Fourth Day of Diving at Cocos Island July 3, 2016

I've decided to do separate blogs for each of the eight days of diving I had at Cocos Island on the Sea Hunter last week because the diving was so spectacular.  I learned a couple of things about trying to photograph the Scalloped Hammerheads at Cocos.  First, while I love my Tokina fisheye 10-17 mm lens all my shooting was at 17 mm because usually the sharks were not that close.  If I had it to do over I would have spent the money on a narrower lens maybe a a fixed 20 or 25 mm or a zoom that went from 20 to 35 mm or something similar. The folks at Backscatter would have given me great choices.  Second, I only have autofocus on my Canon T2-i Rebel, it normally works great for me in my Monterey and Carmel diving but I found it frequently difficult to focus on a dimly lit hammerhead with a school of small Creole fish between us and frequently focused on a small close fish rather than my intended subject....I learned to focus on a rock at an appropriate distance and then take my shot....I ended up doing ok but it was more of a struggle than I'm accustomed to.  The frequently heavily overcast skys offset the beautiful clear blue water to keep lighting a challenge.

The first dive of the day was at Submerged Rock, well known for its swim through.

                                          Large Blue Sea Star with my hand for size reference.

                              Swim through with blue and gold snapper school.

                                          Through the swim through.

      Don't forget to look up, and not just when surfacing!

                                          Leather Bass, a new species for me.

   The Three Amigos!

To see more from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6306566152452767505?authkey=CIGW3YD1hpujXw

2nd Dive: Alcyone

     We had lots of Scalloped Hammerheads at Alcyone.

                                I had an octopus for company while waiting in his garden, under the sea, for sharks.

    Lots of Hammerheads above, too.

                                         A transparent What's It swam by while I made my safety stop.

To see more from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6306560780499523121?authkey=CPL_79mGqZPgFw

Our third dive of the day was at Pajara (bird) Island.  This is frequently a macro dive but this dive was anything but macro.

                                A very large Tiger Shark came by, at least 14 ft.

                                           A pretty safety stop.

For more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6306557357838372785?authkey=CNKc_5WXwpmWWg