| WEKIVA RIVER SHOOT, MARCH 2011 |
Equinox co-founder, shooter and co-producer Bob Giguere (r) and safety diver Jef Frank prepare for to gather some underwater footage for our film.
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When I first slipped down through the "looking glass" of the surface, all I could see was a massive pasture of the exotic hydrilla, an aquarium import from Sri Lanka that has been established in most Florida rivers and lakes for years. In this image, the clouds have moved tightly overhead, darkening my sub-aquatic world; and, the underside of the surface is showing the first pings of rainfall.
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The sky above is heavy now with dark clouds and rain. When Bob starts to shoot video footage, it seems more like night than day.
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Bob briefly surfaces just as several kayakers are paddling through, headed for the take-out. I really like the frog-eye view of the surface, which is being seriously dimpled with rain fall by now.
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When naturalist Bartram visited Florida in the 18th century, he collected seeds, and sketched animals and plants he encountered in wonderful detail. Here's what could be a descendent of one of the soft shell turtles he saw, and later drew. Thanks to some great info provided by the folks conducting this study on turtles---"Central Florida Freshwater Research Group---Florida last year passed one of the strongest laws against harvesting freshwater turtles.
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 A tattooed number on the bottom side of the softshell helps researchers keep track of the animals. When they are recaptured, the numbers can then be matched up to an index, and size, weight, condition, etc. can be recorded.
Of all the hard and shoftshell turtles tagged on the Wekiva, some 40 percent are recaptured by the researchers, and that provides a great way to contrast and chronicle turtle-life changes.
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Here, Dr. Brian Hauge checks on one of the large wire turtle traps baited for the critters at the edge of the lagoon just downstream of the footbridge in the state park. Brian played a major role in first introducing his college students to the turtles and the river, and has continued to be closely involved in the program some 12 years after it began.
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"Bait" set inside the trap. The bait is watermelon rinds which softshell turtles apparently love.
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An alert attached to a turtle trap advising the curious not to screw it up.
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It was still sprinkling, but some of the clouds parted and let a bit of ambient sunlight down to the bottom. Here, a "bush" of hydrilla sways in the light current of the spring to the fore, while the everlasting blue-green of infinity dissolves to the aft.
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Gotta love the little critters hiding back under the floating mats of lily pads. In this case, I pushed under a bit, and stuck the camera deeper in, triggering the flash. The canopy kept everything dark to my eyes, but the flash shows the wonderful detail below the surface. If you look carefully about half way down the screen to the right (and about 1/4th of the way across the screen from the right side), you'll see a little bluegill looking back out.
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Equinox co-founder, author, and photographer-for-the-day Bill Belleville shoots a self-portrait just under the surface.
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Three distinct and different realities here: The underside of the surface at the top with the large bubbles; the mid-range with the flock of small minnows (likely gambusia and killifish), and, the bottom of hydrilla. Look closely in the mid section to the right and you will see a portion of a diver's tank and the neoprene suit.
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Right at the surface before we decided to call it a day. Here, the rain started up again and is busy making itself known. The surface seems to be boiling with its energy, There was no one else in the water then but Jeff, Bob and myself, and we were all in different places.
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 There's still plenty of wildness left in Florida, and in particular, it thrives where reasonably healthy waters still exist. To be in, on, or under that water allows us the chance to truly *see* again, to tap into the timeless native soul that others have known here for thousands of years.
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Photos by Bill Belleville. |
