Coral Reef Photos » Friends + Family

Pay it Foward Stories, Helping Hand, Friendship

barry — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:20:25 +0000

Good morning friends, meet our buddy Juan. His real name is Juan Guillermo Palomeque Padilla and he is one of the nicest people we have met here in Curacao. We see him every week because he is the man who bags and carries our groceries out to the car at a little store called Vreugdenhil which is very close to our house. Juan has been here for 11 years but his family lives in Paraquilla, Columbia and in those 11 years he has only been home to see his wife and daughter 7 times because flying is so expensive! He communicates with his wife Sofia and his daughter Jessica via the telephone which as you can imagine can be very costly as well! So a week ago with the help of a translator I told Juan that Saturday morning at 8:30 I am taking you to the airport to get you a ticket to go home! He immediately started to cry and broke down saying “May God Bless You” and so on and so forth and I replied “he already has”. I explained to him via my human translator that so many folks have helped us in so many ways and for once we are able to help you. So yesterday Stijn went with us to the airport to help with the Spanish/Papiamento translation, I would say something in English and Stijn would translate and then write it down for me in a book so I didn’t forget. We marched Juan into the Avianca Airlines counter and said “one to Columbia please” and within minutes he was the proud owner of a ticket home! We didn’t pay for this alone, our friends Ron and Aubrey left $100 for him when they were here and Sal and Patty left some $ behind that went to this cause as well so thank you all again! The ticket only cost around $500 but for Juan would take a year to save. He made the reservation for the whole month of June as he wants to be there for his wife’s birthday. He told us yesterday that his family will pick him up from the airport and then it’s about a 45 minute drive to Paraquilla where he lives. Juan left Columbia because of the violence and good jobs are very difficult to find. I believe he sends money home to his family every month via Western Union or the bank and is planning on working here for just two more years before heading back home. Like many locals or visitors he walks everywhere or takes the bus and lives entirely on tips, he does not get an hourly wage. I’m considered a big tipper here in Curacao, I give Juan or the others 5 Guilders every time they pack up our food and haul it out to the car, that’s around $2.30. So like I told Juan yesterday, “we are all in this rat race together so why not try to help someone out if you can?” Again I can’t even begin to tell you how many folks have helped us along the way and like my aunt Shari once told us after bailing us out of a jam, “Just Pay it Forward down the road”!

After the airport adventure and returning him back to the store Stijn and I took off at top speed headed to Mount Christoffel where we spent the whole day climbing and taking photos, you have a week of those photos to come!

Aimee is off to do a swimming race and I am walking the dogs and doing two dives today! Have a wonderful Sunday!!

Barry

Happy Birthday in Sea Glass to my Mom Joy!!!

barry — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:18:06 +0000

Good evening one and all, we are back! Our internet has been down and out at home for the past four days but finally we got it fixed again!

So tomorrow is my Mom’s Birthday and in honor of this fine day I assembled a beach glass collage just for her!! Her name is JOY in case you didn’t get that and she lives in Arizona and yes that’s a long ways away from Curacao but thankfully we have the internet! I have told many of you before that if it wasn’t for my mom buying and teaching Aimee and I how to use a computer in the first place we may still be in the stone ages! Before she bought us our first computer (for our wedding) we knew nothing about them and were very much intimidated by the thought of even having one in the house! But like a good mom, she helped us set it up and for the next year or more was there every second we had a question or a problem! So in reality you all can thank my mom for the blog every day, without her I would be sending you daily smoke signals from the Caribbean!

Have a wonderful Birthday Mommacita, we miss you very much!

Barry and Aimee

Wendy Beekhuizen the Evil Queen, Happy Halloween

barry — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:47:44 +0000

Good evening friends, I have a cute Halloween “Evil Queen” for you all tonight. This is Wendy, our new Substation Intern who is here from Holland and this is her fun/sexy outfit she wore to lasts nights Halloween party at Mambo Beach. We met last night before she went out and took some pictures of her at the old 1700′s castle at Caracas Bay, it seemed to fit her costume perfectly. Wendy is 20 years old, single and is a fabulous artist! Back in Holland she draws peoples faces for some extra cash and let me tell you her drawings are great, here is her website www.wendybeekhuizen.nl She is currently working in Adobe Illustrator designing all kinds of Substation flyers and banners and so far all her creative collages have been a big hit! One of my favorite things about Wendy is her dark hair and freckles, most of the Dutch girls around here are blond with blue eyes and all look the same so she is a nice change of scenery. So guys don’t ever say I never sent you any sexy photos!!

