Cuba is such an intriguing country. Thanks to its economic situation, Cuban reefs are exposed to less environmental stress than others in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, active protection of some of the marine reserves ensures an abundance of large species unseen else in the Caribbean.
I can’t wait to visit Cuba again in March 2020!
Check the planned trips in my blog.
We encountererd the moon jellyfish on most of the dives in the Jardines de la Reina. They may seem to be the most mundane subject until the low rising sun paints them with spectacular rainbows.
Groupers accompanied us on most dives at Jardines de la Reina. They usually yawn to display territorial behaviour. We photographed them coming to our dome ports without a single yawn. I captured three instances of yawning in a distance of circa one meter away. This one was the most dramatic, with the evil eye looking straight at me.
I saw Peter Brendt photographing this blenny in a piece of accessible coral. When Peter finished and I set the camera for maximum magnification with the Nauticam Super Macro Converter, I realised that this blenny actively stalks pieces of organic matter floating around. I had another three images with his eyes rolling and beaming at various pieces of fluff. I loved its expression on this image but unfortuntaly captured the frame without the floating subject. The plankton, therefore, comes from a different frame to give the blenny a reason to turn its eyes up. These blennies grow to diameter of 2-3 mm (0.1 in) and I worked with hair-thin depth of field (area of sharpness) so I was surprised to see some of the floating matter in the images at all.
The largest giant barrel sponges grow to height of two metres (6 feet) and are probably more than 2000 years old. The one photographed here (4 feet or 120 cm) can be circa 200 years old. They are common in the Jardines de la Reina and I thought a simple approach will be most suitable. I tried to illuminate the sponge without the light spilling over on the reef around it. Thank you, Peter, for being such a great model.
This spinyhead blenny found rather a fitting home for itself. Being loyal to the idea of the Cuban Revolution and clearly expressing its opinions, it could not find a coral or a sponge with a better colouration. Indeed, I am joking. However, the red sponge forms a brilliant background for the image. The sponge was growing low above the reef, on an old stick of coral, so I was able to get a two-finger-grip with my left hand and rest the camera with the Sigma 150 mm macro lens and the Nauticam Super Macro Converter on my left forearm to stabilize it. Stability was essential because these little buggers measure about 2-3 mm (0.1 in) in diameter.
There were three moments at Jardines de la Reina when I got really excited. I mean that mix of excitement and fear, when you feel intensively alive: one was when Nick More found a massive goliath grouper. The fish was good two metres (six feet) long and one metre (three feet) in diameter. It was not happy seeing us and started to make a loud thumping sound resembling an underwater explosion. Second one was being in the frenzy of five 2-2.5 metres (6.5-8 feet) long silky sharks when a wave rocked our boat on the surface. The boat hit the shark underneath and the shark pushed me with its body and its tail at least half a metre deeper. And lastly realising that there are two crocodiles in the water rather than just one… I feel reasonably comfortable with one croc. Clad in black I pretend to be a carrot and generally something the croc should not be interested in. No flapping hands, just slow moves, all tucked in and neat, camera with a massive dome port in front of me. This changes when there are two crocs in the water. The diving mask allows for only a narrow angle of view. And who knows what jaws and teeth lurk behind you. The title is a paraphrase of a song from the TV series How I Met Your Mother – “Two Beavers Are Better Than One”. It came to my mind when Alex Mustard said that it is nice to have a photograph of a crocodile. But having two crocodiles in one image is outright greedy! 🙂
04–13 November 2019
Enjoy world-class diving with Josef Litt to encounter hammerheads and whale sharks at Wolf and Darwin Island, and also marine iguanas at Fernandina. Seven nights aboard the economy-class yacht Pingüino Explorer. Includes flights from Prague or a nearby airport.
Price: 135,000 Kč (approx. £4,700)
I look forward to going to the enchanted archipelago again in the next few days, hoping for extraordinary encounters with the spectacular fauna of Galapagos.
Watch this space, new imagery coming soon!
In the meantime, check the stories from the islands in my blog.
This little cove was home to at least eight turtles. For years I wanted to take a split image of a turtle breathing on the surface. I followed this massive friend around for about half an hour. I missed two opportunities and got the shot at the “third breath”. This turtle was the big boss in the pond because it demonstrated a territorial behaviour towards the smaller turtles. The visibility was rubbish, so the photos are not great. However, I’ve got them if anybody needs them.
This bird followed me for some time, very interested in what I do snorkelling around with that big black box.
The Panamic cushion stars (Pentaceraster cumingi) are indigenous and common in the shallow waters around central and southern islands of the Galápagos archipelago. I mean they were everywhere. It was not that difficult to find them in a pleasing formation on the Day 1 when we dove alongside Islota Mosquera between North Seymour and Baltra.
