While I was tootling north along US Hwy 19 (running a bit late I must admit), I had no idea that a monumental event was occurring at Jones Restaurant, Crystal River, Florida.  Alex Mustard, a rather fine British underwater photographer (pictured above with new underwater friend), was trying his first helping of “grits”!!!!!  I even heard about the “event” from the waitress days later, “Oh, he was in here the other day and he tried his first grits!”  It was a seminal day in Crystal River recent history I dare say.....; truly amazing and memorable I’m sure to the folks of Crystal River who probably can’t imagine that anyone alive has not yet tried southern “grits”!

It was my happy pleasure to help guide Alex and Peter Rowlands, our two most recent British invaders, to meet, photo and video, our wonderful Florida manatee.  Fellow underwater photographer Jeff Hartog kindly drove them over from Orlando.  This was a stop-off on their way to a live-aboard to Socorro, Mexico to see big stuff - manta rays, whale sharks, humpback whales, etc.  But we have our own “big stuff” here in Florida and the big creature they were interested in meeting for the first time was our beloved manatee.

There is a lot to tell about this excursion so I’ll break it up into a few posts.  First I’ll say why I like the photo I took above of Alex.  When I heard they wanted to come I always worry about what the conditions will be like but Alex assured me that he actually wanted to photograph our manatee in some low-light, moody, low-viz situations.  Well, he got his wish because for the first part of Alex and Peter’s visit the weather front and winds mixed so that it was a bit murky in the springs.  Plus I tried to find them different types of light at different times of day to showcase the varied habitat of the manatee and at times the light was pretty dim also.

I took the photo above because I wanted to show Alex “studying” how to best take this manatee photograph.  If you don’t know, Alex is one of the top underwater photographers around check out his website and new book ‘Reefs Revealed’ at: www.amustard.com

Alex actually has a marvelous photograph of this manatee taken shortly after I took this photograph above (and I swam out and quit distracting the manatee.... :-0 :-)....).  The photograph he took is from just the right angle to make use of the ambient rays and the bit of sky in his image (a partial snell’s window) is a rich blue - just like the sky was that day.  Which brings me back to my photograph above.  The manatee is a very photogenic creature but to photograph it well you really need to pay attention to a lot of varying factors.  And you can see above Alex is concentrating on how he is going to put together an aesthetic shot and he does indeed accomplish his task.  Even though the visibility and fading light conditions were a bit of a challenge he still came out with a beautiful, well thought out image of this delightful manatee.

Then there was Part 2 of this British Invasion, Peter Rowlands.  Not knowing much about Peter myself it didn’t take long till I told someone, “Well Peter, I think he has been around as long as just about anyone and involved in just about everything” (as far as underwater photography and videography is concerned that is...).  One of his projects now is Underwater Photography Magazine - an on-line publication that you can learn about here at: www.uwpmag.com

Both Peter and Alex had never met a manatee and I think they were very taken with the sirenians after seeing them over a five day period.  Towards the end we got some clearer, bluer spring water conditions but the great thing is Alex and Peter had lots and lots of manatee during every one of our visits to the springs.  And Jeff Hartog was even able to join us for “double duty” manatee snorkels mid-week.  It was an awesome time!!

Below is a photograph of Peter Rowlands and new acquaintance.  I think this manatee was trying to show Peter his best side for the camera.  And while I don’t think there were any screaming or fainting female fans lining up in droves - I do believe that this “British Invasion” was a big success and completely enjoyed by all!

Best, Carol

Peter Rowlands and Manatee Showing Its Best Side

Tokina 10-17@17mm - 1/50@7.1/iso250