Have a safe and fun Halloween, later, Barry

Flower Birthday Cards, Happy Birthday, Curacao

barry — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:14:16 +0000

First off this evening Aimee and I want to wish my mother who lives in Arizona a big Wonderful Happy Birthday!! Like many of you out there I have a fantastic momma who manages to do so much for us even though we are oceans apart! In a big round-a-bout way my mom is responsible for you all getting these daily e-mails every day because she bought Aimee and I and taught us how to use our first computer. I can still remember how reluctant we both were to actually own a computer let alone try and work one but with her step by step instruction it was a breeze! So momma we all thank-you very much and I think I speak for everyone on the list, have a wonderful, fantastic, restful, superb, joyous Happy Birthday!!

Well lets see it rained again today, yeah nothing new there, I tell all the tourists now “Welcome to the Jungle”! I did go on a dive but the visibility was terrible due to all of Curacao flowing into the sea! I spent the whole dive using my hand as a fan and blowing off layers of silt and sand off everything, the poor reef is such a mess! After the dive I walked around trying to get some photos of two Ospreys that are now in our area, they are so cool to watch!

That’s what’s going on here, sorry nothing to exciting! Be back tomorrow, Barry

Dutch Royal Prince, Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima

barry — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:45:39 +0000

Good evening friends, what a day!! I was out walking the dogs this morning when work called saying we have some VIP’s arriving in an hour, so I raced home, cleaned up and got to work ASAP. Our guests were none other than the Dutch Royal Prince, Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima, cool huh? Our friend Tone of the Avila Hotel suggested to them before they came to Curacao that a sub ride might be something they would enjoy and at 1:00am they called her and said “make it happen”! They arrived under the shadow of heavy security at around 9:30 and by 10:00 we had them in the sub and on their way. Today I was joined by our friend Tone on my photo dive, we thought it would be great for her to see her friends underwater in the sub and get to go with me on a short dive. The first thing we did was take photos of the sub parked in front of a wall of fish that were going crazy eating the chum we had put out earlier. After that the sub followed Tone and I to a selected section of the reef and we did photos there for just a few minutes and then we all dropped down to about 100 feet. After taking my last pictures of the Royal Family smiling in the sub we all waved good-by and sub disappeared. So since we were at 100 feet why not play around a little! Tone swam over this giant Orange Elephant Ear sponge and I snapped away, she looked like a sky-diver! One would think she has done this before, can anyone say “underwater model”?? The sub was gone for over an hour and upon their return we all greeted them as they exited the sub, I of course took photos. I must say they both seem like very nice people, it was a joy to have them with us today and of course we hope they return on their next trip. Unfortunately I am unable to send you any photos as we are not able to use them at this time.

Aimee was home sick again all day, I did go to the glass beach for an hour but that’s about it, “POOF” the weekend is gone! See you tomorrow, Barry

Cowboy Roping Horses, Western Round-Up

barry — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:32:47 +0000

Good morning friends, by request this morning I have another Western type photo for you all from the ranch we are staying on here in Wyoming. This is Danny again except this time in high pursuit of a herd of beautiful horses. The goal here was to round up this group of horses that had been freely roaming the prairie and drive them into the stalls at the ranch. Danny had told me before we went out “be ready for anything” and he was right! As I watched from a safe distance Danny took off at high speed across the sagebrush covered prairie in a cloud of dust heading straight towards the herd of wandering horses. Once there, he started rounding them up one by one into a group with the help of his faithful dog and within seconds was on his way back towards me. I kid you not when I say the ground was shaking and at times all you could see was Danny riding behind the herd in a cloud of dust! If even I felt like I was in a real live Western movie it was then, you could feel the excitement in the air. I ran around with camera in hand trying my best to not get run over and try to get a good shot at the same time, not an easy thing to do but boy was it ever fun to watch.

We had another fun day yesterday out hiking and taking photos. Aimee and I found some great stuff again and we can hardly wait to show it to our friends in the business and assorted researchers.

Aimee just left to help round up cattle on horse-back and I am going collecting, hope all is well, see you tomorrow, Barry

Western Cowboys, Modern Cowboys, Wild West

barry — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:18:16 +0000

Good morning from Wyoming. Here’s a photo for my Dutch girls in Curacao who asked me before I left for a photo of a real live Western Cowboy! This is Danny “and girls he is single” who works daily from sun-up to sun-down as a cowboy out here on the ranch. Yesterday I got to watch as he (by himself) rode out on horse-back and rounded up a herd of horses out on the prairie. It was like watching a live Western film except with flying dust, the sound of thundering hoofs and Danny swinging his lasso over his head, it was great! He told me this is a great roping horse, I am guessing that’s because the horse is used to running fast and having Danny swinging that rope over it’s head all the time. He stopped here to demonstrate just how a lasso is used, and folks let me tell you these guys are good with a rope! In the next few days the boys are rounding up cattle and I will most likely go out and watch and I think Aimee will be joining them tomorrow to help as she is a pretty good rider unlike me.

