoke from my hypnotic state, answered her question (of course, I couldn't find the blank pages... I responded in the margin of some other very full page...) and we headed in.
We get to about 3' of water - just gin clear. I stand up, take off the fins. I have fins in left hand, cam in right. I pull my mask off, put it on backwards and start to walk out. The water is now just below my waist. I feel a pretty significant draw - so I look back and see a perfect 3 foot curl forming. I calculate the timing and it looks like I'm gonna catch it right in the mouth. So I start to jog back OUT (no way I can go in with the draw...) This thing is over my head now, and is roaring at me. I reach my left hand over my head (fins in that hand) to hold my mask and I duck. No use - I catch this thing right in the grill, and I get completely "daffy'ed" (remember when Daffy Duck get shot, and his bill spins?) My mask is still on my head, bit its now covering my ear. I would have lost if I didn't grab it.
A little "how do you like OCal now, Ken" from the 714 ocean. OY!!!!!!!!!!!
SO - OCal comes through. My first excellent dive - heck, my first good dive in OCal in 5 years of trying.
OUTSTANDING DIVE GARTH!! I'm flattered you thought of me when you wanted to get pics of these guys. The moment I came home I bit the bullet and ordered two more synch cords - as soon as they get here we'll go out and I'll get sharper shots. Promise.
Here are some truly team-effort photos of Trapania velox. Enjoy.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The three guys - deep in the relief of the Sponge, lit by three quivering Can lights!
Here are the three guys again, with Nudi #1 trying to make a break for it!
Immediately after landing from the NRP. He quickly slimed up the place, and started to take a look around. The surface sponge looks like a Sugar dough nut! YUM!
NRP - Nudi bustin' a move after he participated in the Nudi Relocation Program (side of DIR knife transport...)
Hey - where'd my buddies go?
Nudi #1 on the run - Nudi #1 on the run - hoofing it across the pig's face.
The other two, post NRP... looking around for the bold one who got carted off to a new life - three inches away!
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.
.
So last week, our resident OCal shore dive guide Robert Philips sent me a PM, telling me there were some Trapania velox Nudis in his home waters, and he wanted me to shoot them. He also sent out an invite to HBDiveGirl as she has Fridays off, and he knows she has a nose for Nudis.
Trapania velox?? I have no clue - so I go look it up. AH... kinda cool, and one SoCal Nudi I've never shot. So I tell Garth I'm in, and Chica and I set up a very early AM dive (6:45 AM today) to go find these rascals and shoot them.
I've been having troubles with my Sync cord (fires the strobes)
so I set up last night, fire off a bunch of test shots, and all is good. I'm pretty excited, except for the drive-55-miles-to-get-to-the-divesite-by-6:45AM part. I underestimate the time it takes to get there, and I roll in at about 6:59... I HATE being late, but its all good.I need to make this a quickie, as I'm working today and need to get home as soon as possible. So I'm speed dressing and in a few minutes, I'm ready to go.
After I dress, I test the cam again - all working good. I may get some shots! The three of us take the Scooters down the stairs, out through the minor surf and I'm stunned at the clarity of the water.
Can this be OCal?
I drop and look up at Claudette, and tell her to hold - I want to test the strobes. I fire off a test shot, both strobes fire.... 'sall good!
As we're scooting to the site, we see EIGHT bat rays (3, then 1, then 2 and then 2 more)... the Viz was at least 30 feet - maybe more. I'm awestruck by the beauty of the reef. There are huge schools of sardines, lots of Garibaldi, lobster molts, Octopus, a huge school of Barracuda and more. What a beautiful day to dive.
Can this be OCal?
At about the 14 minute mark, Garth deposits us on a rock with some red sponge on it. And sure enough, there - faithfully parked (still in "sit" command from Garth, the "Nudi Whisperer") are a couple of little, white Trapania velox.
VERY COOL!!
I drop, compose, shoot. NO STROBE. :furious: Again. Again. Again.
NOTHING.I take a lap to cool down. I have two sync cords - one is finicky and one is just rude. I have them numbered - so I tool out the finicky one. Guess it decided to sleep in. DAMMMMMIT.
