Bird Rock Dive: Catalina Island

In Advanced Scuba Photo, we have two cameras, the Beast and the Mother of the Beast, Canon Rebel T2is with monster underwater housings, complete with strobes, flashes, macro and wide-angle lenses.

My partner, Ben and I were using the Beast at Bird Rock, a tiny island off Catalina, which is a fantastic dive spot.

I’ll admit, we had already been down several times and I had pretty shoddy pictures.  I wasn’t expecting anything miraculous to come of that dive.

It was the coldest morning of Session 62, the water temperature at the surface was only about 57 degrees.

But once we were down we saw the most amazing things.

The freezing water made for incredible viz, crystal clear.  The first thing I saw was a large snail suctioned onto a piece of bull kelp.

Not 20 feet away, lay a delicate maroon sea star, nestled down between two rocks.

Then there was this very flashy garibaldi that kept swimming in front of the camera.

He even came back around after I’d swum away.

I thought he had the most magnificent eyes I had ever seen.

There was a clam down near the kelp beds, and he was lovely.

I was using the macro lens so I zoomed in very close.

I found my first abalone that day too, chipped but still beautiful.

There was another star hiding in the surf grass with marvelous spotting.

The kelp itself was pretty amazing too.

It was by far the best dive of Session 62.

The Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort: Kailua-Kona

Some people go to Hawaii to tan, relax, and drink piña coladas on the beach.

Not my family.  We probably spend equal amounts of time in and out of the water.  Hawaii itself is very important to us.  My parents lived in Haena on Kauai before they adopted me.  The first vacation I remember in Kauai.  My twins sisters learned to swim in Kona and I got my dive certification there, July 2007.

Front of the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort, Kailua-Kona

Years ago my mom found this beautiful little hotel  and she and my dad went snorkeling there.  She remembered it and booked us a room at  Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort in Kailua-Kona, October of 2003.

It’s this GORGEOUS, amazing hotel right on Keauhou Bay.  There is a small snorkeling beach, as well as a little set of stairs that lead directly into the water.  The hotel includes deluxe ocean-view rooms, excellent free daily breakfast for guests, and an incredible seaside restaurant with the most spectacular view of the sunset in all of Hawaii.

View from seaside restaurant at sunset

There are lots of Hawaiian artifacts in the lobby as well as a lovely gift shop and a do-it-yourself laundry room downstairs.

The snorkeling is outrageous.  Keauhou bay is warm and clean and clear.  It is protected so there is an abundance of fish and healthy coral.  Specimens living in the Bay are impressive and lively.

There are tennis courts, a heiau and several hammocks located just to the right of the hotel as well as tide pools and a large grassy area used for events.

Hammock outside the hotel

We have spent many hours climbing on the lava rocks that protect the Bay from tidal surge, looking for fish.  Turtles flock to the hotel and can be seen swimming or sunning themselves at any hour of the day.

Turtle sunning itself in front of the hotel

Turtle swimming in Keauhou Bay

I can’t say enough about the wonderful experiences I’ve had at this place.  It is very reasonably priced and the staff are amicable.  But what makes it so special is its profound connection with nature.  The sound of the waves roll through the rooms and the smell of salt permeates the air.   Sunlight slants through the open lobby, and the warm, tropical breeze flows, uninterrupted, through the elegant green halls.

Hibiscus flower near the tennis courts

Underwater Photography

“Buoyed by water, he can fly in any direction – up, down, sideways – by merely flipping his hand. Under water, man becomes an archangel.” –Jacques Cousteau

There is nothing natural about breathing underwater.  But when SCUBA diving, the world seems to fall away.  Nothing exists but the cool blue-green and the shafts of light that pierce water.  Problems vanish and anxieties melt, swirling past in the constant tide.

One can never possibly find the words to describe diving.  The sound of bubbles, as they rush through your regulator, whirling past your ears and up to the sun, is a low, muted gurgle.  Fog coils around the corners of your mask no matter how well you defog before descent.  Everything is tinted blue and glows softly, flickering as the surface churns.  The weight of your gear is sweet, familiar, even loving.  Each fin cycle is soothing and smooth.

Existence is different down under the sea.  It is simpler and yet, electrifying.  Every sense is heightened, every sensation, magnified.  The only way to bring it back to the surface is through film.  Underwater photography is my specialty.

This summer I got my advanced SCUBA photo certification through Naui at CIMI.

