Reef Landscape, Crescent Bay, Kona, Hawai'i

[sabbath999]

 

[JamesMason]

So sad to see reefs like this bleached so much

 

[--ares--]

I'm kinda new here, but I just have to say, your underwater shots are so neat!

 

[sabbath999]

It is not bleached at all... that is the effect of water absorbing the visual colors as the rays of light hit objects in the picture further away from where we are. If we (the viewer) were the same distance from the reef in the background of the picture as we are from the foreground, the colors would look just as vivid.

The reef here is quite healthy!

Bleaching is a problem in a lot of areas... the biggest problems with Kona's reefs were caused by massive destruction by a hurricane in the 1990's. This is old growth reef in an area protected from southern exposure by a point of land.

 

[JamesMason]

Excuse my ignorence. My lack of geography skills lead me to believe that Hawaii was close to the equator, and my lack of common sense lead me to believe that it would be vivd in the background too.

Kind of embarrassing to not work that out as a fish lover, environmentalist and a photographer, so im going to blame it on the bout of swine flu that im suffering with.

by the way, as always its a great shot

 

[sabbath999]

Thanks.

One thing that is not obvious in the picture is how far away we are from the further formations... there was 150-200 foot visibility on that day, so those far formations are quite a way from us.

The close formation goes down into a little valley where there is some sand, and then that next area is a hill back up about 80 or 90 feet away... then there is another little valley and another little hill about 150 feet away (the far rocks). This is quite a common formation in this area where hot lava flowed into the sea...

 

[ErectedGryphon]

I love it, I wish I had a better, and underwater, camera when I lived there. All of my shots from Hawaii are above water, and only 1.2 mega pixel.

Keep up the great work sabbath, I look forward to the next post.

 

[lugbibe]

I thought it might be nice for everyone who needs this to write down why here. The issue tracker thread is for votes only. I'll start.