Scuba Diving – September 2019

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92 / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 SCUBADIVING.COM

TRUK LAGOON

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The appeal of Truk

Lagoon isn’t just that

it’s wide-angle bliss for

wreck afi cionados—it’s also

in the rusty, sometimes cor-

al-encrusted details.

“Truk’s wrecks still have

artifacts remaining that are

photographable,” says Mi-

chael Gerken, captain of

Odyssey, the Truk-based

liveaboard run by Odyssey

Adventures. “So many items

remain—unlike many other

wrecks, which are mostly

stripped of their fi neries.”

Look closely, and you can

focus on beer bottles, sake

bottles, artillery shells, sub-

marine periscopes and a

wealth of other wartime sup-

plies. The objects add inter-

est to any photo, sure, but

they also draw divers deeper

into the personal story of

each sunken ship.

“There are so many

wrecks, and they all have

very different personalities,”

he says. “I’ve been there so

long, and my shot list seems

to only grow longer—never

shorter.”

READERS PICKS

LIVEABOARDS

Truk Odyssey

BAHAMAS

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Astronaut Scott Kelly

named the Bahamas

“the most beautiful

place from space,” thanks

to its crisp, bright blues and

turquoises, distinct enough

to be seen from the Interna-

tional Space Station.

“The color of the water

defi nitely stands out,” says

Bahamas-based dive in-

structor Liz Parkinson. “The

reefs here are super shal-

low, so there’s a lot of natural

sunlight, which gives a lot of

color to the corals.”

There is also the deep blue

of the wall, just 2 miles from

Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas.

“You get this incredible

diversity of the deep water

with its deep blue color and

pelagic animals—and you

have the shallow reefs and

turquoise water,” Parkinson

says. “You have extreme di-

versity, which a lot of places

don’t have.”

READERS PICKS

OPERATORS

Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas

LIVEABOARDS

Aqua Cat,Bahamas

Blackbeard’s Cruises, Bahamas

Bahamas Master

Bahamas Aggressor

CHANNEL ISLANDS,

CALIFORNIA

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“I chose one place in

particular—I chose my

backyard,” says photog-

raphy legend Ernie Brooks II

of his long-favored shooting

grounds, California’s Channel

Islands. “I focus on the sim-

ple things.”

Fortunately for him, the

simple things of these eight

islands include an abundance

of charismatic wildlife, in-

cluding sea lions and harbor

seals. One of his favorite im-

ages resulted from an hour-

long encounter with a sea

lion off Santa Barbara Island.

“She did a pirouette—she

put her nose in the sand and

she spun,” Brooks says.

Then the animal came

down and nosed up, face to

face with him.

“She stopped right in front

of me and she looked at me.

Then she started imitating

us, blowing bubbles upward.

“It’s those special

moments when you’re ap-

proached by an animal, and

you read into their feelings,”

he says. “They do have an

awareness toward humans.”

FLORIDA KEYS, FLORIDA

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The Florida Keys deliver

twofold when it comes to

image-making.

One, the destination does

not disappoint when it comes

to wide-angle shooting.

“The pure abundance of

biomass here is amazing—

these islands have large

schools of grunts and snap-

per,” says Allison Estape, an

underwater photographer

who calls Islamorada home.

One of her top spots to

shoot is the Eagle wreck,

which houses a resident

grouper as well as spadefi sh

and “all kinds of jacks.”

The other top reason to

set your sights on the Keys

is found in the summer: the

READERS CHOICE:

BEST DESTINATIONS

FOR UNDERWATER

PHOTOGRAPHY

Our readers picked the best spots to cram your

memory card with shots of soft-coral-covered

wrecks, charismatic big animals and otherworldly

macro stunners

BY BROOKE MORTON

BROOKE MORTON got hooked

on diving at age 14, and went on

to teach scuba on St. Croix af ter

college. She’s dived and snorkeled

on every continent.

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