The Landslide appeared to be our most popular dive site at the Wolf Island. We usually checked the Eagle rays and then continued to the hammerheads enjoying the ripping current. Unfortunately, the breathtaking scenery was ruined by a thermocline which blurred the view and renders the images unusable. I descended beyond the edge of a sloping wall to approximately 25 metres to get deeper below the thermocline and to capture enough of the hammerheads without the blur.
It was getting late. When the sun gets low above the horizon and the wind makes the surface choppy, the light does not have much chance to penetrate the water. Only four of was (I think Damien, Theresa, Nadya) out of usual seven were up for this dive. Shortly after negative entry, we encountered a big school of jacks. My three buddies went to check them out. I felt the low light would not suit a good picture. I stuck with our dive guide Juan Carlos and gave the others a few moments with the Jacks. As it took some time Juan Carlos and I moved closer to the reef to find a good spot for watching the hammerheads. And they arrived. One, two, five, eight, fifty… There were moments I did not know where to turn my camera as they were everywhere. Over my head. From left. Right. Behind my back. I just screamed through the regulator when I thought I got a shot. This took good fifty minutes, then a nudge to the shoulder scared me to death. Hammerhead? No, Juan Carlos reminds me it is time to go up. My buddies were already on the boat. It turned out that they were swept by current as they took pictures of the jacks and they had to resurface after nine minutes as the current carried them into the dangeous rocky area (deadly Sector #1). Thanks to all of them for spending almost an hour on the boat waiting for the two of us. Juan Carlos and I were extatic, the three were tired and longing to go back to the boat. Juan Carlos called this the dive of the year so far. I do not have such an experience to compare but it certainly was mental!
The Secret Cave at the Wolf Island is formed by a partially submerged lava tube. A lava tube is a natural conduit formed by flowing lava which moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. The entrance into the Secret cave is submerged as is the majority of the cave. There are two pockets of air in the Secret Cave. The smaller one – a dome with a diameter of perhaps 2 metres and then a large one, which feels like a proper underground hall within a cave. The large hall serves as a kind of sanctuary for sealions. They find a relaxingly cool place inside away from annoying flies. Our guide Solon assumed the role of a model and he managed to strike this beautiful pose at the entrance, after good five minutes of moving around without breathing.
I spent the last two days waiting for the right opportunity to photograph the spotted eagle rays at the Wolf Island. They love to glide in the current away from the reef and back again in an effortless move. If treated with the respect they will happily hang above divers’ heads for few moments. It took them 6 dives with us before one of them assumed the bomb-deployment position above my head. This image is special to me. I took a very similar photograph on the same place five years ago and that picture made it to a double-page spread in a national diving magazine. Although the eyes of the eagle ray were blurry because I had the aperture way too opened. Believe me, I was determined not to make the same mistake again. With f/19 the eye is pin-sharp!
As soon as we arrived to the Darwin island we were astonished by its life teaming waters. Dolphins played around the boat and we saw an occasional breach of a whale from a small pod of what we thought were pilot whales. After the second dive, we convinced our skipper to take us snorkelling with the pod. We tried to quietly slide into the water from the zodiac. The pod has some baby whales amongst themselves so they were quite vary. The males came closer to us showing their size, standing upright in the water and blowing bubbles. Time to get back into the boat. When I looked closer on the images I believe these were no pilot whales, I guess these are False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens).
04–13 November 2019
Enjoy world-class diving with Josef Litt to encounter hammerheads and whale sharks at Wolf and Darwin Island, and also marine iguanas at Fernandina. Seven nights aboard the economy-class yacht Pingüino Explorer. Includes flights from Prague or a nearby airport.
Price: 135,000 Kč (approx. £4,700)
It is time to give farewell to my beloved underwater photography kit. I upgraded to full-frame some time ago and used this only as a backup.
It was never flooded. All components for macro and wide-angle are in. Insert fresh AA batteries into strobes and you are ready to go.
The set comes in a sturdy Pelican case, allowed as a hand-luggage on most airlines.
What is included?
All for only £2,990.
Most of the photographs on this website have been taken with this equipment.
These things also need to go:
What are you waiting for?
Diving Palau, the archipelago full of mushroom-like islets covered with lush vegetation above the water and stunning coral reef underwater, was on my bucket list since I started to dive. Finally, we made the dream came true with All4Dive, our favourite dive club from Prague in the Czech Republic.
As a preparation, I made a list of animals I’d like to encounter and places I’d want to visit. Mantas, sharks, nautilus, aeroplane wrecks, the Chandelier cave and the Jellyfish lake, belong to the unmissable attractions. The chains of islands itself are a spectacular view, best enjoyed from the air.
