Copyright: Jurgen Brauer,Augusta, Georgia, USA

1. My two boys, Jonathan and Leon, and I took a two-week scuba diving vacation in Aruba in the Dutch West Indies. Among divers, Aruba is known for terrific wreck diving. Here are a few pictures, organized by (a) cutters, (b) critters, (c) corals, (d) wrecks, and (e) photographers.

The picture below shows our dive boat - we are in the back. (Just kidding!)

2. The next photograph shows what happens when you disobey the divemaster - gotta scrub the entire tub!

3. Ok, here we go. Hereunder Captain Joao: chef, submariner, and dive boat captain, a happy Brazilian who has lived on the island for 18 years. The boat is the Reef Cruiser, one of the two boats we used, the other being the Reef Diver, a two-engine boat. Most of the time, we had fewer than 10 divers and therefore plenty of room. In the morning we did 2-tank dives in the south side of the island, the afternoon and night dives were to the wrecks in the northwest.

4. Pelican Adventures is an excellently run diving outfit. We really enjoyed the captains, divemasters, and other staff. Among those is photographer Max Bruega who delights folks with a special trick: blowing bubbles under water.

5. As the bubble rises, the air in it expands, and so does the ring. Max can blow two, three, four, and more air-ring bubbles in a row (see below). Apparently the trick isn't too hard to pull off - son Jonathan blew a perfect air-ring by the end of our stay.

6. A typical reef scene, in black & white, below. This time of year, visibility was not particularly good, usually between 30 and 50 feet. The sky was overcast at times, blocking sunlight and making color photography difficult. Black & White shooting is a fine alternative.

7. Even if overall visibility isn't so good, if you keep your nose (or mask) close to the ground, you'll see lots of interesting critters, such as this spotted moral eel who is out hunting.

8. A Goldentail Moray Eel is taking a peek out of his or her coral hideout ...

9. ... as is a Chain Moray Eel on another dive.

10. The Green Moray Eel actually has blueish skin, covered with yellowish mucus, hence the green appearance. We saw one or more big Green Morays on almost every reef dive.

11. Hereunder is a school of French Grunt on a wreck dive (more on the wrecks later on).

12. On a night dive, I caught this Spotted Goatfish. These fishes use their chin-barbels to stir up sandy bottom and hunt for food.

13. I finally managed to get a good shot of a Bicolor Damselfish. They come with a range of color variations, this one is in fact 'three-colored.' Only 2 to 4 inches long, they are like all damselfish highly territorial and utterly unafraid to launch themselves at much bigger species (like your intrepid diver) to defend their bit of coral real estate.

14. The fellow below is a Redlipped Blenny (Gray variation). I caught up with this one on the Antilla wreck, in about 20 feet of water.

15. I found the Redspotted Hawkfish on another wreck, the Pedernalis. This fish is wary when approached, and a diver needs to be patient to observe and photograph this species. This one was flitting back and forth, escaping to a new perch just as I focused the camera. But patience paid off. Note the fish's camouflage: the light underside blends into the ligh-colored debris, the darker upper part blends into the dark color of the coral.

16. An unusual up-front view of a Coney, a type of seabass.

17. The Brown Chromis actually looks sort of silverish but is easily identified by its yellow-golden border on the dorsal and tail fins. These fish were more than plentiful, usually found in large schools on wrecks and all around the reefs.

18. Here is an interesting photograph. The Scrawled Filefish can grow up to three feet in length and is very colorful, wherefore it is usually photographed in color. But the B&W photo accents the fish's unusual form and structure. Also, I am using a wideangle lens which produces a "blur" around the fish.

19. The juveline Jackknife Fish is identified by the vertical stripe across its snout. The adult loses this stripe and is very difficult to distinguish from the intermediate Spotted Drum.

20. The juvenile Spotted Drum, however, is fairly easy to tell. Note the extremely elongated dorsal fin. We found a good number of juveniles. On the Antilla wreck, there was one spot where three young ones were hiding out. I saw the same group on repeated dives.

21. Where does the Spotted Drum gets its name from? The picture below shows an adult, and the spots on the dorsal fin are pretty obvious. The 'drum' part comes from the sound the fish makes.

22. A highlight of the diving was Angie, the French Angelfish on the Antilla wreck. Every time I jumped in the water with the camera, he (or she) came 'running'. The reason is that Max Buerba, Pelican's staff photographer usually brings food along and so Angie now apparently has been conditioned to connect camera-wielding divers with food. On one dive we took half a bagel along and son Leon held a fish feed, with Angie as the main character and Spanish Hogfish and a pair of surgeonfishes competing for a share as well. I like this photograph as it captures the colors so well against the greenish backgound of the wreck and other fish life.

23. A close-up of Angie.

24. The octopus is, to me, one of the more fascinating critters of the sea. On this outing, I was in luck. I was happily drifting along in a slow current, when to my right a cannon ball zipped by like a Porsche sports car. In the blur, I recognized the leading 'ball' as the head, trailed by eight streamlined arms. The octupus zoomed by and settled underneath a coral just ahead of me. Thanks, I thought ... great opportunity to take a peek and an upside down photograph. On another dive, we actually caught an octupus, who are normally weary, out in the open on the sandy ocean floor near a ship wreck. It seemed to have an arm or two missing and was surrounded by a few curious fish. On yet another occasion, we saw an octupus out hunting, spreading the webbing between its arms to engulf a small coral head and flush out prey.

