Marty Essen's Blog

Marty’s photo of the day #4895: While in Indonesian New Guinea, Deb and I saw more species of crab than we’d seen anywhere in the world—from the size of a pea to the size of a coconut. Eventually, I’ll post photos of them all. Today I’m featuring one of my favorites: a ghost crab.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4894: I’ve loved photography for most of my life but didn’t get into underwater photography until Deb and I spent a week on the Sea of Cortez in 2016. I’ve upgraded my underwater camera three times. Currently I prefer the SeaLife Micro 3.0 for videos and the Olympus Tough TG-7 for stills. Sure, I could spend more on a big honkin’ dive camera, but portability is important too.

While visiting the Raja Ampat region of Indonesian New Guinea earlier this month, I shot 4,500 photos, with 90 percent of them being underwater. The challenge of underwater photography is pushing the shutter button at the correct moment. A photographer must anticipate when the subject will be in the most photogenic position and take into account that even on a calm day the waves are moving the camera up and down, continually changing the focus.

A few people have mentioned to me that they don’t take cameras underwater because they “prefer to be in the moment.” I say, “To each his/her own.” I’m quite capable of being in the moment and shooting photos at the same time. And in the Raja Ampat, which has the greatest variety of underwater species in the world, few people without a camera could remember everything they saw on any particular outing. Also, the difference between some species is subtle. Deb and I had been calling the ray in today’s photo a bluespotted stingray, but just before posting, I carefully compared my photo with the rays in my identification book. It’s actually a bluespotted ribbontail ray.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4893: After 3 days of traveling, including 5 airplane flights and a 2-hour speedboat ride across open ocean, Deb and I are back home from the Raja Ampat region of Indonesian New Guinea. Having traveled all 7 continents and written 3 nature-oriented travel books, I can say with confidence that there is no place on Earth more stunning than the Raja Ampat. I’ll share with you the best of the photos and movies I took there in the coming weeks.

I shot this photo while snorkeling in a tiny lake filled with stingless jellyfish. In the ocean, stings from this species of jellyfish pack a wallop, but in the lake, where they are cut off from predators, they’ve lost their ability to sting. Swimming with them was so much fun! They’d bounce off our masks and each other and simply change directions. Lakes with stingless jellyfish like this are extremely rare.

The biggest jellyfish in this photo is named Bob.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4892: Deb and I are on our way back from sailing in the Raja Ampat region of Indonesian New Guinea. Our first day was an outstanding indicator of what was to come. We snorkeled near a mobile fishing platform, hoping to see the whale sharks that visit, looking for scraps. The water was deep and murky, resulting in Deb and I both getting multiple unintended whale shark rides! There were four whale sharks in all, and they would surface from the deep, lifting us up before we could get out of the way. They felt like rubber.

Whale sharks are the world’s largest fish. They average between 20 and 30 feet long but can reach 60 feet.

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Greetings from Indonesia! Deb and I have spent the past three weeks in the Raja Ampat (the Coral Triangle) region of Indonesian New Guinea. Much of it sailing on The Katharina (pictured), which is a traditional pinisi ship, built by the Bugis people.

We snorkeled with whale sharks, enjoyed the most diverse and most beautiful underwater life on the planet, ate local foods we didn’t even know existed, hiked in the rainforest looking for snakes, tried to find birds-of-paradise, rescued crabs, and, in general, had an unforgettable adventure.

We are now on a long layover between flights at the Jakarta International Airport, on our way home to Montana. I will have lots to share in the coming days. It was also great to be away from the internet, phone service, and the news for the majority of the time. Did anything happen while we were gone?

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Marty’s photo of the day #4891: Canada geese in flight. Photographed in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4890: Gentoo penguins on an island off the coast of Antarctica.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4889: This is a spectacled flying fox, photographed in Queensland, Australia.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4888: A moose portrait. Photographed in the Essen Wildlife Refuge, Montana.

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Marty’s photo of the day #4887: Prairie dog, photographed at the American Prairie, Montana.

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