Orange II

This photo was taken in my Mom's backyard. There were beautiful, colorful trees all around the yard, but these pretty orange leaves really stood out.

Seasonal II

I absolutely love how this photo turned out. This was taken at Parksville Lake in Benton, TN. It's very close to the Ocoee River. The fall colors were absolutely beautiful along the lake. The calm waters gave a perfect reflection of the changing leaves.

Hanging

On Saturday, we ended up visiting two different apple orchards. These Arkansas Black apples were growing at Schultz Farm in Athens, TN. It isn't a very large orchard, but it has beautiful views!

Orange

My sweet girl, Lucy! She has that nice, mutt orange color. Miss Lucy is very independent, except when there are storms in the area.

Tranquility

I loved the fall colors and the chapel in this picture. This was taken on the campus of Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tennessee.

Ordinary

He's not your ordinary scarecrow!

Seasonal

Disguise

Every year business and communities around the Historic Roswell Square are invited to participate in a scarecrow competition. There are always some really neat scarecrows.

I thought this guy had a pretty interesting disguise.

Fresh

Pretty mums I spotted while out for an afternoon walk.

Sentimental II

I couldn't decide between this shot and the first one for this theme. So, you get two!

Perspective II

A shot on our way back from the summit, looking up at the blue sky. I thought looking up the trail, toward the sky, was a bit of a different perspective.

Open

This is along the trail to the summit of Huckleberry Knob. To the left, at the top of the tree line, you can barely see the summit.

Monochrome II

Lots of green leaves. I especially liked the sun shining through them.

Sentimental

From the summit of Huckleberry Knob, North Carolina. These mountains aren't too far from where I grew up and we have a family reunion in the area every year.

Perspective

A stack of rocks on top of Huckleberry Knob. Not your typical view from the top of a mountain! It was a beautiful, clear day to hike to the summit.

Clustered

A cluster of beautiful, orange leaves. These were one of the few colorful groups I saw over the weekend. There's still about 3 weeks to go before the real color shows up in the mountains.

Random Assortment

This past weekend I took a quick jaunt down to the Georgia Aquarium. Here is a random group of some of the shots I ended up with.


When we first arrived, volunteer divers were still down in a few of the tanks. Here, this diver is feeding the fish a mixture of shrimp and krill. How cute is that little dude checking out the diver?


Leopard Ray.




If I can't see an octopus in Curacao, at least I can in Atlanta!




There was also a classic car show going on at the aquarium. This is a shot of the colorful lights reflecting on one of the cars.


Tallulah.


Nandi.

Massive

Look at the size of those groupers!

Monochrome

Solitary or Singular

An Atlantic Sea Nettle on display at the Georgia Aquarium.

¡Voy a Cuba!

Y'all, I think I'm going to Cuba! How crazy is that?

I've been invited on a week long legal research program scheduled for the spring of 2011. Because it's an educational trip, it fully meets the U.S. restrictions on travel to and from Cuba. We'll meet with local attorneys, judges, and professors to learn about Cuba's legal system.

I am really excited about the opportunity and hope that everything works out so that I'll be able to go. It would be even better if I was able to get some diving in while visiting! Hopefully, there will be another diver on the trip!

In other news, not a whole lot on the photo front lately. My inspiration will come back eventually. Hopefully, it's not too far away!

Random Assortment

Until my photography motivation returns, here are a few random photos from Curacao.

Seaside

Another shot of a Kadushi cactus. This time, however, it includes a view of the Carribbean Sea. I took this shot on our first night in Curacao.

Green II

I was able to shoot photos of two iguanas while on our trip. We saw more than this, but I wasn't able to get photos taken. The number of photos I have of the two I saw is just obscene! :) I took lots of photos of them! This one was a favorite since I was able to get pretty close.

Sky

A view from our flight. I really have no clue what islands we were flying over when I took this photo. I loved the look of the clouds and the beautiful, blue colors!

Vehicle

This is how we traveled around Curacao. This boat, the Palavos, took us to our dive destinations around the north side of the island.

Green

There were cacti everywhere on Curacao. Mostly, we saw these Kadushi cacti around our resort.

A Week of Firsts

This past week in Curacao was full of firsts* for me. I've only recently become certified as an open water diver, having completed my course and check out dives in early April. Heading down to Curacao, I had logged 12 dives, 5 of those coming after certification. At the end of this trip, I now have 27 logged dives!

