To expand on yesterday's post of a HORNETS nest. This is one from a tree in our yard 3 years ago. After some cold weather, bluejays attacked it tearing off most of the outside cover. See what it looked like after they were done with it. Again, what a work of art!

Due to a bit of an illusion from the camera, this green heron appears to not mind high dives.

Underwater photos from snorkeling on Block Island.

As much as I like the critters, bob, that third photo would make some awesome wall art! The first one also has a cool flow to it, too. I love your underwater photos--a world I rarely get to see.

Thanks. I was researching things to do on Block Island, and found several mentions of it being one of the best spots in the continental United States for snorkeling. (Which may simply mean that there aren't many good snorkeling spots in the continental United States)

So I brought the masks, fins and snorkels I bought for our trip to the Caribbean and the waterproof case for the point and shoot camera.

The first time I went, the water was shockingly cold.

I love the blues and greens in the first one. The sea urchin is lovely but ouchy I would hate to get speared! The camera just never catches the extreme colors of the underwater world! I have tried before but diving and seeing it in real life is so much more brilliant.

Great composition and content.!

All good pics

The above underwater pictures were heavily post-processed using Picasa. The human eye is pretty good at automatically adjusting the color balance so that what you see looks more vibrant. Here are a couple of the underwater pictures as they looked right out of the camera:

At least with my camera and its waterproof case, it is really hard to see what you are taking a picture of, especially if you are zoomed in a fair bit. Starting with the none-too-bright LCD display of the camera, which is hard enough to see in brightly lit conditions, put it in the waterproof case which adds another layer of plastic, and then add in the swim mask your are wearing which is usually a little bit fogged, and it is mostly a guess as to what you are taking a picture of. The fact that the sea urchin in the earlier images is centered and in focus, at the equivalent of a 300mm zoom is beyond lucky.

On one of the three attempts at snorkeling on the island the glass lens of the waterproof case fogged up, pretty much ruining most of that set of images. Below is the best one of that set straight from the camera, and after post-processing.