My tenth (!), and final blog from my 10 days of Critterfest, Jan 20 - Jan 29, and Blackwater Safari, Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2024

This is my tenth and last blog for 17 great days of diving, 55 dives at Crystal Blue Resort (divecbr.com), Anilao, Philippines. Crystal Blue Resort is really well set up for underwater photographers. Everyone gets their own station in the camera room, it makes setting up your camera really convenient and easy. Below:

Above: Aaron readies his camera Mike Bartick, Crystal Blue Resort's camera pro, is quick to help and has a wide range of camera gear to help you try something different in your photography, below:

I managed to finally select my 50 favorite photos (favorite means just that, not necessarily my 50 best, subject is 70% of the score for me), don't worry, all 50 won't be in the blog, to see all 50, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/W12m1s2tpZ2RyRzKA I love cephalopods (octopus, squids, cuttlefish, Chambered nautilus, Argonauts). I'll start with a photo of an extremeley well camouflaged octopus, it's astonishing how quickly they can match their surroundings and disappear, and a second, zoomed in on the head copy of the photo, below:

I've photographed the wonderful adult Wunderpus in the past. I was thrilled with the encounter with a juvenile Wunderpus on my first blackwater dive of the trip, the first night of Blackwater Safari week, below:

Above, I also shot this beautiful Delta Squid on the first night of Blackwater Safari week. I had a couple encounters with wonderful Flamboyant Cuttlefish during Critterfest, below is one:

Finishing up Cephalopods, I encountered lots of both Female Argonauts (shelled, frequently called Paper Nautilus but they are not true nautilus) and male Argonauts. Below:

Above: I startled this female Argonaut and she squirted a cloud of ink. I had my best photo opportunities with Mantis Shrimp I've ever had, both during Critterfest and during Blackwater Safari, below are a couple, a Peacock Mantis Shrimp with eggs and a larval Tiger Mantis Shrimp in blackwater:

I saw and photographed far far far more wonderful shrimp of many species on these dives. Here's three favorites, the first are a pair of Coleman Shrimp on a Fire Urchen, below:

Above: Pair of Emperor Shrimp riding a Sea Cucumber Below: A beautiful transparent shrimp with eggs on hydroids

Below: This was my first time to see and attempt to photograph Spiny Tiger Shrimp. My wonderful dive buddy and excellent photographer, Audrey, warned me that getting a photo where you can actually make our both of the shrimp's eyes, in focus, amid all the other complex structures on the shrimp's head, is very difficult. Yep, truer words....I almost pulled it off...

Finally, my favorite shrimp photo, of magical, nearly invisible to the naked eye, Skeleton Shrimp. You might note their resemblence to some extraterrestrial aliens in the wonderful movie "Men in Black". Below, check out their red eyes! I'd of never shot these without Jhomo finding them and insisting I shoot the "noseeems":

Continuing with Crustaceans, below are some of my favorite crab photos. First, a fantastic anemone wearing Decorator Crab, a beautiful filter feeding (look closely) Porcelain crab sheltering in its sea anemone, and a Zebra Crab sheltering on a Fire Urchin.

Above, I saw many picturesque hermit crabs, this is one of them. Below: A final crustacean, a wonderful hairy squat lobster sheltering on a sponge:

I've heard of Bobbit Worms for years, and have seen photos and videos of them taken by friends and in marine life shows, for years. On a night dive at "The Wharf" or was it called "The Jetty", I finally got to actually see, spend time with, and photo a Bobbit Worm. The worm was amazingly active and aggressive, Jhomo waved his standoff stick over the worm and it shot out of its burrow a foot or so to strike at it! Wish I'd been shooting video as well as stills. Finally, I got to photo a long sought subject, check out its slicing pinchers/jaws that can instantly cut a small fish in half, below:

Finally, moving on to Nudibranchs, I've never seen so many wonderful nudibranchs on other dive trips to match the quantity and variety I saw and photographed on this trip. Below are two of my favorites, pair of nudibranchs mating, joined by a "docking port". Below:

This nudibranch looks otherworldly to me, below:

There were so many amazing fish to photograph. I've seen and photographed innumerable adorable Anemonefish over the years, but I love this photograph of an Anemonefish tending its well developed, close to hatching eggs and the closeup of the babies with their prominent eyes. Below:

