No introduction, here’s what I shot in March!

I join in on a night dive

I was really burnt out with SCUBA diving for a long time after too many dives in a short time.  Every time I submerged felt very repetitive, and in the cold waters of Central California, SCUBA diving is a lot of work.  But I cleaned my underwater photo rig and set out for a night dive in Carmel, CA.  It was actually the first time I had dove at night specifically for photography.  Since I was relearning many of the basics about underwater photography I didn’t capture anything great, but it was still a learning experience.

I didn’t even see this snail when composing this photo with my focus assist light, but I love how it’s perched at the bottom of the frame.

California sea cucumber

Shooting shorebirds at sunset from the water

I spent the day in Moss Landing and waited until the evening to photograph shorebirds.  The usual species were there, foraging within the crashing waves.  At first I was discouraged by the number of birds, and worried that if scared away there would not be enough subjects to photograph.  But all species were very cooperative and remained for the evening.  I changed into a wetsuit to crouch in the surf zone and shoot back at the birds, one of my favorite positions for photos.

Long-billed curlew

Willet

Marbled godwit

Marbled godwit

Snowy plover

The elephant seals of Piedras Blancas

I left my house at 5:00am for the drive down to the Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery.  I arrived at sunrise and had the entire shoreline to myself.  Here, hundreds of elephant seals were just awakening in the sand.  The Sony A7RIII’s animal eye autofocus worked marvelously on elephant seals, and the 200-600 mm G was a great focal length for the occasion.  There weren’t many large males around but the opportunities to photograph smaller individuals was still fun.