Our group stayed at the Kura Hulanda Lodge Resort. The resort is located on the Northwest side of Curacao and is pretty secluded. We were about a 10-15 minute walk from a few local restaurants and about a 25 minute drive from a grocery store. The resort, however, was really pretty with lots of flowers and vegetation. We all ended up being upgraded to ocean view suites, which was especially nice.

Our trip included 6 days of two tank boat diving. All our dives were with Ocean Encounters West, and the two guides which led our dives were great. We were all up early for breakfast and then at the boat by 8:00 a.m. Typically, we were in the water by 9:00 or 9:30 and headed back to the dock by early afternoon. The package also included all the offshore diving we wanted (so long as we were safely within the dive tables) at the house reef, Alice in Wonderland. We were able to dive at some really pretty reefs: Rediho, Playa Jeremi, Playa Hulu, Watamula (so beautiful!), Mushroom Forest, Alice in Wonderland, Paradise Reef, Hell's Corner, Santa Cruz, Portomari, Seldom Reef, and Elvin's Plane Wreck.

Our first day, we dove at Rediho and Playa Jeremi. Rediho was my first ocean dive! It was amazing to finally descend down into the sea and marvel at the reef and its inhabitants. I had a list of 9 sea creatures I wanted to see, and none of them were on this dive. I saw my first moray eel at Playa Jeremi and was able to tick off one of the creatures on my list. I was able to mark off a total of 4 from the list throughout the week.

We saw a lot of marine life on the dives. Of the many things we saw, some of the standouts for me were: spotted moray eel, coronet fish, angelfish, a baby spotted drum, a sea cucumber, christmas tree worms, green moray and one that I have decided was a golden tail moray, a scorpion fish, lionfish, parrotfish, porcupine fish, sea turtles (3!), sea urchins, really big lobsters, southern stingray, yellow snapper, tarpons (which were the largest of the fish we saw), and flounder. I had no clue that flounder changed colors. They were beautiful!

One of the dives we did was a deep dive so that I could check that off my specialty dives. My instructor wrote down four math problems for me which I would attempt to solve at depth. We hoped to get down to 125 feet without any problems. As it turns out, I made it to a depth of 122 feet and got 3/4 questions right (It's important to note, that being at a depth of 122 feet is like being under the influence of nearly 4 martinis, so getting a math problem wrong isn't that uncommon!).

In addition to the deep dive, we also did one night dive. Diving in the ocean at night is completely different than diving during the day. Everything takes on a different character when all you have is a dive light, and the lights of the rest of your group. It's also when all the creepy crawlies come out!

I have five sea creatures left on my list, although I'm sure more will be added as I delve more into diving. Currently, an octopus, dolphin (during a dive), seahorse, marlin, and a shark are waiting to be seen!

Scuba diving is something I have always had an interest in, and it's something that I never really thought that I would be able to do. I've always loved to swim and be in the water, I just never really knew people who dove regularly. I am so happy that I took on this sport and this adventure! I cannot wait to go on more dive trips!

Next up will be to finish my specialty courses and check out dives and to log the remaining 23 needed to complete my Master Diver Certification. Once completed, I will be specialized (hopefully) in Cavern, Nitrox, Deep Diving, Search and Rescue, and Navigation.

More adventures await . . .

* For the record, I will not be buying a round of drinks due to this blog post. You know who you are!

Beach Scenes

This is one of my favorite photos from Curacao. It was taken from one of the dive boats on our way out to a dive site. It is an HDR blend of three exposures.

Dusk

Sunset on Playa Kalki. This was the view of the sunset from the beach at our resort. We didn't see a lot of bright, colorful sunsets, but they were pretty all the same.

Morning

I just returned from a week long vacation to Curacao. It was great! The trip was my first centered completely around scuba diving. This shot was taken Friday morning before our last set of dives.

Cool

This past weekend I found myself back down in the Ponce De Leon, Florida area for two days of diving. Two dives at Vortex Springs and 3 dives at Morrison Springs.

This is an early morning shot overlooking Morrison Springs. The springs are surrounded by a cypress swamp and were really clear and cold!

Blossom II

Taken in the Fuqua Orchid Conservatory at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The Sporting Life

Giuseppi's Marina in Niceville, Florida. The marina is located on Boggy Bayou where it opens into Choctawhatchee Bay.

Pair

I spotted these two lizards while in line at a Wendy's drive-thru. They were hanging out on the speaker pole and were definitely unexpected!

Wildlife

A blue poison dart frog.