An AMAZING Day!!!!!

 

(Dive Map For Today: Resort=Red, Dive Sites=Yellow)

            I was introduced to a new world of diving. We went to an area called the Dampier Straight, and I was wowed by the dives. We left the resort at 8:15 and it was rough, but as we got away the water died down and we had beautifully calm water. We all expected there to be some rough spots, but it was beautiful the whole ride around. It took us about an hour to get out to the Straight, but it was well worth it. We took with us a picnic lunch, and stayed out the whole day. Nikson, the best dive guide in the area got back today, and it is a pleasure diving with him, he is extremely knowledgable on the area, and where certain fish like to hide. Our first dive was at a spot called Sardines, a deep and very lively spot. It was beautifully clear and full of life. It was an amazing dive, I am awestruck, the current was pushing through, but that brings the fish in. When we got to the reef, Leon showed me how to keep stationary using a reef hook to keep myself in place, another first for me.

 

(Me Flying On My Reef Hook)

            We hopped into the water and quickly dropped down to around 60 feet, and looking up to the surface, the number of fish that were circling above me was amazing. They were everywhere like colourful clouds dancing in the water. Fish of all shapes, colours, and sizes were hidden in overhangs, the specific group that caught my eye was a bunch of little yellow snappers hidden under a coral head. They were beautifully coloured yellow fish with blue stripes, making for great subjects in my shots. 

 

(Yellow Snappers)

            The coral was absolutely magnificent, very colourful and undoubtably alive. I have become far more selective in the number of shots I take, and definitely get more good shots each day than I did before, my lessons are starting to take effect, and I am very happy with the results. I got a great shot of Leon peaking through a magnificent coral window, the colours are so vibrant. We stayed down for 40 minutes, and the entire time I was mesmerised by the spot. I have been told that it is one of the best spots in the Raja Ampat.

 

(Leon In a Coral "window")

             After the first dive, we went to a large uninhabited island, with absolutely beautiful beaches on it, and had our surface interval, and a coffee break. We had an amazing beach all to ourselves with amazingly tall coconut trees on it. Our second dive was at a spot called Mike's Point, a beautiful reef located around a small island, or large rock depending on how you look at it. This was a cool spot, we hopped into the water and went down to 50 feet, while the others hung around at the beginning of the dive, Leon and I quickly went to fly trough some overhangs, where when the current is right sweet lip snappers congregate, but we missed the current, so we didn't linger before going to the main body of the reef. Right as we came out of the overhangs and over the ledge I accidentally made a discovery, a bit like Christopher Columbus and the Bahamas. I was getting into position to take a shot of a beautiful sea fan, and right where I was about to place my right hand up came a spike. I almost fell prey to a scorpion fish perfectly camouflaged with the rock. Leon started him a bit, and he bolted forward about a foot, turning bright red, giving me an amazing shot.

 

(Scorpion Fish after being startled)

            We proceeded onto the main body of the reef, right near the island in the shallows. It was stunning, one of the most amazing reefs I have ever seen. We arrived to what seemed a bit like an underwater metropolis, tons of different species living together, and all going somewhere amongst the massive skyscraper like reef. The first fish to greet us were bat fish, coming within inches of Leon and me, dancing around in the. Light rays penetrating the surface. We both hovered around them firing off shot after shot of the very patient and compliant subjects.

(Bat Fish Posing For Photos)    

            For the first time since I have been in Raja Ampat, I could not have cared less about  clownfish, I swam past dozens of them, but there was so much more to shoot. At Mike's point I saw one of the creatures I had on my list of things I wanted to see: a sea snake. I followed around what I later found out is one of the most venomous snakes in the world, but it didn't care. I followed it to the surface as it went up for breath, and went back down firing off at least 20 shots of it to make sure I got some with it in good positions and with good light. I am pleased to say that I succeeded in getting quite a few shots of my holy grail today. I have to admit that it was hard following around the snake, it is so nimble and thin it can get into the smallest of spaces, but it was well worth it. Mike's Point was an amazing dive, one that I will most certainly repeat.

