Under the Sea of St. John

Like I mentioned the other day-Mr. P and I totally went scuba diving on our little excursion down in St. John.  We carved out three wonderful days to swim with the fishes and other sea critters.  As luck would have it, my underwater camera died on the first dive of the first day.   Sad face.  Totally dead.  It wouldn't even PRETEND to work.  Zip. Zero. Nadda.

I'm not the best at the whole underwater photography thing.  It takes skill and practice and a kick butt set up with lights and some other crazy contraptions.  I just have had a little point and shoot camera jobby with an onboard flash.  And not that much skill.   I first started taking pictures so I could look at stuff in a book and have a photo reference after the dive.  The last time we went diving, I took this pic:

Yes- Sir- E-Bob-that's a stingray.
I think it's the one that killed the Crocodile Hunter.
Or maybe not.  Probably not.  But it could be.

So when my camera croaked on me, I did the selfless thing that any loving wife would do.  I stole Mr. P's video camera.  That was new.   Imagine me, "film maker of the sea" with the whole underwater world at my whim for two whole days... I'm pretty sure I made every subject a total star.  Or-maybe not.   Here's a couple ("couple" ranging from two to twelve, per the definition of how many cookies we could have when my brother and I were kids)  of videos from the trip.  I won't bore you with all of them.  Promise.  If nothing else, you might be entertained by the "darth vader" noises of my breathing underwater.  

The first is the rare Mr. P fish.  I see one of these every time I dive, but others do not.  They seem somewhat friendly when approached.  Note the fine cinematography and use of light.

And then we have the elusive Gray Angelfish.  I don't think he wanted to be on camera.  That's probably why his butt was pointed my way most of the time.  What can I say?  Not every fish is ready for the camera or my rockin' awesome video skills.....

And these underwater thingys.  I can't remember what they're technically named and I forgot that they did this-it scared the beegeebies (whatever that is) out of me!  

 Lastly, the encounter with the pair of triggerfishes.  The proper name for these beauties is Balistes Vetula, but what fun is it to be proper?  Most folk just call them Queen Triggerfishes.  I guess sometimes they're also known as the Old Wife Fish, but that doesn't seem very glamorous or very camera worthy.