Photo Diaries Archives - Page 3 of 17

Sunday Lazies

Aug 9, 2021 | Lifestyle, Moments, Photo Diaries

We are geezers, I’m tellin’ ya!

We went out to Flying Fox on Saturday night, and did some karaoke at our neighbors house after, and we drank maybe like 4 drinks each, but that was enough to wipe us out all of Sunday. Like, we were sooo tired and felt like crap! I think our immune systems were also just weak after such a long and stressful last few weeks, but here we are on Sunday afternoon, after napping the entire day… just lazed out in the treehouse for a couple of hours until the sunset.

As I’m getting older, I’ve realized that I need more and more lazy days.

Moonrise Over the Ocean

Jul 26, 2021 | Lifestyle, Moments, Photo Diaries

The neighborhood dogs are howling into the night, echoing each other without a pause, as I walk over the freshly cut grass of the lawn, past the paved road, and climb up the wooden steps to the treehouse. My husband and several of our friends are sitting on the pier, listening to island jams, sipping on beers, and nibbling on chips being passed around to share. I set my camera up on my mini tripod, attaching it to my massive Sigma 105mm f/1.4 fixed lens. I look down at my watch and it’s a little past 9pm. The moon would be rising soon. I rest the tripod on the thick teak wood rail of the treehouse and fiddle with the camera’s manual mode when I see a razor thin orange outline in the horizon. The moon slowly peeked out from the imaginary line in the sky and I snap away silently while the muffled conversation dims. Everyone gazed at this wondrous muted yellow orange orb grow bright and high in the sky, interrupted by the occasional cloud rolling through. The cool ocean breeze gives me goosebumps and I wrap my linen button-up a little tighter for warmth.

Snorkeling in Gataivai

Jul 21, 2021 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries

Living next to a beach is pretty freaking awesome. I can get in the water as often as I want, whenever I want… well, except on Sundays unfortunately, as is the current rule in my village peninsula. So on this particular Sunday, I needed some saltwater therapy after a long week and a longer week to come, and I ventured to Gataivai beach some 20 minutes away for an arvo snorkel with my Fish Man.

I love snorkeling at Gataivai. The beach is easy to access, right off the main road, it goes from shallow sand and reefs to deep vast nothingness in a matter of a few hundred yards, meaning it scares and excites me, and I just love that there’s a variety of fish and coral, and lots of it too! Only cons are really that it’s right by the Pago Harbor, where I’ve heard of and seen (photos of, only) bull sharks coming for a visit, which terrifies me out of my wits; also that there’s a sewage treatment plant literally across the road, and sometimes it’s stinky above water, and makes me feel icky sometimes when I’m in the water too, especially after a big rain.

This photo journal is neither here nor there though… this one is about the what we saw underwater. When we got in the water, we immediately came across a casual sea turtle. There were several others in the distance, but this one we came across was munching away at algae on the reef, ignoring us mostly, and showing off a little too. We hung out with this sea turtle for probably a good 20 minutes.

Just a mini highlight of some of what we saw… We saw several juvenile humphead wrasses, tons of butterflyfish, parrotfish (small), blue damselfish, pennant bannerfish, triggerfish, and even a scorpionfish! We initially thought it was a stonefish, but after a little checking, we now think it’s a scorpionfish. It was all around a lovely snorkel.

Reliving these seemingly insignificant vignettes from moments of my life at home through photos… I am reminded that there is beauty everywhere in everything… and that time spent on doing things that bring you joy is time well spent.

Sending warmth and love to wherever you are seeing this from!

xoxo,

Nerelle

Photos by Ian Moffitt and Nerelle Moffitt

Sleepy sleepy

Jul 12, 2021 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries

On Sunday morning, I felt so fatigued from the DIY project my husband and I started the day before; but we ran out of materials to complete the project and couldn’t drive back to Ace to get more because it was, after all, a mandatory day of rest. So I slept in… and then I took a morning nap… yup, a morning nap okay?! I am tired and I am aging!!! Our house was filthy from leaving all our project stuff out, and I actually got up out of bed in the morning and told Ian we would skip church to clean the house. But as it turns out, I did not do a thing. And bless my husband’s beautiful soul, a gift from God himself… My mister cleaned up the whole house while I really just slept all morning until the afternoon on the living room couch. I’d wake up in between my naps, stirred for only moments for a catch up call with my in-laws, read another chapter of my book, make buttered toast to scarf down… and then I’d fall back asleep to the sound of the fan whirring in my direction or the robovac humming away in and out of the nether regions of the couch. My sleepiness was relentless.