Yesterday was beautiful here, still in the 80′s during the day! Aimee and I spent all day out in the field collecting ammonites and we did pretty well. My dear wife found something that looks like a seed from a prehistoric 130 million year old tree, it’s super cool, she found it sealed inside a big rock ball that she cracked open. While out hiking yesterday we found countless horned-toads of every size and saw beautiful butterflies throughout the day and I even found a crazy colored beetle that of course I had to shoot. Today will be a repeat of yesterday, can hardly wait.

Hope all is well, if you need to contact me or Aimee send a note to; barry@coralreefphotos.com

See you soon, Barry

Barry Brown Photographing Salt Crystals in Curacao

barry — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:03:03 +0000

Barry B Brown

Hello all, by overwhelming request tonight I have a photo of yours truly doing what I love to do most, take photos!! I get so many requests asking for a picture of me than of anything else but it’s one of those things that just never happens as I am usually always by myself. This was taken a few weeks ago when I sent you the photo of the funny face made out of tires, remember?? The photo was taken by Loet one of our new interns from Holland who works with me at the Dolphin Academy. I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was to get onto that big tire without getting wet and muddy. If you step into that water you will sink in up to your knees, it’s like quick-sand except this is salty black mud underneath and the salty water will burn your skin like an acid! The tire I am shooting is encased in solid salt crystals and made such a great photo, the problem was how to get close to it?? I will send you the actual photo tomorrow so you can see what I was looking at. This area is now again underwater from the last rain and the crystals are all gone but will return in our next long dry spell.

I did a dive out on the reef today trying to teach the interns a little about underwater photography but what they learned was one needs to learn to dive before trying to take photos underwater.

That’s it, dinner is calling, see you tomorrow, Barry

Our Friend Emily Riding the Dolphin Express

barry — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:25:09 +0000

Emily

Good morning all. I always try and send photos of those who are staying with us and the things they are doing which brings us to your photo of the day taken by our friend Michelle. This is Emily who by the way is now back home taking a little ride on the dolphin express! Emily stayed with us for five weeks volunteering at the Sea Aquarium. Each day she went in with Aimee and helped out with what ever needed to be done no questions asked and like many others gave up her little bit of free time to help the stranded whale. Her parents came here as well for a week, we didn’t seem to get to do very much with them as we were just so busy but I think they had a great time just the same. She got to do her first dive ever a few days ago with the stingrays, sharks and turtles and then a dive with Aimee and her dolphins, it was kind of a tiny payback for all the help. We really enjoyed having her stay with us and wished she could have stayed longer but with a bright future ahead as a Vetenarian she still has lots to do. So once again Emily thanks again for everything, your one in a million and will be missed!

As I type this out Aimee is still over at the whale, she left at 3:30 in the morning!! I worked yesterday and went for a fast 17 mile bike ride after. There is a race on Sunday but not sure yet if I will join, again it’s a mountain bike race with half of it on the road, not much fun!

Have a great day everyone and thanks for the comments you all are great people! Barry

12-8-2009

Beautiful Bride Weds in Curacao

barry — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:50:06 +0000

Beautiful Bride

Good evening gang, I already received a bunch of mail wanting a wedding photo so here you go. This is Sorayda. Some of you on the list may remember this name and face (how could you forget) from a photo I took of her a while back holding a starfish in her bikini in the waters at Baya. I work with Sorayda and her brother Kenji and have even been night diving with her father, to say they have a super family is an understatement! As you can imagine or may have guessed she is a model and has been on the cover of countless covers. Her new husband Ryan is quite the lucky man I am sure hearts are breaking all over Curacao as word travels she is now off the market! The wedding was held at the historic 1800′s Ascension Landhouse located on the north coast. I am not a big wedding fan but this was really fun, much like my friend Dave’s wedding I went to a while back in the States. They had a short wedding ceremony followed by great food and drinks and then her brother Kenji cranked up the jams and the party was on! I ended up shooting for six hours until finally my feet and back had enough and then ever so quietly disappeared into the night for a long drive back home. So congratulations once again Sorayda and Ryan you two make a beautiful pair!

I again had to drag myself to work from complete exhaustion and to make things worse it was another crazy busy day!! I am planning on going diving one more time tonight to see if there is any spawning, I heard it wasn’t that great last night.

Have to get moving, need more coffee, Barry

10-8-2009