Some people ask if Beth and I are always on-the-go, constantly experiencing exotic locations and their wonder. It’s easy to wish that was so, but for now, normal day-to-day life in our Asheville treehouse feels like the best-case scenario.
What you see here is still rare air for us.
This year’s big vacation for us empty nesters played out earlier this month with a trip to Islamorada in the Florida Keys. There, once again, I put my Sony DSC-RX100 camera – with its custom Mekon underwater housing, my birthday present for myself in 2017 – to good use. One day, we took part in a snorkel excursion on a tour boat, and at day’s end, I accidently left the rig in their freshwater soaking bucket. I spent that night fretting over getting it back, and my conversation the next morning with a guide at the dive shop made me even more aware of how precious this camera rig is to me.
I had a little luck with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25 back in 2016. That camera gave its life for the underwater footage appearing in Rare Air episode 17. Since then, the Sony system with the Mekon housing has delivered big-time, recording all sorts of majesty above and below the sea. Underwater photos it has captured of a turtle, an octopus, and a stingray have generated a million views so far on my Unsplash account.
On the Islamorada trip, we discovered Kalteux Key, which we were able to access via kayak and have all to ourselves two wonderful days in a row. Floating around there with this camera rig in hand, washing to and fro with the currents as I breathed slowly through my snorkel and watched crabs, fish, jelly fish, and Beth idling about, I felt as fully at-peace as I did floating in the water at Waterlemon Cay the day I shot episode 53’s video in 2019…
Please stop back soon for more Rare Air.
Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, July, 2019
Rare Air Episode 47, Part 1: Third Time’s the Charm
Rare Air Episode 48, Part 2: Ancient Eruption
Rare Air Episode 49, Part 3: Omniscience, Part One
Rare Air Episode 50, Part 4: Omniscience, Part Two
Rare Air Episode 51, Part 5: Heaven on Earth
Rare Air Episode 52, Part 6: Return Trip to Waterlemon
Rare Air Episode 53, Part 7: Underwater at Waterlemon Cay
Rare Air Episode 54, Part 8: Fish life on the cay
Rare Air Episode 55, Part 9: Snorkeling Hansen Bay
Rare Air Episode 56, Part 10: School of bar jacks
Rare Air Episode 57, Part 11: Sunset over Bordeaux Mountain
