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crocodile diving

Crocodile Diving in Tulum and Helping Sharks!

We ended our whale shark expedition and had a couple of days to relax and just do nothing if we wanted to, but that just wouldn’t be our style, the Yucatan is rich with animal life and we needed to go and find something wild.

BUT FIRST…

fishermen turning in their tools of the trade.

We said goodbye to our friends on Isla Mujeres, and then a few hours later, we attended a ceremony to celebrate, and kick off the new Shark Eco-tourism project on Isla Mujeres. It is an exciting project that will hopefully change the lives of many people for the better, and save thousands of sharks. The Saving our Sharks conservation group has secured funding and has reached an agreement with the commercial shark fishermen cooperative to try ecotourism vs. Shark Fishing. This is a three year project that will hopefully create annual sustainable income for the fishermen by taking tourists out to see sharks vs killing them.

Talking to the shark fishermen about my experiences with eco-tourism and it’s financial importance to the local economies.

There are many stages to this project and it is going to take a lot of work to make it happen, but it is exciting to think that if it does work, real change will have happened here… for the people, for the sharks, for the island and for our oceans.

I sit on the board for this organization and am extremely proud to be a part of it and will do what I can to try and help it succeed. Anyway, I am going to write many blogs about this project, because there are so many layers to it, but first… an adventure post.

Tamara and Sophia prepping tanks at the cenote.

After we left Isla Mujeres, Mari, Sophia and I had a couple of days to rest and relax before we went home, but decided instead to check out some spots that I had been hearing about. Originally we wanted to go back to Punta Laguna, near Coba to photograph spider monkeys and howler monkeys, but instead decided to check a croc spot in a cenote in the city of Tulum.

Tulum is not really a place I spend much time at. I am not really a fan of how fast the place is growing. I liked it the way it used to be, as a small one horse town. Now, it’s turned into little Hollywood, just not my thing. A lot of people like it, but I like smaller places; Less people, more nature. But Tulum does have some Cenotes with pretty exciting wildlife in them, and that is why I am here.

I had been hearing stories about a morelet’s crocodile named Panchita, made famous by the locals, that was hanging around one of the cenotes in town. I filed the story away in the back of my mind as a one day I will check it out.

Slowly more and more photos and videos started surfacing of Panchita and that was it… I decided we needed to check out. So I called up a friend who works in the area, and Maritza, Sophia and I went to see what it was the locals were raving about and yup, I am a fan.

Our buddy Tamara works with one of the local dive shops that specializes in cave diving and cenotes. She happily set us up to find this beautiful little croc. This was my first time seeing this species, so I was on fire to snap some images of the beauty. There was a very specific shot I was after, which is the crocodile ascending, to the surface from the depths below, with mangroves in the back ground. That is the shot I had in my mind’s eye.

One of the images I had envisioned.

The morelet’s croc is a small species, they do not get very big, maybe six feet on average. The one here in the cenote is extremely habituated, and super very well behaved. She is used to seeing snorkelers and swimmers all day long, and everyday, so she is very tolerant.

However most people who visit this particular cenote are not expecting to see a croc, and react in one of two ways, either with fear or fascination. I watched from below on scuba as she was swimming around on the surface, tourist snorkelers swimming all over the place, most not knowing she was there. But the moment they would see here… it turned to complete chaos . A couple was snorkeling right next to her and never saw her. The guy turned and saw her, and freaked the hell out. He panicked, and then his girl panicked and they both swam away from her as fast as possible. Thankfully there are guides there to make sure no one really harasses or grabs her.

Of course, one of the guides thought I was too close and aggressively asked me to move back, which I did. But moments later allowed his snorkeling guests to come in and see her as they finlessly kicked and flailed towards her, trying to get a closer look. Eight snorkelers all flapping around trying to look at her. She tired of them, and then tucked herself away into an area where they could not get close to her, because they were on snorkel. She has a few hiding spots like that through out the cenote to evade her gawking fans so she can hang out in peace, which is cool.

