2023 brought a trip to dive the coast of South Australia, a little diving at the West End of Catalina and Farnsworth Banks, a few days diving around San Diego and a lot of diving among sea lions in the Coronado Islands in the fall for pups. Tracy and I both hit a major birthday and treated ourselves to a safari in Kenya focusing on Amboseli and the Masai Mara. We rented homes on Catalina and in North Carolina to hang out with our daughters (and I went diving to see my favorite fish). I was able to sneak in a few solo outings to southern Utah for landscapes and New Mexico for birds, and we were up at Bass Lake / Yosemite about once a month. All in all we thought 2023 was a fantastic and busy year.
This is the 17th year I have done an annual photography retrospective. Thank you to friends Richard Salas, Celia Kujala and Mike Johnson for sharing fun days on and in the ocean, and to The Giant Stride, M/V Rodney Fox, Africa Odyssey safaris, Waterhorse Charters and Big Blue Photo Boat for supporting my diving and travel. My favorite images of the past year are below, roughly in chronological order. Click each image to go big. My goal for any one year is always to shoot 3-4 world-class images and 10-15 portfolio-quality images. If you like these feel free to check out previous years’ favorites as well: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007. Cheers and thanks for looking!
Royal Tern in flight, adult breeding plumage with black head cap, La Jolla.
Image ID: 38946
Species: Royal tern, Sterna maxima, Thalasseus maximus
Location: La Jolla, California
Pacific Harbor Seal Pup in La Jolla About Three Weeks Old, hauled out on a white sand beach along the coast of San Diego. This young seal will be weaned off its mothers milk and care when it is about four to six weeks old, and before that time it must learn how to forage for food on its own, a very difficult time for a young seal.
Image ID: 39071
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Newborn harbor seal pup just a few minutes old, has already taken to the water to learn to swim and forage. Here it is coming ashore on a sand beach, splashed by small wave as it emerges from the ocean.
Image ID: 39102
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
A newborn harbor seal pup rests alongside its mother, as placenta is born from the mother just a few moments after the pup was born. Within an hour of being born, this pup had learned to nurse and had entered the ocean for its first swim.
Image ID: 39110
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
The leafy seadragon (Phycodurus eques) is found on the southern and western coasts of Australia. Its extravagent appendages serve only for camoflage, since it has a nearly-invisible dorsal fin that propels it slowly through the water. The leafy sea dragon is the marine emblem of South Australia.
Image ID: 39135
Species: Leafy seadragon, Phycodurus eques
Location: Rapid Bay Jetty, South Australia
Aerial photo of blue whale near San Diego as it blows a bubble of air out of its blowhole. This enormous blue whale glides at the surface of the ocean, resting and breathing before it dives to feed on subsurface krill.
Image ID: 39427
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: San Diego, California
Ocean Sunfish swimming at the ocean surface in the Open Ocean.
Image ID: 39406
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Location: San Diego, California
Two Giant Black Sea Bass in a Courtship Posture, in Kelp at Catalina Island. In summer months, black seabass gather in kelp forests in California to form mating aggregations. Courtship behaviors include circling of pairs of giant sea bass, production of booming sounds by presumed males, and nudging of females by males in what is though to be an effort to encourage spawning.
Image ID: 39432
Species: Giant black sea bass, Stereolepis gigas
Location: Catalina Island, California
Divers Swim Over the Wreck of the HMCS Yukon in San Diego. Deliberately sunk in 2000 at San Diego's Wreck Alley to form an artifical reef, the HMCS Yukon is a 366-foot-long former Canadian destroyer. It is encrusted with a variety of invertebrate life, including Cornyactis anemones which provide much of the color seen here.
Image ID: 39474
Location: San Diego, California
Aerial Photo of Raplee Ridge near Mexican Hat, Utah. Raplee Ridge is a spectacular series of multicolored triangular flatirons near the San Juan River. Often called "the Raplee Anticline" the geologic structure is in fact better described as a monocline, according to the Utah Geological Survey.
Image ID: 39489
Location: Mexican Hat, Utah
Flamingos, Amboseli National Park, Kenya.
Image ID: 39602
Species: Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus
Location: Kenya
Cheetah in tall grass in the Masai Mara, Acinonyx jubatus, Kenya.
Image ID: 39628
Species: Cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus
Location: Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
Lion Cub Eight Weeks Old, Mara North Conservancy, Kenya.
Image ID: 39655
Species: African lion, Panthera leo
Location: Mara North Conservancy, Kenya
Young Adult Male California Sea Lion Underwater, his sagittal crest (bump on his head) is starting to be visible. In another year or two he will be large enough to challenge for his own harem and begin mating with females.
Image ID: 39952
Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus
Location: Coronado Islands (Islas Coronado), Baja California, Mexico
Sierra Nevada summer paddle with best friend
Yosemite’s Mist Trail living up to its name