(Sea Snake At Mike's Point)

 

(Sea Snake At The Surface for a Breath)

            After the second dive we went to Mios Kon: a small island for lunch. We had rice, chicken, fish and salad all while sitting on a beautiful and quiet beach. Our third dive was on a reef bordering the island, and though not as awe inspiring as the other two dives, it was still very cool. The reef was taming with yellow snappers, they were in big groups and absolutely everywhere. It took me a while t get a usable shot as the silver on their sides rebounds the lights from the strobes resulting in overexposure of several areas.

 

(Big School Of Yellow Snappers at Mios Kon)

            The reef is also speckled with cleaning stations, which make for cool shooting opportunities as bigger fish all gayer around and wait for the little fish to clean them up. One shot in particular I got was of a Titan triggerfish being cleaned under some coral. Leon and Claudia call these fish "Chunky", because while on a dive at Yembraimuk, Claudia was attacked by one. The fish struck Claudia in the head many times, ripped off her mask, and took a chunk out of her head. They can be quite aggressive, fortunately I have yet to see this, but I find myself a bit intrigued by the idea of it.

 

(Titan Trigger Fish Being Cleaned)

 

(Cleaning Station)

            At the very end of the reef, and our dive, we came onto a giant clam, absolutely massive. It was covered in growth on the outside, and purple with blue spots on the inside. The interesting thing about giant clams is that when they reach a large enough size, they become incapable of closing, leaving them completely exposed. They make good photo subjects, as they are immobile, and as they cannot close, you can get good detail shots of their muscle. Unfortunately I didn't have a macro lens, so I took some wide angle shots of it, with Leon above for perspective.

 

(Giant Clam)

  (Leon And The Giant Clam)

            The ride back from the dive sites was so smooth for the most part that i fell asleep on the bow of the boat, giving the Papuan boat crew great amusement, i was woken when we were about 15 minutes away when it got a little bumpy. I have to admit that today was by far the best dive day I have had here thus far, absolutely amazing, and very exciting. I wish the reefs in The Bahamas were still in good condition, it really makes the dives more enjoyable and photogenic. It is incredible the variety of corals here, and the vast array of colours and shapes they portray. I hope everyone had as good a day as I did, but for now I bid you all adieu, as I am off to bed. 

 (Two Shots Of Coral I Liked)

                                                                                                                          

Slow Day

          The weather here still, has yet to give us a break, today was another rough and windy one. That did not do us in completely, we still had a very full and interesting day. We started out with a dive on the back side of Pef called fuzzy rock, it was an ok dive, very bad visibility though, but it wasn't a complete loss. I saw my first school of razor fish, and Claudia got a shot of Leon and me behind them. Very interesting fish, they dance around in the water going from horizontal to vertical, to make themselves seem more threatening. They are very small fish but move well in sync with one and other, so they are very cool to watch as they buzz around the reef.

            We came back from the dive, and went walking through the jungle on Pef, shooting insects trees and all other small sightings. It was definitely a hot and sweaty walk, but a very fun and interesting one. There is tons of life both above and below the surface here, and it really is another world. Our jungle hike was well worth while, full of massive trees, massive bamboo shoots, beetles, spiders, caterpillars , and vines. It was a great workout, and worked up all of our appetites for lunch. When we got back to the resort I jumped off the dock and we all had lunch.

            Our last dive was at Cross-Over reef, which is 150 yards off the jetty of Pef. It was another murky and dreary dive, and I didn't get any usable photographs, but I still have a lot more time here, and I promise more soon. We are going to an area tomorrow that i have been told has amazing diving, so keep posted for tomorrow, and hopefully I will have something very cool to show you. For now it is just a normal evening, nothing to report.

Fell Behind Again

(Dive Map Of Yesterday: Resort=red Dive spots=yellow)

(Dive Map Of Today:Resort=red Dive spots=yellow)

            Yesterday definitely did not have the best diving conditions, and I can say for sure that the Boat ride was not a fun one. It was a very rough and wet ride, and certainly not fun. Our original plan was to go to an island 40 minutes away called Fam, but we never quite made it. We ended up around an island called Yeben, which does have some good diving around it, but in the rough water it isn't too fun. Our first dive was meant to be on Nikson's garden, but Armin managed to miss the spot all together, and we ended up on an insignificant little reef with little action on it,  other than two frantic little sharks that were constantly swimming around the reef, some really annoying remoras, one of which sucked onto my leg which is surprisingly painful, and a turtle with one of the annoying remoras on it.

