Field Trip to InnerSpace

Every week or two, when the conditions are right, I take a trip to outer space on a double-engine boat called the Big Splash into the middle of the ocean from a port in Cozumel. Just a couple of kilometers off the shore, the aliens of the ocean commune around a string of 100,000 lumens attached to a buoy, drifting through space with an aluminum tank of air and a camera. For 90 minutes, I watch a transoceanic expressway of creatures drifting up from the trenches and out into the Gulf of Mexico.

This was not my first blackwater dive, but it was my first dive with the Nikon D850/ Sigma 105mm Macro/ Nauticam housing, and it was not ideal. My mini-flash and video light from Backscatter are impressive pieces of equipment for their size, but not ideal for this type of diving. To complicate matters worse, it’s difficult to shoot with a 105mm macro, and Rob at Blackwater Cozumel prefers a 60 mm since it’s easier to focus on objects among endless backscatter from the detritus slowly falling to the ocean floor.

Blackwater diving is like floating in space, surrounded by tiny, sentient galaxies, each with its own agenda. Most of the time, it’s not necessary to go any deeper than 60 feet, but occasionally, some exotic creature or playful squid will call you deeper into the void until you realize that you have traveled lower than the guide lights and have to turn around, finding some shallower being willing to connect for a few moments.

About 300 shots and 70 minutes later, the trip was over. An hour later, I was in front of Lightroom, hoping that something turned out so I could remember another trip to our local, mini cosmos in Cozumel.