My friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs was doing a little diving in the Sea of Cortez with a group of long-time diving friends. Skip shoots primarily video, but on his trips he always takes some time out to shoot a few still photos with his Canon G10. I particularly like his sea lion shot with a school of herring and the island of Los Islotes visible in the background, so that’s the first you see below! Yes, click on it…
From Skip: I have just returned from a week in the Sea of Cortez diving with a small group of friends off a private yacht owned by a good friend of ours. Our trip was interrupted by Hurricane Rick so we spent a day in port at La Paz rather than going up to Las Animas, but we still had a great trip, even though limited to the near diving sites. The temperatures reflected el Nino effects with the water at 84 degrees, and not as clear blue as it should have been in late October. However, the reefs showed large schools of fish (various grunts, sergeant majors, Mexican goatfish, and bigeye scad), and much better numbers of leopard grouper and yellow snappers than in recent years, thanks in part to the efforts of Sea Watch and the vigilance program. We were happy to see that buoys have been placed at Los Islotes to keep small boats from approaching the main sea lion rookery. Finally!
I hope to return again next year!
Click the image above to see some of the stills that Skip captured in the Sea of Cortez this year! You can also see a sampling of Skip’s past trips.
I’m very happy to announce that our annual Guadalupe Island diving trip is on for July 2010! Skip Stubbs is once again personally leading this special trip to dive remote and unique Isla Guadalupe using the San Diego-based dive boat Horizon as our home-away-from-home. At present this trip is by invitation only (i.e., the entire boat is reserved and Skip is determining who the participants will be). If you are seriously interested in joining us, please get in touch with Skip (or me if you prefer) to discuss it. We have put together a lengthy flyer describing the trip, with links to many photos and lots of information about the island itself. Please read through the PDF brochure first, especially if you do not know anything about Guadalupe Island. You can print out if you wish (it will open in a new window):
Note: this is not a shark diving trip. This is an open water SCUBA and freediving trip designed to offer our guests opportunities to appreciate the unique inhabitants and explore the underwater scenery of Guadalupe Island. This is the only open-water diving trip to Guadalupe Island, this year (or probably ever), that we know of. The dates are July 21-29, 9 calendar days with 7 fulls days of diving and two travel days.
Keywords: Guadalupe Island, Mexico, Isla Guadalupe, scuba diving, free diving, dive boat Horizon, Baja California, San Diego.
A last piece of eye candy from Skip and Bonnie’s evening wanderings in the City of Lights. To see more great shots of Paris from their trip, click here.
 |
|
Paris, Isle de la Cite and the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral
|
Another of Skip’s nighttime views of southern France, this time of Cassis. To see more of Skip and Bonnie’s photographs from Provence, click here.
 |
|
The harborfront restaurants of the small fishing town of Cassis, near
Marseille
|
Today is the first of three guest entries from our good friend Skip Stubbs, who just returned from an extended trip to Paris and Provence. Here is a nighttime view of Aigue Mortes. To see more of Skip’s shots from Provence, click here.
 |
|
The ancient city walls of the medieval city of Aigue Mortes in the Camargue region of France
|
Skip recently spent several days with Bob and Rosie photographing sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) and snow geese (Chen caerulescens) at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. I had hoped to join them but my schedule just did not allow for it. He got some super shots, I’m pretty envious, way to go Skip! Here are two that I thought were especially nice:
Click the images above to see more of the photos that Skip scored. I have to get out there next year.
More from Skip:
Before our 12 day Ocean Rover diving trip a few of us did a custom 8-day kayaking, jungle hiking trip with Paddle Asia to Khao Sok National Park (remarkably biting insect free!) and to Phang Nga Bay. The former is a vast 165 square kilometers lake created in the jungle about 25 years ago by damming a river. We stayed at the floating bungalows seen in the photos. Dave Williams, who founded Paddle Asia, was our guide and naturalist. This was a fabulous trip and we recommend it to anyone interested in wildlife viewing, especially birds, or adventurous sightseeing. Also included are photos from the island on which we stayed at Phang Nga Bay.
During our trip we saw five species of monkeys, monitor lizards, geckos, frogs, toads, and uncountable species of birds, including great hornbills, white-bellied sea eagles, serpent eagles, and thanks to Dave, no other people during our kayak trips.
Click the image above to see some shots of the kayak trip!
