Florida Keys – Metuchen U/W Divers

I was certified a few years ago as a nitrox diver. I am using nitrox but diving on air tables (in my computer). I do this to keep myself safer while diving. I am getting older and anything that I can do to make my dives safer is a good thing. I quickly found out that Florida Keys diving was different than the way we do things at home and I had to use my computer in the Nitrox mode to get adequate (for me) bottom time. This was important on our first two days of diving but it did not factor in on the third day.

On the first two days of diving, we were on a two-dive trip that left the docks around 1:00 PM. The first dive on both days was a deeper dive and the second was on a shallower reef. The problem for me was the surface interval between dives. It was normally no longer than 30 minutes. On our boat in New Jersey, we have a strict 1-1/2 hour sit time between dives. This short interval was not to my liking. It was difficult for me for another reason. On the first dive on each of the first two days, I was shooting wide angle available light using a Nikon 12-24mm lens and a Magic Filter. I did not have any strobes attached to the housing. For each of the second dives, I had to change lenses, ports and attach my two Ikelite DS-125 strobes to my housing. By the time that I made the switch, it was time to get into the water. I also had to make this switch while the boat was moving from site to site.

Day One – Dive One: USS Spiegel Grove

I have never been to the Spiegel Grove so I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was great visibility and a massive shipwreck. It was nice to be in a 1/8″ thick wetsuit instead of my drysuit. Warren and Robin lent me a pony bottle. I always use one at home and feel safer when I have one. I reached a maximum depth on the dive of 91′.

I used a Blue Water Magic Filter on my lens. To use this filter, I needed to do a custom white balance when I reached the deck of the ship. I aimed my camera at a neutral portion on the wreck and clicked the shutter for the custom white balance. I then proceeded to fire away. I used the above photo to show how well the Magic Filter works. Look at the blue colors in the divers fins. I was pleased with my results but I had to make some adjustments in Photoshop for white balance. I think that I might have not custom white balanced correctly and I had to change the white balance to “Cloudy” to get the results that I wanted. I shoot raw images underwater so I have a lot of lattitude within Adobe Camera Raw.

After I reached the deck of the ship, I swam to the bow where I took the photo above. The water temperature was a balmy 84° and the visibility was at least 50′. What a great dive.

Day One – Dive Two: Benwood Wreck

For our second dive, we went to the Benwood Wreck where I maxed out my depth at 37′. The water temperature was the same but the visibility was around 40′ but there was a surge on the bottom. I forgot to mention earlier that although the sun was shining, the seas were sloppy. It made for a real challenge while changing my camera setup between dives. This was a fun dive. I love photographing fish and there were plenty here to keep me occupied. I spent nearly an hour on the bottom and shot more than a hundred images.

There were plenty of parrotfish like this Redband Parrotfish as well as horseeye jacks, blue tangs, French grunts, schoolmaster snappers, porkfish, damselfish and trumphetfish. I had a great time during the hour that I spent on the bottom. I did find a great little barred hamlet who let me get pretty close.

I especially liked it when he opened his mouth for me.

Day Two – Dive One: USCG Cutter Duane

This was another site that I had not been to before. I ended up maxing out at 106′. I dove on most dives with my dive buddy, Joe Pakan, who also used to dive with us in New Jersey before he moved. He now lives in Florida and its good to dive with him again. At our deepest depth, Joe and I looked over the gunnel on the ship and saw a good sized bull shark swimming on the bottom. It was deeper than my Nitrox mix allowed so I just watched.

I used a Magic Filter on this dive also. This photo was taken at about 90′ or so without a strobe. Look at the colors in the divers fins and also the yellow in Warren’s pony bottle. I have to say that I love the fact that someone put the American flag on the the Duane. There was also one on the Spiegel Grove. I thought that the Duane was more picturesque that the Spiegel Grove. I believe that we had about the same visibility here as we had on the Spiegel Grove.

This is one of my reasons for loving this dive. The crow’s nest was really impressive. It must stick off the deck 30′ or so. I didn’t get right up to it but it was great to photograph. My dive time for this dive was 26 minutes so I didn’t get to see as much of here as I would have liked.

