My Lembeh Blog....

[Jonathan Bird]

Hi Everyone,
Since I'm supposed to have pretty good internet access in Lembeh, I thought I would start a blog, so rather than write a trip report when I get back and I have forgotten everything, I'll do it day by day as I go.

Right now I am in Singapore, and I have been awake for 43 straight hours. I took a flight from Boston through London where I had 12 hours to kill. I decided to go east through London rather than west so I could meet with the publisher of my next book and have lunch to discuss the project.

Here is what I can say about London, no offense to our British members. London is expensive, and with the current currency conversion from dollars (about USD$2=1 pound) it is really really expensive. I took a simple commuter train from Heathrow to Paddington station, about a 10-12 minute ride. Round trip, the fare was £31.00 which is about $60. SIXTY FREAKING DOLLARS!! In Boston a cummuter rail run of this length would be around $10.

Heathrow is an absolute nightmare. Think 2 hours to get through security (not including check in, add another hour for that) and a solid hour for customs. They do not allow more than one carry on, even personal items. So even though you get on the plane in Boston with two carry ons (i.e. a bag and a personal item like a briefcase or purse), when you get to London, you either stuff one into the other one, or check one and pay extra to check it because they won't let you through security with two. (Meaning, you can't get to the gate, then have them check it for free, you have to go back to check in and check it BEFORE security).

They had little old ladies stuffing their purse into their carry on and if it wouldn't fit, tough--check the carry on. But you have to leave security, go back to the check in desk and do it, so they make you pay for it as an extra piece of luggage! They had guys trying to stuff a briefcase into a backpack. This is simply retarded. The rest of the world allows a carry on and a personal item. Not in Heathrow. Period. The only exception is for professional photographers, and only those with credentials from a recognized news agency (which is to say if you work for a British newpaper and can prove it. They were not about to let me get away with it even though I had "proof" that I was a professional photographer, including even a couple copies of my books to show.) When I asked to see a manager (who clearly had the authority to simply wave me through) he absolutely refused to do it, became impatient with me, and finally told me it was my fault (as an American) because all these rules "came from America". I held my tongue and didn't remind him where the stupid shoe bomber originated. On that point, they have a whole special machine for checking shoes. So after you go through the machine that Xrays all your gear, you stand in line again at the shoe scanner. RETARDED. (Sorry I am venting a little because it's theraputic, but I also honestly feel this information will help another traveler.)

There are multiple additional randon check points between the security and the plane. If you don't see one and walk by, they scream at you like you are a criminal. If you then stand in every line that looks like you should, they scream at you to keep moving.

I'm afraid England is lost. The terrorists have won. Between the Orwellian security cameras and speed cameras on every corner, the ridiculous prices on everything, the taxes, the welfare program, their own little "alien" problem, and the airport, I am SO freaking glad I live in the USA!! Sorry England, but I will never visit again unless I drive there from FRANCE! (I'm taking a whole new view on France these days).

I had a so-so flight on Singapore air (the plane, seats, entertainment system and service did not meet up with my expectations and in fact was inferior to Korean Air, Malaysian Air and Virgin Atlantic, all airlines I have flown in the past 2 months). Don't get me wrong, Singapore Air is still far superior to most airlines in the USA with the possible exception of American Airlines (and I can't believe I'm saying that but its true--American ain't bad).

Tomorrow I shall fly Silk Air from Singapore to Manado, Indonesia, then journey to Lembeh. Hopefully my next journal entry will be tomorrow night from Lembeh.

Signing off for now....:)

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Hi Everyone,
Since I'm supposed to have pretty good internet access in Lembeh, I thought I would start a blog, so rather than write a trip report when I get back and I have forgotten everything, I'll do it day by day as I go.

Right now I am in Singapore, and I have been awake for 43 straight hours. I took a flight from Boston through London where I had 12 hours to kill. I decided to go east through London rather than west so I could meet with the publisher of my next book and have lunch to discuss the project.

Here is what I can say about London, no offense to our British members. London is expensive, and with the current currency conversion from dollars (about USD$2=1 pound) it is really really expensive. I took a simple commuter train from Heathrow to Paddington station, about a 10-12 minute ride. Round trip, the fare was £31.00 which is about $60. SIXTY FREAKING DOLLARS!! In Boston a cummuter rail run of this length would be around $10.

Heathrow is an absolute nightmare. Think 2 hours to get through security (not including check in, add another hour for that) and a solid hour for customs. They do not allow more than one carry on, even personal items. So even though you get on the plane in Boston with two carry ons (i.e. a bag and a personal item like a briefcase or purse), when you get to London, you either stuff one into the other one, or check one and pay extra to check it because they won't let you through security with two. (Meaning, you can't get to the gate, then have them check it for free, you have to go back to check in and check it BEFORE security).

They had little old ladies stuffing their purse into their carry on and if it wouldn't fit, tough--check the carry on. But you have to leave security, go back to the check in desk and do it, so they make you pay for it as an extra piece of luggage! They had guys trying to stuff a briefcase into a backpack. This is simply retarded. The rest of the world allows a carry on and a personal item. Not in Heathrow. Period. The only exception is for professional photographers, and only those with credentials from a recognized news agency (which is to say if you work for a British newpaper and can prove it. They were not about to let me get away with it even though I had "proof" that I was a professional photographer, including even a couple copies of my books to show.) When I asked to see a manager (who clearly had the authority to simply wave me through) he absolutely refused to do it, became impatient with me, and finally told me it was my fault (as an American) because all these rules "came from America". I held my tongue and didn't remind him where the stupid shoe bomber originated. On that point, they have a whole special machine for checking shoes. So after you go through the machine that Xrays all your gear, you stand in line again at the shoe scanner. RETARDED. (Sorry I am venting a little because it's theraputic, but I also honestly feel this information will help another traveler.)

There are multiple additional randon check points between the security and the plane. If you don't see one and walk by, they scream at you like you are a criminal. If you then stand in every line that looks like you should, they scream at you to keep moving.

I'm afraid England is lost. The terrorists have won. Between the Orwellian security cameras and speed cameras on every corner, the ridiculous prices on everything, the taxes, the welfare program, their own little "alien" problem, and the airport, I am SO freaking glad I live in the USA!! Sorry England, but I will never visit again unless I drive there from FRANCE! (I'm taking a whole new view on France these days).

I had a so-so flight on Singapore air (the plane, seats, entertainment system and service did not meet up with my expectations and in fact was inferior to Korean Air, Malaysian Air and Virgin Atlantic, all airlines I have flown in the past 2 months). Don't get me wrong, Singapore Air is still far superior to most airlines in the USA with the possible exception of American Airlines (and I can't believe I'm saying that but its true--American ain't bad).

Tomorrow I shall fly Silk Air from Singapore to Manado, Indonesia, then journey to Lembeh. Hopefully my next journal entry will be tomorrow night from Lembeh.

Signing off for now....:)

Jonathan

No sleep and that kind of ****:( Just think getting underwater at the final end.

I visited Moscow last week and this shoe-show is existing there also. I think that best organized airports in Europe are Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and of course Helsinki..for future consideration!