I could have hardly seen all this beauty during one week of liveaboard diving. Also, the weather was not the best during our trip and caused some lousy visibility at the beginning of the journey. We saw mantas, but I did not have a good enough photographic opportunity to capture their majesty.
Despite the weather, we had a great time aboard Ocean Hunter III, and I was able to bring back some images. There are so many aspects of Palau we did not explore. We will be back and report.
In the meantime, enjoy the pictures from the last trip.
A pair of pink skunk clownfish in the safety of their host anemone.
Look at the green colour of the whip coral.
Strong current hits the Blue Corner dive spot and draws in pelagics.
It is a bliss to release your dive buddy as a hot air balloon. 😉
We found Palawian turtles on almost every dive.
This turtle was quite comfortable, contrary to its expression.
Some of the coral growths were truly impressive.
I encountered this flatworm swimming in free water in the night. It took good 10 meters of depth before it settled back on the wall.
I wanted to get a “cover page style” photograph including an interaction between a diver and a subject.
A juvenile pink skunk clownfish hiding amongst the anemone’s tentacles.
I pretended to take something out of my imaginary trouser pocket to attract the attention of this curious Napoleon wrasse. No surprise my diving buddies accused me of being indecent while taking photographs… ???
…and beautiful.
The increasing salinity combined with the effects of El Niño seems to be the reason for the population collapse of non-stinging jellyfish in the Jellyfish Lake at Palau. The authorities closed the lake for tourists to help its recovery. After a break, the conditions had improved, and the jellyfish started to return. However, the jellyfish numbers are minimal in comparison with the situation in 1999, when estimated twenty million jellyfish swam in the lake.
Japanese Aichi E13A long range reconnoissance seaplane, named JAKE by the allies. Kinda wrecked…
Allegedly, the Chandelier cave hosts a geocache.
We all had tremendous fun. Join me on my next adventure.
04–13 November 2019
Enjoy world-class diving with Josef Litt to encounter hammerheads and whale sharks at Wolf and Darwin Island, and also marine iguanas at Fernandina. Seven nights aboard the economy-class yacht Pingüino Explorer. Includes flights from Prague or a nearby airport.
Price: 135,000 Kč (approx. £4,700)
The foam indicates that this crab will begin to shed its exoskeleton soon.
Swallow-tailed gulls spend most of their life flying and hunting over the open ocean. The main breeding location is the rocky shores and cliffs of the eastern Galapagos islands where the water is warmer.
The pups in the rock pools of James Bay at Santiago were particularly playful. This one indulged in Zen-like floating pose and snored.
Its giant pouched bill and enormous size (4 feet long with a 6.5-foot wingspan) make this bird immediately recognizable. As such, it is usually the earliest bird identified by visitors. Nesting year-round on most islands, they are usually brown, but adults develop bright white and chestnut head and neck markings throughout the breeding season.
Galapagos sea lions breed from May through to January. Because of this prolonged breeding season and the extensive care required by the pups from their mother, there are dependent pups in the colonies year round.
The red-footed booby comes in a confusing array of color morphs, ranging from individuals that are all white except for blackish on the wing, to individuals that are entirely dark brown. Some birds fail to fit neatly into any of the typical color morph categories, and many variations exist. Color morphs do not segregate; individuals representing several morphs breed in a single colony.
The crabs and marine iguanas live in a symbiotic relationship. The iguanas welcome that the crabs feed on their old skin.
Most of the scuba diving trips to Darwin and Wolf stop by at Seymour Norte, an extraordinary place for breeding birds, home to one of the largest populations of nesting blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds.
I found this Galapagos green turtle while snorkelling at Punta Vicente Roca. The visibility was poor due to the sandy bottom and the green algae in the cold water.
The limelight may have been stolen by Darwin’s more famous finches, but it was the mockingbirds of the Galapagos that had the greatest early influence on his theory of Natural Selection.
These birds were busy with courting and they did not care about me taking scandalous pictures of their intercourse. The action was so hectic though, that I did not manage to take a single good picture when they were frantically on it. Only when they rested I was able to document their relationship.
The youngest and volcanically most active island, Fernandina, hosts one of the largest colonies of marine iguanas in Galapagos.
04–13 November 2019
Enjoy world-class diving with Josef Litt to encounter hammerheads and whale sharks at Wolf and Darwin Island, and also marine iguanas at Fernandina. Seven nights aboard the economy-class yacht Pingüino Explorer. Includes flights from Prague or a nearby airport.
Price: 135,000 Kč (approx. £4,700)
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