Darter swimming. Really want another shot at photographing this beauty.

She tucked up on one of her spots, and we quietly entered to watch her for a bit and then left her alone to rest, and went off to find one of the other residents of this cenote, a diving bird called a Darter, or Anhinga, or a snake bird. These birds dive down into the water and swim around hunting for fish, they have a snake like neck that they coil and use their beak like a spear, piercing the fish when they hunt. Their bill has serrated edges to keep the fish from sliding off once it is stabbed. Wicked cool birds.

The bird was hunting for fish and it allowed me to follow it along, I tried hard to get a close up shot of it underwater, but I never did get close enough. I got a few shots, but none that I was excited about. Looks like I need to get back there, and soon!

One of my favorite shots of the day.

After I finished dancing around with my bird, we went back to check out the croc and sure enough it was on the move again, so we followed her around and then it happened, Panchita dove down, and slowly rose back up. I was on fire, snapping shot after shot, hoping that one or two of them would come out. She swam around for a while longer, dropping down a few more times, I fired away. I was not sure how the images were going to come out, because she dropped a few times in spots that were pretty shadowy so I wasn’t sure if they were going to come out.

A few times she rested in spots on the surface where the sun light was directly overhead and I snapped a few of those shots, hoping one or two of them would work out. I could of stayed with this beautiful croc for hours, but my Sophia was turning blue from the cold water. I had not realized it had almost been three hours of diving.

We called it a day and headed back to the spot where we exited the cenote. Right by the steps, I looked down and got one more final treat, a blue crab had climbed out of its hiding hole into the light and was walking along the bottom on a boulder covered in green algae, giving a beautiful color contrast to its brilliant blue body. I stopped to snap a couple of shots of it before it scurried off.

I surfaced and there was Tamara with her gopro in hand asking the three of us if we were happy or extremely happy. The three of us at the same time said, “extremely happy”.

It was such a good day and such a good dive. Thanks again to Tamara, we are already looking forward to our return to this crazy town, for another shot at this perfect croc.

Thank you for reading.

A trio of Badass ladies; Tamara, Maritza, and Sophia.

New Video Blog - Crocodile Diving

A quick vlog from our crocodile diving trip this past 2021. These are Stories from the Road. Part of our weekly shares is going to be clips from our adventures. I have years of videos I have recorded from our different adventures and when we are not out on the road creating new videos to share. I will bring out stories from the past. To kick off the first video from this series, here is a video with me and David out in Banco Chinchorro swimming with crocodiles.

Crocodile Diving off Banco Chinchorro... Three day Report

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July 20, 2021 - I am in Banco Chinchorro right now, and we just finished up our first day of crocodile diving, and what a freaking day it was. We had six crocodiles show up, including Gambit and Negro, a couple of the big stars of this amazing place. The water visibility was not the best. Sadly it was nothing like the water we experienced last season. But we had six crocodiles today and a bunch of thrilled, happy divers.

Yesterday I picked up our guests from Cancun, and we headed to Xcalak, Mexico, which is about 5 1/2 hours away. It is a fun afternoon of driving. After we arrived, we said hello to the staff. I was excited, saying hi to my buddy Mathias who is our croc safety diver on the trip. It is always a good time when we get together. After we checked into our hotel and the dive shop, we filled out all the legal paperwork for the dive shop, which basically says we will not sue if a croc misbehaves. The typical stuff we have to do before we go diving with big toothy predators. 

We overnighted at the hotel, woke up at 7 AM for a quick breakfast, loaded up our gear on a panga, and made a very wet and bumpy crossing to Banco Chinchorro. Those wet rides are never fun, but it's the price of admission sometimes to find magic, and it has always been worth it.

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This is day one of a three-day adventure. When we arrived in Banco Chinchorro, we did a quick dive to try and find some lionfish to use as bait for the crocs. Lionfish are the only bait we are allowed to feed the crocs. Banco is a protected marine reserve, and they try to protect the wildlife here. Unfortunately, lionfish are an invasive species, and they are voracious eaters. They decimate local fish populations, so we do what we can to try and remove them when we see them. 

