Ok so no pics yet, photoshopping them is taking some time. My uncle and I armed ourselves with expensive Olympus digicams, 1gb memory cards, and divin gear and went to town 
. We did French Reef off of Key Largo. Specifically the "Woody's Hole" and "Christmas Tree Cave" dive sites. WOW. Vis was "good", prolly around 40' the first dive and 30' the second dive. We were lucky to have some dive guides training with us who offered their guide services for FREE! I've never dove with a really good guide who really knew the area but man was it a great experience. They got us so many good shots we would have not had otherwise. The swim-through caves were AWESOME and the corals at the cave site were phenomenal. You hear all these stories about bleaching and devastation of corals, but man, this site was great as far as hard corals go. Phew.
Saw a bunch of amazing fish, angels, parrots, tangs, grouper, jacks, grunts, puffers, wrasses, damsels, butterflies, and more. Also a couple wierd fish in Lizardfish and a Dog Snaper (sorry Andy, couldn't find any froggies). Lynden, you'll be happy to know we've got a phenomenal shot of a Gymnothorax funebris that we never would have seen without the guide. Also got some great shots of rays and maybe even a good nurse shark shot, we'll see what we can cleanup with photoshop. For the invert lovers, a bunch of good reef lobster shots, and even a slipper lobster that our guide was kind enough to remove from his cave for a closeup before placing him back in his home. And my uncle managed to get the money shot of a queen angel. You guys are gonna flip when you see this thing, oh man!
Anyways, a phenomenal day, by far and away the best I've ever had in the Keys. We're hoping to go back out with the same guides in training on sunday morning for the benwood wreck and maybe christ of the deep, or another shot at molasses. In the meantime, we're gonna hang out, relax, and get to photoshopping these pics. Gotta pull out the blue and see if we can get the colors right on some of these shots. Even with the flash sometimes they're not perfect. Gonna be an arduous task, but hopefully we should have pics up by tomorrow evening (provided photobucket plays nice).
. We did French Reef off of Key Largo. Specifically the "Woody's Hole" and "Christmas Tree Cave" dive sites. WOW. Vis was "good", prolly around 40' the first dive and 30' the second dive. We were lucky to have some dive guides training with us who offered their guide services for FREE! I've never dove with a really good guide who really knew the area but man was it a great experience. They got us so many good shots we would have not had otherwise. The swim-through caves were AWESOME and the corals at the cave site were phenomenal. You hear all these stories about bleaching and devastation of corals, but man, this site was great as far as hard corals go. Phew.Saw a bunch of amazing fish, angels, parrots, tangs, grouper, jacks, grunts, puffers, wrasses, damsels, butterflies, and more. Also a couple wierd fish in Lizardfish and a Dog Snaper (sorry Andy, couldn't find any froggies). Lynden, you'll be happy to know we've got a phenomenal shot of a Gymnothorax funebris that we never would have seen without the guide. Also got some great shots of rays and maybe even a good nurse shark shot, we'll see what we can cleanup with photoshop. For the invert lovers, a bunch of good reef lobster shots, and even a slipper lobster that our guide was kind enough to remove from his cave for a closeup before placing him back in his home
. And my uncle managed to get the money shot of a queen angel. You guys are gonna flip when you see this thing, oh man! Anyways, a phenomenal day, by far and away the best I've ever had in the Keys. We're hoping to go back out with the same guides in training on sunday morning for the benwood wreck and maybe christ of the deep, or another shot at molasses. In the meantime, we're gonna hang out, relax, and get to photoshopping these pics. Gotta pull out the blue and see if we can get the colors right on some of these shots. Even with the flash sometimes they're not perfect. Gonna be an arduous task, but hopefully we should have pics up by tomorrow evening (provided photobucket plays nice).
SH
