Snorkelling in the US and British Virgin Islands!

[Diana]

Here are some pics from our US and British Virgin Islands trip, we went for 10 days and were in the water almost every day! Enjoy!

Oh, and before you ask, the camera is a waterproof Olympus 720 SW digi. Its good to about 10 feet, and shockproof too!

Raf and an elkhorn coral:


Longspine urchins


Atlantic Blue Tangs and Grunts


Sponge growth


Brain Coral


Gorgonian


Macro shot of a coral


Snorkelling in the mangroves, it was quite an experience!


Hawksbill turtle


Fry hiding in a Longspine Urchin


School of tangs


Large (LARGE!) Grey Angel


Grunts and gorgonian




Cheers
-Diana and Raf

PS- it was absolutely beautiful!

[Diana]

Oops some more!

Macro shot of Christmas Tree worm and Maze coral


Parrotfish


Holy Sergeant Majors!


Shallow reef: Brain corals


Me!


Boxfish and gorgonians

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Stunning! I'm so jealous!!

[Veng68]

Very Nice........ now it makes me want to get the Olympus 1020 SW

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

[Delphinus]

Wow, great pictures, great gorgonians. Two threads in one night with photos of wild gorgs, it's like Christmas for me! Only thing that would make it better is .. um .. TAKE ME WITH YOU NEXT TIME!!!! Sigh, looking out my window just now ... it's just not the same. Can someone remind me why I live in Calgary???

Anyhow, stunning photos, thanks for sharing.

[cprowler]

Outstanding shots Diana! I just love it down there, no need for an expensive reeftank just go snorkeling and diving every day.

[Chin_Lee]

Diana
Great photos!
Do you recommend that camera for average joe citizen taking underwater photos? (how many shots did you have to take before getting those nice photos?)

Which islands did you visit?

Can you see what kind of fry were living in the urchin?

[Tom R]

Great pictures Diana.

Certainly looks like you had a great holiday.

So answer me this. Why do we live in Vancouver when we could live here?

Do you think doing this every day (365) would get boring?

Tom R

[Diana]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Diana
Great photos!
Do you recommend that camera for average joe citizen taking underwater photos? (how many shots did you have to take before getting those nice photos?)

Which islands did you visit?

Can you see what kind of fry were living in the urchin?

Chin, yeah its for the joe citizen! Its just perfect. We can take the cam to the beach, take above water pics, and then jump in the water with it and not have to think twice. Its a small, compact camera. And the pics turn out great! You have to get used to holding it steady in the waves, but it has a little flash that really helps bring out the colors of corals and fish. It has 3 underwater modes, one of them a macro. Raf takes most of the underwater pics. I think the biggest pain is just aiming at your subject with a mask on, but once you get hang of it its great. Then you can instantly view your pic right there underwater to see if its worth keeping. It helps too that the visibility down there was AMAZING.

We went to St. Thomas, St. John, Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and Jost van Dyke. The trip to the BVI's was just a day trip, but we got to do some snorkelling.

No idea what fry they were. So small! They looked kinda like little clownfish fry, but really could have been anything. There were little groups of them all over the reef.


Tom, Raf and I have "the plan" of moving somewhere tropical. We are just not cold weather people! Especially if global warming is going to rob us of our few months of nice weather here. Its probebly going to be Hawaii for 6 months of the year. Ah well, we can dream at least!

Thanks guys
Cheers
-Diana

[Lance]

Thanks for the wonderful pics. Looks like a great way to spend a holiday.