After the dive, we motored over to our cabana on the water. Casa Matraca (named after the old fisherman who owns this cabin) is where we will be staying for the next few days. It is rustic and old, but it is fantastic, and the view is impressive. 

After a quick lunch, the first croc showed up. Then a second one, then a third. By the end of the day, we had six different crocodiles visit us, including the star of Banco Chinchorro, Gambit. He is a big 3-meter croc and super tolerant of us divers, but very territorial towards other crocs. He is so mellow and a dream crocodile to encounter. He seems to love the attention and will chase off any other croc that comes into his area. He does not like to share. 

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We spent the rest of the day swimming with them, all of us excited to be there. It makes me happy knowing that the guests we bring here enjoy being around these animals. These positive interactions do a lot towards helping change how people see and feel about these predators.

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Ok, passing out, the ocean crossing, and a full day in the water kicked my ass. It is draining, but I am so damn happy. Tomorrow I will write more. 

July 21, 2021 - There is something so satisfying about waking up super early to climb on a boat and go diving. I love that so much. So we woke up, had a quick cup of coffee, and then motored over to a dive site to look for lionfish and see what was swimming around at this beautiful reef. While Mathias was hunting for lionfish, I looked around for turtles and whatever else was swimming around. We were greeted by a friendly nurse shark that loves to follow spearfishermen around, hoping to steal a free meal off of a speargun. 

While swimming around, I happened upon a big barracuda at a cleaning station. It was pretty neat seeing that. The cuda was all black, and when it left the cleaning station, it turned silver again. I wonder if that is something they do to show the cleaner fish it means them no harm? Not sure.

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After the dive, we returned to our hut and ate breakfast. We tried to chum in some crocs, but Mathias said it was too early for the crocs to show up. So we jumped on the boat and went to the Island to look at the local wildlife there. They have a healthy iguana population there; blacks and red iguanas are all over the Island. They are one of the staple meals for crocodiles on the Island. A healthy iguana population is why there are more than 500 crocodiles on Banco Chinchorro. Pretty wild. 

The big question is how the crocodiles got to Banco Chinchorro. One theory is they swam over from mainland Mexico many years ago. Another is researchers brought a pair to the island to help control the iguana population. The iguanas were eating all the bird eggs and to help the bird populations, they felt this could be a solution.

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After the brief visit on the Island, we returned to our hut and began chumming for crocs. We did not have to wait long. Negro returned. He was with us all day yesterday. We spent all day with him, and he put on a hell of a show. We also had three other crocs come in. One came in for about a minute, did not like what it saw, and then went back to the Island. Cut tail came in for a little while. It is another local superstar. She has a crooked jaw; my guess is from a fight with a bigger croc. She is always great to have around, and she is a solid player. 

A new croc that showed up was this little croc, Mathias named Matraca because most of it’s teeth are missing. Like the owner of our hut. Lol. I have been calling her Baby M. Anyway, Baby M was a little shy, but still came in and stayed the rest of the day. It kept coming up to Negro, not sure why? Usually the little crocs want nothing to do with the big crocs, but this one was pretty brave. 

Baby M and Negro.

Baby M and Negro.

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Overall it was a fantastic day with many opportunities for our guests to capture a lot of images. We still have one more day out here, and I am hoping that Gambit will return. Usually, when Gambit shows up on day one, she will not return the following day if she eats. Hoping she comes in tomorrow. We will see?

July 22, 2021 - We are back in Mainland Mexico. We left Chinchorro around 2 PM after a fun day with some crocodiles. It was not as exciting as the previous two days, but it was still good. Crocodiles are just amazing animals. They are so misunderstood, and we have so much to learn from them. I genuinely hope that dives like these are just the beginning of what is possible.

We woke this morning and went off for a morning dive to try and find lionfish. Thankfully it is getting more difficult to find them, which means we are doing some good. There are still many of these animals down deep, but here on the reefs that we can reach, there are very few. At least these reefs are safer for the local fish populations.