I remember reading about shy, disappearing in the sand Garden Eels when reading my first books by the wonderful Jacque Cousteau, "The Silent World" and "The Living Sea" which lead me to decide to take up diving and started saving to pay for scuba gear and lessons right after I finished the books. Finally getting certified and my first tank and regulator in 1967 when I was 13. After seeing Garden Eels for many years, starting with my Honeymood with Donna to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman in 1978, I finally chanced on some right where I needed to stop for my safety stop, in sight of our dive panga, so I was able to park close enough and wait long enough for the shy Spotted Garden Eel to emerge far enough for this photo. 46 years, but who's counting? Below:

So many amazing species of fish, Frogfish of many types the most, by far I've seen on any dive trip, Seahorses (the most I've ever seen on a dive trip, by far), many kinds of Pipefish, Ribbon eels (I'll never forget the first time I saw one in a marine aquarium and learned it was from the Philippines, shortly after I started scuba diving), etc. etc. Below:

What an amazing trip, with big thanks, again, for Richard Salas giving me this wonderful, unplanned, adventure! Below: Sunset looking west from the wonderful Crystal Blue Resort

Blackwater Safari Week at Crystal Blue Resort January 30 through February 5, 2024

The first ten days, January 20 through 29 were the annual Critterfest at Crystal Blue Resort ( divecbr.com ), two dives in the morning, two dives in the afternoon with the last dive being twilight at the start, a night dive by the finish. The following week, January 30 through February 5 was Darkwater Safari week, I decided to do a single blog covering the Blackwater Safari week. One dive in the morning at 11 am, then lunch, then two Darkwater bouy drift dives at night after dinner, departing at 7 pm, return about 11 pm. Each day included a review of photos and a lecture on Blackwater diving, photography, and its creatures by Mike Bartick who is the photo pro at Crystal Blue Resort and is the pioneer of Blackwater diving in Anilao. Mike also founded "Blackwater Photo Group" on facebook, a great place to see blackwater photos from all over the world and to learn about blackwater diving: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Blackwaterphotogroup/?multi_permalinks=2155784394764018¬if_id=1709076062181497¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif Mike is also author of a great ebook on Blackwater diving, photography, and its creatures: "The World of Blackwater", I highly recommend it. I told Mike that the talks he gave for Blackwater Safari week were the college level marine biology class I never got to take because I shifted my degree goal from marine biology to engineering, making my love of diving and marine life an avocation instead of career. As I intended, my engineering degree led to a career which did a fine job of funding diving and my life... Blackwater diving is diving in open water, the ocean bottom far far below, beyond diving range, drifting with a buoy called "The Pumpkin" with a weighted downline with bright lights evey 15 feet down to about 85 ft. You drift with the buoy, keeping the suspended lights in view and using them as a quick depth reference. Your dive panga follows the buoy and picks you up when you surface at the end of the dive. Below, the pumkin buoy:

I used two different lens for my Blackwater dives, the 60 mm Canon macro lens I used for all the dives for Critterfest and the day dives during Blackwater Safari week and also my trusted Tokina 10-17 mm wide angle lens. Shooting macro during blackwater diving is tricky, you are floating free, your subject isn't settled on the bottom, it is free floating and frequently actually swimming and the narrow field of view of your macrolens, limited illumination from your focus light combine to make getting the subject in frame and focused is difficult. I cheat with my wideangle lens. With the apeture set at f9 I can focus it on my hand then simply point the camera at the subject and shoot without even using my viewfinder, so then I have to crop the photo....Tradeoff in fine details vs ease of use. Mike Bartick gave me some coaching and loaned me a float to use in place of my short strobe arm because this took my camera closer to neutral bouyancy so that the mere act of moving the camera to target the subject didn't cause me to lose balance, have to kick, lose the subject, repeat....Below:

Jhoma, our wonderful guide, helped find subjects, so did other divers sharing subjects and you drift along and sometimes a good subject just comes to you or you spot it at some distance by sweeping with your dive light. Below:

Jhoma briefly herded a Pelican flounder larvae so I could catch up and shoot it! Below:

Below are some more wonderful larval flatfish I photo'd:

