 |
 |
 |
 |
Archive for September, 2009Sep 30, 09 Comments (0)
 Sponge Brittle Star Hey gang, how was your day today?? Sure is a lot of strange things going on in the world right now with the weather being at the top of the list! I guess for the most part that’s what’s nice about living here, it’s always the same weather just about every day of the year and hurricanes just go around us. Today was really windy which always means rough seas, the good side is no mosquitoes!! Aimee had the day off and spent most of it working on key-wording the photos I have ready to send to the States which will then be available for sale on our www.wildhorizons.com site, check it out.
Here’s something we see on every night dive but I never get tired of shooting it. This is a Azure Vase Sponge with a beautiful little Sponge Brittle Star hanging out on the side. These brittle stars spend all day out of site hiding from the fish who will eat them if given the chance. At night long after the fish have gone to bed they then slowly crawl up out of these sponges or from under coral heads and feed on algae or any other left over goodies they can find. Lights don’t seem to really bother these guys they just continue to go about their business knowing that as long as it’s night they are safe!!
Aimee is out walking the dogs again, she already took them for two hours this morning to the beach and yes they are two lucky dogs!! I had to take my rear bike rim into the Dasia doctor today, I need a new cog in the back, broken spokes and time for new liquid in the rear tire to help prevent flats. That’s about it, headed to a Photoshop party tonight so I better get moving. Later Gators, Barry
30-9-2009
Sep 29, 09 Comments (0)
 Cowfish Good evening all. Found this cool Cowfish the other day and thought I would send him out for your viewing pleasure! And yes you read that right, this was taken during the day! Then why is the background black?? Good question glad you asked. If your shooting animals during the day underwater and you don’t like the background set your depth of field to a bigger number and turn up your flash and like magic you have a photo that looks like it was taken at night, cool huh?? These cowfish are so curious and like so many others can instantly change their colors, my favorite being electric blue!! I followed this guy for quite awhile and watched as he or she stopped at all kinds of assorted algae encrusted rocks and dined on whatever he could find.
Aimee and I both worked today, it was clear skies and very windy!! After work I met some friends and off we went for our weekly tuesday night ride. I was a bit tired still from yesterdays ride but ended up doing alright. Sorry so short, not much else going on. Be back tomorrow, Barry
29-9-2009
Sep 28, 09 Comments (0)
 Superior Producer Good evening from rainyville! We woke up this morning at around 4:00am to the sound of rain and at 1:30 in the afternoon it finally stopped!! The little frogs have been singing all day, the birds are loving the free bath and the green stuff is all blooming again, love that rain! Needless to say, rain means no walking the dogs and no diving but I did finally get all day to work on some new photos for the website!! After the rain stopped I made an attempt to get back to the driftwood projects but it was just to wet out still. Plus after each rain here we get these little snails that crawl out of nowhere so you have to be careful where you walk, I spent a bunch of time picking them up from the walk-ways and putting them somewhere safer. I did head out for an hour bike ride mostly on the road, went in search of hills to climb trying to get a good workout in a short amount of time.
Here’s another fun shot of Mark looking into one of the many old windows of the Superior Producer. I was inside one of the upper rooms while he swam out the door and posed for a nice picture, I can hardly wait to get back there! The sides of the walls are covered in different colors of encrusting sponges plus if you look carefully you can see a few giant clams stuck to the sides.
Looking forward to our newest guest arriving soon, I have the whole week off so we are going to be making some great photos! Hope everyone is doing well, thanks for the letters, miss you all as well, I’m out, Barry
28-9-2009
Sep 27, 09 Comments (0)
 Trumpetfish It’s me again, boy did that Sunday go by fast or what?? After my long hike this morning with the dogs I started building some driftwood pieces. I have a few orders now which helps to motivate me in the right direction. Every single time we go the beach we cart wood home and just keep stacking it in piles, I really need to start getting this stuff turned into useable items. So I spent a good part of the afternoon creating a big towel holder which holds 5 towels and finally got a little more work done on the big table we have downstairs all made from wood from Saint Joris.
