Loving Focus Photography Gretchen Yengst

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The BVI Underwater REALITY 2023

Since I have photographed here for 15 years, I have seen the changes brought about by the hurricane IRA event in Sept.2017 to many places in our Underwater World.
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Hello, I am Gretchen a strong swimmer and happy visitor to Virgin Gorda for many years
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Hello, I am Gretchen a strong swimmer and happy visitor to Virgin Gorda for many years

  • Hello, I am Gretchen a strong swimmer and happy visitor to Virgin Gorda for many years
  • I am also a professional photographer and I love to capture what I see here
  • Here is where I come annually on the island ... "Spring Bay" (red square). You can see its location on this far NW side of the island
  • In 2010 Lynn Brooks (here with husband, Stan) handed me a small underwater camera she didn't know how to use and said she would be happy for me to put it to good use.
  • That same day I captured this huge barracuda investigating my presence
  • Just checkin me out! ......From this moment on. ... I was HOOKED on photographing here!
  • I invested in a good underwater camera housing and put my Sony inside.
  • Now this beauitful naturally lit environment with all its boulders and coral was open to my visual exploration.
  • ..... along with all its fast-moving inhabitants.
  • I loved capturing and identifying the movement and color.
  • Here in 2015, my snorkel buddy, Chuck, swims above the forest of beautiful stag-horn hard corals ..... which were a hall-mark of our Bay and a home to much of the sea life
  • TODAY!!! Here is the same scene under the waves! My dear Chuck has passed away and Hurricane Irma (Sept. 2017) did huge damage to the underwater enviornment with tsunami wave distruction moving through the area from West to East
  • Both the hard and soft corals, which were very abundant, were taken out.
  • The hard corals are working to grow back from their blackened base ... but not in our life-time.
  • You can see the blackened coral bases have worked to sprout new growth ... NEXT.......I am going to show you another BEFORE and AFTER shot
  • In 2012 I stopped swimming to photograph this beautiful coral formation sitting on top of a large boulder.
  • While I was shooting, I noticed a sudden dark movemnt at the base of the coral
  • In a flash, the octopus inhabitant ZOOMED up and perched on top changing color and defending his territory from me. This has always been a favorite photo!
  • HERE is the SAME coral outcropping visited a few weeks ago. .... Now you can begin to realize.
  • But everywhere in our bouldered area new coral is growing
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