Private Breakfast

It looked like a spectacular morning for a private breakfast on the shore this morning at the Wailea Marriott. 

Gone Till Fall

 The ladies are off traveling yet again, so no more ocean swims with them until autumn sometime.

We did manage one last swim this morning with a talking Lobster, lots of grunting fish, two White Tip Reef Sharks, a Spotted Eagle Ray, many Green Sea Turtles, and many other fishies.

Click HERE for lots more photos from today's swim.

Wind Riders

 I had some time to kill while waiting for the printer to finish work on some photographs of mine, so I hopped over to the windsurfing/kitesurfing beach for a few minutes this afternoon.

Trade winds have returned after a hiatus and lots and lots of people were out taking advantage of the fresh breeze.

Lifting Forks

Despite a High Surf Warning, a fair sized contingent showed up for our weekly Sunday morning ocean swim.

Silly us! Visibility was so poor that the first underwater shot I attempted did not contain any swimmers. I couldn't find them and they couldn't find me. And this was from less than ten feet apart.

So we turned back to shore and got our exercise lifting forks at Amigo's.

Drone On and On

 Drone photography has become de rigueur at way too many shoots these days.

Yes, a drone shot may provide an excellent contextual point of view; but only rarely have I seen any drone shots from weddings or portrait sessions which have any artistic merit whatsoever. And now that everyone (except me) is using them, the novelty is quickly wearing off.

Then again - use of a drone on the family portrait in the top photo did keep the boys fully engaged...

Another Ahihi Adventure

 This was another morning of ocean adventures.

Waves were surging a little too much for us to be able to get into some of our favorite tight spots, but we got close.

Click HERE for more photos from today's swim.

Too Many Sharks

 I saw four different sharks on my ocean swim this morning which was one shark too many.

Three of them were White-Tip Reef Sharks which stick to the ocean floor and run away when I approach. The other was large, and swam right by me up on the surface. I only saw the tail flick past my face, but that was more than enough and I hightailed it out of there. As usual, I did not get a photo of the large shark because I was too busy panicking.

Giant Manta Birthday Swim

 This morning the Maui Pink Cap swimmers celebrated Ted's 65th birthday by searching deep water for a sunken WWII landing craft.

Not only did we find the landing craft, but we also discovered a giant Manta Ray.

Click HERE for more photos from today's ocean swim.

First Lovebirds, Now Parrots?

 First I was seeing Lovebirds in the trees, now Parrots?

This parrot was making a lot of noise and drawing a lot of attention on the beach this morning, and there was no obvious human caretaker in sight. The parrot was loving both the freedom and the attention. It also had a GREAT laugh.

Too Many Turtles

 This morning we encountered too many Green Sea Turtles to count.

 I honestly do not have a clue as to how many we saw, but it was a lot.

At first we were excited to see them, but by the end of our ocean swim we had had enough. "Oh, no, not another turtle!"

Click HERE for more photos from today's swim.

What Price Paradise

 I hate Tomatoes here in Hawaii because they taste like Sprouts - only worse!

The seeds inside tomatoes which sit on my kitchen counter almost always begin to sprout; no matter what kind of tomato or where it was grown. And if you've ever crushed a tomato leaf and smelled it, you know that they have a strong, unique odor; but not necessarily a flavor you want to eat. Just another price we have to pay to live in paradise.

Literal Anchor

 Green Sea Turtles like to anchor themselves under ledges of rock or coral while they sleep.

This gal chose to be more literal about "anchoring" herself.

While nearby, other turtles chose more traditional methods.

Cleaner Shrimp

 Until this morning I had never seen a Cleaner Shrimp in person - well, except for in the movie "Finding Nemo" that is. This little gal was tucked under a rock and kept coming out every time fish would get near.

I also got a close up of a confection of a flower in the black and white photo at bottom.

Ray Day

 Today was a day of Rays and Turtles and Teds and Sharks.

Fun, Fun, Fun.

Click HERE for several more photos from this morning's ocean encounters with the Maui Pink Cap Swimmers.

Pollination Process

 Everybody was pitching in to help these Passion flowers with their pollination process this morning. They were all so busy seeking nectar that I was able to get very, very close to them with my camera.

And I almost missed the entire procession of life because the clump of vines at first seemed completely uninteresting. It wasn't until this butterfly caught my eye that the scene unveiled itself.

Invisible Thousands

Looking at my photographs you might think that there are huge clouds of fish along the Maui shores, and you would be right. But many of them, especially goatfish (top & bottom photos), do such an amazing job of camouflaging themselves that it takes a trained eye to spot them. While swimming on the surface this morning, these thousands of fish were almost completely invisible to me and hardly seemed worth diving down to get photographs of.

On the other hand, any of the yellow fishies are always easy to spot.

Hibiscus Closely

 I took my new underwater point-and-shoot camera with me on my walk this morning and got these three photos. The two black-and-white photos were taken using the microscope setting and are of the stamen and pistils of the same hibiscus flower.