Hmmm... :idea:
So I call over Chica and Garth. Between the three of us, we have three 21W HID lights. If I open things way up, and slow things way down, I can probably get some shots off. I direct them where to point their lights, imagining the circus that's going on above me.... There is significant surge, as we're pretty shallow. 2 divers with scooters, one in doubles, the other holding her light head AND MINE on the subjects (these guys are about 3/8" when fully stretched out) while I move all around, huge camera rig pressed to my grill trying to brace so I can shoot something smaller than one-half an inch at 1/60th of a second in the surge by flashlight.
It must have looked like three clowns swinging from a trapeze trying to perform surgery as they swung by the patient.
I was cracking up.I squeezed off some shots. I look closer, and there are THREE of them. One teeny one (maybe 1/16th of an inch) way in back. I pulled out my DIR broken-off Steak Knife to move some sponge and some Nudi slime out of frame, and snap some shots. I then nudge one of the guys to a better position in the frame (remember Wild Kingdom: "all scenes whether actual or created depict authenticated facts...") and I get some more shots.
Nudi Relocation Program
Claudette motions to me, asking if I want to NRP one of the guys. I wave her off, as I'm waiting to get another shot of the three of them. I take a couple of shots, then motion her over, and she takes the knife and lifts Nudi#1 onto the top of the sponge (about 3 inches away from his buddies) so I can get an iso shot. These guys were buried so deep in the relief of the sponge it was very tough to light with the can lights.
So Nudi #1 goes for a short ride. She cups her hands around the guy until he finds purchase in the surge, and I get some more shots off.
We're about to leave, and I take one more stab at the Sync Cord - I'm shaking it and pulling and pushing.... I take a shot. IT WORKS. So I get off about 3 shots with my strobes, then it goes back to sleep.
We wave bye bye to the three Trapania velox and Rob takes us on a brief tour of the area. I'm in a time crunch, so I dig out the wet notes to make that clear to the team.
Then Claudette finds something much rarer and something documented much less often than even these little special Nudis. She takes my wetnotes, opens it AND STUMBLES ONTO A BLANK PAGE. How the heck she, in her 5mm Akona 5-thumbs Neo gloves turned effortlessly to a blank page, I have no idea. I haven't seen a blank page in my Wetnotes in a year. She jots a note, and I can't even read it... I'm paralyzed by the beauty of a couple of blank pages. I eventually awoke from my hypnotic state, answered her question (of course, I couldn't find the blank pages... I responded in the margin of some other very full page...) and we headed in.
We get to about 3' of water - just gin clear. I stand up, take off the fins. I have fins in left hand, cam in right. I pull my mask off, put it on backwards and start to walk out. The water is now just below my waist. I feel a pretty significant draw - so I look back and see a perfect 3 foot curl forming. I calculate the timing and it looks like I'm gonna catch it right in the mouth. So I start to jog back OUT (no way I can go in with the draw...) This thing is over my head now, and is roaring at me. I reach my left hand over my head (fins in that hand) to hold my mask and I duck. No use - I catch this thing right in the grill, and I get completely "daffy'ed" (remember when Daffy Duck get shot, and his bill spins?) My mask is still on my head, bit its now covering my ear. I would have lost if I didn't grab it.
A little "how do you like OCal now, Ken" from the 714 ocean. OY!!!!!!!!!!!
SO - OCal comes through. My first excellent dive - heck, my first good dive in OCal in 5 years of trying.
OUTSTANDING DIVE GARTH!! I'm flattered you thought of me when you wanted to get pics of these guys. The moment I came home I bit the bullet and ordered two more synch cords - as soon as they get here we'll go out and I'll get sharper shots. Promise.
Here are some truly team-effort photos of Trapania velox. Enjoy.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The three guys - deep in the relief of the Sponge, lit by three quivering Can lights!
Here are the three guys again, with Nudi #1 trying to make a break for it!
Immediately after landing from the NRP. He quickly slimed up the place, and started to take a look around. The surface sponge looks like a Sugar dough nut! YUM!
NRP - Nudi bustin' a move after he participated in the Nudi Relocation Program (side of DIR knife transport...)
Hey - where'd my buddies go?
Nudi #1 on the run - Nudi #1 on the run - hoofing it across the pig's face.
The other two, post NRP... looking around for the bold one who got carted off to a new life - three inches away!
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