Someone asked me weeks ago for a Trumpetfish photo, I don’t even remember who now? I found this yellow beauty out on our reef a few days ago. These trumpetfish position themselves straight up and down and try to blend in with their surroundings but little does he know he’s bright yellow and stood out like a sore thumb! These guys are also incredible hunters, they just hover above unsuspecting smaller fish and wait for the perfect moment to strike and they are fast!
That’s it for tonight sorry nothing exciting!! Be back tomorrow, Bye Barry
27-9-2009
Sep 27, 09 Comments (0)
 Zoanthid Morning everyone, Aimee and I went to the Ribs Factory right after work with friends so not much time last night for blogging. Not to much to tell you today, I spent yesterday at work again fighting off an in-coming sickness but I think I may have it beat. I took Zicam that my mom sent, Echinacea tea and some cold and flu tablets all as a first line of defense and so far I haven’t got sick.
Still having strange weather, it rained in the morning and was windy all day which caused very rough seas again.
For all of you who have been asking, the whale is doing great! He now follows the boat far out to sea and miles away each morning for his morning swim and then spends the rest of the day at Zanzibar Resort. Once the sea calms down a bit I will go with them and try to get a photo of him following the boat and him jumping out of the water, George and all the helpers have done an amazing job!!
Your photo today is something new again. These are called Zoanthids. Usually when you see them during the day they look like white lumps but at night they open up exposing their beautiful polyps! Look at the big white lump at the top of the photo, it’s closed so tightly you would never guess that’s going to open up into something so beautiful would you? I find these in the shallow water around the Elkhorn corals, it’s just another cool animal that most likely gets unnoticed by most divers.
That’s about it, thanks for the votes, taking the dogs on their morning adventure now to Saint Joris, have a great Sunday!! Barry
26-9-2009
Sep 25, 09 Comments (0)
 Faya Hey gang, for weeks and weeks now we have been getting requests for a recent photo of baby Raven or as she is now called Faya. So tonight we finally met with her new parents Frank and Marja at Saint Joris right after work for a much overdo reunion! It was so great to finally get to see her again, we have been putting this meeting off for so long. Indi was a bit rough with her, Inca was Inca which means she really wasn’t that excited about the whole deal but hey that’s her loss! We did a long walk down to the point on Punta Mangusa where we took this photo with Aimee’s camera, I brought mine but forgot to put the card in?? So for all of you that have been asking how’s Raven doing, I think the photo speaks for itself, she is one lucky little puppy who has a great home. I told Frank tonight we will try hard and get the dogs together more on friday evenings it’s good bonding for them all.
For all of you who liked the Mating Squid photo I sent out a few weeks back you can now cast a vote on it if you are so inclined at www.underwaterphotography.com/photo-contest/Default.aspx?CT=10&ID=46709 This is one of the top underwater sites in the World and you the viewers can help be the judges, you can also click on underwater photo contest, then type in my name and it should come up as well. Many Thanks!!
Also it seems I get more people finding me on Facebook then any other place so here’s the link to that as well, www.facebook.com/home.php#/barry.b.brown?ref=name It’s been great hearing from old friends that I thought were gone forever, thus the magic of Facebook I guess? And again the few photos I have on Facebook are tiny for a reason. If I make them any bigger they can easily be copied and or become the property of Facebook that’s why I just made little thumbnails for you all, if you want to see the bigger ones check out our daily blog at www.coralreefphotos,com or www.wildhorizons.com
I am still trying to fight an in-coming sickness, I have a little sore throat now and had a pretty hard day at work. Have a great evening, thanks for your notes, Barry
25-9-2009
Sep 24, 09 Comments (0)
 Pillar Coral Hi my friends how is everything this fine evening?? I went to bed last night not feeling so well like a cold was coming on or something and then today was the same thing?? I did go with Aimee on a walk to the north coast with the dogs this morning but felt pretty run down the whole way. I pretty much just stayed home all day working on the computer and took a little nap but I still feel a little pre-sickness coming on? Aimee just took off for a night out with the girls and I am going to bed early with the dogs, so that’s our exciting day!!