We are following your blog, thanks!

Jukka

[tarczy]

Hey Jonathan . . .

Keep up the running trip report and please, feel free to vent all you want. I just learned three valuable lessons from your first installment . . .

1) The whole concept of 1 carry-on and 1 personal item is not happening when traveling abroad (need to meticulously check websites of airports before embarking)

2) Probably a good idea to avoid Heathrow at all costs

3) Lembeh is a b**ch to get to no matter what

Safe travels! Hope the rest of the trip turns out much better.

P.S. I know hindsight is 20/20, but why Heathrow as a connecting airport? If I'm not mistaken, you can go through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and get to Lembeh just as easily. I've been through both cities and find their airports to be absolutely wonderful.

[Andrew]

My comment from the English point of view is the same, Heathrow (and all other London airports) sucks! I fly through London almost every week and it gets me depressed as soon as I leave home or even think about it!

Don't try and bend the rules on one bag, they won't let you through... I have tried! Even if you have a book and a bag... the book has to be packed... absolutely crazy!

Anyway, you are over the worst of it and have a great trip... I just hope you are not going home via London... :D

Andrew

[Papa Bear]

Don't you just love the whole airline experience???!!! Sometimes you just gotta be part of the Herd, but I think we all need to write and email the Airlines and our Reps! Be made at Osama and his elk!

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey gang, the internet is up and down here, so we'll see how I do posting....

Wow, what an amazing day today was!!! But I guess I should start at the beginning.

Yesterday I got up and headed to the airport in Singapore with one of the group members David K. and we met up with the rest of our group and boarded the airplane. I got whacked SG$300 (~US$200) for my excess baggage. I have a 50 pound and a 70 pound bag. They only allow 20 kilos on Silk Air (~50 pounds) so I had to pay overweight charges on 30 kilos at SG$10 (Singapore dollars) per kilo. OUCH. I wish I could have checked my bags all the way through.

The flight to Manado in North Sulawesi was uneventful on a Silk Air Airbus A320. A nice relatively new plane.

Manado is fairly nice, a heck of a lot nicer than a lot of places I have visited! We were picked up at the airport by Rob Sinke from Divers Lodge Lembeh (http://www.diving-on-sulawesi.com/) and driven to the coastal town of Bitung, which took a little over an hour. This is a nice clean little coastal town (except for the fishing wharf area) and a pretty busy, hopping little port. We boarded the boats and took about a 30 minute ride to the lodge, which is located on Lembeh Island, rather than the mainland. As there are no roads on Lembeh Island, all the villages can only be accessed by the sea. DLL is located on a hill and they own a huge amount of forest all around the resort, so it is very private and quiet. The bungalows are all built on the hillside in the forest with beautiful (and I mean truly breath-taking) views of the ocean. I really like this place, although it has no AC and that takes a little getting used to for me. At night the temperature is fine for sleeping, but it's still humid.

We had some dinner, put cameras together and went to bed. Everyone is pretty out of it because of jet lag. This morning we got up around 6:30 (everyone was awake since 5 AM anyway because of the jetlag) and had breakfast at 7 AM. By 8 we were loading the boats. One of the things I love about this resort is the 2 divers per divemaster rule, which means you have a very small group (3 people) in the water looking for critters. Because this resort only allows 10 people total but has 5 boats, we can have very lightly loaded boats. My group is 9 people, so we put the 3 videographers on one boat so they would be away from our strobe flashes. Then we put 2 divers on another boat with a divemaster, and the other 4 (including me) on the 3rd boat with 2 divemasters.

Our divemaster asked us what we wanted to see, so I decided to throw out one of the difficult subjects, a Rhinopias scorpionfish. We went out to the first site (name is escaping me right now) and we dropped into the water. Within 5 minutes we had TWO different species of rhinopias scorpionfish. Unbelievable!! We did 3 dives, each lasting 60-90 minutes, depending on depth, and I shot 307 pictures using my trusty Sigma 50 mm macro lens on my D200 with twin Ikelite DS125s and an Ikelite housing. We had 4 divers on our boat….all using Ikelite SLR housings (3 Nikons and 1 Canon). All functioned flawlessly. We got some amazing pictures…blue ringed octopus, various ghost pipefish, several species of frogfish, including the smallest one I have ever seen, about the size of the nail on my pinky. I saw and photographed so many cool things on the first day that I can say for sure that this is another one of those places that TOTALLY lives up to its reputation. This is muck diving heaven, a macro mecca for sure. I am going to need to toss some crap off this hard drive to have enough space to store all the pictures I'm going to shoot! I'm averaging so far 100 images per dive…and most are keepers.

One thing I recommend is using Nitrox here. A lot of the dives are 50-70 feet and you run up nitrogen fast. We all decided to just use air the first day, but we were constantly watching the computers to be sure we didn't go into deco. Tomorrow I expect that everyone will switch to nitrox.

Well, I have to run…we decided against our better judgement to do a night dive. I had enough time to type this while I charged some batteries, dump the camera, swap camera batteries and now it's time to head back out!! I'll post this to the website tonight hopefully if the internet is up here. (It is sporadic because they have power outages in Bitung where the internet provider is. Ironically, the power here at the resort is more reliable because they have solar plus two generators.

More later and some pics....stand by!

Jonathan

[Clay Coleman]

100 keepers per dive! Keep us posted, Jonathan. -Clay

[Jonathan Bird]

Here are some shots:

[Jonathan Bird]

A couple more...

I have no time to tweak today, so these are all essentially right off the camera with the default white balance settings, etc.

[Jonathan Bird]

P.S. I know hindsight is 20/20, but why Heathrow as a connecting airport? If I'm not mistaken, you can go through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and get to Lembeh just as easily. I've been through both cities and find their airports to be absolutely wonderful.

You pretty much have to go through Singapore. The question is how many airports do you go through before that? I worked an itinerary that was designed to minimize plane changes and therefore luggage losses. My alternatives in the same price bracket were Boston to NY to Germany to Singapore to Lembeh (3 stops)...or....Boston to NJ to Korea to Singapore to Lembeh (3) stops)....or....Boston to Vancouver to Singapore to Lembeh (except that one involved Northwest and I will avoid them at all costs...they suck!) So I decided that Boston to London to Singapore with a layover to visit my publisher was the best deal. On the plus side, my plan worked, because my luggage made it and I did have a meeting with the publisher and the publisher did give the green light to my next book. It's just that Heathrow SUCKS A@@!!

Jonathan

[Clay Coleman]

Sigh..I'm wistful. Great stuff, as always, Jonathan. -Clay

[Emesge27]

You know what a cephalopod nut I am and you've got two gorgeous animals on the first day! I'm with Clay - big SIGH!!

I thought Heathrow was hell prior to 9/11 - last time I was there we were in check-in for two hours before security. The only good thing about it was that the airline had to move us to business class which was a nice perk on a long flight. Do they still have the tanks along the runways? Nice view upon take-off and landing.

