SWCAMBORNE

In 2005 a contingent of Codger Divers went to Catalina on a dive trip.

The famed Casino in Avalon

Gene, Howard Harte and I dove with Harte’s son and niece.  Our divemaster was Ron Moore.

Ron is the handsome guy (second from the left)

At the time Ron was an employee of one of the dive companies in Avalon.  We encouraged him to start his own company and now he has:

Dive Catalina with Ron Moore
107 Pebbly Beach Road
Avalon, CA 90704
310-510-3175
1-877-218-9156
ron@ronmooreproductions.com

Diving on Catalina is cold but close and sometimes spectacular:

A Garibaldi

Abalone?

If you dive Catalina, and all serious divers should at least once, then be sure to dive with Ron Moore.  He is one of the best diver masters we have had the pleasure to dive with.

A brilliant briefing

Joel G went diving yesterday and took this amazing picture:

and 18 more on Flickr

Even though I don’t have a clue what the creature pictured is I can use the term “amazing” without hyperbole for three reasons:

• The water is almost never this clear in Southern California
• Joel has been taking underwater photos for only six months
• A man was killed by a shark in the water near here yesterday morning

Good job Joel. Click in the face of danger.

This idea is complicated and it might be completely wrong but I think it contains one of my brilliant insights. When we go codger diving a lot of guys take a lot of pictures. Most of the codgers don’t take many photos when they are above water but underwater they are snapping away like there is no tomorrow. Are thing more beautiful underwater? I think our photography habits are because we have not trained ourselves to see the beauty of close ups and narrow focus in our daily milieu. The underwater world was new to most of us as adults so we see it with eyes still filled with wonder. We see new beauty. But in the above water world where we have always lived we have become inured to the beauty around us and have stopped seeing it. I suggest trying some close-up photography of ordinary things in your above water world to solve this paradox.

These pictures taken in my back yard and juxtaposed with some underwater photos from Curacao will illustrate what I’m talking about:

Bottle brush

Bottle Brush Close-up

Coral close-up

Sea anemonea

Calla lily

Calla lily close-up

Moray eel

Yellow birds

Pond fish

A sea horse

So I’ve made the best case I can with the pictures I have available. You can see more pictures that I use to try to make my case for Backyard Scuba on flickr .

Perhaps there is another reason for this photography paradox. If so let me know. It is a puzzle I’d like to understand.

Here is a link to Joel G’s photos from Curacao.

One of Mark Z’s pictures as a teaser

Joel figured out how to fix the light in many of the shots so that the red isn’t filtered out. He can also give you a lesson about being sure that your digital camera housing is closed before taking the giant stride.

Great Pictures Joel!

There was a lunar eclipse during the Codger Divers visit to Curacao. We used this auspicious omen as an opportunity to have the official opening of the Rotter Observatory at Curacao.

The observatory is named after Howard R. who designed the viewing platform and installed the Dual Optical 500 Micrometer Scope. You can see him on the right in this picture adjusting the optics on the DO500. On the left is Peter B his assistant on the installation.

This another view of the Rotter Observatory in operation.

The Rotter Observatory Directors during the grand opening ceremonies:

And finally for those of you still interested the official adult beverage of the Rotter Observatory at Curacao is:

Delirium Tremens