Whales, Sea Lions and Great Diving

Another amazing weekend in and on the water - calm flat seas, plentiful humpbacks, playful sea lions and great visibility.

Great Weekend on the Water

Had a nice change of pace in the weather, with the howling wind and fog giving way to a light breeze and clear skies. Took advantage to get out and see the whales that are feeding in town and to get in a great dive.

Central Oregon

Managed to thread the needle and find a break in the smokey air to get up to Broken Top again.  Unfortunately, the moon made for some tough shooting conditions, so not much to show for the effort this year.

 

Anilao, Philippines

Flukescape

Great light, calm seas, light winds, and lazy whales.  Ah well - still love the flukescape...

Big Sur by Night

Weeks of foggy mornings and overcast nights gave way to a clear evening; perfect opportunity with a late moonrise to try shooting the Milky Way.  Tried out a couple new spots I’d had in the back of my mind (and managed not to get blown off the cliffs by the 30kt winds!)

 

Murky Diving at Lobos

Had a couple days off around the 4th and planned a couple dives to some of our favorite Yankee Point deep spots, ones we've been unable to get to so far this year because of bad weather.  As usual, no good plan survives contact with the water - Day 1 we managed to get in a good dive in at Birthday Wall, but the 300' exposure caused a minor flood in my camera.  Day 2, we got beat back off of Point Lobos by the wind, and tucked in at Deep E3.  Got in some slug-hunting in the 10-15' murk.

 

Couple Critters from a Cold Dark Dive

It's been a terrible run heavy winds, but we got a tiny break (if you can call 10-20kts a break) and managed to sneak one it at the Mile Buoy - a couple macro critters...

 

Fog and Wind over Memorial Day

Took a few days off around the long weekend and had high hopes of getting in a couple days of whale-watching, diving, and was hoping to shoot some new sunset coastlines.  And then reality (fog and wind) set in.  Still managed to get out for a couple bumpy boat rides and a quick dip in the harbor - no keepers, but a few interesting shots.  The last couple show a sequence of the carnivorous sea slug Navanax inermis chowing down on a poor little Flabellina trilineata.

Sunset Jaunt

Took a quick walk out to the ocean today, hoping for some sunset colors.  Was hoping that the haze would make for some nice purples, but it never quite materialized.   In any case, here the couple I ended up with, as well as a shot of me almost falling off of the rocks :-)