Best fishes,
Maryhelen

[Jonathan Bird]

Hi All,
Please pardon me if it takes a while to respond to your comments and questions. The internet here is not always reliable, so I am writing my log entries offline and then posting them whenever I can get online, which means I am writing my text without seeing your questions until I log on.

A couple of us brave jetlagged souls decided to do a night dive last night. Why, I do not know. We just got here, we are completely exhausted, we did 3 dives during the day which took all day (75 minute dives on average with at least an hour interval) and yet someone had to say "Lets do a night dive!!!" I knew I shouldn't have booked the "unlimited diving" package! Anyway, I went!

We did the house reef right in front of the resort. It actually is a reef, which surprised me. It was the most reef I have seen here so far. Ironically, because it's a reef, they do not see as much in the way of critters as they do in some of the more mucky spots at night. Nonetheless, we didn't want to go too far. The highlight of the dive was a large Spanish dancer with two huge imperial shrimps riding on it and it made for pictures that were definitely worth the effort of the dive.

We came back, had dinner and crashed. I was exhausted. But thanks to jetlag, I was awake bright and early this morning at 5:30. I figure in another 3-4 days I'll be in the time zone and I'll have to be dragged out of bed. Fortunately, my roomie is none other than uwphotochat regular David White, and he is an early riser! (He also does not snore, and for that, he is a perfect roomie!)

So we went out this morning to do 3 more dives. I realized on the way out how easy we have it. We have guys to carry the gear and ferry the cameras around. We have meals prepared for us, we have a laundry service. Here at DLL they only put a maximum of 4 divers on a boat, no more than 2 divers per divemaster. We passed a group today (underwater) from KBR and they had six divers and one divemaster. They were all flailing around a frogfish trying to get pictures and the dust flume carried downstream for a hundred yards. How does anyone get pictures diving like that? I'm so glad we are here. But the most incredible part if this is that we have divemasters that know where everything is. We have yet to stump our divemaster. Yesterday we asked for rhinopias scorpions and a blue ringed octopus. Done. Now what? This morning we asked for a striated ("hairy" as they call them here) frogfish and a stargazer. Done, on dives 2 and 3 consecutively. And we also found about 8 zillion other things. I have been here 2 days and 3/4 of my want list is complete. I have 7 more days of diving!

Now that I am acclimated to the weather a bit more, the room actually feels a little chilly at night with the fan going…I had to get up and turn it down last night. I do love AC but this place is just fine with none. It is HOT during the day!

Here are some shots from last night and today. Heh heh this place is the nuts!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Gotta upload these fast while the internet is up!!!

[Jonathan Bird]

A few more....

[Jonathan Bird]

A few pics of Divers Lodge Lembeh...

1. One of the cottages on the hill.
2. The view from ours (from inside)
3. The view from our front porch.

[David White]

Not really sure what day it is anymore since I have yet to recover from jet lag but who really cares. This place is awesome. The only time that I have had to handle the 42 pounds of Phenom housing, monitor and lights is when it is handed to me once I am in the water. This is an extremely good thing since there are over a hundred steps from the beach to our room and it has to be at least 300 yards distance. The divemasters take care of everything. And there is a divemaster for every buddy pair but since I don't have a buddy, I am personally escorted around the dive sites. To be honest, I was being facetious when I gave the dive master my wish list of "things to see" on the first dive. "Hairy frogfish?...Right this way, sir." "Weedy Scorpionfish...just over here." These guys are uncanny. He even found a pygmy seahorse that was less than 1cm. long. There is no way that I could get close enough to shoot video of it. Tonight we went out to film mating Mandarinfish. The divemasters located dozens of them but they turned shy in front of the bright lights and camera lens and just refused to get it on. Each night we book our itinerary for the next day. Tomorrow we have four dives scheduled so will be gone from early morning until after dark. Lunch, as always, is served right on the boat.

The really sad thing for those of you reading this post and wishing you were here is that there was a spot available. And I would not have minded sharing my divemaster. So, log in tomorrow for Jonathan's continuing saga, and read it and weep.

[Jonathan Bird]

Just to give you a feel for the location, here are some boats in the harbor in Bitung (pronounced "BEE-tung"). In the background across the water is Lembeh Island.

[Jonathan Bird]

The really sad thing for those of you reading this post and wishing you were here is that there was a spot available. And I would not have minded sharing my divemaster. So, log in tomorrow for Jonathan's continuing saga, and read it and weep.

:p HA!!!!

[sorvju-f]

:p HA!!!!

Actually this really online reporting is great!

David, you should also get some online clips...maybe some day we are online when you are diving;) I also ordered my amphibico set so I will have some questions to you David, when you are back....have you ever tried video above /under split? More when you are back.

Jonathan, sorry you missed the one spot...I had interest for that, but you know I was already booked there end Feb 08.

I falled in love to those cardinal fishes, never seen them real.

The second great is this uggly face from the sand with a schrimb.

Jukka

[Neptune7]

The really sad thing for those of you reading this post and wishing you were here is that there was a spot available. And I would not have minded sharing my divemaster. So, log in tomorrow for Jonathan's continuing saga, and read it and weep.

Thanks for reminding me David! :mad:

and tell JB to check his private messages

Pierre

[Papa Bear]

Actually this really online reporting is great!

David, you should also get some online clips...maybe some day we are online when you are diving;) I also ordered my amphibico set so I will have some questions to you David, when you are back....have you ever tried video above /under split? More when you are back.

Jonathan, sorry you missed the one spot...I had interest for that, but you know I was already booked there end Feb 08.

I falled in love to those cardinal fishes, never seen them real.

The second great is this uggly face from the sand with a schrimb.

Jukka

The second one is a Star Gazer! Cool buried in the sand! We all wish we were there! I waiting till they get AC LOL;)

[Jonathan Bird]

Well today we went out to a nice spot with REEF (who knew! They have reefs here too!) and photographed not one, not two but THREE species of pygmy seahorses. They were very small ones, even by pymy seahorse standards, and hard to shoot, even with a 105 mm lens on a cropped sensor camera with a "woody" external diopter. They are just so hard to shoot!!!

After that we hit another site and tracked down some seamoths, a purple hairy sponge crab (way cool) and some other goodies. Then we came back here for lunch. After a camera download and recharge, we headed out at 5 PM to shoot some mating mandarinfish, which they only do right at dusk. You get about 10 minutes of action and then it's done. I got some good ones, but I think I can do better tomorrow.

By the way, David exaggerated a little. There are 55 steps from the beach to the lounge area. Its another 12 steps (and 100 yards or so of path) from there to our bungalow. It's not bad at all and gets me in shape!!

More tomorrow!

Jonathan

[tarczy]

. . . You get about 10 minutes of action and then it's done.

Funny . . . that's what Christine said!! :D

(I couldn't resist . . . it was just too perfect!)

[Neptune7]

Tonight we went out to film mating Mandarinfish. The divemasters located dozens of them but they turned shy in front of the bright lights and camera lens and just refused to get it on.