I've enjoyed encounters with adult Wunderpus Octopus in the past, especially at Lembeh, Indonesia. Here's a wonderful juvenile Wunderpus, below:

It's good that the 76 degree water meant that we were in at least light to medium wetsuits with little exposed skin. Some of the creatures in the plankton cloud were stinging. Audrey got a painful sting on part of her face and lips returning to the boat. Below is a dangerously venomous Box Jelly:

The buoy lights attract zooplankton which in turn attracts the fish and squid etc. that feed on them. You'll see in many of my Blackwater photos lots of backscatter. I actually like the backscatter in these photos because it shows the richness of the plankton and zooplankton life we were diving in, unlike the annoying backscatter in conventionsal diving photos which all too often, rather than reflecting part of natural conditions, are caused by the photographer or another lurking diver stirring up sediment. I could have reduced the backscatter by carefully angling my strobe, though my focus light would still contribute. I could also edit out the backscatter in my photos except for a couple things: 1) I'm too lazy and can't be bothered and 2) My life is too short for that (truer each year now that I'm a septuagenarian!) One of the cool creatures you can encounter on these dives are larval crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, mantis shrimps, shrimp, amphipods, copepods..). Below, phylosoma stage larval lobsters:

I also saw squid on these dives, only managed to photo them a couple times because they were in motion, hunting. Below, Delta Squid:

Here's another couple of squid, don't know the species, below:

I photographed several mantis shrimp of different species and different stages of development, below:

It's magical down there, it's also a rough neighborhood, this juvenile jack narrowly survived getting devoured, below:

I saw several Pipefish on these dives. Pipefish aren't strong swimmers, I don't know if they accidentally get swept up off the bottom or if they intentionally swim up to feast on the many creatures in the Diel Migration every night. It's the largest migration on earth, every night,in all the world's oceans, when zooplankton, fish, and squid that lie deep in the ocean every day for shelter from larger predators swim upwards to feed on solar fed plankton under the cover of darkness. Below:

There are many gelatinous transparent or translucent creatures to see on Blackwater dives. It's important to look very closely at them because there are frequently other critters riding on them, hiding in them, or sometimes being eaten by them. Below is a Ctenophore (Comb Jelly) and a second one covered in Amphipods.

Above: Hydromedusa Below: Jellyfish with either a guest fish or is it prey?

Argonauts are pelagic octopuses. Female Argonauts secret a thin shell that looks a lot like the shell of a Chambered Nautilus and are frequently called Paper Nautilus and Winged Paper Nautilus but they are Argonauts. The thin, translucent shell is not chambered. Male Argonauts don't secrete shells are are much smaller than female Argonauts. Argonauts are one of the most sought out, wonderful photo subjects to be seen on Darkwater dives and may be seen either free swimming, or more often, riding other animals and objects. Below is a female Argonaut riding a jellyfish with a Black Pomfret fish and, in the background, the diver that waved me over with his torch to give me a turn at photographing it. Below:

I also photographed shelled Female Argonauts (aka Paper and Winged Paper Nautilus) and unshelled male Argonauts with Tunicates and Salps, below:

Also, scanning the black with my uw flashlight, I spotted a leaf speeding through the dark! How does a leaf speed through blackwater? When its towed by a Argonaut, below:

Below: A free swimming male Argonaut and a female Argonaut squirted a cloud of ink when I startled it:

Salps attract lots of company, below:

Above: Driftfish in the salp, amphipod on the salp. Below: Juvenile fish in a salp and, second, juvenile fish hovering near salps.

Below: Salp with Argonaut, Driftfish, and Amphipods

Below: Juvenile octopus in a chain of salps

Below: Juvenile octopus in a salp

Below: A pelagic mollusk, called a pteropod, with a hitchhiking Juvenile octopus.

Below for adults only. A pair of mating pteropods followed by a Creseid pteropod, followed by a mating pair of Creseid pteropods:

On one of my last Blackwater dives I had an amazing encounter with a filefish grasping a really cool jellyfish. It continued to grasp the jellyfish despite my manuevering, and its...Below:

Seven fantastic nights of Blackwater diving with Crystal Blue Resort! To see more Blackwater Creatures please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2xszneEQ9Q8vjaCA7