I was out on a “blackwater night dive” Capturing a flash of lightning in a photo can be pretty challenging, even in Florida (the state with the most lightning strikes every year, ~1.45 million strikes). This photo was taken about 5 miles offshore of West Palm Beach, Florida. I was out on a “blackwater night […]
[The] beach is accessed by going through a gap in a stone wall! Another photo from the honeymoon of a lifetime that Jill and I had in Maui! This one was from a beach that we found ourselves at regularly while we were there, Secret Cove Beach. This beach is accessed by going through a […]
[To] the right side of the island…you can see a lightning strike! I took this photo one evening while Jill and I were in Maui for our honeymoon. We were eating dinner on our lanai. We slowly watched as the sunset, and then clouds started to form out over the ocean as the sky darkened. […]
Why did you start Ocean Defenders Alliance? At the core is the desire to help animals. I first got my start with nonprofits by combining my love of photography with this desire to help animals. I started diving in Ohio around Cleveland. I would swim in the lake to get in shape, but there were […]
Arrow crabs don’t seem to mind divers This is a photo of two arrow crabs fighting. During this dive, I remember watching the arrow crabs battle, presumably over territory. When the one arrow crab grabbed the other arrow crab’s blue claws, I took the shot. Arrow crabs don’t seem to mind divers, which makes them […]
This shrimp can be found among anemone. Believe it or not, this beautiful shrimp is less than one inch long. Spotted cleaner shrimp are found among certain species of anemone, in this case a corkscrew anemone. As the name implies, this shrimp actually “cleans” the parasites, dead tissue, and algae off of fish. If you […]
To say the turtle was wrapped in fishing line would be an understatement Diving on a patch reef in the Florida Keys about a month ago, I came across this turtle. It swam right up to me and my dive buddy. To say he was wrapped up in fishing line would be an understatement. The turtle had fishing […]
The reefs were teeming with green sea turtles! The three photos that I contributed to this month’s underwater album all came from snorkeling adventures on my honeymoon. Jill and I got married in November, and we quickly made our way to Maui. There we spent 10 days taking in the sun, the hikes, the waterfalls, […]
The spinelets on this urchin can sting. This month I am featuring two urchins. I am always surprised when I come upon a reef that is covered in urchins. They are such peculiar creatures that spend most of their life in the exact same spot every day just eating the algae that is close enough […]
The red spines are typical to these urchins in Hawaii When I went underwater for my first snorkel in Hawaii, I was almost immediately met by the oddest-looking urchin that I had ever seen. After some research I found out that I was seeing my first Indo-Pacific endemic urchin, the Red Pencil Urchin; a.k.a. slate […]