MACRO DIVING ... by FRANCIS LE GUEN

The mood of Francis Le Guen

Because sometimes, do not mess around!

Music credits: Erwan & Eric Le Guen

Me, when diving, I like the great outdoors. The vertiginous drop-offs, the reliefs, the arches, the caves… I am a lover of “sensation”, that of the weightlessness of the blue, of the distances which melt into the indigo mist. Used to (almost) lifeless caves, it took me a long time to consider these animals that swarm in the oceans other than as pollution. All these fish that pee in the sea ... "Fauna" is in my eyes a non-essential "distraction" because my pleasure is elsewhere.

Well, the appearance of a whale shark in the blue, whose gigantism is revealed as it approaches, of a threatening tiger which rises from the bottom like an arrow, or even of a turtle (it takes …), Of a giant loach like the one I had met at the bottom of a cave of the 7 brothers, I am not against it. Of course. And the dolphins, and the mantas, and the whales… Because there are some, to lose breath; big beasts.

I also like long underwater trips, underwater trips, drift dives, wrecks from stern to bow. To see the country, what!
So, obviously, I am in constant conflict with the "contemplatives". Hear divers who only get wet to "observe". And if possible without moving too much. And what do they choose to see? Easy: the fauna fixed! Or attached! The one who is not going to cross at the slightest false palm ...

It is true that it is very beautiful. Those big barrel sponges. These soft coral bushes. These giant gorgonians… When I started diving, we looked at this “on the way”… We didn't even stop. Today, divers congregate in front of the slightest trace of red. It is sure that cellulite is not likely to melt on this diet! Besides, is it still useful to put on the fins? We bring you down on the anemone, you watch the clown fish for half an hour and we bring you back up. Packaged it's weighed! Finally, it's you who see ...

But, in recent years, I have observed an even more perverse behavior that mimics the manias of underwater photographers. Aaaah photographers! What a pain! Equipped with their expensive macro accessories, it is impossible to take them off a tiny coral potato where an alleged shrimp is spinning. And the rest of the group or the imprudent assistants who have to wait with folded arms… It is as though the “macro” photographers have forgotten the existence of fish that do not fit into the frame. Not to mention the giants! They do not care !

But now, there are the nudibranchs. These slugs; these shellless snails whose discovery makes all divers fail. Reds, blues, stripes, pitch… Oh he is cute! I feel like I'm going to make friends again. Girlfriends, especially, because you noticed: divers are crazy about nudibranchs… Except that the sticky thing rarely measures more than a centimeter! And that's where I wanted to come from.

But anyway, when we walk in the forest, it is to appreciate the plant majesty which soars towards the sky. It is not to crawl between the mushrooms, the nose to the ass of the "little grays"! In the African savannah, you photograph elephants, lions, at a pinch zebras, but not ants! Yes ? So it can be treated ... In the desert, we enjoy the great outdoors, without trying to squeeze between each grain of sand! Finally, it's you who see ...

Now the fashion is muck diving: we dive into the shit but we do not care because we have the mask stuck to the mud. A rusty tin can, a plastoque bottle is a treasure: full of little things to rave about: these forms! these colors ! Yes but, wake up: this is 5mm! Raise your nose! If it falls, there, now, just above you, passes a bench of great eagle rays. And sharks are cracking the pear ten meters behind!

Photo side, it is the bidding. Already, the pygmy seahorse has made his world shit, in hot seas. It became whooping cough. The demo required for monitors with slanted eyes. There is on all the sites "the gorgon with seahorses"! And be careful, it is necessary to stick the nose on the said gorgon (the careful finger of the monitor which designates the thing has become big as a baobab) to hope to discern something. I say discerning! The presbyopes will come back. Me, the only seahorses I've seen are those of my photos, development. Thank you enlargement.

But today it's even worse! Forums, networks and galleries are full of even smaller animals! Fry, insignificance, nanitudes… Millimetric! The number of critters we have to squish on each dive when I think about it! Finally, it's up to you!

There was already the magnifying glass, the macro lenses: soon you will need a microscope to dive! Because, why stop there so good? Life abounds on all scales, be sure. In the genre, I have some to suggest to you, critters. Here, in order of size: radiolarians, diatoms, coccoliphores, blue algae, viruses! Splendid marine viruses! And it will be necessary to count in nanometers. Nano, not manometers… Obsessed! There, you will be able to say that you have explored an mm2 of reef!
You know what ? I don't even want to dive anymore. I'm going to buy an aquarium. And an endoscope ...