Hawksbill Turtle
Hi Everyone,
I’ve been absent from the Blogosphere for a couple of weeks while living aboard the Sundancer II and cruising the outer atolls of Belize. After 32 amazing dives with our fabulous crew and fellow divers, I came home with lots of pics to share. I thought I would entice you with just one shot today of a gorgeous hawksbill turtle who happened to swim by. I look forward to catching up with your blogs and hope that your September has been a good one. More to come!
Cathy
LargeSelf 
YAY! Welcome back, Cathy. I look forward to seeing more of your amazing photographic creations.
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Thanks, Russ! We had such a great time and I got lots of photos! So stay tuned!
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Great to hear from you, Cathy, and what a great up close and personal shot of that beautiful albeit grumpy-faced sea creature!
Unrelated: your post is missing from my reader. You’re still in my follow list, so I don’t get what’s the problem. I also get your posts emailed to me.
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Thanks, V. I suspect the email issue is some kind of glitch in WP. I’ve heard from comments from others, that if you unfollow and then click follow again, often the notification will come back. But after refollowing, you may have to go to your reader, click “Blogs I follow,” select edit and click on how you would like to be notified via email. Hope that helps!
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Welcome back! Sounds like a wonderful (and enviable!) trip. I bet you have some amazing pics from the experience.
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Thanks so much, Carrie. I was a wonderful trip. My new camera also did not let me down. I was able to get better photos underwater than I ever have before (minus the day and a half of angst on the part of the operator until she learned the new setup 🙂 ).
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Thanks for this wonderful picture. I’ve been swimming a lot, too, lately! 😉 Glad you have been having a delicious time! xxx 🙂
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Thank you, Fran! Glad you’re enjoying the swimming! Feels so good to be in the water.
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Hmm, I like your reasons for absence much better than mine. I’ll have to work up to that. You’re an inspiration as always! 🙂
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Thank you, Jennifer. You definitely had a good excuse. I’m glad you’ve come out from under your rock, too!
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Welcome home. Sounds like a marvelous trip and I know the photos will be great, as is this one.
janet
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Thanks so much, Janet. I got lots of good shots on this trip. Really fun, great diving, wonderful food, great service on the boat. We loved it.
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WELCOME HOME!!! I have been waiting with much anticipation, expecting amazing things! This does not disappoint, and I can’t wait to see more!
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Thanks, Dawn! The first of many, Peter and I had such a good time! Ten days of diving, eating wonderful food and being gently rocked to sleep every night on a beautiful boat (AKA: eat, sleep, dive)! Loved it!
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Can’t wait to see/hear more! Belize was amazing, and I knew YOU would love it!
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Welcome back! I see Senator McConnell was one of your diving buddies!
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🙂
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Yay. Cathy is back! Look forward to seeing more from your fantastic trip. Lucky gal. Audra
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Thanks, Audra! Looks like you started a new blog while I was gone? Nice to hear from you, and yes, there will be many more pics. I got lots!
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Welcome back!!!! Your trip sounds fabulous and I have no doubt that you captured a multitude of excellent images that I look forward to seeing.
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Thanks, Frank. It was a wonderful trip and my new camera was fabulous, too! And more pics to come!
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We’ll forgive you for being absent! What an adventure, Cathy. The pic is as close to be there as possible. Have fun!
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Thanks, Brigitte. I was quite the adventure – four dives a day in beautiful, unspoiled, protected reefs. What a privilege! We had a great time.
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I am giddy! Giddy.
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Welcome, welcome back, Cathy!!! This close up shot is amazing! Looking forward to viewing more photos you took 🙂
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Thanks, Amy. We had such a good time. I got lots of shots, so I have lots to share!
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Feeling serious dive envy right now – I bet that liveaboard trip was amazing!! Looking forward to seeing more…
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Thanks, Jenny. It was a fabulous trip! Eat, sleep, dive – then get up the next day and do it again. I highly recommend the Sun Dancer II!
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I’ve not yet had the chance to dive that part of the world, but I’ve been thinking about Belize for a while now. It will definitely be somewhere I try to get to at some point. We’ve done a couple of liveaboard holidays – nothing beats them for dive overload. I love them, so I will bear the recommendation in mind!
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Dive overload is the truth! What makes the Sun Dancer II trip so awesome is most of the diving is on the Lighthouse Reef Atoll which is 50 miles from Belize City. It’s too far for most day trips and the reefs are mostly pristine with very little diving traffic. There are lots of reef sharks and spotted eagle rays – so healthy ecosystem. Just. Plain. Wonderful.
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Wow! Just amazing by the sounds of it. The real benefits of being that little bit more remote! :o)
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Oh, I love turtles. This is sweet. Hey, welcome back! Your trip sounds amazing!
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Thanks, Amy. It was such a great trip. And we saw so many turtles – big ones!
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Fabulous!
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Wonderful capture! And so close. Were you able to get quite close, or did you have some zooming capability (or perhaps some of each)?
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Thank you, persephone! The answer is both! I use an Olympus OMD EM1 with a 12-50 mm lens that has a macro setting. Olympus has been kind enough to create an underwater wide angle/macro setting that I can assign to one of the function buttons on the camera. By pushing the function button I can easily switch back and forth between the two and the macro setting has a slight zoom plus the ability to photograph macro subjects. I was quite close to the turtle, but also from that close using the macro setting, I was able get really close. Wide angle zooming doesn’t work at all because of the blue effect of the water, but zooming from close-in with the macro capability works quite well. I love the flexibility of the set-up.
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