David,
Try to pick a spot before the mandarinfish start mating and stay there for the time of the action. Open your lights before they start, before dusk, aim them toward the surface. The mandarinfish will get used to you and your lights and since sex is the strongest urge in life, they will start mating in front of you with your lights on. Then lower your beam to light your field and voilà. That's how I did it in the Philippines. Don't use autofocus!

Pierre

P.S. Isn't that great to get 1,02$ US for one Canadian dollar! Canada rocks!

[tarczy]

P.S. Isn't that great to get 1,02$ US for one Canadian dollar! Canada rocks!

Sure is great!!

C'mon over and buy more U.S. real estate!!

The U.S. is "On Sale!!!" :D

[Daniel]

Love the daily updates and photo's... keep them coming.

Glad you and your mates are having a wonderful time. To bad David couldn't post some short video clips.

Cheers!
Daniel :)

p.s. Canadian dollar rocks!

[Neptune7]

Sure is great!!

C'mon over and buy more U.S. real estate!!

The U.S. is "On Sale!!!" :D

Yo Tarczy,

I have already did my part! There is even a room for you, if you dare coming on the east coast.

Pierre
P.S. I am still waiting for you to visit us in Montreal. You will not lose much money here, but your soul, maybe! ;)

[David White]

Thanks for the direction Pierre. We are going back to film the Mandarin mating tomorrow evening so I will give it a shot. To be honest I had every intention of putting a few clips together and posting them online. However, my laptop does not handle Vegas 7.0 well and keeps going into a "not responding" state. I haven't given up but by the end of a full, and I mean FULL, day of diving, editing video is the last thing on my mind. When they take you out for a day of diving here, they mean the whole day. We start tomorrow morning at 05:15 a.m. to scoot around the island and film the reefs on the other side. The dive has to be completed before the winds pick up otherwise it is too rough. Then we will sandwich a couple of 90 minute dives around lunch, getting back in time to film the Mandarin fish at 5:00 p.m. After dinner we should be just about ready for bed again to recharge for another day of "mucking" about.

[Jonathan Bird]

Funny . . . that's what Christine said!! :D

(I couldn't resist . . . it was just too perfect!)


D'oh!!! :o

[Jonathan Bird]

The mandarinfish have been quite cooperative here for stills as well.

You guys really don't want to hear this, but I'll let you in on a secret. Shhh….don't tell anyone. <whisper>There is more than muck in Lembeh</whisper>. Today we went out in search of some wide angle shots. There are supposed to be some wonderful wide angle reefs on the ocean side of Lembeh Island (i.e. not in the strait) but we haven't headed out there yet. (We'll do that in the next day or so). But yesterday we went up to a site for pygmy seahorses and discovered it was a beautiful reef. So today we went back with wide angle lenses and found another boat at the site, so we picked another reef that was supposed to be "pretty nice." Holy crap, I'll say. Man, I love Indonesia! Check out the shots from the "pretty good" reef. I can't wait to dive the "really good" ones!

After that we had some lunch and headed out in search of more macro. We got so many more amazing species that I can't even think of them right now. (I'm downloading the camera right now). One of the more interesting ones was an octopus that was carrying his home consisting of two clam shells. When I came along, he hopped into one shell and pulled the other one over on top to hide inside. When he thought I was gone, he poked his eyes out to look around. Once he figured I wasn't going to hurt him, he came back out and started carrying his shell again. He cracked us up with his antics. I wish I had gotten this on video because it was a lot more interesting in the moving picture than a still.

Those of you that didn't come on this trip….well….you are missing out on one of the most productive photography expeditions I have ever been on. Not that I'm naming names...but your Canadian dollar would have gone further here than in the states even.

By the way from now on I am charging extra for Canadians to make up for the fact that you now have extra money to burn. :cool:

Have I mentioned that Lembeh rules?

More tomorrow….

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

And here are a few more. It looks like some of the pictures are getting corrupted on upload. Do any of you see a couple pictures that appear to not fully load?

[Papa Bear]

Hardly seems worth it! LOL Great stuff! A friend of mine just got back after two weeks of the same terrible conditions! LOL We hope it gets better;) :eek: :D

[sorvju-f]

And here are a few more. It looks like some of the pictures are getting corrupted on upload. Do any of you see a couple pictures that appear to not fully load?

All the pics seems to be full, I think that program is not showing them without 100 % load.

Jonathan Octo with clam shells is TOP!


Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Gang,
Yep, another crappy day in paradise. ;) Today we went in search of the elusive hairy frogfish. Although we found a small one a few days ago (I posted a picture of it earlier, it's the pink one) we wanted to photograph specimens with more "hair" so we went to a site called Aw Shucks and we found 3 of them along with all kinds of other cool stuff, not the least of which was a little Bamboo Shark. Now I know that this is no great white, but you know me, I love sharks! Being able to add a shark to my collection here in Lembeh has really made my day!!

At Hairball, I managed to find a mimic octopus sticking its eyes out of its burrow, but it spooked before the divemaster could coax it out into the open, so we got no pictures. Maybe tomorrow! We did find another species of octopus though that was fun to play with. It even sat on my hand for a minute. My want list has been completely filled except for the mimic octopus, the Wonderpus and the flamboyant cuttlefish. Others have seen the flamboyant cuttlefish, but not me yet. I'm not complaining though because we found the blue ringed octopus which is even harder to find.

This place is truly fascinating. I will never look at sandy habitats the same way. There is so much neat stuff out on the sand here!

Four more days of diving to go, and I'm rapidly running out of drive space on my laptop. Good thing I brought an extra hard drive and an ipod!

Later!

Jonathan

[David White]

Today we got up at 5:00 a.m. to go around the island to the windward side and dive the coral reefs. There is still a lot of sand on the coral after the summer storms but nobody has been diving around there for six months. The amount of life is absolutely amazing. Not to be outdone, Jonathan's boat is planning two dives around there tomorrow.

After breakfast we headed back to the muck and were treated with an opportunity to film a Flamboyant Cuttlefish. It was only a small one but beggars can't be choosers. By now Frogfish, Pipefish, Scorpionfish and Nudibranchs are becoming common place. But we keep on taking their pictures. Three dives a day is probably sufficient here. After all, they are generally 90 minutes long. But I opted for another night dive to try and capture the Mandarinfish mating. I followed Pierre's advice and although they would pair up and begin their rise to the surface as soon as the camera was turned on them they became shy and headed back to the rubble. So we went off and filmed more Pipefish, Frogfish, crabs, eels and octopi. Tomorrow I think I will limit my nitrogen absorption and cut back to only three dives.

[sorvju-f]

Today we got up at 5:00 a.m. to go around the island to the windward side and dive the coral reefs. There is still a lot of sand on the coral after the summer storms but nobody has been diving around there for six months. The amount of life is absolutely amazing. Not to be outdone, Jonathan's boat is planning two dives around there tomorrow.