Here’s something new for you, this is a close-up I took the other night of the side of a giant Pillar Coral! These are Stony corals, often called hard corals and are the basic building blocks of tropical coral reefs. These animals (polyps) secrete calcium carbonate to form hard cups called Corallites that provide protection for their soft delicate bodies. The yellow you see here is the calcium carbonate and all the little brown fingers with white tops are the animals or polyps, cool huh?? What’s really unique about this shot is that you can see some of the Corallites, normally with this pillar coral all you see are millions of polyps covering the whole structure.
I feel like I have a slight fever so I’m going to bed, talk to you tomorrow, Barry
24-9-2009
Sep 23, 09 Comments (0)
 Curacao Culture Days Good evening one and all. Curacao is celebrating it’s heritage and culture with a week of festivities so today all the locals dressed in appropriate clothing for the occasion. These are three of the very beautiful ladies I get to work with every day, from left to right, Kimberly, Maudiene, and Tibisaid. These girls are dressed in their native clothing from days gone by and are a true reflection of what wonderful colors and joyful spirits this island has to offer! Many of you who have been on the list a long time know by now that this country is famous for it’s award winning costumes! One of my favorite things about living here is getting to see things like this, not to mention being surrounded by lovely ladies every single day, they are as kind as they are beautiful and yet another reason for you to visit the Sea Aquarium on your next visit!!
Not much more for you tonight, I just got home and I think we are thinking about going out for dinner tonight, will be a nice change of pace. Keep those letters coming, Curacao regards, Barry
23-9-2009
Sep 22, 09 Comments (0)
 Ragged Sea Hare Good evening friends, I found something new for you all, this is a Ragged Sea Hare. These cool creatures have been showing up everywhere around the shallow waters of the Aquarium lately!? They appear to be eating machines which is good news considering our lagoons have been filled with moss and sargassum from the lack of water flow. Everyone has been telling me about these things so today I finally jumped in to see what all the talk was about. Well just like they said, they were everywhere and in all colors including white ones! I picked one up today and held it in my hands, it felt like putting your hands in a bowl of Jell-O! They move pretty fast across the sand like big slugs and breath and poop out of these two holes on their backs, I must say they are pretty cool!
Well let’s see what did we do today in Curacao?? I took off to the ocean early for a dive before conditions got any worse. My goal again was to photograph the baby Elkhorn tiles that the scientists left and try and get some progress photos for them. I did have a little better success today, I found a really good one that had lots of new coral growth and worked on shooting that one and that one only for over an hour, topside conditions made this task very difficult. Once out I jumped in again in the shallows and played with the Ragged Sea Hares for about an hour, they were just to cool. I spent the rest of the day at the house working on the computer and at 5:00 left the house for an hour and forty five minute bike ride with the local group I ride with on tuesdays now. We rode about every trail we could find and some more than once and it never seems to get boring!
That’s about it, Aimee is making dinner the dogs are resting after their evening walk and I am still cooling down from a fast paced ride. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
22-9-2009
Sep 21, 09 Comments (0)
 Lettuce Sea Slug Hey gang, I found this really beautiful ultra blue Lettuce Sea Slug the other day and thought it would be perfect for a daily photo. These blue ones are very hard to find and this may be the most colorful one I have ever found. These slugs are only around two inches in length and are not poisonous at all. They can be found just about everywhere on the reef during the day or at night but seem to like the shallows the best. The ones we have all over the aquarium are white or green, I once saw a purple one but didn’t have a camera. It’s easy to see how they get their name, it really does look like a pile of blue lettuce!
After work today Aimee and I raced to Saint Joris with the dogs! I tell you it was great to not see that giant pile of trash that was at the waters edge for once, it was all cleaned up and taken away!! We had a very short but fun walk, it’s getting dark here now close to 6:30 making our evenings now very short.
We had a very rough ocean today!! Big waves smashed the coast all day and high wind, there would have been no way you could have dove here today!! It’s off to bed, see you tomorrow, Barry
21-9-2009
SITE MAP
CategoriesArchives |
|