If you’ve ever used a camera on land (which I’m sure most of you have) you probably know it’s difficult to get a good shot.  The lighting is always tricky, your hands might be shaking, the composition is off, your subject isn’t cooperating.  Think of all those volatile factors and then imagine that underwater.

Light exists differently beneath the surface.  Objects appear about a third larger than their actual size and some colors such as red, yellow and orange are much subtler underwater.  The water is constantly pushing and pulling you around and if you’re moving, so is your camera.  A majority of the time you cannot set up your pictures, you must simply photograph whatever presents itself to you.  There is no room instruction or preference, each shot is a gift given by the sea.  Often the subject will be hiding, moving or swimming exactly where you don’t want it to.  So I think it’s pretty clear that this kind of photography is a little tricky.

Personally, I enjoy working with macro lenses (close up) in SCUBA photo.  The amount of and control you have is greater because you can decide how much or how little you want in the shot more effectively.  Wide-angle lenses and fish-eyes are used for larger marine life; two problems with these lenses are: one, you may or may not see any big stuff.  And two, there is NO way to control how the big stuff will (or will not) pose for the shot.

Algae shots are the easiest and sometimes the most radical.  These photos are typically a point-and-click type deal.  They will turn out or they won’t.  I took this picture in 2010:

Italian Gardens, Catalina Island: 2010

Seaweed is truly a fun subject.  It’s pretty reliable and abundant.  Because of its mass and translucent leaves, it can make a shot seem more complicated than it is by creating its own dramatic lighting.  Close ups are also great:

East End Quarry, Catalina Island: 2010

See how the veins create these greenish-gold shadows?  It adds so much contrast to the amber leaves and the blue water background.  The blurry bubbles were a lucky bonus.  Underwater photography always presents something interesting and shows  completely different perspective.

Buddy shots are another area of amusement.  It’s so easy to grab your partner’s arm and point the camera at them.  If you’re fortunate, you’ll have a buddy that is willing to pose.  If the sea gods are smiling upon you, they’ll have something interesting in their hand.

My buddy Marco with a giant crab on his head

Fish are surprisingly tough to photograph.  Most are camera-shy and swim away fast.  But sometimes a school of fish will zoom by and you can capture what they look like in their day-to-day lives.

Avalon Dive Park, Catalina Island: 2010

It is important to try to avoid shooting the ocean floor.  Pretty blue water is preferable to murky, brownish sand.

A Catalina Island phenomenon is the abundance of Giant Black Sea Bass.  These massive fish are solitary, fat and did I mention HUGE.  I’m exactly five feet tall and these fish are bigger than me.  I was lucky enough to get a few shots of these mysterious and surprisingly fast, shy fish last summer.

Giant Black Sea Bass at East End Quarry, 2010

Getting up close and personal with a HUGE fish

Bass get scared, POOPS ON ME, and swims away. EPIC!

I could never swim fast enough to get a frontal shot.  But I’m so happy to have gotten the pictures I did.  Got pooped on too.  GOOD times.

Needless to say CIMI gave me some once in a lifetime opportunities to learn underwater photography and get some amazing shots.  I’m so grateful to have gone.  More on this subject later.  Until then, just keep swimming.

Paradise Pier

“Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides.” 

There is something consuming about the sea, something so compelling and wild it cannot be expressed.  Catalina Island is a magical place, surrounded by miles of clean, open ocean.  Toyon Bay is a small hidden cove, near Avalon, on Catalina and in the summertime, the sunset is visible from the beach.  And at dusk, the most enchanting place in the world is the pier.

“But when I climb up to my island peak, Escape awhile the madding world of strife, I envy not an earthly thing, this life, Which sometimes galls, is swept clean of its cares, By friendly winds, and once again I smile, Ay, truly, life seems sweet– A thing worthwhile.” –Captain Eddie Harrison

Toyon Bay pier is very old.  The wood, bleached by the sun, is stained by all manner of sea-filth.  Strings of clear fishing line are pulled taut across the weather-beaten rails to prevent birds from landing on them.  A battered wooden storage box rests tiredly against the right side of the pier, accompanied by a digital thermometer attached to the very end of the railing on the left.  There is a lifeguard chair next to the thermometer.  Covered in cracking white paint, it is wooden and overlooks the bay, facing right off the pier toward the Point; a green fabric umbrella with a faded nut-brown stand, somewhat crooked, shades the chair.  A long steel ramp slants downwards onto the float, where the boats land and cast off.

