Marine Life & Aquascapes

Folly Cove, Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Sea anemones can move around if they choose but this particular one stayed on the same spot in Folly Cove for years. I photographed it with a close up kit that attached to the 35mm flat port lens on my Nikonos III camera. It was shot on Kodachrome film which yields brilliant color and makes excellent prints when printed directly from the slide. Unfortunately Kodachrome had a particular layer in the emulsion that made it hard to get a good scan for reproduction. It takes a bit of work to get it to look as brilliant as the original. • This year (2009) Kodak discontinued Kodachrome which had been around since the 1930s. With film speeds as slow as ASA 64 and 25, it was virtually grainless and could capture remarkable detail. • Little by little, old standbys disappear forever and there is a different and unfamiliar reality to deal with. It’s almost like losing an old friend. Goodbye old chrome!

Cathedral Rocks, Rockport, Massachusetts

Bob Mannino was my dive buddy this day back in the late 1970s. He was lobstering while I was shooting pictures. The midday sun beams created an ethereal aura around him. That his face and features were in shadow eliminated all things personal. He became an abstraction, a cypher of himself but a declaration of man’s glorious life in the sea from whence all life on earth did come. I call this shot, “The Descent of Man.”

The Dry Salvages, Rockport, Massachusetts

There was a time in my life when the expense of supporting a family had reduced my photography to black and white in ambient light only. • In these low visibility waters, color photography requires flash and my flash unit was so old that when it finally died, I could no longer get parts or even batteries for it. The cost to replace it was way beyond my reach but black and white was still relatively inexpensive, especially to someone with a darkroom. • So I spent six years shooting high speed b&w film pushed to its limit by underexposing and overdeveloping to compensate for the low light levels underwater. In shallow water sufficient shadow detail could still be obtained. At greater depths, midtones dropped out and the images would be very contrasty. • But I had no choice. If I wanted to shoot any photos at all, this is how I had to do it until I finally could see my way clear to buying some new equipment. • This shot was taken in 15 feet of water on a rough day with lots of surge current. I was being tossed around like a plastic bag in an updraft. But the aquascape had perspective, good shapes and textures and the waving of the kelp fronds added sensuous shapes and showed the direction of motion. • Sometimes I prefer to tone my b&w images for greater visual interest and to evoke a deeper emotional response whether it’s a feeling of nostalgia or mystery.

The Dry Salvages, Rockport, Massachusetts

Taken in 50-60 feet of water at the Dry Salvages. When I came upon the scene, there was no lobster, just this lovely aquascape of native algae. It was the garden-like appearance I was trying to capture. Just as I was about to snap the shutter, the lobster came charging out from his hiding place in the seaweed coming straight at me as if challenging me to a fight. They are fearless critters!

Cathedral Rocks, Rockport, Massachusetts

Starfish feeding on mussels among the rocky peaks of Cathedral Rocks.

Loblolly Point, Rockport, Massachusetts

One thing that sets my photography apart from most others in this area is my choice of seaweeds for subject matter. I don’t know of any other published photographer of these waters who photographs them and I can’t understand why. • Technically, seaweeds are not plants because they draw no nutrients from the soil nor do they return any nutrients to the soil which is why they are called algae and our waters abound with them. They come in various sizes, shapes and colors from the low-growing red irish moss to the long, thick-bladed golden-brown kelp fronds. They can fasten themselves hard to the rocks or drift like tumbling tumble weed in the currents, piling up along walls and collecting in thick layers in crevices. They wave to me as if beckoning me into their sensuous folds and I am seduced by their subtle, understated beauty. • This shot was taken in about 20 feet of water along Loblolly Point on black and white film in ambient light. It has been digitally scanned and colorized.

Pebble Beach, Rockport, Massachusetts

Like a low-flying airplane, a sea raven takes flight casting its shadow across the submerged landscape of the reefs at Pebble Beach.

Lanesville Shore, Gloucester, Massachusetts

This healthy specimen of flounder would make dinner for two. Flounder can often be approached quite closely if you do it slowly. Not content with a static pose, I nudged this one into a swim through the lush undersea gardens along Lanesville shore.

Old Garden Beach, Rockport, Massachusetts

School of pollack, Marblehead, Massachusetts

The Dry Salvages, Rockport, Massachusetts

At depths of 40-60 feet, sponge life is prolific and very colorful. The pink encrustation on the rocks is a coraline algae.

Straitsmouth Island, Rockport, Massachusetts

Along the northern shoreline of Straitsmouth Island just beyond Rockport Harbor are some very cool fissures in the bedrock ledge that descend below the water line and are covered with lush seaweed gardens that are so very beautiful to swim through.

Whale Cove, Rockport, Massachusetts

On the other side of Straitsmouth Island is a small cove. At the outer mouth of the cover is a small hump of bedrock ledge that nearly breaks the surface at low tide. It has some wonderful rock formations covered with marine life.