Bahamas - Wide angle and misc

Few other shots from beneath the waves that I like

Bahamas Shark diving

I'm still not convinced that chumming is a good idea as the effects on the sharks in the environment was quite obvious (frantic!) after the Aquacat hadn't visited for 2 weeks whilst they were undergoing annual maintenance in the yard.

HOWEVER, it was an amazing experience, especially the dive following the shark feed as all the sharks will still around and I took in my macro lens (pic four) to have a play around

Bahamas for christmas - Macro shots

Well what a fantastic week on board the Aquacat out of Nassau, you couldn't wish to meet a more fun crew or be on board a more comfortable and well maintained boat. The food was fantastic, the beer / rum / you name it was free and the diving different to any I have done before.

A surprising lack of fish (in terms of Bali / Red Sea) was made up by some cracking dives with sharks (pics in next post) some amazing soft corals and a chance to dive with Kate in our normal relaxed style

Which one?

Oshima's porcelain Crab






I love both of these photos, the crab was about 18mm across, the anenome was swaying in the small current so he quickly found himself protected but not before I managed to fire off a number of shots!

He's obviously moved from the edge of the anenome to the back - which one do you prefer?

Bali October 2007

Mixed emotions run through my head when wanting to describe Bali!

There is no doubt that some of the diving is absolutely superb and exactly what I needed to get into the groove with my underwater photography. In the first 3 days in Tulamben I took near on 300 photos! We experienced the famous Liberty wreck, muck diving in Sereya, a whale shark in 12m of water (guess who had a macro lense on ;o))and probably the most stunning coral gardens I've ever been lucky enough to dive. We all had a bit of a moan about the shore entry - over volcanic rocks it's not the easiest of ways to get in and out of the water whilst carrying scuba gear and an underwater camera set up but we were richly rewarded in the diving once in.

From Tulamben we moved down to Candi Dasa and a beautiful hotel to boat dive off Nusa Penida, the "gili"s and Blue lagoon. A stark contrast to Tulamben, we were regularly guided into fast and unpredictable currents, something none of us were happy with and resulted in many abandoned dives as we left the guides to do safe ascents. Manta Point was another diappointment with the camera, diving in 4m surge in about 5m viz - I ended up taken a maximum of 50 photos in the last 4 days compared to the previous location. Even in the Blue lagoon we experienced too much surge to spend any time composing shots comfortably.

Throughout the whole trip I was diving with Steve, a fantastic spotter and diver with the patience of a saint - I think I've identified all his critters correctly(Steve pioneered the new addition of bamboo pointing stick (satay stick!) and home made shaker (shampoo bottle that needs some more work!!)) Thanks Steve :o)

Big thanks to Rick from Yoyo Divers for organsing the trip - nice one dude! :o)


Striped Eel Catfish


Chromodoris Hintuanensis


Blue Ribbon Eel


Orange mouth thorny oyster


Cleaner shrimp


Eastern skunk anenome fish


Durban Hingebeak Shrimps


pink Squat lobster - not the kind you'd ever find on a menu, he's tiny!


Ornate ghost pipefish


Gorgonian fan with feather stars


Inside the Liberty wreck


Schooling jacks on the Liberty


Manta Point


Lionfish - look at his "skin", looks more like a snake!


Orange spearer mantis shrimp


Purple blotched smasher mantis shrimp


Orange spotted pipe fish?? Closest description I could find...


Phidiana Indica


Pink Leaf Scorpian fish


Pygmy Sea horse - not the best pic in the world but i had to include it given the teeny tiny size of these things!!


Risbecian Tryoni


Yello Striped Goat fish


I cannot find this anywhere - does anyone have any ideas? I've called it a Steve Shrimp cos he found it!!

Practise practise practise!

Unable to get into the water with a self imposed Dive ban to try and sort out my neck before I go to Bali, I took the camera out for some above water practise this afternoon.

A bright but cloudy day my theme was to be Autumn leaves - unfortunately many of the leaves wouldn't play and I ended up just playing around with anything that caught my eye!

Test upload

Am trying to see whether I have to get photos hosted before adding them to my blog

Any yey! You don't have to, can just upload from file :o)