(Sea Turtle and Remora)

            The first dive was not amazing, but still seeing a turtle is always a plus for me so I was not completely disappointed. We then stopped on a little island for a coffee break on an amazing beach, hung around for a little bit, and headed back out on the boat with the goal of actually making Nikson's garden this time. We successfully hit our mark, and I had an amazing dive. I didn't see anything special on this dive, but the coral there is breathtaking. I took some shots, most of which I was working on my basic skills and avoiding being stung by the nasty hydroids.

(Claudia At Nikson's Garden)

(Nikson's Garden)

            After the second dive we stopped at another one of the Yeben islands, which had muck like sand that was very sticky. We had a great lunch on the beach, some curry chicken rice, and fish nuggets. We ate fairly quickly and hung around for a bit before heading out on the next dive, which given the conditions we decided to keep near the island and take a new dive. We went right off the shore of one of the islands, at a spot which had a few little caverns in the ledge. It was not terribly interesting, but Leon and I still found a way to have a bit of fun. I shot a few serious shots, one of which is a bit eerie, a coral filled with little worms, but none the less still a cool shot.

(A Massive Sea Fan)

(Coral With Worms)

            After reaching the end of the living reef, Leon and I got a little board, and started to play around. First off I ditched my fins and started to run up the slope of bombed corals, destroyed by dynamite fishing. Leon of course took my camera and started shooting as I did this.

(Me Getting Bored)

                Leon then started to kick up sand clouds in the water, which he later told me he loves doing. I guess he never really grew up, I guess some of us don't, I don't plan on doing it myself, so I won't judge.

            After kicking up clouds of sand, we found a red sea cucumber, which I took some great shots of, and then it attacked Leon. Very vicious creature the sea cucumber and extremely fast moving.

(After being bitten by a shark you would have thought he had seen the worst, but now killer cucumbers?) 

            The night was amazingly clear, and Leon and I took some shots of the millions of stars that were out and shining, mine came out nicely, but sadly a little bit noisy.

(A wonderful Starry Night)

            Today was a miserable day, so we took the morning off, which meant that I could sleep in. I got up at 11:30 and went to the photo studio, after which we had lunch,and headed to the most magical of dive sites here: The Passage. It was a bot murky, but none the less a good dive. 

(An Electric/Fire Clam At The Passage)

Brainless Bahamian Diver

 

(The Map Of Today, Resort is red, and dive sites yellow)

   
     So the beginning of today was a disaster on my part, as I am a raging idiot. The day started with me sleeping too late and being woken up a second time 15 minutes before dive time, so I rushed to breakfast, ate as much as I could as quickly as possible, and rushed to the photo studio to set up. Everything went seemingly well, but I didn't take a test shot, big mistake. Our first dive was at the same manta spot as last week, and I was hoping to get some cool shots. We went out to the boat and headed to the spot. After the 40 minute ride out, Armin hopped into the water and found no mantas, so we checked another spot, and there was the wrong current for mantas to be there. We decided to dive the first manta spot anyway, and hoped they would arrive while we were there. So we went down and I started shooting, and SURPRISE like a moron I had failed to connect the interior strobe link to my camera's flash port. There was nothing I could do while on the dive, so I swam around like a lost puppy watching everyone else take shots. Leon and I surfaced early, saving air for Arborek island jetty, I fixed the flash issue, and replaced the back plate to my camera housing. After the others came up, we headed to Arborek, and promptly hopped in on the jetty and started shooting.

 

(The Dock Posts At Arborek Island)

    I swam to the sweet spot on the dock, and started shooting. Half way through,mi realised that jackass Scott had left the lens on manual focus, and I don't have the focus ring, so I had very limited focus range, so I didn't nail all of my shots, but some came out quite well. There were lots of fish around the posts, and it made for some very cool shots. I got back onto the boat and fixed my other fault. After a short coffee/snack break on the Arborek dock, we headed to Lalosi again. It was a great dive tons of visibility, and lot of life. I finally caught my clownfish, I sat on their anemone for 10 minutes taking shot after shot, waiting for them to be in the right spot.

 

(First Good Shot Of A Clown fish)

    I got some great shots of coral on Lalosi as well, it really is a spectacular dive site. The number of fish you see here is stunning, it really makes Nassau look like a ghost town, but there are no where near as many sharks here as we have at home, and they tell me this is because of shark finning. We had a great long at Lalosi spotting 4 more wobbegong sharks, and plenty of soft corals.

