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Description
You can't go to Australia and not go to the Great Barrier Reef, can you? (Especially since it's so threatened by a range of environmental problems, but particularly coral bleaching.) So, when I was up in Cairns, I didn't not go. And that is where I didn't not take this photo.

Anyway. Enough of the Catch-22-speak, even if it is my favourite book. The Barrier Reef in late Autumn is not an entirely wonderful place to go. For a start it's a surprisingly rough journey to get out to it. If you think that the world's largest natural structure will hold off all the waves, you're wrong. Instead they're all just channeled down between reef and shore, and you're trying to sail across them. Seasick? You bet I was.

Once you're out there the chop and currents can make diving (particularly snorkeling) surprisingly difficult too. Compared to my diving experience in the Whitsundays , it was certainly more challenging - and all the more so when it came to taking photos (as it was only on this occasion that I had hired a waterproof digicam).

Still, to get a photo like this, perhaps it was all worth it...

Shot - for a change - on a Canon IXUS in a waterproof body. Levels, contrast and slight sharpening in Photoshop - underwater shots seem to need a bit of editing to look decent.

Enjoy!

Description
You can't go to Australia and not go to the Great Barrier Reef, can you? (Especially since it's so threatened by a range of environmental problems, but particularly coral bleaching.) So, when I was up in Cairns, I didn't not go. And that is where I didn't not take this photo.

Anyway. Enough of the Catch-22-speak, even if it is my favourite book. The Barrier Reef in late Autumn is not an entirely wonderful place to go. For a start it's a surprisingly rough journey to get out to it. If you think that the world's largest natural structure will hold off all the waves, you're wrong. Instead they're all just channeled down between reef and shore, and you're trying to sail across them. Seasick? You bet I was.

Once you're out there the chop and currents can make diving (particularly snorkeling) surprisingly difficult too. Compared to my diving experience in the Whitsundays , it was certainly more challenging - and all the more so when it came to taking photos (as it was only on this occasion that I had hired a waterproof digicam).

Still, to get a photo like this, perhaps it was all worth it...

Shot - for a change - on a Canon IXUS in a waterproof body. Levels, contrast and slight sharpening in Photoshop - underwater shots seem to need a bit of editing to look decent.

Enjoy!