25. The Hawksbill Turtle I photographed on a night dive, at the Pedernalis wreck. All species of sea turtles are listed as either threatened or endangered.

26. On the last dive of the trip, I noticed this Batwing Coral Crab. They usually hide during the day and hunt at night, but this one was sitting in plain sight during the morning dive, not even with an opportunity to move anywhere near to hiding. My good fortune (even though I didn't have a proper light with me to bring out the crab's colorful carapace).

27. The picture below shows a species of Feather Star, more precisely a Black & White Crinoid. It looks like a coral, but it's actually classified as an animal, little changed over the entirety of the fossil record.

28. This Giant Hermit Crab we noticed on a night dive. I was surprised that it didn't withdraw into its shell upon our approach. To the contrary, I got to within inches to take the photograph and the crab showed no concern whatsoever. Only when son Jonathan gently "bumped" one of the antennas did the crab jerk, but it did not try to withdraw further into its home.

29. Son Leon holds an Arrowhead Crab ...

30. ... and son Jonathan holds a Pederson Cleaning Shrimp.

31. These, I think, are a gaggle of Squat Anemone Shrimp, smaller than an inch in size each. One of those times when I wish my camera had higher close-up capabilities.

32. The oft-photographed Flamingo Tongue is a snail that feeds on gorgonians (a type of coral). The snail's shell is white, and the brown 'spots' are the result of a mantle that the snail extends over its shell. The snail's size is less than an inch.

33. Once again, out in the open, near a ship wreck, son Jonathan discovered this critter, I believe a Black-Spotted Sea Goddess, a nudibranch. If my identification is correct, then this is a very rare sighting as the species in known only from southern Florida, Belize, and Roatan island off Honduras.

34. I am much less certain about coral identification but this one struck me because of its obvious red/orange color (water filters out colors so that the deeper one goes, the fewer colors remain; yellow, orange, and red are the first colors "lost" to depth; discovering a brightly red/orange coral without dive lights thus comes a bit as a shock). This is some kind of boulder coral but I don't know which species.

35. Detail of, I think, a Great Star Coral.

36. This one I know for sure! It's a detail of a Pillar Coral, and I am very happy to have caught its natural color just right. It's a BIG coral, usually a cluster of several spires, each easily exceeding a adult man's height. One nice thing about this coral is that the feeding polyps are extended during the day (usually, corals feed at night). On the photograph one can easily see the white-tipped polyps.

37. Branches of a Sea Plume ...

38. ... and a detail of the aptly-named Brain Coral.

39. Blade Fire Coral; as the name suggests: don't touch!

40. From critters and corals to Aruba's plentiful wrecks ... This is a wide-angle shot of the Jane Sea, sitting upright in about 90 feet of water. This former cement carrier sports a wide-open hold that can be entered without danger. At the stern (the backside) is the galley (kitchen) and other facilities that can also be entered (although I just didn't get around to doing it). The propeller and rudder are intact and massive.

41. A view of the bow in black and white ...

42. ... and a view from the bow sprit looking toward the stern. Cable winches in the foreground are clearly visible.

43. Divers in the hold release air bubbles. These find their way up, and the ship appears to be "steaming".

44. Son Jonathan in the hold.

45. What's this? Not even the local divemasters could instantly guess this one. I am literally swimming through the cabin of a downed DC-3 passenger aircraft, "looking" out a window. The window pane is intact but encrusted with coral growth. Sunlight filters through.

46. Here's the cockpit and the body clearly visible ...

47. ... and a look through the side cockpit windows shows the pilots' seats.

48. Here I am at the rear of the aircraft. A group of divers has just gone through the cabin, hence the backscatter from stirred up particles, surrounded the cockpit area, now swimming back toward me.

49. The Antilla was perhaps our favorite wreck site. We dove it at least eight times during our two week stay and became very familiar with it. With divemaster guidance (or a wreck diving certification), wreck penetration is permitted. But we dove this site so often that the divemasters simply let us drop into the water ahead of the other divers and explore the 400-foot long ship on our own. Part of it breaches the water surface. The deepest part lies at around 55 feet. The wreck is a haven for oceanic wildlife, and we also saw many juvenile fish there. In the photo below, note the sunlight shinning through a mass of Silverside Fish and the wreck structure. It's eerily beautiful.

50. A swarm of Silversides.

51. Ditto, in black and white.

52. Jonathan inside the wreck.

53. An outside view in color. Note how the camera's flashlight brings out the coral colors. Further away, where the flash does not reach, everything appears a dull green.

54. At the end of a day's diving, a view toward the horizon from the back of the dive boat.

55. My shot of photographer Max Bruega at work (at the Jane Sea wreck).

56. And Max's shot of me at work. It's a nice dramatic angle. He was on top of the reef slope, while I swam up the slope and bent the upper body upward into a nearly vertical position, camera held out-front.

The end.