I had a good dive yesterday, but nowhere near THIS good. Some of my friends had an incredible encounter with a basking shark on a shore dive in Rockport, Massachusetts!

Basking sharks are the second largest fish (after the whale shark) and open their huge mouths to swallow water full of tiny plankton, which gets filtered out as the water passes through their gills. These amazing creatures grow up to 30 feet long!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xXZTVq_MbE

#baskingshark #shark #gentlegiant #NewEngland #coldWater #epic #scuba #scubadiving #wildlife

Subjects in the water column like this chameleon shrimp are often quite challenging with a macro lens like the M.Zuiko 60mm. I'm quite pleased with how the OM-1 autofocus picked up the subject and got the eyes in crisp focus. I could have gone with a narrower aperture (this was f/9) for more depth of field to get the whole body in focus. Nice though!

#underwaterphotography #shrimp #macro #NewEngland #coldwater #scuba #scubadiving #olympus #om1

Dive number: 749
Date / time: Wed Mar 4, 2026 1:41 PM
Dive site: Peirce Island, New Hampshire
Water Temperature: 37F
Bottom Time: 41 mins

Because of the later entry, I knew the sun was going to be at a great angle for shooting wide angle, but I couldn't have predicted the incredible viz. We had as much viz as we could ask for and we swam over the edge, down the slope and then pretty much stayed there. The nudis were EVERYWHERE. Piles of C. verrucosa scattered between all sizes and colors of F. verrillis. My buddy pointed me to a giant Dendronotus frondosus, which was great to see for the first time in awhile. I didn't end up pulling my strobes far enough back for virtually any of my shots, but I was able to edit some nice ones. The water was very chilly, but the mild air temps and glow from an awesome dive warmed us up quickly.

#underwaterPhotography #coldWater #fisheye #wideAngle #olympus #om1 #nauticam #NewEngland #scuba #scubadiving #nudibranchs