N 25° 6’31.47″ W 80°18’23.91″ Google Earth location
There’s a lot to unpack with this one, so here goes.
First, this may, or may not, be the correct location; I had no idea where we were at the time, but clues indicate that this is the spot. It was on a touristy snorkeling trip off Key Largo, Florida, and I recall the dive operator saying that only one small section of the coral reef was open to tour boats. Between the already-existing placemarks and the selection of boats visible in the aerial photos, I feel comfortable with this being the place, and the distance and position are close to what my memory tells me, anyway – it’s not like there were landmarks to be found. The particular photo came when I was in a school of fish and wanted to silhouette them against the late afternoon sun, and so dove towards the bottom, rolled over, and found that I wasn’t underneath them as planned, because they’d followed me down, probably expecting a handout. It might seem ominous, all of them looking directly at me in this way, if they weren’t as vapid-looking as fish always are.
This was in, I dunno, 1995? and I was touring Florida by myself, my first real photo excursion as I was considering getting serious about the pursuit. This was taken with one of those disposable ‘Fun Saver’ (or whatever) cameras though, and it shows.
This is even better than the original, because it’s been color-corrected reasonably well – the original was quite blue-green. There’s no real subject here because I could barely see much of anything, as this post relates, so I was winging it when I saw motion or a nice blob of different colors.
But I can be more precise about photos taken soon afterward.
N 25° 5’23.42″ W 80°25’50.93″ Google Earth location
This frame was likely just a bit further north in the channel than what I’ve plotted, but I did this for a reason, so be patient. The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) got out of the way of the returning tour boat with exaggerated calm, allowing me to snag a nice portrait, especially for the Olympus OM-10, Vivitar 75-260 zoom, and Kodak Gold 400 print film that I was using at the time – the gentle surreal ripples in the background help a lot, I think. But immediately before this frame, I shot another pelican hanging out right at the mouth of the channel back to the tour boat dock. Nothing great here…
… but it pins down the location pretty handily. I’d gone back and forth looking at various marinas and docks along the southeast side of Key Largo in Google Earth, trying to determine where we’d departed from, until I spotted the house at the mouth of the channel now plotted – you can see these walls, steps, and little private ramp right there in the aerial photos. Do I want to know how much that little piece of property on the end goes for? I do not.
But okay, fine, while we’re here…
N 25° 5’36.57″ W 80°26’39.43″ Google Earth location
I figure there’s no point in featuring Key Largo again in the lineup – not when I have so many other fascinating places to get to. This one was years later – 1999 I think – when I had a much better camera and was now shooting slide film. I had just checked in to the little rental cottages where I’d spend the night and, on coming out of the office, saw the sunset doing groovy things. I scampered to my car, snagged the camera bag and tripod, and hoofed it down to the little beach they had before the colors faded – this can happen pretty damn quickly. I had someone tell me that this image was Photoshopped, being too colorful, and I had to bring him the original slide to let him see for himself, though granted, I was using Fuji Provia 100 which is fairly saturated. I rarely alter my images more than a simple tweak for web display, because the entire goal is to do it right when out there, not correct it afterward. Not to mention that editors want to see the original as faithfully as possible.
I had not remembered what the entrance to the Key Largo Marina looked like, four years previously, and did not realize that I was staying so close to where I’d departed on the dive trip (in fact, I did not realize this until just now.) The next morning, after a nice little paddling excursion in one of the motel’s canoes, I drove further along the Keys Highway and paid a visit to the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center. I pack a lot into my trips.