So we dropped anchor on the El Rey wreck site the other day and there was some concern that we had maybe missed the wreck. I heroically jumped in with the intent of, well, finding it, which was in retrospect a ridiculous idea because I’m basically the worst navigator ever.
Anyway, I jump in and head down the anchor chain, and there’s just sand, and a ton of extra anchor chain draped around on the sand. I start following the chain, and it loops back on itself, and I’m thinking how funny it is that I’m following the chain in a circle rather than just swimming in a circle all on my own when I suddenly see a Red-Eye Medusa jellyfish (Polyorchis pencillatus)!
My jellyfish obsession lives on.
I make a point of reminding myself not to get so engrossed in the jellyfish that I lose sight of the anchor chain, since I’m in the middle of nowhere on sand with no other visual references and I don’t want to get lost. Like I always do. And I’m happily shooting this jelly when I recall this great tip I learned at a photography seminar last weekend about cranking your strobes up to high power when you’re shooting jellyfish, so I try it out, and damn, it really works! The jelly is swimming away from me at an annoyingly fast clip, and I’m following it, and then I remember to look back behind me to make note of the anchor chain, which is of course gone.
I curse myself for getting lost again and then I have the thought “my brain is really just one big run-on sentence, isn’t it?” immediately followed by the thought “I should write that down and use it in my blog” immediately followed by “OH HEY LOOK THERE’S THE WRECK!”
Little victories.
(Settings: f/10 at 1/125 sec, ISO 160, with my Tokina AF 10-17mm Fisheye Lens.)