Photo Fun

Today we went diving on the outer reef, the area that is directly exposed to the ocean's fury. Or something like that. Actually, we only really felt surges going through, which moved us around a bit, but it wasn't too bad. Once again, I took pictures, so here we go:

First off, let's talk physics. As you know (or should know), blue light waves penetrate the deepest through water. As a result, everything tends to have a blue cast to it. The tint wasn't this noticeable to our own eyes, but the camera definitely saw a more drastic coloring. By sending my pictures through Photoshop, however, I was able to adjust the picture so everything looks as it would in 5 feet of water, instead of the 30 feet at which it was taken. So for example...

This is the most dramatic change in the pictures I took:


You can see how color really doesn't matter at depth. Many red organisms look gray or black, camouflaging them despite the pigment that would otherwise make them stand out.

And this one's my favorite because the fish finally cooperated (one more reason why I like invertebrates better - they tend to sit still):



This afternoon a few of us stole one of the trucks and went on a snorkeling joyride (no, we didn't really steal them, and yes, everyone knew where we were going). I took a bunch of pictures, but I think I might hold them in reserve for a day when I'm running low on new shots. (I'll starting research in 11 short days, so the fun and random picture-taking will stop soon enough...) Suffice to say the expedition was a lot of fun. Oh and tonight we went on a night snorkel and saw tons of urchins, a lionfish (extremely rare, especially at night), shrimp, cushion stars, and a huge pufferfish - deflated and about 18 inches long. Very awesome stuff. And now I'm off to bed.