This just in from my good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs, who has just returned from another of his excellent dive expeditions, this time to Thailand:
We are just back from 12 great days on the Ocean Rover out of Phuket Thailand. This liveaboard diving vessel is in my opinion, hands down, the best in the world and is owned and was designed by Jeroen Deknatel of FantaSea Divers. We had a custom trip with 6 days diving in Myanmar (Burma) sandwiched between three days on each side in Thailand. The diving was quite good, with beautiful colorful reefs with abundant fish and other life, lots of strange small critters and occasional larger animals such as mantas, zebra sharks, and whale sharks..
Timing is everything. We all witnessed mating and egglaying by reef squid and cuttlefish, and even mating octopi at various sites! Must have been the season for cephalopods. There were numerous sightings of such rare creatures as harlequin shrimp, ornate ghost pipefish, seahorses, bumblebee shrimp, frogfish, sea snakes, and mantis shrimp. Of course, I only saw mantis shrimp and sea snakes myself. There were beautiful soft corals, especially in Myanmar, and many species of nudibranchs and mollusks. Some people reported seeing over 60 nudibranchs on a single dive at 3 islets.
This boat and destination can be highly recommended for a dive trip, especially considering all of the other possible sights to see in Thailand and SE Asia.
Click the image above to see some of the stills that Skip captured on his trip!
My good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs, just returned from another great dive trip, this one dedicated to bluewater freediving offshore of Magdalena Bay (Baja California), in search of marlin, mahi mahi and other pelagics alongside Terry Maas, Derek Stavenger, Bob Jackson, Mike McGettigan and Nils Larsen. While Skip was primarily shooting underwater video, he did shoot a few neat still photos which you should check out. (Note: the shot of Skip holding a camera was taken by Terry, all other images were taken by Skip.) Wow, that water is blue, I wish I was there…
This just in from my good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs, who has just returned from another of his excellent dive expeditions, this time in Mexico’s wonderful Sea of Cortez and Cabo Pulmo.
For the past 7 years I have organized October diving trips to the Sea of Cortez departing from La Paz. It is a spectacular area to see and diving is still great despite the impact of destructive fishing practices. Seawatch’s website has a wealth of information about the fishing and its impacts in the Sea of Cortez.
One can still occasionally see whale sharks, mantas, mobulas, dolphins, and schools of cownose rays, and even killer whales are seen there. Our trip was highlighted by >2.5 hours of tolerant pilot whales near Las Animas. The sunsets are among the most beautiful anywhere I have been, even without a marguerita in hand.
Click the image above to see some of the stills that Skip captured in the Sea of Cortez this year!
This just in from my good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs, who has just returned from another of his excellent dive expeditions, this time visiting Mexico’s wonderful Sea of Cortez and Cabo Pulmo
Since 2001 we have also visited Cabo Pulmo national marine park, on the east cape of Baja at Cabo Pulmo, and stayed at Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort for land-based diving.
The park has been well protected since 1999 and it shows. Large schools of leopard grouper, huge gulf grouper, and large schools of beautifully colored reef fish, including porkfish, burrito grunts, and yellow snappers as seen in the photos. The diving is quite different from further north in the gulf, with many species not seen elsewhere. I highly recommend a visit for a few days or a week to enjoy the great place.
Click the image above to see some of the stills that Skip captured in Cabo Pulmo this year!
My good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs recently returned from his annual July visit to Guadalupe Island, Mexico. As usual, the focus of the trip was diving, spearfishing and comraderie. For those of you who do not know Skip, let it be said that he is a skilled marine videographer with a lengthy list of broadcast credits. Recently, in addition to his hours in the water shooting video freediving and on tanks, Skip has been shooting still photographs using a point-and-shoot mounted on the top of his video housing — with impressive results. It is amazing what great images a skilled diver can make with a modern point-and-shoot digital camera and good light. Impressive shots!
Skip’s images from the July 2006 Guadalupe Island diving and spearfishing trip are here.
My good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs recently returned from his annual October visit to La Paz. As usual, the focus of the trip was underwater video of the excellent schools of fish that inhabit the reefs in the Sea of Cortez. For those of you who do not know Skip, let it be said that he is a skilled marine videographer with a lengthy and growing list of broadcast credits. However, he has not been shooting still photos since the days of film. In addition to his hours in the water shooting video freediving and on tanks, on this trip Skip also spent a lot of time shooting still photographs with impressive results. It is amazing what great images a skilled diver can make with a modern digital camera and good light. Impressive shots!
Skip’s images are spread over three pages: here, here and here.