After breakfast we headed back to the muck and were treated with an opportunity to film a Flamboyant Cuttlefish. It was only a small one but beggars can't be choosers. By now Frogfish, Pipefish, Scorpionfish and Nudibranchs are becoming common place. But we keep on taking their pictures. Three dives a day is probably sufficient here. After all, they are generally 90 minutes long. But I opted for another night dive to try and capture the Mandarinfish mating. I followed Pierre's advice and although they would pair up and begin their rise to the surface as soon as the camera was turned on them they became shy and headed back to the rubble. So we went off and filmed more Pipefish, Frogfish, crabs, eels and octopi. Tomorrow I think I will limit my nitrogen absorption and cut back to only three dives.

David, how many hours on film so far?

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

Hey Gang,
Yep, another crappy day in paradise. ;) Today we went in search of the elusive hairy frogfish. Although we found a small one a few days ago (I posted a picture of it earlier, it's the pink one) we wanted to photograph specimens with more "hair" so we went to a site called Aw Shucks and we found 3 of them along with all kinds of other cool stuff, not the least of which was a little Bamboo Shark. Now I know that this is no great white, but you know me, I love sharks! Being able to add a shark to my collection here in Lembeh has really made my day!!

At Hairball, I managed to find a mimic octopus sticking its eyes out of its burrow, but it spooked before the divemaster could coax it out into the open, so we got no pictures. Maybe tomorrow! We did find another species of octopus though that was fun to play with. It even sat on my hand for a minute. My want list has been completely filled except for the mimic octopus, the Wonderpus and the flamboyant cuttlefish. Others have seen the flamboyant cuttlefish, but not me yet. I'm not complaining though because we found the blue ringed octopus which is even harder to find.

This place is truly fascinating. I will never look at sandy habitats the same way. There is so much neat stuff out on the sand here!

Four more days of diving to go, and I'm rapidly running out of drive space on my laptop. Good thing I brought an extra hard drive and an ipod!

Later!

Jonathan

What is this ringed shark?

Angle to this octo with long arms is facinating, just little back-scatter. Is the back-scatter broblem to make pics there?

Jukka

[Neptune7]

But I opted for another night dive to try and capture the Mandarinfish mating. I followed Pierre's advice and although they would pair up and begin their rise to the surface as soon as the camera was turned on them they became shy and headed back to the rubble. So we went off and filmed more Pipefish, Frogfish, crabs, eels and octopi. Tomorrow I think I will limit my nitrogen absorption and cut back to only three dives.

Hey David,
Once you see them starting to pair, aim your lights at your viewfinder field (at them...) and keep following them, they should do it. I think it is the light intensity change that spook them.
Keep me posted.
Pierre

[Jonathan Bird]

What is this ringed shark?

Angle to this octo with long arms is facinating, just little back-scatter. Is the back-scatter broblem to make pics there?

Jukka

Jukka,
The viz in the strait itself is seldom more than 20 feet. There is a ton of plankton and silt. This is "muck" diving and they mean MUCK. (Actually sand) so yes, you are going to get a little backscatter as a general rule. The water is what it is. People worry too much about backscatter. As long as it does not distract from the image, it represents the real world of what the water looks like.

The shark is a Bamboo shark.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Today we headed over to the other side of Lembeh Island, on the ocean side. We went early (5 AM) because sometimes the wind comes up later in the morning and it gets rough. It didn't get rough, so we did 2 dives over there. One site was a vertical wall, like Cayman. The water was super clear, 100+ feet of viz. Up in the shallows there were a lot of anthias and hard corals. The wall itself was sprouting barrel sponges and had a few cool sand chutes, but it was not particularly photogenic. The second dive we hit a reef with a slope and it was just filled with fish and soft coral. Unfortunately all the soft coral was droopy and deflated since it was slack tide and they weren't feeding. But they still had a lot of color as you can see from some of the pics. All kinds of pink and purple! Nice stuff! I had a cooperative lionfish that I worked for a few minutes on a wall covered in soft coral.

After lunch we headed out to some muck sites looking for the last three things on our list: wonderpus, mimic octopus and flamboyant cuttlefish. Even though one of the other boats in our group found all three on one dive yesterday, we struck out. We did find a couple cool things such as a ghost pipefish and a cooperative mantis shrimp but no cool cephalopods. Three more days of diving and my computer is bulging at the seams with data! Good thing I'm not shooting film….I couldn't afford the processing.

More later….

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Today we headed over to the other side of Lembeh Island, on the ocean side. We went early (5 AM) because sometimes the wind comes up later in the morning and it gets rough. It didn't get rough, so we did 2 dives over there. One site was a vertical wall, like Cayman. The water was super clear, 100+ feet of viz. Up in the shallows there were a lot of anthias and hard corals. The wall itself was sprouting barrel sponges and had a few cool sand chutes, but it was not particularly photogenic. The second dive we hit a reef with a slope and it was just filled with fish and soft coral. Unfortunately all the soft coral was droopy and deflated since it was slack tide and they weren't feeding. But they still had a lot of color as you can see from some of the pics. All kinds of pink and purple! Nice stuff! I had a cooperative lionfish that I worked for a few minutes on a wall covered in soft coral.

After lunch we headed out to some muck sites looking for the last three things on our list: wonderpus, mimic octopus and flamboyant cuttlefish. Even though one of the other boats in our group found all three on one dive yesterday, we struck out. We did find a couple cool things such as a ghost pipefish and a cooperative mantis shrimp but no cool cephalopods. Three more days of diving and my computer is bulging at the seams with data! Good thing I'm not shooting film….I couldn't afford the processing.

More later….

Jonathan

Absolutely cool stuff:eek: :D

If you are arranging some more trips there I think no open spots more;)

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

I got today a call from Bunaken ( Livingcolors dive resort ) from the friend of mine.
There was just above mentioned gentleman and I understood that he knows you?

He is having something to do with reef saving projects.

http://www.ecoreefs.com/media_2001.php

Jukka

[Clay Coleman]

Too bad you couldn't get that lionfish up in the water column, but, wow, yeah, I'd say those are keepers. The pipefish is very cool, and the mantis looks like it's close enough to take a piece out of your knuckles! -Clay

[Sealizard]

Wonderful material, super photographer. Must be payback for Heathrow - well deserved, I'd say. :D

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the comments. Clay, I worked that lionfish hard, that is shot straight up on a wall with the surface in the background.

Since others in our group had seen the Mimic Octopus a couple times and we hadn't, today was the day to hunt down a mimic. Our intrepid boat of he-men set out to conquer the mimic. We struck out at our first site, but we found a flamboyant cuttlefish and a nudibranch with a shrimp on top. That was cool! At the next site, we found a mimic, but couldn't coax it out of its hole. It was frustrating. I spent the dive chasing around a flying gurnard working on slow sync shots to give the impression of movement. I worked up some good shutter/aperture settings for the lighting conditions and then went at it for a while. I got some interesting motion effects which you can never quite predict, but here is one of my favorites.