There are little holes in the planks that make up the floor; you can see down into the clear blue water and observe the myriad of fish and small sharks that swim below.  Waves churn around the stanchions that jut out of the water, resisting the thrashing, pulsing currents.  Seaweed writhes and dances around the supports in a lovely, hypnotic rhythm.

“How the sea took me, swept me back…The only sound was the roaring sea, the freezing waves…and yet my heart wanders away, my soul roams with the sea…”

The water in the bay is pure, crystalline aqua near the shore.  It deepens to a vibrant, striking turquoise as the sandy bottom falls away.  All around the pier, the water is dotted with bright orange spots, friendly garibaldi swish happily in the gently swaying amber forests that grow around the bay.  The marriage of oceanic and autumn colors is magnificent.  Leopard sharks dart in and out of view, their splotches of grayish-black color camouflages them in the shadowy surf zone.

“The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.”-Jacques Cousteau

Palm tress move gently to and fro, above the stone amphitheater.  They are quite large, even for palm trees.  Their startlingly green leaves are pointy and hang down around the trunk like a peel hangs from a banana.  Clusters of blaringly orange dates hug the trunk, high up by the leaves.  The trunk is made of rough coco-power colored bark.  Deep zig-zagging lacerations create an intricate pattern in the trees that make your eyes fuzzy if you stare too long.

“Sponges grow in the ocean. That just ‘gets’ me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn’t happen.” –Stephen Wright

The California Coast is visible from Toyon.  Most days it is shrouded in fog or smog.  Catalina is protected from bad weather by a weather pattern known as the Catalina Eddie.  But you can still see the lights on Long Beach after nightfall.  Other than the coast, there is nothing to impede the view of the sea.  It rolls on for miles and miles in every direction, vast, endless, empty, ever changing and ineffably beautiful.

Twilight at Toyon Bay is an experience of indescribable profoundness.  The intensity of color, sound, light, temperature, and emotion are overwhelming.  As the sun begins to hang lower in the sky, the world calms.  The breeze softens to and the air becomes humid, balmy and warm.  Everything seems to glow.  Waves stop pounding the shore and their bubbling gurgle turns to a low melodious his.   All the birds cease their shrieks, their voices easing into faint, sweet cries.   Laughter rings out, making the bay swell with the sound of joy, exultation.

The ocean turns from aqua to a bright, shimmering rose.  Something about the light allows blue, pink and silver to all exist in the same space.  Each color seems to simultaneously fight and compliment the others.  Glassy or turbulent, the colors are so beautiful it hurts to look at them but is excruciating to look away.  Sunlight flickers across the surface like a candle flame, fleeting and captivating.  Watching the wind catch the water and stir up rose-tinted fills me with a fierce happiness that is deep, burning and unquenchable.

Clouds gather across the horizon and speckle the sky.  They are every shade of pink; coral, magenta, rose, and salmon.  Purples also color the world, violet, lilac, and lavender, amethystine and brilliant .  Blazing orange, yellow and sienna set the sky alight.  The ocean burns with color and glitters like diamonds.

The sun sits half-mast on the horizon.   Aflame, too bright to look at yet still I stare.  A ribbon of light surrounds it, a serpent,  it seems to move across the sun, throwing off sparks and heat as it sets.

“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.” —Isak Dinesen

I cannot put into words the feelings that overtake me while standing on that pier, bathed in dusky red-gold light.  I feel torn to shreds with unspeakable happiness, in awe of the raw beauty around me.  Elation, exhilaration, rapture, exuberance, whatever it is called, it fills me over maximum capacity and makes me laugh out loud.  I cannot stop smiling or even take my mind off the jubilance that fils me.  There is just so much magnificence and splendor and exquisite perfection around me it is almost unbearable.

Some people go to church to feel peace, to feel an unbreakable connection to something bigger than them.  When I stand there in the fading light, I know exactly how it feels to have a religion.  I am enveloped in warmth and bliss I have never known anywhere else.  The sea is a mysterious and wonderful place.  It cannot be described by words, in song, with brush stoke or pencil line.  It simply is the most transcendent, alluring, unforgettable thing on earth.  And I am in the middle of all its glory, right there on paradise pier.

Everyone wishes there was a theme song for each event in his or her life.  Here’s the theme song for my favorite place:

“Island in the Sun” by Weezer

Toyon Bay is absolutely incredible.  Check out the summer camp I go to at:

Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI)