Sund Rock 1/17/15

[Scubie Doo]

Penders and I hit Sund Rock yesterday for a couple dives. The first dive took us to the deep cloud sponges and up to the South Wall. On this dive I used my wide angle lens, and I am glad I did. I wanted to capture the cloud sponges. However, we had an unexpected encounter with a very large GPO. Here are a few shots from dive #1.













The second dive we hit the north wall. I switched to macro on this dive. We saw a free swimming wolf eel, a wolf eel on eggs, and several other cool critters. Also, the wolf eel in the pipe on the north side of the wreck is still there. It has been there for a year. Here are a few macro shots.







Here is the wolf in the pipe yesterday.


Here is the same wolfie in Jan 2014.


Good diving with you Penders and great seeing Mr. Bailey and Mr. Carter out at Sund. Have an awesome week!

[pogiguy05]

Nice pics and if you dont already know they are counting the GPO's this weekend Friday- Sunday. http://www.seattleaquarium.org/octopus-census

The viz looks awesome.

[Scubie Doo]

Nice pics and if you dont already know they are counting the GPO's this weekend Friday- Sunday. http://www.seattleaquarium.org/octopus-census

The viz looks awesome.

Thanks Jeff. Viz was a good 25'.

[LCF]

OMG, those octo photos are contest quality. I can't even decide which one I like best; the first is utterly fabulous, but my husband sharks (enviously) that the metridium is a bit blown out. My answer was, "Who's looking at the anemone?". The third one has astonishing texture and color. You must have had fun shooting those, because I sure had fun looking at them.

[YellowEye]

Very cool!
I like octo #2!!

[mpenders]

Very cool shots, Scubie!

You nailed it perfectly, breaking out the WA lens for the first dive. I might have to steal one of those to use as an avatar pic!

I recently picked up a new camera rig, jumping into the DSLR arena. Saturday at Sund Rock was my 5th and 6th dives with it, and I think I'm finally starting to get it dialed in.

We found several Decorated Warbonnets in the Cloud Sponges on the south wall.

I was shooting with a 60mm macro lens. The GPO we found out in the open on the south wall was huge. This was all I could get a picture of.

We found another GPO denned up at the base of the north wall.

Scubie found a skate egg down deep, below the north wall! Not a wonderful picture, but a pretty cool find.

Many Monterey Dorids and other cool critters were found throughout the day.

Pair of Monterey Dorids

[Scubie Doo]

Awesome work Penders. You are a quick learner. It only took a couple dives to figure your new rig out. I will trade you a Penders/octo shot for the egg casing

Btw - love the double nudibranchs and the scalyhead! Great work.

[Scubie Doo]

OMG, those octo photos are contest quality. I can't even decide which one I like best; the first is utterly fabulous, but my husband sharks (enviously) that the metridium is a bit blown out. My answer was, "Who's looking at the anemone?". The third one has astonishing texture and color. You must have had fun shooting those, because I sure had fun looking at them.

Thank you so much, I appreciate the kind words. And your husband is right, that anemone is blown out It bothered me, but I didn't want to photoshop it out. Also, my left strobe was a little strong while shooting the octo, but it was on the move and it was difficult to adjust.

[Scubie Doo]

Very cool!
I like octo #2!!

Thanks Eric. WA is such a difficult animal

[KeithBoll]

Jesse - I really like your third GPO shot. Nice green water in the background and the 3d texture of the GPO shows up very well. Well done!

[Scubie Doo]

Jesse - I really like your third GPO shot. Nice green water in the background and the 3d texture of the GPO shows up very well. Well done!

Thanks Keith. That's my favorite too

[Gdog]

Ok so I really like the 3rd GPO shot the best. I like Pender's 2nd warbonnet shot best. You guys had a couple epic dives!!

[ScubaJess]

Holy Spock those are epic shots!!!
You guys both did great!
I'm glad you had fun!! I love Sund Rock!
Looking forward to Thursday!

[LCF]

The skate egg case reminds me of a funny story from my Deep Specialty, almost ten years ago now . . . We were on our way back. The AI was trying to wind up the line we had laid, and having a bit of trouble with it. My instructor dives down to the bottom and picks up a big leaf and starts pointing to it, and waving it around like it's something exciting. I'm looking at both of them and thinking, "I must be the ONLY person down here not narced out of her gourd." It was, of course, an egg case, but I didn't know that. I just thought Tim had gone a bit nutty.

[Grateful Diver]

Wow, that octo really did come out for you guys. It was just poking a tentative tentacle out for Jody and I when we went by a bit before you guys got there. Octo encounters are always a treat ... as was seeing you guys down there on Saturday ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[YellowEye]

Nice work penders! I like your #2!
Nice find on the skate eggs... I've never found one of those...

[Tom Nic]

Awesome shots!

[pogiguy05]

Nice work penders! I like your #2!

Am I the ONLY one who got a laugh from this?

Please forgive me my inner comedian has no filter