After the dive, we went back to our cabin, ate a quick breakfast, and then started chumming for the crocs. It took a couple of hours, but finally, a croc swam out of the mangroves and right towards us. It turned out to be Matraca, or Baby M as I called her, of course, she is still very shy, so we kept chumming, hoping for a bigger, more confident croc to arrive. About twenty minutes into the dive, a second one came. Then a third. We finished the day with four crocs around us. The dive was so much fun and a great way to finish up the trip. 

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I want to thank our friends who joined us out there, I truly appreciate it, you guys mean the world to me. Tomorrow we finish up our trip here in Xcalak for a quick look around to see if we can find manatees.

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We will see?

Thank you all for reading.

New Crocodile Video up on Youtube.

I edited a video from our 2020 Crocodile Diving Expedition. I wanted to create something a little different and share a more poetic look at these ancient creatures. Crocodiles are so misunderstood, yes you need to respect them, because they can be dangerous. However if you follow the rules they can be very safe to dive with. Hope you enjoy this video…

Journal Notes of our Croc Diving Trip #2

July 6, 2019 - Sitting here at Banco Chinchorro at the end of the day. This was our first day of croc diving and it went well. Gambit showed up to give our friends one hell of a show. Of course, she was not the first to show up, we had a small croc show up, around 6 feet in length and she was a sweet little hot fire. I had not met her before, I don’t think? We also had a third croc come in, one I know I have seen before. It has a crooked jaw and one bottom tooth that sits square in the middle of its face. He also has a big portion of his tail missing. Whether it was bitten off or cut off I am not sure, but it is gone. Just makes it easy to identify the croc from a distance.

A croc named Bobo. His/her tail has been chopped off. Gambit (below) getting a snack.

A croc named Bobo. His/her tail has been chopped off. Gambit (below) getting a snack.


Mark going through footage.

Mark going through footage.

Our guests who joined us had a good time and enjoyed the crocs, not that I didn’t think they wouldn’t. But it is always nice and my favorite part of any trip we do when we know that someone truly appreciates these animals the way I do. We still have two more days of croc diving to go before we head back to mainland. Just happy it was a good day, with a kick ass crossing. Super freaking happy about that. Nothing worse than a shit ass crossing, (last week’s crossing was horrible). Now - all that is left for our day; pour through today’s images ( I think I managed one or two today that I am happy with), eat dinner, super hungry right now, and hit the hammock for a good nights sleep. Till tomorrow. 

July 7, 2019 - 8PM. Today was a tough day for crocs, they just did not want to play. We had them come in, but they did not want to hang around, they were super skittish. They would come in, and within minutes, they would leave. Felt crappy for the boys, because that is why they are here, but that is nature, and you get what you get.  They are all still fired up because of yesterday’s action. We spent about six hours with them, so that was good. But I still wanted some better action for them. The crew from XTC tried super hard to get them to come in, but they just didn’t want to play. We had thunder and rain storms come in hard for a while, which may have contributed to why the crocs did not want to come in? Not sure?

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The highlights for the day was the dive this morning, we went out hunting for lion fish for bait for the crocs, we ended up killing 19 of them, with a few escapes. Garin, one of our guests hunts lion fish in Bermuda where he lives, so we gave him a spear and it was comedy when he had a few of them escape when he shot at them. Mark recorded a video of it and you can hear Mark laughing and giving him hell when it happened. Love that a bond between these guys and this group is building.

We also visited the ranger station to get a look at the crocs and iguanas on the beach. The iguanas are shedding right now and getting their amazing breeding colors in, they look so freaking beautiful. We played with the crocs on the beach, one of the locals brought some bait out for us and called in the crocs. A couple of them came in. They are obviously bringing them out onto the beach, becuase these crocs came right out of the water at us. 