At the last site, our divemaster Andris knew exactly where the mimic lived. We headed to his hole in the sand and tried to coax him out. We had planned on staying at it for as long as it took. After 65 minutes, we were still working on it, except that two more boats of divers had showed up and were watching us intently…knowing full well what we were up to and then waiting for their chance to crash our party. About 75 minutes into the dive, the damn octopus finally came out and about 5 still photographers (including yours truly) and David White on video descended on it like hordes of paparazzi. We all took turns blinding it and one by one the others got bored and left. Finally, at 90 minutes into the dive I had the octopus to myself and I spent about 15 more minutes following it while it hunted, taking the occasional picture. It seemed rather used to all the photographers, and went back to its routine once it was just me. Having good air consumption and staying shallow worked out. I got out of the water at 105 minutes bottom time (that's almost 2 hours!) with 96 mimic octopus shots, and 750 psi left in my tank. I would have stayed longer but everyone was on the boat waiting for me and Andris was freezing. (In spite of the fact that the water is a solid 85 degrees). So today was great. The only thing I have not photographed from my wish list is a Wonderpus. It would be cool to nail that one too, just for the challenge of it!

More updates tomorrow!

Only two more days of diving!

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the comments. Clay, I worked that lionfish hard, that is shot straight up on a wall with the surface in the background.

Since others in our group had seen the Mimic Octopus a couple times and we hadn't, today was the day to hunt down a mimic. Our intrepid boat of he-men set out to conquer the mimic. We struck out at our first site, but we found a flamboyant cuttlefish and a nudibranch with a shrimp on top. That was cool! At the next site, we found a mimic, but couldn't coax it out of its hole. It was frustrating. I spent the dive chasing around a flying gurnard working on slow sync shots to give the impression of movement. I worked up some good shutter/aperture settings for the lighting conditions and then went at it for a while. I got some interesting motion effects which you can never quite predict, but here is one of my favorites.

At the last site, our divemaster Andris knew exactly where the mimic lived. We headed to his hole in the sand and tried to coax him out. We had planned on staying at it for as long as it took. After 65 minutes, we were still working on it, except that two more boats of divers had showed up and were watching us intently…knowing full well what we were up to and then waiting for their chance to crash our party. About 75 minutes into the dive, the damn octopus finally came out and about 5 still photographers (including yours truly) and David White on video descended on it like hordes of paparazzi. We all took turns blinding it and one by one the others got bored and left. Finally, at 90 minutes into the dive I had the octopus to myself and I spent about 15 more minutes following it while it hunted, taking the occasional picture. It seemed rather used to all the photographers, and went back to its routine once it was just me. Having good air consumption and staying shallow worked out. I got out of the water at 105 minutes bottom time (that's almost 2 hours!) with 96 mimic octopus shots, and 750 psi left in my tank. I would have stayed longer but everyone was on the boat waiting for me and Andris was freezing. (In spite of the fact that the water is a solid 85 degrees). So today was great. The only thing I have not photographed from my wish list is a Wonderpus. It would be cool to nail that one too, just for the challenge of it!

More updates tomorrow!

Only two more days of diving!

Jonathan

It seems to be worth of spending time to create something different...I mean the flying gurnard with the speed effect:eek:

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

I got today a call from Bunaken ( Livingcolors dive resort ) from the friend of mine.
There was just above mentioned gentleman and I understood that he knows you?

Jukka,
I doubt I know him. Not sure I know anyone there. What is his name?
Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Jukka,
I doubt I know him. Not sure I know anyone there. What is his name?
Jonathan

So dont worry, many can know you without you knowing them ( I think these kind of people are called famous ).:D

Mark Erdmann is professional of recovery of reefs.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

OK everyone,
I'm getting to the end of this trip. Today was the last full day of diving. We went north to some sites that are rarely dived and known for fabulous reefs. You be the judge and remember this is LEMBEH--home of muck diving!

Tomorrow we go back for one last morning of diving. We're going to hit a wreck, but I'm taking macro, the viz on the wreck is not good. Two dives and then I'm done...I need 24 hours to offgas before flying.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

For comparison, here is a shot of what the bottom looks like on a typical muck dive. It's not really muck but black sand. And crappy viz. These are the conditions under which one must make beautiful photographs!

Jonathan

[EcoDiving]

For comparison, here is a shot of what the bottom looks like on a typical muck dive. It's not really muck but black sand. And crappy viz. These are the conditions under which one much make beautiful photographs!

Jonathan

You've never dived in our Dutch waters! You would not complain if you did!

[Jonathan Bird]

You've never dived in our Dutch waters! You would not complain if you did!

Everything is relative I guess!!

[sorvju-f]

OK everyone,
I'm getting to the end of this trip. Today was the last full day of diving. We went north to some sites that are rarely dived and known for fabulous reefs. You be the judge and remember this is LEMBEH--home of muck diving!

Tomorrow we go back for one last morning of diving. We're going to hit a wreck, but I'm taking macro, the viz on the wreck is not good. Two dives and then I'm done...I need 24 hours to offgas before flying.

Jonathan

Thank that you have shared your trip this way with us! There are several others reading ( than those who are commenting ) ( I saw that you have opened main part of threads to everybody ).

Have safe last dive and the way back home!

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

One thing that is annoying is that my pictures look great in Lightroom with the AdobeRGB colorspace, but when you save as a jpeg and view on the internet, you lose all the colorspace stuff and the images appear flat and low on color. I wish I could figure out how one can post images in jpeg format that look more like they are supposed to look on a calibrated colorspace. I know they look worse because I'm looking at them on the internet on the same machine that I'm exporting them from with Lightroom.

Mark, got any ideas on this?

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

( I saw that you have opened main part of threads to everybody ).

Have safe last dive and the way back home!

Jukka

Thanks Jukka! Other than Heathrow :rolleyes: I should be fine coming home. As for opening the threads, something said something to me about subscribers versus viewers that made sense, and that was that viewers is better than no viewers. So although my closing of many threads would possibly slightly increase subscribers, it would almost certainly reduce viewers, and that's bad. So all but two forums are open to all again.

Jonathan

[David White]

Yesterday, my first dive of the day rivaled the worst conditions that we experience in our silty fresh water lakes at home. If there had been anything to see we couldn't have seen it; the visibility was that bad. So, today we headed out to California Dreamin, a site near the entrance to the Lembeh Strait. As Jonathan's pictures attest, there is an incredible reef system here to complement all the muck. It was a real treat to view 200' visibility again. Dives two and three were back to the muck but at the end of the last dive my divemaster treated me to an encounter with a Wonderpus, an elusive but extremely attractive octopus with alternating red and white rings on it's tentacles. Tomorrow marks our last day of diving here and then it is off to Bunaken for a few days diving in the Marine Preserve.

[sorvju-f]

Yesterday, my first dive of the day rivaled the worst conditions that we experience in our silty fresh water lakes at home. If there had been anything to see we couldn't have seen it; the visibility was that bad. So, today we headed out to California Dreamin, a site near the entrance to the Lembeh Strait. As Jonathan's pictures attest, there is an incredible reef system here to complement all the muck. It was a real treat to view 200' visibility again. Dives two and three were back to the muck but at the end of the last dive my divemaster treated me to an encounter with a Wonderpus, an elusive but extremely attractive octopus with alternating red and white rings on it's tentacles. Tomorrow marks our last day of diving here and then it is off to Bunaken for a few days diving in the Marine Preserve.

