There's a couple of things that become boring when you are a diver. Snorkeling is one of them. It just seems like a whole waste of energy for not much bottom time. We're talking, what? 10 seconds at best? 10ft max? Maybe 20 seconds at 20ft if you're in good shape. Tops, you'll get 5 minutes at 100ft, but only if you're related to Jacques Mayol. Anyway, for me, it's more in the 10-15 seconds zone, so needless to say that photography in this condition is quite... Frustrating actually.

Last month we spent a couple of days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, at the tip of the Baja Peninsula. Cabo, as we call it, is quite a nice dive location with big pinnacles rising from the bottom, covered in corals and sea fans, teaming with fish life. We did not dive on this trip but decided to snorkel instead. I had taken my camera, just in case we decided for a last minute dive but I had to settle for a near-death experience instead.

We went to Lovers' Beach, a nice sandy stretch close to the famous Cabo's Arch. It's a favorite amongst tourists and the only way to get there is by water taxi ($20, a bargain). The only problem with that is that the boat traffic is horrendous with small craft zipping at each other at high speed, unloading and loading tons of tourists in a small area.

I thought I had it figured out when I started snorkeling around one of the famous pinnacles called Neptune's Finger. I was on the lookout for both speeding boats and jumping crazies who throw themselves in the water, jumping from the top of the pinnacle. That also seems like a lot of wasted energy to me. Just looking at them climbing made me feel tired... Anyway, I was on on my second circle around the Pinnacle when I decided to follow a school of grunts for a nice "in the pod" shot. I looked around for boat traffic, saw nothing and went down a few feet for the shot. As I was turning back to surface, I heard motor noise and stopped, right in time to see a propeller zipping past me at high speed. I was maybe 3 ft from the pinnacle! What a jackass! Now I know what it feels like to be a manatee...

As far as pictures go, snorkeling really sucks big time for one main reason: it's impossible to create a nice composition, you basically shoot what's coming in front of the lens. That's pretty limited and very frustrating and often results in quite a large amount of fish butts and missed shots. The ensuing photographs (we can barely call them that though) would have been thrown away had they been taken while scuba diving. However, considering the conditions and the fact that I risked my life for them, it seems quite right to share them with all of you...

Nothing out of the ordinary in the settings usually, P mode or TV 1/200s works OK, except that for some weird reason this time I shot Av f/4 at 400 ISO. Too many margaritas maybe?

After that experience, I had kind of sworn to myself that it had been the last time I snorkeled. Ever. Well, last week-end I ended in La Jolla for a "snorkel with the leopard sharks & barbecue" event. Sure I could have chickened out and come only for the barbecue, but what the hell, I wanted to see these leopard sharks...

So once again, the pictures are definitely not worth a pair of dingo's kidneys but, hey, I risked my life again, swimming with a multitude of innocuous 4ft leopard sharks, so here you are. This time, it appears I was sober, I shot P mode. I guess it was still "early" in the morning...