Skip’s Trips

From Skip:

We had a very pleasant 9-day diving trip from Loreto to La Paz this year in mid-October. We lost one day of diving due to TS Octave, which passed right over us south of Loreto. We were tucked into a cove and only got lots of horizontal rain. We saw all the usual critters, nothing spectacular, and had nice weather conditions after the storm. Nice warm clear water, especially near La Paz. I took lots of “selfies” with my new dome port.

Click on the image for more great underwater photos!

From Skip:

I and five friends had an 8-day diving charter out of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez in early October. We had no “set your hair on fire” moments, but great weather, fabulous food and company for sharing, and good sea conditions. The largest waves we saw were 6-10 inches! We visited all of our usual places, and found a couple very good new ones (see photos), and went back to Las Animas for the first time in several years. We didn’t see much there, but had nice clear water to appreciate the beautiful setting. All in all, a very pleasant and relaxing trip. The water was unusually warm this year 84-87 degrees F everywhere, so the visibility was a little off, but we never got chilled on dives, no matter how long. I still remember this one sunset…

Click on the image for more great underwater photos!

From Skip:

We flew from Paris to Florence on May 9, picked up a rental car (EuropeCar) and headed out to the small hill towns of Umbria and Tuscany. These photos are from about 18 days there and include the following towns we stayed in or visited: Cortona, Spoleto, Bevagna, Gubbio, Assisi, Porto Santo Stefano (Monte Argentario), Orvieto, Pitigliano, Savona, and Lucca. We mostly stayed in small hotels and B&Bs and in agritourismo hotels (small hotels on working farms). We had fabulous meals but had done considerable research on places to eat before leaving. However, several times we asked hotel staff to recommend local places with ”typical food” and these usually turned out to be excellent.

Click the photo for more great images!

From Skip:

We stayed in Paris for four days sandwiching out 18 days in Italy. The main downside to this strategy is that you have to go to the Charles de Gaulle airport and back an extra time (At $90 per trip for a taxi). As we stayed on isle St. Louis we often found ourselves around Cathedral Notre Dame and took lots of photos, as you can see. On weekends there were numerous, and usually quite good, street entertainers, from musicians to circus acts, and one Russian 8 piece band (3 accordians!) near Rue des Rosiers that was off the charts. What a great city!

Click the photo for more great images!

From Skip: I jokingly suggested to Phil that I should do a blog entry titled ”Skip Stubbs in the wilds of his backyard” based on my rejected photos for this year’s nature’s best backyards contest. He said “sure, we could do that.” So here we go. All photos were taken with a Canon 180 macro, some with extension tubes, but mostly not. Click the image to see many more!

I spent a few days with my good friend Skip Stubbs at Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico. We photographed cranes and geese and enjoyed the surroundings at this bird refuge along the Rio Grande river an hour south of Albuquerque. Click the big image to see a selection of Skip’s photos from the trip:

Annette Patterson was with Skip in the Sea of Cortez recently and she shot a super group of images. Just more great photography to make me jealous I was not on the trip! Click to see more…

Once again my friend Skip Stubbs has been diving in the Sea of Cortez with his pals. It seems like that’s all he does! This time he was shooting underwater panoramas (in addition to his usual video) Yes, the same multiple-image stitched panoramas that all of us are shooting these days, only he made his underwater. Click to see more!

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.

My good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs recently returned another trip to Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Skip shot some nice still photographs in addition to his usual video footage. They make me long to be back down at the island again. Skip comments:

After an unfortunate 4 year hiatus, we got back to my favorite place for 7 more days of exploration of the underwater scenery and creatures around this fantastic island on the San Diego dive boat Horizon. We had a very nice group of folks from California, Washington state and Illinois, including the three top officers of Alacosta divers, the oldest dive club in the bay area, but we missed having Phil along. We had good looks at bottlenose, tuna, and the ever present wonderful Guadalupe furseals during our diving.

I spent most of my time concentrating on video, but did manage a few acceptable still photographs while underwater. This was the first time I took my topside camera and I really had a great time attempting to capture topside images. It was great to get back and see all my furred and other friends, and we plan to return in July next year. Can’t wait.

Skip’s images from the July 2010 Guadalupe Island diving trip are here.

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.