David, thanks to you also for sharing this reporting to us.

Maybe wecan wait to see some clips after you are back?

Jukka

[tarczy]

One thing that is annoying is that my pictures look great in Lightroom with the AdobeRGB colorspace, but when you save as a JPEG and view on the Internet, you lose all the colorspace stuff and the images appear flat and low on color. I wish I could figure out how one can post images in JPEG format that look more like they are supposed to look on a calibrated colorspace. I know they look worse because I'm looking at them on the Internet on the same machine that I'm exporting them from with Lightroom.

Mark, got any ideas on this?

Jonathan

Jonathan-

First and foremost, let me just say that your daily postings of your trip blog on UWPC have had me on the edge of my seat every day. I find myself clicking into the Pacific Ocean thread every day to read a new and exciting chapter about your latest activities. I'm hoping more subscribers will do the same when they find themselves on a trip where Internet access is available. Too bad we haven't figured out a cheap way to provide Internet access on liveaboards. Maybe that will happen sometime in my lifetime.

Concerning the "flat look" problem . . . I was noticing the same thing when viewing your images and just figured that was your "style." From here, the colors look phenomenal, but a little flat. I can only imagine what they really look like.

If I'm not mistaken, your preference is to work 100% through Lightroom without having to go through Photoshop. Assuming that's correct, I would try boosting the Blacks by a touch, then add some "Clarity" and then add a little "Vibrance."

Black specifies which image values map to black. Moving the slider to the right increases the areas that become black, sometimes creating the impression of increased image contrast. The greatest effect is in the shadows, with much less change in the midtones and highlights

Clarity adds depth to an image by increasing local contrast. When using the slider, Adobe says it is best to zoom in to 100% or greater and maximize the effect by increasing the setting until you see halos near the edge details of the image, and then reduce the setting slightly.

Vibrance adjusts the saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full saturation by changing the saturation of all lower-saturated colors with less effect on the higher-saturated colors. When using the Vibrance slider, I only use very little. Minor tweaks go a long way when using this adjustment.

When using either of these adjustments, you almost have to see the image on your Mac and say "yechhh!" But, when you upload the same image on the Web it will look "normal." It'll take some trial and error to get your images looking "just right" on the Web, but in the end it'll be worth it.

The first image below has no adjustments other than cropping. The second image has some Black added with a boost of Clarity and Vibrance. Note how flat and colorless the mountain appears in the first image. In the second image, the mountain appears to have a little more yellow color (it does in real life) and the detail of the mountain rock is much more apparent, thus giving more depth to the image. Once the adjustments were made, the image was exported from Lightroom as a JPEG at 72 pixels per inch with a "Quality" of 60. I'm seeing some pixelation at the 60 quality level, so maybe a better quality setting would be at around 70.


http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Downtown%20LA/_MG_6977-3.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Downtown%20LA/_MG_6977-2.jpg

[Clay Coleman]

I'm with Mark in that I have greatly enjoyed the daily postings. It's amazing to see what you're getting in real time, and I'm glad that your trip has been so productive. -Clay

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Mark,
Thanks for the comments. Believe me, with over 10,000 images in my lightroom database now, I am pretty good at setting levels, etc. However, the trouble is that I have them set to look good in Lightroom with AdobeRGB color management, which is exported with TIF files that go to clients, so they get the right color as I see it. However, web exports do not utilize that color management, so the only thing I can do is tweak them differently for the web, which is just a giant pain. Furthermore, what you see in Lightroom is not what you get when you export, so how do you know what you are getting except to just wing it? If I have time later after diving, I will do a screen capture of an image in lightroom and you will see how an image looks in comparison.

Jonathan

[tarczy]

Furthermore, what you see in Lightroom is not what you get when you export, so how do you know what you are getting except to just wing it? Jonathan


Yeah . . . that's the problem with Lightroom . . . it's an image database first and then a pre-processing program second. Presumably, from Lightroom the user exports his/her images to an external image editor like Photoshop for further processing and then the image is saved for the Web from the external image editor. I'm not sure Lightroom was ever intended to be used to go straight to the Web . . . even though it has a Web Gallery export function.

That said, I was playing around with the JPEG export function and noticed that I get closer to WYSIWYG by exporting with sRGB colorspace rather than using AdobeRGB. Try using sRGB colorspace on your next export and see what happens.

The first image was exported with sRGB colorspace, the second image exported with AdobeRGB colorspace. I see a difference. Do you?

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Miscellaneous/_MG_6961-4sRGB.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Miscellaneous/_MG_6961-3AdobeRGB.jpg

(yeah . . . I just had to get my car in there!!) :D

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Mark,
I didn't even realize that you could export with a different colorspace. Sweet, I'll check that out. You are a fountain of knowledge on this app. However, I can't see a damn bit of difference between those two pictures. Then again, I'm on my laptop with the crappy "non-glare" screen which looks different at different angles.

Yes, your new car is totally sweet. I'm jealous!! M6 convertible...you know how to live man!!:cool:

So we did our last two dives this morning. I am leaving tomorrow so I have to get my 24 hours of offgassing. Believe me, I need it. :D Anyway, we did a wreck dive just for a change of pace. Not much to see, kinda crappy viz. It's a big Japanese freighter from WW2 with plenty of macro, but no big corals or anything like Truk. We did some swimming though the holds and stuff which was fun.

The second dive we went looking for the Wonderpus, which a couple members of our group finally did find yesterday. Alas, we didn't find it. So I had one thing on my list that I didn't see...which works out perfectly. Now I have an excuse to come back. :D

That about wraps up my Lembeh Blog! I hope you all enjoyed it! I may post some more pics in the next few weeks though. Now I have to pack for my epic journey home (through Heathrow! D'oh!) and I'll have plenty of time to diddle with Lightroom some more.


Jonathan

[David White]

Even though technically I could join the diehards and take another crack at the mating Mandarinfish at dusk today I think I will just stay dry. Being dry is an interesting concept. We have probably averaged more than four hours underwater every day and I had forgotten what dry felt like.

The diving has been amazing, the divemasters incredibly adept at finding things to film, even if I did not get to see the Blue Ringed Octopus. Great chemistry and camaraderie amongst the participants made for a really enjoyable experience.

Lembeh really caters to the diehard diver. After all, there is very little else to do. There is no shopping since there are no stores. Nightlife would be pointless, we were all in bed and asleep by 9:00 p.m. If you are looking for coral and 200' visibility, they have it. If you are wanting to shoot some macro of strange and wondrous creatures, they are famous for it. So, something for everyone as long as you enjoy being wet.

Tomorrow morning we pack our gear and head off for four more days of diving in Bunaken Marine Preserve. Should be a pleasant change of pace.

Kudos to Jonathan for arranging another absolutely amazing dive adventure.

[Jonathan Bird]

Thanks David! I'm sure you aren't just saying that because you are my room mate! ;)

OK, here are the last pics that I will post from here. Some stuff from today. I realize that I already posted a shot of this fuzzy little purple crab that lives on the barrel sponges, but he is just too cool not to shoot a few more times. :D

The yellow looking thing is a big sea star with tiny brittle stars on top and a little shrimp. Like a little condo complex on top of a sea star.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

By the way, I can detect no difference in the results when exporting using sRGB or AdobeRGB. I exported the same pictures both ways and compared them side by side in Photoshop, Preview, and Safari and I see no difference.

