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Ken Bondy
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Brittle Stars
Hope you guys like these. Brittle stars are beautiful little things and they make a magnificent background:
[Edited on 12-29-2006 by Ken Bondy]
[Edited on 12-29-2006 by Ken Bondy]
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David K
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AWESOME KEN!!!!
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marv sherrill
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Fantastic shots Ken! Are these from Monterey Canyon also? Can I use one as a screen saver???
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Ken Bondy
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Thank you David and marv. Marv these are all from Anacapa Island. You are welcome to use any of them, I am flattered.
++Ken++
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David K
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Marv, I enjoy it when you use Nomad's photos in your Baja calendar... Ken Bondy and Jack Swords have both been featured, that I know of...
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Skipjack Joe
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Good stuff Ken. I know we say that so often that it's almost expected. But this is some of your best stuff. I really think so.
It looks as though you've been experimenting with new ideas recently and there are some really great compositions here. The last one is your best, but
there are several close seconds. I like the one with Navanux a lot too.
The idea (as I see it) is a bold colorful foreground with sharp edges against these fuzzy interweaving brittle stars. Works great. It's artsy. These
images are the most art-like ones I think you have shown here recently.
I hope you're as excited with this batch as I am.
P.S. I don't know where you found such an abundance of these guys.
[Edited on 12-29-2006 by Skipjack Joe]
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David K
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I agree with Joe... this is way above National Geographic in quality... Go Ken go!
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Santiago
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WOW! Ken - I marvel at your shots but these are really some of your best. Thanks.
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Natalie Ann
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This is one heck of a new year's photo display, Ken... delightful smile-bringing photos!
Tell me please, in pix #4 what is the center creature with the hangy-down eyes? And the fishie in the last one?
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
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Ken Bondy
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Thanks Joe and David. Joe you are correct these are some of my favorite images. The brittle stars are beautiful on their own right, and they make a
fantastic background. They make every subject look better, like the painted greenling and the navanax. Brittle stars show up in the northern Channel
Islands every Fall, about August through October. Some prehistoric bell rings and they show up, by the millions, carpeting every surface. It is
probably reproductive behavior, I doubt that it involves feeding. But the bell rings again at the end of October and they are gone. They are
probably there but just hidden. Thanks for the nice comments. ++Ken++
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Ken Bondy
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Mil gracias Santiago y Natalie Ann. Natalie Ann #4 is a navanax, related to nudibranchs. The guy with the hangdown eyes (great expression) in #5 is
a hermit crab. The fishie in the last one is a painted greenling. ++Ken++
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Diver
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Ken,
I hope you can wait for me.
When I retire, I want to follow you around to see some of the amazing sites you have shared. Like my first look at Coustea's "Ocean World", I am moved
by every new batch of your photos. I've been diving over 30 years and still never seen anything like it.
Thanks again !!
.
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Skipjack Joe
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more critiquing
The kids are asleep now and I'm going to have another hard look at these images. Sometimes when you look at images you start seeing things you missed
before and change your mind.
The last shot is just a sure winner and will always stay that way.
The image of the large orange starfish by brittle stars is really interesting. It has wonderful earth tones. But what I like most about it is the
struggle it suggests. The orange arms seem to struggling for freedom and are being overwhelmed by hordes nasty creatures. There is a lot of implied
tension here. None of that is really happening but the composition suggests it.
The other one I really like a lot is what appears to be a hermit crab. But it really doesn't look like a crab at all. It's very mysterious. A black
void with two eyeballs staring out of it. It just looks so alien and a bit threatening. So I like it because it draws you in in a creepy science
fiction way.
And I really like your first image. Although it's a shot of gorgoniums and ophiuroids I don't think you were really trying to show what's there at
that level. I see this image as an abstract, a tapestry of colors and shapes stretching vertically.
There is a such great variety of compositions here. I've photographed long enough to know you don't get a collection of shots like these by luck or
accident.
Every once in a while you come across a sight the excites you so much that you just jump to another level and start seeing with a greater awareness
than before. Your creative juices start flowing and you are able to see the essence of objects as never before.
Well, Ken, it looks like you had one of those days. I'm not an underwater photographer, but when you consider the fact that all of these images are
made on a limited amount of time due to air constraints, that you have moving current and therefore a moving frame, no tripod. Well, it can't be easy.
I had a day like that many years ago in yosemite valley. There was a snowfall on veterans day and I was lucky to be there during the whole thing. I
was so jacked up I saw images everywhere. Normally I kept a couple of shots per roll. But on this day almost the entire roll was right on.
Perhaps I'm way off base but that's how I see it.
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Tomas Tierra
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I like the fringehead inside the turban snail shell it looks like he has a bonnet
on........GREAT SHOTS!
brittle stars will one day rule the ocean
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Sharksbaja
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Always impressed
This time , especially so!
Say Ken, how many photos and how much time is spent on such a proud display?
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Cypress
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Thanks for the photos!
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Baja Bernie
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I don't even like water in my ears........but WOW and thanks
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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Don Alley
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Great Shots!
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Cardon
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Ken, Yes, great shots. I ran a couple thru Photoshop- hope you don't mind. I think it makes them pop a little more, at least they do on my screen.
Craig
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Ken Bondy
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Thanks to all, Diver, Skipjack Joe, Tomas, Sharks, Cypress, Bernie, Don Alley, Cardon. Diver I will wait as long as I can  . Skipjack Joe that was a great critique, I appreciated every word and the time you
took looking at the photos; when I was doing the contest circuits I wish my critics had been as thoughtful and as kind as you. Sharks these photos
came from a total of about 6 dives all made within the same week. Except for the greenling, they were made when I was using film, so the six dives
represent a total of about 220 images. At that time I would normally keep about 2-3 images from each roll of film (underwater photography is a low
batting average endeavor). With this type of subject (beautiful, stationary) my batting average is higher, I probably kept one fourth of the slides
from these dives, or about 50-60. For this collection I scanned about 10 of those. Hard to estimate the time involved, but reviewing and scanning
probably took about 6 hours. ++Ken++
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