Bonaire Day 5: Live in The Moment

ByHailey Springer

Today’s boat headed first to a dive site called Alice in Wonderland, and then back to Angel City which we had explored a few days prior. I was back to using a wide angle lens, and the first dive at Alice in Wonderland was fairly uneventful. I practiced lighting sun balls, and slowing my shutter speed to see what type of movement I could get in the photo. After a surface interval, Russel and I buddied up and explored Angel City. About 35 minutes in, we were pretty shallow and came upon around 40 squid! It was just us in that area so we had plenty of subjects and I wasn’t worried about getting in anyone’s way. While I was shifting some settings, I saw a spotted eagle ray out of the corner of my eye. It was beautiful! I tried to get Russels attention but he was focused on his camera, so I was able to shoot the ray alone. At first my settings were way too bright, but luckily the ray stayed for a few minutes and I was able to change them and get a better shot. I was happy that I was shooting wide angle when I saw the ray instead of macro like the day before!

After lunch, Russel and I headed to the house reef and made a plan to drop down to 70 feet on an old row boat. It was a small boat but it gave me a chance to test out strobe brightness so that I know what to do when we go to the big wreck, the Hilma Hooker, tomorrow. There was a lot of backscatter in the test shot, so I have to be weary of that tomorrow on the big wreck.

As we made our way up the reef I noticed that around a dozen fish were all fighting over something. From what I could see, it looked like a fish spine that a fisherman would’ve thrown overboard, or a really large centipede looking thing. As I was getting closer to photograph the battle, a large fish swoops in and takes the entire thing and eats it all. It was great to get some shots of the fish with the food in its mouth as it made the image more compelling than if it were just swimming.

I quickly showered and headed to Erin Quigleys class on backscatter removal. I had learned a bit of this in a high school class, but it was a great refresher! I had to work on a module for another upcoming opportunity with the internship so I had to miss the second class. 

After dinner, I went to Berkeley Whites presentation on creative photography. My favorite part was when he explained how to paint with light. He would turn on his shutter, go ‘paint’ a wreck with light, and then turn off his light and swim back so he wasn’t in the shot. It created some really beautiful results, but takes a lot of practice. He also mentioned that when a photo has a pattern, it tends to look nice in black and white. So, I made my spotted eagle ray shot in black and white, and I do think I like it better.

Realization of the day is that we should all try to live in the moment more. I just had one of the best days ever, and they will only get better from here as I learn and grow. It’s all mindset. 

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