BlackWater Round 1

^^ This little guy was about the size of my thumbnail. One of the hardest shots I’ve ever gotten, if we define “gotten” as somewhat out of focus, with the subject not exactly positioned as I’d hoped. I feel triumphant, though.

Black water diving, oh my! I’ve never done it before, but I am hooked. In mid-February of 2022, I had the chance to go on a blackwater dive in Cozumel with a very accomplished blackwater photographer by the name of Robert Stansfield (google him to see what I mean).

Blackwater dives are conducted in bottomless water, surrounded by midnight blue, with only a lighted line hanging from a buoy as a reference point, and your dive computer to tell you how deep – or shallow – you’ve drifted whilst trying to get the shot.

All the little dots in the picture are backscatter, a professional photographer term that means little gobs of gunk reflected by your strobes, that mess up your clean shot. There’s tons of that in the ocean and the lights at night are excellent at picking it up. But I like the backscatter in night dive photos; it gives the shots an ephemeral feel, as if the subjects are flying in outer space.

Did I mention they are nearly microscopic, many of them?

This next one was bigger, though, so I could actually see him with my old eyeballs and focus the camera. As compared to the other 100 shots I took which got deleted, this one is rockstar.

And finally, my favorite shot, below. It was a little too far away to be properly lighted, but the subject was super cool and positioned pretty much as I hoped. I took about twenty shots and this was the best (considering some were just water, that might not be saying a whole lot.)

Also very tiny. (I’m running out of superlatives for “tiny” so just know it was very.)

Google says that siphonophores spread out their “death nets” to catch prey. Once again I am reminded of the relief I always feel that most of the deadliest ocean critters are teensy. (Even smaller than “tiny” if you must know.) Or yours truly would never dip a toe in the water.

Here’s our siphonophore with its death net cast out. I thought he was just being unorganized, but instead, he was being deadly. (Or supremely optimistic, given that I seemed to be the only nearby prey).

I am totally hooked and I can’t wait to do it again. I never met a challenge I didn’t relish, so look out teensy underwater critters of the midnight world: the paparazzi is coming.

Oh, one last shot – took this right before we jumped in. Full moon, dark water, lighted buoy. Incredible!