Underwater photos ~ Alphabe- Thursday

This week’s letter is ‘U‘ for

~ underwater photos ~

To be honest, before deciding on underwater photos, I had a pretty difficult time coming up with something that fit my travel themed Alphabe- Thursday. While there are many countries starting with the letter ‘U’, I have only traveled the USA and UK and both seemed a little broad for one post.  The fact that I am on vacation away from home i.e. no access to the bulk of my photos also does not help.

However on my old website I had a few underwater photos and videos uploaded from a vacation in Egypt and our sabbatical that we spent on Bonaire at the beginning of last year. While we were there for windsurfing, Bonaire, as part of the ABC islands, is known in the US as a diving destination and although we did not go diving, we did a lot of snorkeling. Needless to say – I wanted to take photos. But – unfortunately – not with my expensive DSLR.

On some of our snorkeling tours we took David’s GoPro Hero, primarily used for our windsurf videos, or my Nikon Coolpix P7000 point & shoot camera. Before we got there I had purchased a flexible underwater housing from Ewa Marine for it. At that point the camera was so new that I was unable to get a hard case. While the flexible housing worked and kept the camera safe, it was not very easy to handle underwater. However, considering the price difference between a flexible housing and a hard case, I would recommend the Ewa Marine one for an occasional dive or snorkel adventure. For us, I had really wished for one of the hard cases either by Ikelite or Fantasia, but both were only released a few months after we returned. However I still might get one for our next trip to Bonaire, because this is what you get to see underwater. And this is only a very tiny bit of it.

This is what you can see snorkeling the waters around Bonaire (please excuse the pixelation on the photo, it is not quite as bad in the video, but I think I will re-do the video when I get home 😉):

And this is some amazing under water life at the Red Sea, Egypt (please excuse the pixelation on the photo, you won’t see any in the video):

Thanks to Dan-O for the music: Free Royalty Free Music by DanoSongs.com

So when will you go snorkeling with your camera to take some underwater photos? To experience underwater life first hand is such a great experience! One little advice – don’t be disappointed if the photos don’t turn out as nice and colorful as you have seen it in reality. The reason is that the automatic white balance setting does not work correctly so that you either have to use a color filter on your camera lens or have to do the work later in post-processing. And that’s it for this week’s travel – underwater photos – with the letter ‘U’ – hope to see you soon again.

Why not get every new post by me into your inbox without delay? You can by subscribing (click) here. Or you can follow me on facebook, google+ and twitter if you prefer.

Jenny MatlockThis is my contribution today to round 5 of Alphabe- Thursday hosted by Jenny Matlock. If you have a moment please visit her website and check out other ‘student’s’ work and her ‘terrific tangents’.

26 thoughts on “Underwater photos ~ Alphabe- Thursday”

  1. Back in the day when I was an avid scuba diver, I tried my hand at underwater photography. I found it totally frustrating and finally gave up so I could enjoy the diving without the hassle. Nice photos and video.

    Reply
    • I hear you, Anita. I had those days, too. And my solution was to only take my camera on some of the snorkel tours, but not all. Because it is simply great to enjoy the underwater world without distraction.

      Reply
    • Thanks, Jamie! It does take a lot of practice. And believe me to every photo you see here there are probably 50 that are total crap – LOL

      Reply
  2. I think your photos are amazing. Since I don’t swim, I doubt I will ever go snorkeling, so the only underwater photos I could take would be the local aquarium. I’m glad you had such a good time, and this is a great “U” post!

    Reply
    • Oh no, Jamie, you don’t swim?! I can hardly imagine my life without ‘water’ and wished for everyone to enjoy it as much as I do… Thank you!

      Reply
    • Snorkeling is a fantastic pastime if you are in warmer waters near a reef, where there are lots of fish. It is an incredible experience. Not quite, but very much like diving without all the hassle of airtanks etc. If you ever get a chance you have to try, Debbi!

      Reply
  3. Wow. What unbelievably cool pictures!

    I’m not a big fan of being in water deeper than my little toe so it was fun to see these things vicariously (and dryly) through your post!

    Thanks for sharing your adventures!

    Your links are always fascinating!

    A+

    Reply

Leave a Reply to EG CameraGirl , CanadaCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.