(Map For Today: Resort=Red, Dives=Yellow)
So I sit here writing to you from the imaging studio, having packed up all of my camera gear in preparation for my departure tomorrow. We leave the resort, and head to Sorong, where I spend one night before heading to the Philippines. It was not the clearest of weather today, a bit cloudy, but none the less amazing diving. We went back to Markus reef and Nikson's Garden. We had a late start today, because we have to plan by the tides. We arrived at Markus reef at about 9:30 and hopped in the water. The visibility was amazing, crystal clear, and the fish were everywhere. As I reached the bottom, I came to a bommie filled with spiny lobster, and unlike ours in the Bahamas, here they are incredibly colourful.
(Spiny Lobsters)
After the bommie, we headed out into the sand flats, and past us glided a Mobula Ray, essentially a mini manta. While down there Nikson called me over, and showed me a type of anemone fish that we had never seen before, not even Leon and Claudia had seen this type here, it is called a Panda Anemone fish, and as anemone fish go, the panda is very cute, and aggressive. The aggressiveness makes them ideal for shooting, as they don't try to hide from you, but rather they rush at you. I snapped away at these guys for a while, and in one shot I got a total of 8 fish.
(Panda Anemone Fish)
(Panda Anemone Fish)
As I headed back towards the reef from shooting the anemone fish, I was suddenly drawn to an area with hundreds of fish swarming it. I swam closer, and came to see that it was a massive school of banner fish, and they were dancing around the coral. They are usually in smaller groups, and until today, I have found them incredibly hard to shoot. Even today, I had to really fight to get close to them, and I didn't manage to get as close as I would have liked to, but none the less I got the shot.
(Banner Fish School)
(Banner Fish)
After being swallowed by the school of banner fish, I began to head up to the shallows of the reef, where the floor is covered by a massive forest of stag horn corals. On my way up I was taken by the number of fish. The first small bommie I came to had another swarm of cardinal fish, but as I went up I came to a coral mountain covered in various types of fish. It was stunning to see quite so many fish all swarmed around a single rock, it is enough to make you loose your train of thought.after snapping a few shots I continued up to the stag horn forest.
(Cardinal Fish)
(Amazing Life)
As usual the massive stag horn cora forest was breathtaking, it seems to extend forever. It is lime millions of little brown coral fingers with gleaming white tips sticking up from the ground. It was beautiful, and all different kinds of fish of all shapes and sizes were buzzing around the corals. After the forest, I decide it was time to end the dive before I ran out of air, so Leon and I surfaced. Everyone came up to the boat with similar reactions, they were all amazed by the vast number of fish, and the extensive coral fields that extended on for hundreds of meters.
(Stag Horn Forest)
Our next dive was about 15 minutes away, we were headed back to Nikson's garden, one of the most amazing dives near the resort. After Markus reef I didn't see much that was too out of the ordinary, so I didn't shoot much. I mostly played with the bommies, and having people model in my shots, so not too much to report from this dive. It was amazingly clear, and undoubtably alive. I am going to miss the diving here, and the experience, it has been a truly amazing journey. I am looking forward to going to the Philippines, it will be awesome I am sure. Sorry it is so short today, but I am off to pack.
 |
| (Amazing Colour) |
 |
| (Nice Scenery) |
(Leon)
(Leon)
(Leon And Claudia)
(Beautiful Colors)
No comments:
Post a Comment