My Creative Highlights in 2021
Despite the pandemic, not being able to travel due to the pandemic (or only to Manila for an errand, involving heavyweight paperwork) and having to listen to whining about the pandemic, 2021 was a great year for me! I got “stuck” on Negros Island in the Philippines, which is of course a top diving destination. The rightfully famous Apo Island is nearby, and the shore diving in the Dumaguete-Dauin area is amazing, truly outstanding “muck” diving. So I got to photograph & film underwater, and write about it.
Here is a selection of what I like best of my creative output from 2021:
Photography
This is a shot of a dwarf goby, Trimma halonevum. It’s actually quite complicated to correctly ID the fish species which are similar to this one. I love gobies; this species typically hovers upside-down in crevices along reef walls, and when a diver approaches it retreats deeper into these crevices. Not easy to shoot, but such a beauty. Often the shots of these fish turn out a less than ideal with the photographer barely getting near the goby in its crevice; here I caught one nicely, and I like the composition of the shot very much as well. Apo Island, Philippines:
Blogging
The story that strobe photography causes seahorses and other small marine critters trauma and bad dreams is a well-established piece of scuba lore. Just that it’s not true. I finally took the time to summarize why we know that this is so. Read it here:
Underwater Videography
I love this video. And it embodies well what my YouTube channel is all about. The encounter I filmed was truly unusual natural history, one sea cucumber grazing on top of another, and then being knocked off it by an expulsion of sand and seawater. But it’s also funny in a kind of bizarre way. There is no need to keep nature mini-documentaries dead serious all the time. Apo Island, Philippines. Enjoy:
Popular Science Writing
“The Lives of gobies” is a book which I finished in 2021, and for which I signed a book contract with Asian Geographic this year. The book is on pre-order, and will be out in early 2022. Lots of goby photos and stories about the short and often unusual lives of gobies. Can’t wait to have a hard copy of the book in my hands.
