Florida Keys Coral Restoration - Update

I spent last week in the Florida Keys updating a coral restoration story for The Nature Conservancy Magazine.  It was great to get back in the water with the same researchers at the same locations and see what almost three years or growth means in the life of nursery raised staghorn coral.  Before the trip, I was picturing three year old coral that has grown like weeds.  But it turns out that in three years, good growing coral is divided and clipped over and over, to ensure that many generations of the same genotype survive.  Not the picture I was picturing, but we hit the weather window perfectly, and with some great visibiltiy I came away with some great images.  Thanks to all that made it happen.

Staghorn Coral 7-8. Then & Now.

Zeus from the Sea and the Air

I had the chance to photograph some promotional images for an Albany Marina based charter boat yesterday.  The Zeus is a 76 foot Viking, with an amazing blue hull and extremely clean lines.  The shoot had everything from surface level shots of the boat underway, to shots of the staterooms and salon, to arial images of the boat over bright white sand.  It was the helicopter portion of the shoot that caught my eye.  I worked out of an R44 from Bahamas Helicopters.  It seemed like a smallish helicopter at first, but turned out to be a great photo platform, and Dave the pilot knew what photographers look for.  An hour in a helicopter flies by, but I found some time to think about some personal arial projects ... now to find a way to fund it!

Preventing Beach Erosion - Nassau

Hawaii Film Shoot - Leina Sato

I just returned from ten days on Kona shooting the early stages of a print and video project with Leina Sato.  Leina is working on a book and documentary film focused her years on The Big Island swimming with marine mammals.  Judging by the few passages I have had the opportunity to read, Leina has a unique voice and some amazing experiences, and it made me hope for an english translation sometime in the future.  Video was the main focus for this trip, and we came away with some great sequences, including human dolphin interaction that I would never have thought to get on film.  On the last day we carved some time into the schedule for some stills.  Below are a few of the results.   More can be seen here and way back here.

Boy's Life Magazine

Nassau Sea Wall

Water Swirl - Nassau

African Pompano

There is no cooler fish swimming around Nassau these days.  I keep hoping to meet one when I have something other than a 15mm lens on the camera.

BBC America - No Kitchen Required

BBC America - No Kitchen Required.

Nassau Clouds