 

(Wobbegong Shark)

    Lalosi was home to another mess up today, I lost my dive flashlight. We were working on taking shots with divers in them, and Claudia was showing me the effect of using a dive light in the shot. I failed to remember that I had a shutter activated strobe, and it would turn off when my flashes fired. We took a few shots, and Claudia gave me my light back. I have been using a bush mechanic rig to hold the light on my camera housing, and when I reattached it I guess I damaged the rig, so the light fell off on the ascent. We are going to go back and try to recover it, but I am not certain it will be found, not the end of the world, and it certainly fit the failure theme of my morning. We left. Lalosi and came back to Pef for lunch, where we ate with the owners of PutiRaja Ken and Josephine, they really are remarkable people, and run a beautiful boat. We hung around on Pef until 3 when we went out for our afternoon dive.

 

(Coral At Lalosi)

    We left Pef at around 3:15 after the briefing, and headed back to Armin and Sabine, the two dive coordinator's favourite spot Yembraimuk. Inhale to admit after four dives there in two weeks there I am bloody well sick of it. The visibility was terrible, very green and murky, but there was one positive to it. We came across these neon pink and orange anemones loaded with clownfish. I got several good shots here, but the big neon pink anemone had some of the most timid clownfish in it I have ever seen. I could not get them out long enough to get a good shot of them, so I was a little frustrated, but I did get a great shot of two clownfish In one of the orange anemones.

 

(Amazing Pink Anemone At Yembraimuk)

 

(Best Shot Of Mine So Far)

    My camera lessons are starting to take effect, I am more independent on my shooting now, I have figured out most of my strobe flash positions, so I can adjust them myself, and I have a better understanding on adjusting my camera settings for each shot. Leon and Claudia have been incredibly helpful in teaching me, and they seem pleased with my progress. Hopefully tomorrow I will be less of an air head than I was today, and I will have fewer problems.

 

(Claudia Giving My Photos some more action)

   

Past two days

 

    I had a very relaxed day yesterday, I woke up at 6:30 and heard rain pelting down, so I went back to sleep and decided to wait a while. Leon came to wake me again at 7:30 and I lounged around in my bed for a bit until about 8, I then hopped out of bed and went to breakfast. On the walk over i noticed that it was very grey and gloomy, so I decided not to dive this morning. I had breakfast, and went back to bed until 11:30 when I got up again. The rain went on for a bit longer, and we hid in The photo studio. Eudon and Jeanette left us today, as they have to be back in Singapore.

                                            (Cleaner Shrimp On An Anemone At House Reef, Macro)
    The boat to Sorong left at 2, and we walked them fro. The studio to the dock. You could tell that they didn't want to leave, but they had a very nice sendoff. As with everything here on Pef, there was music and singing involved. They headed out on the resorts long boat, the Pef 1. We had planned to go on a boat dive that afternoon, but the weather had gotten really bad, so we decided to see what happened. 

                                            (Stinging Hydroids that frequent Raja Ampat, Macro)
    It cleared up later in the afternoon around 5 and Leon and I went for a dive on the house reef, located right off the jetty of the resort. I decided to try a new form of underwater photography, using a 18-50mm lens and getting close ups and detail shots of my subjects. It was a very laid back dive, just me and Leon, we were down for an hour, and I got some cook shots. First we came across a group of really brave bat fish, and they got right up close, i managed to get a few shots of them, one made the edit reel.

                                        (Giant Clam On The House reef, Macro)    After that we came across my current obsession  anemone with two clown fish and tons of tiny cleaner fish, and that made for some cool shooting. I didn't get any good shots of the clown fish, but the cleaner shrimp stole the show. I am still desperate to get my winning shot of one, It is quite hard to shoot them, as they are timid sand can hide extremely well in the tentacles of their homes.

                                          (Pipe Fish On House Reef, Macro)
    After the cleaner shrimp, Leon showed me a giant clam, which had awesome textures on it's muscle. I got some cool shots of it's muscle while open, after which we tried to get it to shut, but apparently when they get to a certain size they cannot close all the way. I was amazed to see the size of this clam it was easily 3 to 4 times the size of my hand, and I was more surprised to hear that the Papuan eat these, though Leon said it tastes awful and is tough.

