This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Family’
Last Friday’s theme is family so I thought I’d sneak in this post before the week ends and tomorrows photofriday theme is announced. Its a theme close to my heart at the moment because I’m on maternity leave taking care of my new wee girl. Above you’ll see a photo of a manatee mum & baby – awwww. Below is our adorable little one.
To see all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Family’ here but be super quick!
This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Grey’
With all the news recently on the manatees flocking en-mass to 3 sister springs in Florida (so much so they had to close it to the public), I though I’d revisit my time with them for this weeks theme. They are grey, cute and like to be tickled and nothing to do with 50 shades of anything!
You can see all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Grey’ here.
Psst… Please check out my excellent used Nikon Gear page, I’ve swapped over systems and I’m still trying to raise money on my previous gear get them now before they go.
This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’At Rest’
The manatees hang out in the hot springs at Crystal River in Flordia (they sleep there over night for warmth in the winter). Its a wonderfully tranquil place when the tourist are behaving themselves and obeying the rules set down to protect the manatees. Rule number one, do not disturb a sleeping manatee. If they want to come over to you for a scratch then they will but they sleep in the springs for protection and we should respect that. It is fascinating to watch them rest though. They pivot on their fin up to the surface to breathe without waking.
You can see more manatee photos here.
If you want to see my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery. Or my best from 2012 here.
See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘At Rest’ here.
PS: I’m currently selling the set up that took these photos. Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!
This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Mornings’
I’ve got to admit, I’m not at my best first thing in the morning. For Landscape Photographers morning time is their bread & butter. Sunrise & dawn is often a time of most beautiful light. Sometimes if you are in an area near water a nice mist forms that has dispelled by the time most people are up and about (as in the photo above taken in Crystal River in Florida). And of course the obvious reason – the lack of people. Nature is allowed to wake up gracefully (apart from a photographer or two) before all the humans arrive with their boats and cars.
We got up very early in Crystal River to see how many manatees were hanging out in the springs (they sleep there over night for warmth in the winter). This blog post has reminded me that I still have many photos to go through from that trip so I can’t show you an early-morning-many-manatees-sleeping photo like I wanted too. Here’s a picture of a little baby one from later from about 8am though…
If you want to see my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery. Or my best from 2012 here.
See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Mornings’ here.
PS: I’m currently selling the set up that took these photos. The top image was taken using Nikon D300 and 18-200mm lens. The manatee image was taken with Nikon D300, Tokina 10-17 FE, Subal housing with Dome port. Click here for more details & the full list of equipment for sale or email me at scubasuzy-sellingnikongear@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for supporting my work!
This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Change of Season’
Since I don’t live by the sea and dive in the same place all year around it is difficult for me to show you a change in season as per the theme (without showing you photos of my back garden shed in spring, summer, autumn and winter)! However, many places have seasonal creatures so I would like to share some photos of those with you.
Winter:
In Florida, in winter, the sea gets too cold so the manatees have to come into the fresh water springs of crystal river to keep warm. This is a great time to visit that area to see them…
Summer:
In summer, off the coast of mexico great aggregations of whalesharks come to feed on the newly sporned fish eggs.
Also in summer: off the coast of Sinai in the Red Sea there are two weeks when there are mass spornings of all sorts of fish. The most impressive are the snapper…
If you want to see more of my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery.
See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Change of Season’ here.
This week’s Photo Friday entry: ’Reflected’
The great thing about being near the surface of the water is the reflections so any marine animal that spends any time near the surface is a great one to photograph. Here are a few examples I hope you’ll enjoy. It works best when the surface of the water is flat calm. Above is a whaleshark from Mexico. Below are a few photos from Raja Ampat (Indonesia) and a manatee from Florida.
If you want to see more of my underwater photos from various places then check out the galleries in my Reef Beasties Gallery.
See all the other photo Friday entries (and submit your own) for ‘Reflected’ here.
Just a bit of a news catch up today. I’ve started two new web projects this week.
First, a collaborative project called How to Take that photo. The brain child of Michael Toye, we’re going to be doing explanations of how we took our photos, including gear, set up, thought processes, post processing etc. The idea is to open this up for photographer guest bloggers to contribute too. I think this has the makings of a really cool project so do give us a shout if you are a photographer who wants to join in and I’ll send you some details.
Second, I already announced on twitter, is a new blog on how I’m coding up my new photography website (probably really boring and geeky to most people). It’s based on coding for wordpress (self hosted version) and mostly a bunch of php so far. I’m a beginner so take it easy on me but as I learn how to do the various bits on my site I’m blogging them for my future reference (in case I want to make changes further down the line) and maybe it’ll be useful for others who are struggling? Eventually it’ll devolve into talking about design choices and ideas as I get nearer that part of my project. I already have the general idea of what mny site will look like but I’m sure details will drop into place as I go.
I have lots of other ideas for other things percolating but I’m not ready to share those yet 🙂 Dont worry though, I’ll not be neglecting you guys on this blog! I even swear on my little manatee friend here…
Just a quick note to point you in the direction of the guest post I did on bookyourdive.com about Florida Manatees.
To celebrate Earth Day today I’d like to introduce to to some Florida Manatees. The are an endangered species that die out in winter when it gets too cold.
Some sanctuaries have been set up in Crystal River where it is possible for you to go and interact with them (as long as you don’t harass or stress them). 
Once you see them in person its impossible not to love them! They vie with each other for your attention as long as you give them a good tickle. In fact I did more scratching of bellies than I did taking photographs which should tell you how compelling they are 🙂
You can find out some facts about Manatees here and how to get involved with saving them here.
I haven’t finished processing all my manatee photos from our trip yet be when I do I’ll do another log post with more photos so stay tuned and thanks for looking.
I’m back, still jet lagged though so not many photos to show you yet. I went for a couple of weeks in Cayman (one week in Alex Mustards photo workshop as we did last year) and a couple of days of extra play. Saw all the good stuff, Sharks, Caves, Rays, the new Kittewake Wreck (only 3 weeks old) and lots of blennies! Then off to Miami & over to Ford Lauderdale where we stopped off in Reef photo & Video. Luckily for my wallet I managed to escape without buying too much but it was nice to see the shop in person. The over to West Palm beach to have a few critter dives at Blue Heron Bridge. Then finally to Crystal river to see the adorable Manatees! I’ll be posting more as I process them but heres a taster: Click for large images & come back soon 🙂
I’ll be putting my florida photos here: http://www.pbase.com/suzy_walker/florida2011
and my Grand Cayman photos here: http://www.pbase.com/suzy_walker/cayman2011
Memoirs of an Underwater Photographer 