swimming through bubble rings

leaving paradise

Why would you ever leave paradise?



I mean voluntarily, not just with your head bowed in shame because you ate its forbidden fruit. I left because my ticket said it was time to leave, which is a ridiculous reason; it's a schlep and a half to get to the place, getting back is even worse (cause you're traveling in the wrong direction), so you best stay long as you can. But my bank account also went from silently weeping in the corner to screaming its head off, so i'd come to the end of the road anyway.



Now that i'm back to what i guess is reality and normality (with my kind of brain, both concepts are forever in question and rarely within reach), i can tell you a couple of things about paradise. It's an odd place to get into:



but once in there is that sense of infinite beauty



with the kind of views and blues usually reserved for, well, movies about paradise



and some beautiful people





who are there to cherish the blue and the sun



but even the clouds are pretty



and even the rain is sunny



and fantastically fat



the insects are HUGE



the birds tiny



the fish quite sociable



as are the lizards -though they prefer to be outside



whereas the porcupine fish likes to be inside



and the frogs like monofins



the corals are smart and angelic



and can come in the shape of a rubber ducky



of course, this is modern day paradise, so there's quite a lot of plastic shit about



which has its own sad visual poetry



but other than that, it is remarkably pristine and crowd-free



and it seems paradise takes over civilization more than the other way round



so i'm happy to report that the tree of wisdom is safe and sound



and that i obviously have yet to partake from its fruit



but during the journey back into civilization i had a thought



you don't really know about love until you've had your heart broken, or about life until someone you love dies. In paradise, happiness is a state rather than a moment. I hope the memory of that state adds value to future moments.

And i hope to be back in paradise as soon as bank accountably possible.

messing about in Dean's Blue Hole

new entry in the series 'very serious freediving vids'

Georgina and the many shapes of the Blue Hole

Igor Liberti told me about this spot in the Blue Hole, where you can take enormous overview pictures of the whole thing (when the conditions are clear and the visibility is good). He's taken so many great pictures there that they're calling it Iggy's spot. I went down there to take pictures of Georgina a couple of days ago, and what struck me -once i got over the slightly scary doomy feeling of having a massive stone roof hanging over your head at 15 meters deep- are the shapes the hole can make. From some angles it's almost square



but it can also be oval



and there even are triangles



i adore Iggy's spot now, for its mystical, slightly gloomy character, and that sense of almost ghostly space and light it can give you. Hope you enjoy the set

hauling the whole hole

Underwater yoga with Brittany Trubridge

It's fascinating, all the facets that make for a good photo; sometimes all you need is good light, or a good location, or someone doing something interesting, or someone visually striking. And then there's the equipment, and the framing, and countless other things, which makes me think luck also has something to do with it.



Now i was lucky enough a couple of days ago to do some shooting with Brittany Trubridge, an extraordinary yoga teacher here on Long Island, Bahamas. Not only is she freaky bendy in that way yoga teachers are, but she's also a very fun presence to be around, lots of positive energy, and she's the kind of pretty that can only come from inside out. And she's married to William Trubridge, world champion freediving, and you cannot be married to him without picking up a thing or two about breath hold. So we did an underwater shoot.



Since i have no clue about yoga and am new to underwater photography, so i'm largely depending on Britta to make it work. And man, does she ever. Even though she's never done this underwater before, she does one fantastic pose after another, looking quite serene while her sinuses are getting flooded -unbelievable.



And the Blue Hole cooperated as well: the visibility was turned to 'endless' and the light was out to play



there were so many shots that just worked and Britta and Georgina had so many good ideas that we left with an amazing bunch of pictures. Hope you enjoy them:

freediving with reefsharks

paradise and sharks

Paradise is hardly an absolute term, isn't it? For me it constitutes this:



but for my sister, with who i share essentials like eyebrows and sense of humor, that dark hole would represent hell -especially if she knew that a barracuda lives there. That same mean looking bugger only enlarges my joy of the place.

She would very much enjoy the other side of the Blue Hole -most would, i'd imagine



but then there are people who love the snow and ice covering most of Europe right now, and would be bored beyond tears here.

And then there's sharks. Some of my best friends refuse to go swimming in any open water type environment because they have nightmares about sharks. First time i ever saw a shark in the water, i swam straight at it to investigate. It's not that i'm brave or stupid (well, that's up for debate, actually), they just don't strike me as dangerous. You pick up on vibes from animals, they're honest in their postures, and sharks are really good at telling you what's up. So when i saw these guys in the water a couple of days back, all i felt was thrilled and honored. Check out how fluidly they glide and how delicately the light plays with their skin



So for me, sharks belong in paradise. But more importantly, they belong outside paradise as well, and there they are being hunted. They have a vital function in the sea, besides being beautiful and majestic, and need all the protection they can get. If you have a moment, please help protect sharks:

http://www.sharkangels.org/
http://www.bite-back.com/
http://www.sharktrust.org/
http://www.sharkalliance.org/

Cornelis Verhoeven - the detour of words

Today would have been my father's 84th birthday. I miss him a lot, and often, but i never quite know how to express that. The essay i've put on his blog today explained a little to me why that is the  case. Part of it is this:

"We continuously need new words to express old experiences. And especially within the expression of those elemental experiences lurks the kitsch. This is what makes them inexpressible."

The rest of the essay, 'The detour of words', can be found here:

http://cornelisverhoeven.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/the-detour-of-words/

Blue Hole portraits

Here are some of the lovely people i get to play with in Dean's Blue hole:

This is Liv at the bottom plate

and Livvy upside down

and this is Georgina



and Georgina being lovely on the platform



There is the ridiculously good-looking couple of Tomoka and Igor



and me on one of those rare occasions where i get to see a bottom plate at depth


(picture by Liv Philip)

and more commonly, me and my ass


(Picture by Liv Philip -to who i apologize)

the Spirit of the Blue Hole

There are those who don't believe in magic. They reckon it's not logical, not rational. A few years back i was walking down an old street when a beautiful loud noise made me turn my head, and towards me came bobbing over the cobblestones an Aston Martin DB5 -you know, the car James Bond drives in Goldfinger. My jaw dropped, i might have drooled. A traffic cop saw my expression and said: "It's just a car, you know.""No it isn't," i replied, "if that's just a car then Rembrandt is just paint, Handel just sound, life a variation of carbon, love a mere bunch of hormones." Well, that's what i wished i said, anyway -it took me a couple of hours to figure out why that 'just a car' attitude made me so mad. That kind of reductionism sucks all the joy and magic out of life, like expressing a good meal in terms of carbs and proteins.

Now i have the bizarre good fortune to be in a place that is magic, actual, factual magic. Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island. It is unfathomably beautiful



and magic happens there: every day people venture into that darkness on a single breath of air and reach depths no man thought possible until recently; scientist still can't really explain how they do it



it's enough to turn your world upside down



As usual, my dad said it better: "A is not A; if A = A, life shrivels to an erotic-less, urge-less, amorphous mass of banalities. Only through negation can we become speechless spectators of the great Presence, for which we live."

Magic works in mysterious ways: i have no underwater camera capable of capturing it, but a friend does, and on this magic day, he graciously lent it to me, allowing me to not only become a speechless spectator of the magical Spirit of the Blue Hole, but photograph it. To all those dull deconstructing rationalists, she says hi