Caught in the Act

I have this photo in the current show at Icebox Gallery - "Caught in the Act". The whole show is pictures of people taking pictures. I knew the show was coming up while I was in the Seychelles, so I was always keeping an eye out for a good shot. I got my opportunity on this dive. I saw the turtle way ahead of the rest of the divers. I went over & took a few photos & just followed the turtle along - waiting for the other photographer to notice. As soon as he finally saw it, he was so focused on the turtle, I'm sure he had no idea I was focused on the both him & the turtle. The only thing that bothers me about the photo is that he is using his hand to steady himself in a situation where he really didn't need to. I can't tell for sure - but hopefully he is only touching rock, not coral. I have found in my travels that people touch stuff much more in Europe than they do in the States & the Caribbean. It's really hard to not get annoyed with these divers! Especially since I was there doing conservation work.

If you would like to check out the whole show, it's at: http://www.iceboxminnesota.com/Caught/Caught_info.html
There are some really good photos!

Lake Diving

That's just crazy! Going from the warm oceans in the Seychelles to the freezing cold lakes in Wisconsin! Actually, I was colder in the Seychelles. The water temp there was usually around 76 - which may not sound cold, but if you are a diver - you know that can get very cold! Plus, I only had my old 3/2 wetsuit.... so I was shivering after most dives. Anyway, the water temp in Lake Owen was 68 and I had my nice 7/5 wetsuit, hood & gloves - so, I wasn't as cold.

So, since lakes are so boring, we have to make it interesting. We go to lake Owen every year for a fun dive weekend. We do a golf ball hunt and Cadillac Hood ornament hunt. The balls & ornaments have numbers on them - so we win prizes. That's a picture of me - sporting my BC Bling.


My older son got to go diving for the first time during this trip.... but he got too cold & was only able to do 2 out of his 4 certification dives. Guess he'll have to wait until spring to finish his Open Water certification. That's him - shivering underwater. He did really well on all his skills though, dispite the cold water.

Out of the Blue

I recently had a one person show of many of my photos from the Seychelles. I got a pretty good response - lots of compliments!


















I feel like my underwater photography skill is finally getting to a professional level. So, I guess now I need to invest in a more professional level camera. Right now I am using an Olympus 5060 digital. It does a pretty good job - but I think I can really improve the grain & color, among other things, if I invest in an SLR. I would love to get a Nikon Digital SLR... but the underwater housings for those are really expensive! So, I am thinking about getting the Olympus Digital SLR - since they make their own housings. Guess I'll have to do a little research.

You can see the whole show at: http://www.iceboxminnesota.com/Margo/SeychellesShow/seychelles_info.html

Seychelles - Summer 2006

Summer 2006: Artist Residency & Dive/Marine Volunteer in the Seychelles (Eastern Africa, group of islands in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar). This was an amazing opportunity... I was able to combine my interest and concern for the worlds oceans and my artistic talent on this 6 week long expedition in the Seychelles. Even though there were many fun adventures during my trip - including a flight in a microlight. By far the most amazing thing was swimming with the whale sharks!

I kept a journal during this trip & here's what I wrote that day:
My first whaleshark sighting! Actually, I got to swim with 3 of them.... and one of them was longer than the boat! It was so amazing. We all jumped out of the boat as carefully as possible & headed out to where we had seen a fin pierce the surface. I headed a little further over, hoping to head it of, when all of a sudden out of the blue where I couldn't see much - this huge open mouth is headed straight for me. I hesitate for a moment, trying to decide if I should swim left or right to try to get out of it's way. Just as I decide to go left, it seems to veer a little in the same direction - that gets me moving a little faster. I got off to the side - snapping a couple photos on the way & was able to swim along with it for a good bit until it dove down & I could no longer see it. We all then got back into the boat .... then shortly after, we saw 2 more fins poke up.... we threw our fins & masks back on & hopped back into the water. At one point after swimming with one, I head back closer to the boat & looked down to see 2 swimming up - I had to do some quick maneuvering in order to not be caught between them - one of the 2 was the really big one that was longer than our dive boat! Our dive group couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the evening. This was so amazing, I almost forgot about the nice big octopus I saw right before that!


If you are interested in reading the whole journal it's posted at:
http://www.iceboxminnesota.com/Margo/Seychelles/seychelles.html


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Holding My Breath - Paintings

This was my "come back" show, I suppose you could say. Although it really was a new beginning. Before this show, I had not shown my art for 12 years! Hard to believe that much time went by! But I was in a bad place for my artistic freedom. When I broke free from the weight of that situation - my creativity exploded... and I enjoyed my art again! The introduction to scuba diving was a big part of my transformation as well.... as I'm sure you can guess by looking at my work.






See the rest of the show at:
http://www.margocavis.com/gallery1.html