Dive Time with Tim Grollimund
The Eyes have it!
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Posted - Thursday, February 02, 2012 08:19 PM EST
Tim Grollimund
Queen angelfish eye are as beautiful as the rest of the animal. (Tim Grollimund)
Sometimes I take things for granted. Often it’s simple things. Tonight I came home from diving, edited the photos and didn’t even turn on the television. The silence was delightful, especially since my neighbor seems to be taking steps to quiet her annoying barking dog.
So tonight I did all my editing in total silence. It was great. I really liked the silence for a change. Just the wind gently moving the palms was all the sound for the evening.
I took silence for granted until it was interrupted. Now I like it a lot more.
How would I feel if my visual space were interrupted? As I delve deeper into photography, I live increasingly in a visual world. My entire working life exists around images. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to be able to appreciate the beauty of nature in visual form. I love being with animals in the water, and try to put their personalities in my camera. I try to visualize my encounter with them as I make my approach.
Lately I’ve wondered what fish see when we approach them. Do we interrupt their visual world? I saw an interesting video in Wakatobi on the subject, and it caught my attention again last weekend when Elena Rodriguez at Key Largo Dive Center suggested I write a column about fish eyes.
We were doing some maintenance work for Coral Restoration Foundation at the time. I can see where her “eye-dea” came from. If you ever want to get up close and personal with triggerfish, go jump in the staghorn nursery. There are always a few there to greet you. These particular ones like people. Just ask Elena’s finger. One of them took a chunk home as a souvenir. And they have pretty cool eyes, bugging out a bit.
To get a better handle on the topic, I spent the last few dives photographing eyes. I also started digging into the scientific literature and had to stop. Way too complicated for me. I did find a simple web site that a scientific simpleton like me can understand. Like I said, I’m a visual person, so of course I had to find a diagram of a fish eye. Visit www.earthlife.net/fish/sight.html. Of all the sites I visited this week, this was the most direct and least scientific. Hopefully it’s accurate, too.
In some ways — rods and cones — fish eyes are similar to ours. In other ways — monocular instead of binocular — fish eyes differ greatly from our eyes. Some see UV wavelengths. Some see in color, others do not. As I find scientific papers I can understand, I will pass them along.
There is an entire group of scientists who do nothing but study vision in animals. Take a look at The Johnson Lab at Duke University (www.biology.duke.edu/johnsenlab). They have many research projects devoted to vision capabilities in fish. This lab is way over my head, but the photos are spectacular. Visual thing, I guess. For a fun page on eyes, take a gander at Seafriends, a New Zealand conservation organization:www.seafriends.org.nz/photolib/eyes.htm. Click on an eye to get the details.
As long as we’re talking about eyes and vision, there’s a Key Largo eye-con that’s hit a bit of a problem with his. When I got the news that my friend Frazier Nivens had emergency surgery on his eye, I cringed. Frazier lives in a visual world, too — much more so than me, and for a much longer time. He has the Emmy awards to prove it. Frazier is the “go to” guy for underwater video in the Keys.
He is face down for a few more weeks while his retina heals. He has an air bubble in his eye to keep adequate pressure on his retina. This has been a hardship on him and his family, as he will be out of work for at least eight weeks.
I’ll bet he is thinking about his visual world, too.
This difficult time for Frazier and his family signals to me how fragile life can be. I think it’s safe to say we’ve all had ups and downs and significant life-changing events.
That’s why I don’t take silence for granted anymore. You never know how much you value something that, at first blush, seems ordinary, until it’s interrupted, changed, injured or lost.
I hope you will come and support Frazier at an upcoming fundraising event — much of the video that circulates around the world to promote the Florida Keys went through Frazier’s eyes first.
Learn more about this event, scheduled for Feb. 19, at this web site: www.fraziernivensbenefit.com/. If you want to help, contribute to the silent auction or just send your healing words, please do so. Helping someone can be a simple thing.
Tim Grollimund is a freelance photographer and PADI divemaster based in Key Largo. He can be reached at tim@timgimages.com or through his web site at www.timgimages.com. Keep tabs on his activity for the Coral Restoration Foundation at www.timgimages.com/crlogbook.