                                                (Pigmy Seahorse at Wofu, Tiny, Macro)     When I was planning my trip, I was shocked to hear that there were no sea lice here, so I didn't bring any wetsuits. Right after I got here I realized my error, though there are no sea lice here they have stinging soft coral called hydroids. I have been stung so many times that I had Leon and Claudia order me a very thin wetsuit, as the water is comfortably warm, but I am through being stung by these bastards.

 

(Wobegong at Wofu, Macro)

    The first real macro shot I got was of a pipe fish, it is a thin little fish about the width of a pics of hay, and about 3 inches long. He moved really quickly, but I managed to catch him a few times when he stopped and hoped that I wouldn't see him. Though not far away, the dive was very cool and a learning experience.

                                                    (Bat Fish At the hose reef, Macro)

    Today was very cool 2 great dives on awesome reefs, and one dive on a morbid, pathetic, dead rock. The first dive was at Wofo, which was very cool. The coolest part of this dive was the pigmy seahorse, these little guys hide deep in sea fans, and blend in perfectly with the colours of their surrounding fan. They are extremely tiny like three grains of rice, and very hard to shoot. I took several shots of them and had one usable one. Claudia has edited the background for me so that it comes out black and white and the pigmy is in colour.

                                 (Map Of The Dives today, Yellow are dives, Red is the resort)
    The other highlight of this dive was the woebegong shark in an overhang, but unlike most wobbegongs, this one was easy to shoot, he was not hidden behind coral, but rather in a hole in the wall with nothing obstructing our view. Leon and I took turns shooting away at this guy while hovering over a large group of menacing lion fish. It was a great opportunity to shoot a wobbegong without having to shove yourself into some strange shaped hole and bumping your gear into rocks.

                                         (Beautiful Coral At Nikson's Garden, Wide Angle)    After the wobbegong, Leon and I worked on my skills by shooting soft corals. We surfaced after about 40 minutes. When the other two surfaced they decided that we would go to some other spot that they said was good. We got there hopped in, and went down, both Leon and I were shocked, it was a dead rock, but the "amazing" element of this site was the swim through cavern, which was about as excited as shooting photos of an all cement hallway with moss and tree roots growing through the ceiling.

                                                  (Clown Fish Hiding in his anemone)    We quickly took shots of the cavern, and got bored, ascending to what should have been a reef, but was a bit of a pathetic excuse of one. The highlight of the dive was shooting two sea slugs, which granted had great colour. We went up quickly and waited for the others to come up, which was about 30 minute on the surface.

                                               (Beautiful Soft Coral at Nikson's Garden)    We got back to the resort for lunch, and headed out on the third dive at an amazing spot called Nikson's garden, which had really incredible life. We went down to the bottom, and went nuts shooting all kinds of really vibrant soft corals, it was great. I worked more on my clown fish shooting and I will admit I am still not too good, but I am improving.

                                                  (Leon's Beaming Grin When he got Ice cream)
    We surfaced and headed back to Pef, where we intercepted a live aboard boat that was bringing more guests to the resort. The boat is called Puti Raja, and is a 105 foot sail boat. They brought to shore two more guests: Pat, and Jake, who are staying here for two weeks. After dropping the guests off the owner Ken and Josephine, took Leon out to the boat, they gave Leon a huge bag of ice-cream and he was beaming with joy. They gave a kid a bag full of candy and it showed.

 

(Leon's Ice Cream has been Delivered)

    I then was welcomed aboard to go around from the jetty of Pef into the lagoon with them, which was a great experience. Ken and his wife Josephine are really hospitable people, and were great to be with. The ride around took about 39 minutes all of which I was jumping around the boat taking shots. When we got to the lagoon Josephine made me a special mango juice and gave me some food, she really knows the way to get into a mans heart.

 

(The Rigging of the Puti Raja In Wide angle)

    They run a stunning boat, it is made in a classic Indonesian style and is al, wood. Ken told me that it was converted from a cargo boat, and that he wanted to keep it close to the original shape. I loved the boat it is beautiful, and from the short experience I had on it, I would already recommend the Puti Raja as a live aboard boat for Raja Ampat.

 

(Ken And Josephine and a crew member from Puti Raja)

                              (The Beautiful Puti Raja, an amazing Live aboard with a great crew)