I was inspired by thisismylife's recent blogging challenge on liketu, 'The 30 Pictures 30 Stories Challenge'.
They were originally inspired by rubencress '30 day not-so ordinary ordinary items challenge' and I find both challenges a great way to encourage daily posting on hive.
This challenge is pretty open-ended; please feel free to follow my formula, or thisismylife's or rubencress' challenge structures listed in their posts linked above 🔼
The only stipulations are that you post one picture a day with a personal story attached to it for 30 days.
Write your story/anecdote to the best of your ability, and use the tag #30stories and/or the #notsoordinary tag if you're following rubencress' challenge. It is also advised to use the #challenge tag.
As I am a professional writer outside of hive blockchain, and as I only dabble as an amateur photographer, I thought I would follow thisismylife's challenge format to tell some stories and anecdotes about my strange life.
What can I say about this picture taken in Ras Mohammed national park in Egypt in 2012.
Drifting through clouds of Anthias, while soft coral wave in the gentle drifting current is my idea of heaven. It literally feels like you're floating through specks of gold gilt motion, interspersed with an occasional orange or crimson flash as Anthias come in all the colours of the rainbow.
But that day a huge shoal of sun-yellow Anthias had swarmed the coral where we were diving creating a mellow pastel sheen against the aquamarine background of the open ocean.
You will have to forgive the quality and relatively low resolution of the title image as I was working with a very basic dive camera, and little known to me at the time, the waterproof housing had started to leak at this point.
This particular dive took place on the wall of a seamount that rose from unseen depths at on the eastern side of a site called Satellite Reef, so you had to keep a keen eye on your depth meter so as not to stray too deep and risk the dreaded bends.
Also, I remember keeping an eye on the blue depths away from the reef’s wall in case of sightings of hammerhead sharks, gigantic tuna, barracuda or Napoleon wrasse.
But I shall save stories (and pictures) of some of these other ocean dwellers for another day 🐟😉
Thanks for reading 🌿
All photos and media design used in this post are my own.
Camera: Samsung S7 Smart Phone.