Winter . . . what is winter?

A compilation of videos that I've shot over the last few months here on Kwaj. Bonus points if you're enough of a nerd to recognize where the music is from.

Turtle Wrestling

I now have a new job I can add to my list of work experience: Professional Sea Turtle Wrangler.



Once a year, we need to pull our two pet sea turtles, Speedo and Big Guy, out of their pond for their yearly medical checkup, and to give them a scrub-down. This requires a couple of people to get into their pond and physically grab them, which is MUCH harder then you'd think. They can move quickly when they want to!

Night Diving

I know that for a lot of people, swimming around in the ocean at night is one of the scariest things they can imagine, but it's one of the coolest things one can do here. Unfortunetly, the camera isn't nearly sensitive enough to capture the luminecant plankton that you can see with all the dive lights shut off.

Where I live

Thanksgiving Dinner

Most days of the year, the chow hall is what you'd expect from army food: That is to say, it's not very good. Some days it's simply hilarious at how bad it is, and how creative the substitutions can get.

However, for the holidays, they do go the extra mile and put on a pretty good spread. This was our Thanksgiving dinner, free for all unaccompanied personnel.

Office pranks

Yesterday, I came in to work to find that the toy R/C motorcycle that lives on top of my computer had vanished. All that remained of it was the wheel stand.



That afternoon, I sat down at my desk and discovered this note waiting for me:



Not knowing where I was supposed to leave the ransom payment, I simply left them on top of the copier. I came back an hour later, looked up, and there was my toy! Safe and sound.



In retrospect, this may have been in retribution for me using two rolls of packing tape to firmly attach every item on my co-workers desk . . . to his desk.

WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP

So who's got two thumbs and got to take the helicopter to work today?

This guy!

Weekend sailing

I'm sorry for the lack of posts, guys. Most of it is due to the fact that the internet on kwaj is straight out of 1993: dial up.

Anyway, here's a clip of us doing what we do almost every weekend: We pile onto our friend's 48-foot sailboat, and we sail up north to one of the uninhabited islands. We then proceed to float around in the ocean for a few hours and do absolutely nothing. :)

What to do with a day off . . .

An entire day wasted napping/reading on the beach. Could be worse.

Moar!

More fish!








This guy was so long that I had to be this far away from him to get him all in frame. He had to be at least six feet long, probably more. I tried editing some color back into it, but there just wasn't enough data to work with.






Grumpy fish, do not be grumpy! You live in the ocean! That should make you happy!


You may be able to hide from predators, Mr Camo Fish, but you can't hide from the camera! I'm the freakin' underwater papperazi, I am!




Mr Long Fin fish, why you have such a long fin?








It's okay, Mr Plain Fish. I will take pictures of you, even if you are not the color of rainbow.






Little fish, how you guys be so little?

The payoff

$4,000 in specialty underwater camera equipment, and when the sea turtle comes to play, it makes every cent worth it.

(Click images to view full size)


This guy wasn't bothered by our presence at all, it seemed. He was happy to just keep paddling along, occasionally dipping down to find some tasty part of the ocean floor to munch on.



I should mention that none of these photos are cropped: I really was that close to him. He took little note of us, happy to keep swimming along and being a turtle.



What stories of the ocean can you tell us, Mr. Turtle?

I could have spent the next hour doing nothing but taking pictures of this guy, but I was interrupted by the frantic tank banging of some divers a hundred feet off. Because while I was busy with the sea turtle, someone else had come out to play.

Australia, the resident Emon beach Manta ray.



This isn't the first time this specific ray has shown up, people have been seeing it here for years. We've taken to calling it "Australia" on account of the patch on it's belly that's shaped like the continent.

And like the sea turtle, he showed no real concern about our presence, swimming within feet of us . . . and doing somersaults.



I'm not sure why he spent most of his time engaging in underwater aerobatics, but after watching him do the second or third barrel roll in a row . . . I think he was just doing them because it was fun.



The last few weeks, the water in the atoll have been very cloudy, filled with long strings of these plankton-like microorganisms. They get in the way of photography, but they make a delicious Manta snack. He made so many passes back and forth through us, scooping up giant mouthfuls of these delicious things.



He was within arms length of me so many times, that when I'd finally pull my face away from the cameras viewfinder for a second, it was a shock that HOLY SMOKES, there's a giant Manta ray two feet from me. Sometimes so close that even with the 17mm lens I had on the camera, I couldn't completely get him in frame.

It was the best birthday present the ocean could have given me.

*sigh*

My name is Tsaven, and I am an addict.


(An Ikelite DS125 underwater strobe light for my camera)

I think this island is beginning to see me as a conveniant source of disposal for their un-wanted underwater camera gear. "Oh, I don't need this anymore . . . hey, just mention that you're selling it to that guy, he'll buy ANYTHING!"