Grand Bahama Bank Clouds 1

The purpose of my July visit to the Grand Bahama Banks was to swim with wild Atlantic spotted dolphins, but I could not resist photographing the brilliant blue water and tropical storm clouds when we did not have any dolphins around. While the Dolphin Dream was motoring, I carefully braced my camera against the side of the ship at the lowest point that I could stand and took a lot of pictures hoping that trial and error would yield a modestly successful image. I was also hoping that I would get lucky and record a moment with lightning striking the water beneath the tropical storm, but I did not succeed. I also saw my first water spout! I should have shot it right then and there, rather than run back inside the main cabin to let everyone else know, because by the time I got back outside a few moments later it was already gone. I created this image with my Canon 5DmkII, Carl Zeiss 28mm f2 ZE lens, Singh-Ray LB Warming polarizer, and 2-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density filter. This image is a single-exposure which required minimal processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.