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I am flat out just a wildlife junky, becuase I was trying to capture images of everything on the island (wildlife); I snapped a couple shots of an anole. They have two species, one comes from mainland Mexico, the other is an endemic species. I captured a picture of the mainland species. My next trip out is this coming August, I will try for the endemic one. One of my favorite things about the island is it’s an amazing place for a hard to find warbler species; Mangrove warblers. Every time I visit the island, my goal is to try and capture better and better images of these cute little birds. On this trip, I captured a picture of a female mangrove warbler and I snapped a shot of the male last week - I was pretty happy with that shot, but fired up I captured a nice picture of the female as well.

Female mangrove warbler. Below is the male and a pic of the anole.

Female mangrove warbler. Below is the male and a pic of the anole.

Over all a decent day of wildlife, our guests all got some great images of everything we experienced here. I also captured a bunch of video clips, will try to load them onto our youtube channel later. Now we just need some better in water action for our guests, hoping tomorrow (which is our final day), is better.

July 8, 2019 -  It is late as shit, tired and bit on the feeling good side. We returned from Chinchorro. It turned into a super amazing trip. Today we had crocs! In fact we had five different crocs visit us. Our final day was the stuff dreams are made of, our guests had an amazing time and they all captured images they are happy with and spent some quality time with very different croc personalities. Our buddy Greg had just bought a new camera before this trip and happy I was able to help him dial it in so that he could snap some images he was happy with.

From the very mellow Gambit, to the super fiery Pinto. We also had a new croc show up, which was a monster croc. Bigger than Gambit and super thick. We dubbed him Godzilla. He was new to divers and it showed. He was wild and crazy and very bitey. We had to be cautious around him. Hoping he becomes one of the regulars we see, becuase he was fun. Sadly I did not capture any video or stills of him, but hoping he returns in August.

Pinto in her usually very active mood.

Pinto in her usually very active mood.


I was pretty happy to capture hero shots of the boys with the crocs, they all wanted one. It makes for a great reminder of a really fun trip when you have a nice shot of you and the animals. Especially an animal like a crocodile. They are just an exciting species.

A gift from my buddy Christian Kemper. He wrote this book about crocs and gave me a copy of it. It is written in German so I don’t know what is says, but the pics are amazing. Thank you brother.

A gift from my buddy Christian Kemper. He wrote this book about crocs and gave me a copy of it. It is written in German so I don’t know what is says, but the pics are amazing. Thank you brother.

We left the Cabin today (Casa Matraca), and returned to Xcalak. The group loved the trip and that makes me happy. They hated leaving, but didn’t mind returning to civilization for a shower and a beer.

July 9, 2019 - Went out for a morning dive to try and find manatees. On last week’s trip we found them, which was way over due for me. I have been diving here for five years and I’ve never seen one. So it was a massive relief for me to finally capture an image of one. Sadly we didn’t see one this morning. Our group was just thrilled to get wet this morning. Diving is always a great way to start your day.

I am writing this while waiting for Andres, our driver to pick us up and take us to Playa del Carmen for our final night of the trip. I had a lot of fun with this group, the boys got on well and there was a lot of back and forth jabbing at each other. Always makes the trip a lot fun when that happens…

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July 10, 2019 - Last night we celebrated the end of the trip together, and laughed into the night. Such a great way to finish off this fun and amazing adventure. Thanks again to our friends who joined us out here and thank you to XTC, our host operator for always kicking ass for us… Until August and to my buddies, safe travels home, miss you guys already and till the next one.

Mark is missing from the picture becuase he had to leave early, but we have his passport in the pic. He was there in spirit.

Mark is missing from the picture becuase he had to leave early, but we have his passport in the pic. He was there in spirit.

Mexico Madness... Our Summer Continues.

Hey guys, so I have been super behind on blogs and vlogs and updates. So sorry about that, the craziness of our summer has begun and it is hard trying to keep everyone up to date on what we have been doing and where we have been going. Well, it is a bit easier on our social media pages, because we can drop an image to share what we did that day or week. It is fast and easy. So if you are not following us on Facebook and Instagram, get on it.

