Category: United States

  • A Second Dive on the UB-88 Submarine Wreck

    A Second Dive on the UB-88 Submarine Wreck

    In just shy of 200′ of water in San Pedro Bay is the wreck of the German submarine UB-88, the only u-boat shipwreck in California. I dove this wreck for the first time late last year and my post about it made waves, so to speak. Apparently I’m not the only one who’s into the…

  • No Wolf Eel Left Behind

    No Wolf Eel Left Behind

    On Saturday, I got up at the ungodly hour of 4-something-a.m. and made the pilgrimage up to Long Beach to catch a charter out to dive the UB-88 submarine wreck. Sometimes, I think I’m doing “leisure” wrong.

  • Diving The Kelp Cutter: The El Rey Wreck

    Diving The Kelp Cutter: The El Rey Wreck

    Every once in a while, we get off the beaten path a bit and dive some of the less-often-seen shipwrecks of San Diego’s Wreck Alley. El Rey is one of those wrecks: I believe I’ve (now) dove it twice in my nearly three years here. Both times, though, I’ve been blown away with how fun the…

  • Red-Eye Medusa Jellyfish

    Red-Eye Medusa Jellyfish

    Finding a Red-Eye Medusa Jellyfish (Polyorchis pencillatus) on the El Rey wreck in San Diego, California.

  • Updated Post: USS Hogan Wreck

    Updated Post: USS Hogan Wreck

    New photos from the USS Hogan Wreck south of San Diego, California.

  • Photo of the Week: Black Sea Nettle Jellyfish on the USS Hogan Wreck

    Photo of the Week: Black Sea Nettle Jellyfish on the USS Hogan Wreck

    Regular readers are by now aware of my obsession with the black sea nettle jellyfish. I worked a dive charter a few weeks ago and spotted my first black sea nettle of the summer from the confines of the boat. It was all over–from that moment on, I lived and breathed black sea nettles. (Seriously:…

  • Macro Mania

    Macro Mania

    I love shooting wide angle. When the water is clear, there is nothing more gratifying than that fisheye lens and dome port. Wrecks. Kelp forests. Big animals. Coral reefs. And people. Wide angle means context, and people love context. People identify with the scene. They like seeing themselves, or people like themselves, in the frame.…

  • Throwback Thursday: Technical Wreck Training and USS Palawan

    Throwback Thursday: Technical Wreck Training and USS Palawan

    Wreck diving is the ultimate in underwater exploration. I’m ashamed to admit that I wasn’t into wrecks, at first. I didn’t see the point. They weren’t as pretty as real reefs, and it’s not like I was going to go inside a wreck, like, ever. And then I got some tech diving training, and it…

  • Dreamy Nudibranch

    Dreamy Nudibranch

    The kelp forest can be a pretty dreamy place. The light coming through the kelp canopy has an ethereal beauty, and the gentle sway of the kelp stalks in light surge could rock you to sleep. I wanted to capture that surreal, unearthly quality in this week’s nudibranch photos.

  • Photo of the Week: A Wolf Eel on the USS Hogan Wreck

    Photo of the Week: A Wolf Eel on the USS Hogan Wreck

    The USS Hogan wreck is pretty much the perfect San Diego dive site–the conditions are usually excellent, the sea life is abundant, and the depth and distance from port are such that the site has an air of exclusivity to it. It’s also so rife with wolf eels that it almost–note I said almost–renders them…