Coral Reef Photos is an affiliate of Wild Horizons Photography, a supplier of natural history imagery since 1985.  In 2004, Barry took the plunge into underwater photography after his wife Aimee, an experienced dolphin trainer, was offered a job at the Dolphin Training Academy in Curacao.  Barry’s daily blog on coralreefphotos.com will give you a glimpse into the life of a specialist in underwater photography.  And his galleries showcase some of his favorite images.

Barry is a master scuba diver who is as comfortable under water as on land.  He has amassed an enormous inventory of pictures of common and elusive sea creatures that inhabit coral reefs of the Caribbean, mostly from Curacao and Bonaire.  Anyone who has attempted underwater photography immediately recognizes Barry’s skill, patience, and passion for the marine life he photographs. Ikelite has been one of Barry’s loyal supporters and equipment suppliers.

To see or license Barry’s underwater photos, visit www.wildhorizons.com, a stock photography library where you will find online search and purchase options. All images on the Wild Horizons® site are ready for immediate delivery as clean, color adjusted, high-resolution photo files.  You may also purchase affordable prints online.

Barry and Inca building the 2006 World Cup Course

Barry and Inca, trail masters.  Well here are the two out on the trail.  Inca is his faithful partner making sure the trail is free of any pesky lizards or hermit crabs along the way.  Barry make different sections through the years, but his tools were mostly blood, sweat, a pick, saw, clippers, rake and broom.  He said it is definitely the best way to loose weight!  You just go out and work in the hot Caribbean sun for 4 hours a day with a pick and you will find out!

Aimee and Inca in a Tide Pool

Aimee and Inca on one of our beach trips just cooling off in a tidal pool.  The North coast has some of the roughest coast line.  It is actually called “iron shore”, with fairly high cliffs completely inaccessible to get to the water.  However, once in a while there are these great “bocas” or mouths to the ocean that have small secluded beaches with some sand, shells and nice tidal pools.  Inca and I will lay down in one to cool off on any hot day.

Aimee and Tina

Aimee and Tina: it is hard to say who is more in love with whom.  The best time and memories I have with our dolphins are just like these.  It lets me just hang out in the water with them, playing and rubbing them down. I think it gives us the time and “togetherness” to really bond.  It is because of this bond that I really think of them more like family and friends than just the animals I get to work with.

happy-days

Inca at the beach! Wow, could there be a happier dog in the world?  This truly shows her love of life.  I wish we could all have this much unbridled joy!  Inca often goes “crazy” like this at our St. Joris beach area.  This time Barry brought his underwater camera setup and laid belly down in the water to get her racing by. She thought it was great fun and just ran by time after time.  She did not stop until she collapsed on the beach and Barry and I were holding our sides from laughing so hard.

Arjan and Barry

Barry and Arjan in the world cup race. This is our good friend Arjan up front with Barry hot on his tail.  These guys would ride several times a week and they would always be pushing each other to the limit. This was the non-professional portion of the race. It was in the heat of the day and ran on Barry’s trails plus there was a beach section so that the crowd could see them go by.

aimee-riding-the-calabash-trail

Aimee biking on our trail overlooking the salt pans.  This trail was used for the World cup race.  We arrived in 2004 and immediately Barry began making some bike trails for us to bike and hike with Inca.  Soon the entire sporting community was enjoying these trails.  The big “one” was the World Cup Mountain Biking Federation holding a race here on his trails in 2006!  Man, can you believe it?  His “blood and sweat” trails with the best in the world bikers riding on them.  We have been fortunate to get to meet some world class pro riders.

Aimee with Tina and Papito

Aimee, Tina and Papito.  Now for sure, Aimee is in her perfect heaven. What girl would not be in this situation?

Aimee with Papito

 The dolphins just love to be the center of attention.  They will lay out for us to hold them up and rub them down for hours.

Famous Bikers

Barry and “the biker boys”.  This is a photo of Barry with our friend Bart Brentjens (in blue shorts).  He is an Olympic gold medalist from Holland.  The guy directly between Barry and Bart is Contador, the 2007 winner of the Tour de France, the other two are team members of Contador.  Each year we have a big road race that attracts world ranked racers.  They get to ride and hang out at the beach.  It is such a low-keyed event that it is fairly easy to just walk up, visit and get autographs.  For us this is biker-heaven.  For me, hopefully one day Lance will show up!

Collecting Drifwood

Barry, Inca and Indi collecting wood at St. Joris. Well, this is how we do it! We pack water, the dogs and a backpack and hit the beach. You can see f rom Barry full pack that is has been a good day. The long plank is a winner, one we can use for shelves for some new project.