I did post a vlog from our Africa trip, well the first day of the trip. I recorded one everyday and I wanted to do all five days, but I have not been able to. Here is the reason why. Right now, I have been commissioned to provide 50 plus images for one of the big hospitals in our area, which is remodeling their entire first floor, with all new framed images, and I have been given the honor of having our wildlife pictures, of both local wildlife, and ocean wildlife for this project. So for the past month and change, I have been seeking out some of mine, and Sophia’s favorite and best images for this project. It has been super time consuming and a lot of fun. Looking forward to sharing with you guys, this project when it is done.

Anyway, I am almost finished with submitting the images and once that is done, I can try and catch up with more vlogs, blogs, and trip reports, for you guys. I need to write up Africa and Baja orcas (I am so behind). So far I have submitted 40 of the 50 images already to our printer, but I still need 10 more to go. So I promised myself this blog would be short, because I need to finish this up before I leave tomorrow for our second crocodile diving trip to Banco Chinchorro.

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This morning, I said good bye to our guests who joined us on the first trip. Writing this on the couch in our (Air BnB) apartment in Mexico. The people you meet on these trips are always cool, and it’s sad saying goodbye. We had a great week with the crocs and it was good to see Gambit again and Fireball, two crocodiles I have gotten to know through the years, they are such amazing animals. I also finally got the chance to finally see a manatee out here, it was an animal I have been really wanting to see but never got the opportunity. It was a long wait- after 5 or 6 seasons, I saw that beautiful mermaid.

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So, going to stop here because I need to get back at it. And I am going to try and keep you guys updated a bit more on this journey of mine, even if I can’t get to editing vlogs for you guys, I will start writing in this journal more. I have some crazy projects that I want to do and will be sharing as I move forward. But until then, wishing you guys an amazing summer, and I promise to keep you guys posted more.

Images I Shared this week on Social Media

MARCH 10 - 16, 2019
I was going through images this week, I shared on social media. I always try not to repost images I have shared before, so that we are always putting out something new. The thing about social media is, images are lost in time. The speed of news and storytelling is always so fast, especially on Facebook, that most images never get seen. So, I thought I would try something new this weekend and share the images here in a blog.

Well not ALL the images I posted, but just the ones from this week’s stuff. March 10 - 16 to be exact. And just the header images, since I change them out, sometimes daily. Anyway, hopefully you will enjoy this and the short stories that went with capturing the images as well. As always my friends, thank you for reading and viewing my content.


SAIL

SAIL

This capture was from our December trip. I was trying get a different angle of Patches (the great hammerhead). I love this species, their dorsal fins are so impressive. This was the first day we had her on the trip, and it during our morning dive. The thing was, we had crap weather the day before, so there was a lot of debris and sand flying around still. So the images I captured were just coming out horrible. I loved the image, but when I went to process it in photoshop, it was just coming out blah, so I decided to try playing with it in black and white, and it seemed to work. Sometimes, when you think an image is lost, try a little creativity and you never know.

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This was taken on the same day, later in the afternoon when the currents and the dust settled. We were in a very shallow spot, maybe 18 feet deep, and I was coming up at the end of the dive. I was hanging on the down line, after I believe, over an hour long dive and Patches was swimming around. Because of the earlier currents, and the previous days bad weather, the ocean floor was laid out in a beautiful perfect looking pattern. I saw her swimming below and swam out to snap this image of her from above, while she slowly swam by.

Dirty Girl

Dirty Girl

Keeping with the shark theme right now, this is Dirty Girl, one of the larger tigers hanging around tiger beach. The first season, we met her she was a very fiesty girl. Normally the tigers are just fiesty around the feeders, but she was very aggressive around the guests as well. I had to keep a very close eye on her when she would swim in. I later learned, due to the way she was behaving, that she was in season and was maybe lashing out at everyone, believing they were trying to mate with her. And if you ask, how do I know she was in season? There is something tigers do, when they are in season which is super unique, that is hard to explain without video…and she repeatedly did it.

