It's not MY picture

Carol AKA "Seagrant" and I went up to Crystal River together for some photography and ended up being on a boat with a St. Pete times reporter and photographer Ron Thompson. He has one arm and it is his LEFT! and he is a working pro and a good one - amazing. My dad calls me up and says "hey your in the paper"... I had no idea.

Viz was not the best (pic res. is super low) but a bad day of UW photography is better than a good day at work.

after the newpaper pic:

Carol takes a pic of the famous "Moe" The Manatee

Carol and a young Manatee

The three of us.

Very nice. How do you avoid the crowds?

Joe

Weekdays and early - and the coldest days pack the most Manatee's But there are also times in between the tours, you can rent mini skiff type boats or a kayak and get between the crowds. Then there are some area most of the people don't find or know about.

Ooooo I just noticed I am a sting ray now - cool!

Stingray? Now you can really hurt someone Congrats.

Joe

Hey Now! I don't know if I like looking all pixellated.... And just WHAT was that newspaper photographer thinking, putting Steve's picture in the paper instead of mine!!!!???? It's got to be that fancy golden housing Steve has, for sure!!!!! B)

But the low-res pics he posted do hide some of the "stuff" in the water. Honestly there were soooo many manatee there (it froze two nights before), that so much was stirred up by the manatee it took a long time for the combination of spring flow and tidal change to clear it out.

Ok, I can pick the best manatee days, but I can't magically produce the perfect viz, that takes lots of trips and/or luck!!!

And since I wasn't exactly consulted re: posting - "me"..... <_< , I think I will reciprocate with images of the new "sting ray" member doin the manatee thang. When I saw the pic of Steve in the paper I emailed and told him "You Da Manatee Man!!"

These aren't real low-res so please forgive the stuff in the water, etc. OK, you all know I've taken much better ones on other days... Over and out, Carol

PS, Yes it was a great day!!!!!

Steve in fine form with the manatee - now THIS pic should have been in the paper!

See Steve is even trying to impress the manatee with his golden housing:

Like the smile Steve, why didn't you do THAT for the newspaper photographer..

OK pics will be better on a better viz day, but this one shows Steve is very popular with our sirenian friends. No, he isn't holding the manatee (that's a no-no), this manatee was in the middle of doing barrel rolls, but of course I blew out the pic when it turned upside down:

Maybe I need to visit the in-laws soon. They live in Ocala so I could easily get in during the week. And, the coldest day in Florida in January beats the warmest in Canada most days.

Oh you got me good on the first one BUSTED - Wait wasn't that my reverse diagnal one finned adjustment? Good thing Ron missed that one!. You'll never see Carol like that - I am quite sure she has forgotten about more dives than I will ever do.

No smiling for the paper... gotta look like serious photographers out there showing the world what we need to protect! I upped the res a little more on those - Here is another I found after the tide was clearing things out a bit.. The caption reads "That's not a piece of lettuce in your hand is it? Of course not - no feeding allowed.

Notice the flash fill to perfection on the baby's eye - so hard to light the eyes - Total luck - just thought I would point it out though

Hey Todd - is it "Yes I'm tough" - the handle ??? Well a 3mm will do it - a hood if it is really cold - That day was like 40 something degrees in Florida very rare - the 72 degree water was like a hot tub (not really) but you won't have to be that tough. But Manatee season is winding down. End of March will be it. It is a great place to practice photography - you can dive the main spring - snorkel with the Manatee work on fill flash - Over Unders with awesome natural backgrounds. It is really inexpensive also. A stop there and then heading down to the Keys or the West Palm Beach area will make for a great trip - anything to cut down on the in law time.

Here is another I found after  the tide was clearing things out a bit.. The caption reads "That's not a piece of lettuce in your hand is it?     Of course not - no feeding allowed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Steve,

Obviously!!! you need to "read" the manatee body language better, that manatee is obviously communicating to the well-known manatee pal, Carol, EXACTLY where and how it wants her to scratch!!!! I aim to please you know!

Todd, you should come down and do it with us, was just a bit of too much fun!! But yes, manatee season will be over soon and it will be spring break in March, crowds........ But I've still had some good days in March, hope for cool weather and go during the week for sure! If not plan on late Nov and Dec 06, those are actually the best months IF they are COLD, as the water clarity tends to be a bit better then before all the strong winter fronts and the crowds are less if you go prior to Xmas.

Ocala is not far at all from Crystal River!!!!

Come on down!! Carol (PS, I wear a 5mm and hood cause I'm a super-wimp and I swear I'm going to wear my 7mm but I've got the weighting so down for snorkel pics in the 5mm don't want to change right now.)

Isn't this similar to the dolphin study posted earlier today?

Yes, Joe, I am an "insider" to the information that the manatee realize that those snorkelers with the fancy gold housings who get their picture in the paper, really just don't have a clue as to what they are actually saying and what they REALLY need and want!.

As you see the underlying thing here is the manatee are conducting a very long and in-depth research on the homo sapiens who come to snorkel with them. The results are not encouraging to the manatee, to say the least. <_< We can only hope they see some bright rays among us and that despite their research the manatee will decide to spare us from constant exposure to slashing/speeding boat propellars and hulls, canal locks, power plant intake gates, plastic trash, monofilament line, hooks and crab traps constantly around our homes.

The conundrum for the manatees is, "Humans think they are the intelligent ones??". What a disappointment........

But seriously when you come see these creatures and see how curious, docile, sweet and social they are, the manatee just want to enjoy the simple things in life and they don't hold anything against us (even though they should!!!).

I wish to emulate more of their qualities in my own life!!

Carol