Day Two – Dive Two: Logan’s Run on Molasses Reef

Our second dive of the day was a reef that I maxed out depth at 34′. The visibility was around 30′ and the temperature was 84° F. as it was on every dive that we made during our three day trip. The bottom was surgy but I still managed to get some good photos.

One I found this little guy, I was able to shoot a lot of photos of him/her? The damselfish was protecting its territory and didn’t like me being there although it seemed to accept me after a short while. Nevertheless, a few times it bit the hairs on my hand and the first time it happened, I was a little startled because I wasn’t sure what was happening. I tried not to overstay my welcome and moved on.

Queen angelfish are great to photograph because they are so beautiful. It amazed me everyday that our world is filled with such beauty. I photographed schoolmaster snappers, a very cooperative hogfish, spotfin butterflyfish, trumphetfish, stoplight parrotfish and beautiful elephant ear sponge. I managed an hour of bottom time and it was over before I knew it.

Day Three – Dive One: Christmas Tree Cave on French Reef

Our last day was easy for me from a photography standpoint. Both dives were going to be on shallow reefs so there was no changing lenses, ports and attaching strobes. Both dives were on French Reef and I spent an hour on each dive. This was a nice dive and I had a lot of fun. I found one of the caves that this site must be named for and it was full of glassy sweepers.

It was a little difficult shooting in the cave because light levels were low but the autofocus on my Nikon D200 handled things pretty well. It was my first shoots of this species.

I think that Creolle wrasses are beautiful but they are hard to photograph because they are always on the move. I got very lucky with this one. I photographed a very cooperative trunkfish but I think that the encounter that I loved the most during this dive was with two scrawled filefish.

I found this one first and swam along with it taking photos. I really didn’t know where I was but in the shallow water, I could always surface and find the boat. While I was shooting this guy, another one came along.

Both of them were floating along with their heads facing down. I realized why there were doing this when they both dove down into the reef and started feeding in a hole in the coral. I don’t know what they were going after but it was a lot of fun watching them.

Day Three – Dive Three: Hard Bottom Cave on French Reef

I think that this was the dive that I enjoyed the most on the trip. It wasn’t far from the last site but Warren found this great school of silversides and an incredibly cooperative Nassau grouper.

When I say cooperative, I mean it. I kept moving closer and closer and the grouper didn’t seem to mind. I was in heaven.

How’s this for close. It was great!!!  I photographed my friend for awhile and I saw that it was getting to close to time to surface. When I turned away from this action, I saw a large (four feet long) fish swimming past me. I got excited. What was it?

I thought that it was a snook but I wasn’t sure as I had never seen one. I didn’t have the best lens for photographing a large fish but I did my best. Warren told me later that he found a cave that had five or six of these in it. I wish that I had found the cave but I was extremely happy to have the chance to photograph this guy. A lot of underwater photography has to do with luck and being in the right place at the right time. There were people on the dive that didn’t see the silversides or the Nassau grouper and there were things that other people saw that we missed. That is one of the things that makes diving interesting.

I photographed a lot of subjects during my three day stay. Would I go back again? After the first two days of diving, I wasn’t so sure. I was not comfortable with a deep dive, thirty minutes of sit time and then another dive. The third day of diving got me gong in the opposite direction. The answer to coming back to the Florida Keys is a definite “YES”. I am not sure that I would do the Spiegel Grove again. I liked the Duane and would probably dive it. I really liked the shallow dives because it gave me a lot of time to photograph and there certainly wasn’t a lack of subjects. I guess the real unknown when diving the Florida Keys is the same unknown that I encounter at home or when diving anywhere along the east coast of the United States and that is the weather. When you are doing a three day dive trip, you can get skunked by bad weather. I was lucky on this trip and I am thankful for that.

Many of these photos are already on my web site in the Stock Photo Gallery. I am still adding photos to my site from the trip so I will get them on soon. The Duane and Spiegel Grove are already on line.

© 2008, Herb Segars. All rights reserved.