Go With The Flow - Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Carmel, California

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Here's a shot from last summer, back when my ear wasn't broken and diving was something I used to do. Several weeks after this image was taken, I suffered a barotrauma (pressure related injury) in my right ear. Yeah, that sucked.

As a result of this injury, I have been 'dry' for over seven months, the longest time out of the water in the thirteen years since I got certified to dive. But I'm hoping that will change.

My girlfriend, Kendra, won a free trip to Fiji for a week aboard the Nai'a, a liveaboard boat catering to divers. Of course, I will be joining here on this South Pacific adventure, and our flight leaves later this month.

I've been worried my ear won't last on this trip, and I think I will never shake this fear, but I hopped into the pool at my work for a ten foot test dive the other day. And my ear seemed to do just fine.

The next step is another test dive in the pool, this time with my underwater camera rig. I'm looking forward to that! Next step will be some warm-up dives in the cool waters off Carmel and Monterey, where this image was taken.

These sea nettles jellies were a real treat to dive with and I was happy to be able to swim with them as I feel they are a very photogenic species. As you can see, there were plenty of them.

If you want to play along, choose your jelly with a note. I, of course, will take the big one in front! :)

Nikon D300
Tokina 10-17mm fisheye @ 10mm
1/160sec, f6.3, ISO 200
Aquatica Housing with Megadome Port
Sea & Sea YS-110 and YS-90DX strobes on manual power

Taken on: August 19, 2009

Tags:

blue

California

Chrysaora fuscenscens

colorful

diving

fisheye

giant kelp

green

housing

jellyfish

Jim Patterson Photography

kelp

kelp forest

light

Macrocystis pyrifera

marine

Monterey

Monterey Bay National Marine Sancturay

natural

Nature

Pacific

salt

SCUBA

sea

sea nettles

temperate

Tokina 10-17mm

Underwater

water

wide angle

wild

Wildlife

USA

FiNS

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Camera: Nikon D300, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, 10mm (=15mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D300
Lens:	10.0-17.0 mm f/3.5-4.5
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	10mm (35mm equivalent: 15mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Manual
Contrast:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows
Show full info

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