A morning at the Grotto
This is a shot
from the parking
lot. The Grotto is
a underwater
cave that had
the roof cave in.
It's a long way
down and even
longer on the
way back up.
We're walking, walking...
Almost there.
When the water calms
down we cross over to the
boulder in the water.
Tammy getting ready to
jump in.
Splash.
Some other divers doing a
safety stop.
Tammy heading out the right hole
which is the smallest of the 3
large holes. Looks like she is
taking a picture along the way.
Once outside we find some
of the usual suspects
hanging out.
A few other species as I head to
the left looking for something on
a wall that I can practice taking
close wide angle pictures of.
After just swimming for a about 15
minutes I finely find this guy down at
50. It is in between two huge boulders
that are almost, but not quite touching.
My goal for the day was to get something with a sunburst behind it. This
means I have to have the right angle below it to have the sun in the frame
from above. This guy was positioned almost perfect and I got off a few
shots before air and bottom time required I head back up.
Not sure which one of these I like best but am
leaning towards this one. The sun is not where I
wanted it but you can see the water on both sides
and the body is lit a little better then the others.
































Keep in mind it is looking down and I am looking
almost strait up which means I have to hold my
breath for awhile to make sure no bubbles are in
the shot.
After I leave the Eel I go
find Tammy who is taking
macro shots of nudies and
such.
I head back in the middle hole and decide to take a few pictures of the
fans inside the Grotto. I've been practicing using the strobe to light up
my close subject while not creating scatter so the far subject looks
good as well. These settings were working quite well today.































As I was taking pictures this Travally came around the corner out of
nowhere and swam right at me. This lens is 14mm equivalent and this
shot was from less then 1/3 meter away. I had just taken a shot and the
strobe was charging so I couldn't get a shot off before it turned away.
Might as well take one of
me while I'm at it.
During my stop I took a few shots
of the left hole and the light
reflections on the surface. I think
this looks supper cool.
No pictures of the climb back up. It's too hard to
take pictures with the port wet and all the stairs.

So there you have it. A typical hour dive at the
Grotto. You always see something a little different
and it is by far my favorite dive site on Saipan. If I
had taken my macro lens you would have seen a
whole other world I didn't even touch on.