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I am pretty sure I have shared this top image of a mom and calf in the past, however, I think I had shared in on one of my pages, and not all three. Yes I have three FB social media pages, one personal, one for our company, SDM adventures, and one for my photography, Eli Martinez. If you are not following those pages, it is a must… for awesome content, news, stories and a devastatingly handsome photographer! AND NO… I am not biased at all when I say that last bit. lol. Anyway, back to reality and my story…

Visiting Tonga and seeing first hand the relationship between mothers and calves is something you will never forget… you can feel the love in the water. The babies are babies, playing around, dancing, and sometimes breaching. The mothers are normally resting below. The babies need more air then the mothers, so they come up quite often, play for a couple of minutes then return down to her, touching her, getting reassuring nudges from her, and when they rise up together, they are constantly touching and bonding all the way up. It is so damn beautiful.

Another shot I posted this week, here is a good angle to see the touching bond between the mother and calf as she comes up for a breath of air. I snapped this image then had to swim like mad, because they were rising up and I was in their direct pat…

Another shot I posted this week, here is a good angle to see the touching bond between the mother and calf as she comes up for a breath of air. I snapped this image then had to swim like mad, because they were rising up and I was in their direct path. Well her direct path.

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This was a shot from our April 2018 visit to Machu Picchu in Peru. Still one of the coolest places I have ever visited. The magic of this place is indescribable. I wish I had done more homework when we planned the original trip, because there are nearby rainforests that I could of visited for shots at birds, monkeys and bears. Next time… we are planning a return trip to the area, possibly even organizing a trip for it. Between the rainforests and Machu Picchu, it is an epic trip.

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One of my most favorite days in the water. We encountered a pod of spotted dolphins off Bimini. This was during a trip we run for them. We had to cancel this season’s trip, there was not a lot of interest in it. Not sure why? It’s an awesome trip. Anyway, we had a pod of very friendly dolphin’s hanging around for over an hour with us. Super social, some were mating, which I captured with stills. I was on fire about that. This group of dolphins swam up to me and went through me. Of course, I WISH, they would of done that with the sun on my back, instead of in front of me, because it yellowed out this image badly. So if they had done this with the sun on my back I would of had amazingly beautiful blue water, with these dolphins, instead I had this greenish looking tint in the background.

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I tried to get as low as possible when I photographed this giant river otter in the Pantanal, Brazil. It is difficult when you are in a moving boat, trying to photograph a fast moving subject. But with a high shutter speed and ridiculous amounts of sunlight (It was freaking hot and VERY sunny when we encountered these guys), I managed to capture a few images. This was captured while these guys were hunting.

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Macro photography is new to me, but I fell instantly in love with it, when I decided to practice in my backyard, on this tiny guy. This orchard spider is no bigger than a mosquito, but I was blown away with how much color it had. LIKE WHY? Why is an animal so tiny and so colorful, it just didn’t make sense to me. So since this first session, I have gone on a crazed spider kick and will be posting a blog this week on some of my macro images I captured of this tiny predatory animals. The next level for me will be stacking images. I still have a lot to learn about it, but can’t wait to get into it. I know this is different for me, but as I travel on this photography journey of mine, learning how to shoot anything and everything when it comes to wildlife is a must, if I am ever going to be able to help someone improve their photography, especially when they are with us on our travels. I want our guests to have the best experience possible.

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I saved the craziest for last. I went through my crocodile images and found one I hadn’t shared yet from our 2018 expedition. Crocodiles are such amazing photo subjects and are a must for all big animal photographers. They are big and scary looking, mostly slow moving, and will hang around for hours, giving you plenty of opportunities to capture some unique images or behaviors. I absolutely LOVE photographing them. You can do no wrong with these guys.

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So there you go… a few of my images from this weeks posts. Hopefully you like what you see and will comment, share it, or at least give it a thumbs up. Thanks for visiting our website.

Hugs and I will hopefully see you out in the world.
- Eli