It felt so good to be so tired, and to have time to rest. Thank you to whoever in history decided weekends would be a thing… however, just two days though? Coulda been at least 3 out of 7! Hmm… I think I cat napped until about 2pm…

And then suddenly, I wanted to get outside and move my body… or preferably jump in the ocean. I found my husband sitting on the papasan chair in the studio/office reading a book, and asked meekly if he wanted to go snorkeling in Gataivai with me. The merman that he is, of course he said yes!

I grabbed my swimmers and my camera and we got on the road to Gataivai where I snapped these pics… and I’ll have many more underwater photos that I’ll post soon!

Also, before I allow myself to go to bed again… but this time because I’m writing this on a Monday night at 11:30 PM, I just want to reiterate that my husband is the absolute freakin’ best every dang day. Not just because he cleaned the house while I gently snored (probably) on the couch yesterday… he does so much that makes me smile, laugh, or pause in awe… I think I married a unicorn.

Anyway – good night!

xoxo, Nerelle

Dive Log: Amalau Bay (Left side)

Jul 8, 2021 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries, Photography, Travel

Two divers underwater; one diver with head just out of the frame, the other diver looks directly at camera

DATE: Saturday, July 3, 2021

Mountain, clear skies with few clouds, and Scuba diver's head at the surface of the ocean.

SITE: Amalau Bay, American Samoa

Two scuba divers in front of a large coral mound

DIVE BUDDIES: Ian, Lilian, Christian

START PRESSURE: 2500 psi

END PRESSURE: 800 psi

Some of the many corals we saw at Amalau Bay. All of these incredible shots by Ian.

MAX DEPTH: 63 feet

Dive log: underwater reefscape with light filtering from the surface

VISIBILITY: ~60 feet

Dive log with scuba diver swimming over a thriving reef ecosystem in American Samoa

AMALAU BAY: ONE OF THE BEST DIVES IN AMERICAN SAMOA

The last time I dove at Amalau Bay was back in 2018 (see dive log here), on the right side of the bay. For this dive, we dove on the left side of the bay. I observed a lot of really beautiful things: giant Porites coral (probably one of the largest I’ve seen in all of Tutuila), plentiful fish (mostly smaller fish though), giant clams, thriving coral reef ecosystem with corals growing on top of each other, a spongy brown anemone that looks like coral at first until you touch it and it turns white and feels very soft and squishy, huge plate corals, very cool and interesting reef structures about 60 feet deep that go all the way up to about 20 feet (perfect for snorkelers), sandy bottom, a school of tiiiiny fish (I thought it was just ocean dust at first and then I noticed they all moved together in rhythm), also some dead coral, but not from bleaching.

TOTAL TIME: 63 minutes

WATER TEMP: 84 F

WEATHER: 2-3 ft waves, scattered clouds, 5mph winds NE

All original photos taken by Nerelle and Ian Moffitt

Weekend Adventure Highlights: Enjoying Freedom in Nature

Jun 28, 2021 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries, Travel

A photo journal (and several video clips thanks to the iPhone live photo mode!) from last weekend’s adventure to the Airport Tide Pools here in American Samoa.

I was elated to find that we had a new federal holiday, and in honor of Juneteenth, I wanted to celebrate my everyday freedoms by going outside!

Weekend Adventure Highlights:

The sun shone after a week of blustery weather, so it was a perfect day for an island adventure.

Ian, Creighton, and I paddled from our house to the airport strip, and Yodi dog came with us! She swam the entire way to the airport — she’s such a champ.

We hiked over to the ‘pools’ and immediately spotted several baby black tip reef sharks cruising by.

While we were snorkeling, we saw a cloud of sand about 15 feet beneath us, and when it had settled, we saw it was a large stingray getting cozy in the sand.

There were tons of fish… mostly small ones… but I was so happy still to be surrounded by lots of fish. Oh, and the coral looked good as well… not great, but there was still decent live coral coverage, which is good to see after the severe bleaching event several years ago.

I speared a fish! This was my second time ever catching a fish… it was small but larger than my first fish, so hey, that’s progress!

We snorkeled for probably like two hours, then hung out on the rocky beach talking stories. The guys talked mostly… I kept getting back in the water because it was a hot day and there was no shade; plus, I was having an absolute blast jumping off the steep slope and practicing my freediving.

THE HIGHLIGHT REEL

Plus some extra video clips