JB

[walsh2000]

OK... here the proof from Divers Lodge Lembeh... This is a shot of all the UW Photo Chat members currently on-line... Hey Jonatan... look to your left or right and talk to your fellow photographers!

(Of course, I'm just kidding!)

[tarczy]

By the way, I can detect no difference in the results when exporting using sRGB or AdobeRGB. I exported the same pictures both ways and compared them side by side in Photoshop, Preview, and Safari and I see no difference.

JB

Sooooo . . . I'm assuming those images in post #65 were exported using sRGB colorspace and/or you pushed some of the adjustments because they look much better than before.

I went back and compared your first hairy pink crab image with the latest one. The latest one pops . . . especially the orange eyes and the purple/pink body. If you can't see much of a difference between the two, then it's definitely your monitor. Macs suck. :D

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Pelagics/JBird-7379.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Pelagics/JBird-8984.jpg


Also, comparing the two different colorspace images side-by-side using Photoshop and Safari won't show much of a difference. Apparently, it's the Web that interpolates the two colorspaces differently, not the image editing programs.

Have a safe trip home!!

[tarczy]

Seriously though, those latest images in post #65 are far better than all the rest . . . colors are much more vivid and contrast is way better . . . I don't know what you did, but you seem to have found the solution. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others. Clay . . . is it just me, or are you seeing what I'm seeing?

[Jonathan Bird]

Mark,
The only thing I did differently was saturate the blacks a little more.

As for the crabs...different sponge, different crab, drifferent lens, different white balance....who knows. The first one was very small and less colorful. The second one was larger and more purple and the sponge was a better color. Add on top of that that I didn't use the same white balance settings....it just goes to show that color underwater is "whatever looks good" as opposed to having to have accurate skin tones or something like that.

I don't think the web does anything to an image. Safari is a browser. If I open an image locally in a browser it should look the same as that browswer opening the image from a website. The file is the same. You are right about photoshop because it may read a color profile, which is why I tried it in a browser.

OK, I gotta go pack!! Leaving in 2 hours.

Jonathan

[tarczy]

Mark,
....it just goes to show that color underwater is "whatever looks good" as opposed to having to have accurate skin tones or something like that.

Jonathan

ABSOLUTELY!!!

Which is why I love underwater photography so much! It's never about what is "correct," but all about what looks great! Does the general public actually know what the true colors of a Clown fish are? I think not! ;)

Seems like pushing the "blacks" is your answer!

Have a safe trip home, Buddy!! (Although, I think you're already on your way!)

[Papa Bear]

Perception is more important than truth! The truth can be ugly:D :eek: In entertainment and with Woman!:confused:

[Jonathan Bird]

Perception is more important than truth!

I agree. However, sometimes people go too far with saturation and something doesn't look right. The trick is to make the colors pop but not look "messed with." (i.e. fake)

Mark, when I post images on my website, I go through Photoshop so I can place a copyright and do an unsharp mask. Lightroom only allows you to place a very limited copyright (in the same place, in one font and size and the text is not easily changed because it's taken from the metadata). So I export from Lightroom as small tifs, open in photoshop, do an unsharp mask and then paste in the copyright, flatten and save as jpeg. Why unsharp mask? Well we all know that a little unsharp mask makes an image pop, especially small images for the web which lose a lot of detail when they are shrunk. Although Lightroom has a provision to sharpen images, it cannot sharpen AFTER shrinking then for the web, only before. So sharpening the small images exported by Lightroom in a seperate step is neccesary to create truly good web images. For this blog I had no time for that extra step.

An update!
After 44 hours I am home. I had 7 terrible hours in Heathrow which was not nearly as bad on the way home because I never left the airport, went through customs or had to check back in again. I have loaded my pictures onto my office machine and now I have a lot of work cut out for me...but first I must pay bills and go through mail. Oh joy!

David!!! Are you having fun in Bunaken? I would love to see you and Mike start a Bunaken Blog thread!!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

I forgot to mention, they see a LOT of divers at the Manado airport. When I was leaving, they did not charge me a dime to check my two bags at Silk Air and they checked them to Boston. Low and behold...they made it. NICE!

[David White]

Well Jonathan, we enjoyed some remarkable walls of coral in Bunaken. The Thalassa Dive Centre was catering to nearly 100 divers when we arrived and it appeared as though there was at least some semblance of order to all the confusion. We had two groups on our boat and had to settle for one divemaster for the four of us. At Artu's recommendation we requested Solomon for our divemaster and he did a excellent job, even finding a Blue Ringed Octopus for Mike and I on the night dive. However, we encountered stiff currents on some of the dives; a lot different than Lembeh.

Manado airport simply blew me away. I was expecting long lines, a significant wait and hefty overweight charges. Instead I was greeted by a lovely young lady who checked my luggage right through to Toronto, didn't charge me a penny for the sixty odd kilos that I checked in and was polite and courteous all the while, even apologizing for taking so long to issue the boarding passes. Other airports could learn a lot from them.

Presently I am killing time in Sngapore airport waiting for the connection to Shanghai. This airport has more stores than most shopping malls, an airport transit hotel, free movie theatre, free high speed internet, HD television sports bar, a Panasonic 103" 1080p HD LCD display and more people than I have seen in months. Next time book your flights from east to west, you won't be disappointed. Now I have to see if I can find the gate for the next leg of the journey.

[Jonathan Bird]

David,
Singapore airport is amazing. I enjoyed the hours I had to kill there. I settled down at one of the laptop desks, and edited pictures. If only they had a McDonalds. I had to settle for Burger King. :rolleyes:

That 103" plasma is amazing!

I had the exact same experience as you in Manado. An attractive and pleasant young woman checked my gear, didn't charge me a dime and was completely polite. They treated me very well in Manado!

Overall, my entire experience with Indonesia was very positive.

Have a good trip home.

Jonathan

[David White]

Traveling half way around the world to go diving gives a completely new meaning to "red-eye". After leaving the Santiki Hotel in Minado on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. we spent an hour or so by bus traveling to the airport and then waited another hour for the plane. A 4 hour flight landed us in Singapore where I faced a 6 hour layover. No problem though since Singapore airport sports more upscale retail stores than several shopping malls combined. It is really amazing and afforded me the opportunity to post to uwphotochat and the Diving Board one last time at the free high speed internet terminals. I also enjoyed a couple of movies at the free movie cinema. Then I boarded the plane for a 6 hour flight to Shanghai where I faced another 8 hour layover. Not to worry, my luggage had been checked through to Toronto. So, I languished on benches and in the coffee shop ($4 for a coffee) until my flight gate was posted. I still had to get a boarding pass so waited in line with all the other passengers. Once I reached the counter I was informed that I would have to collect my luggage since nothing is transferred from one airline to another at Shanghai airport. Making your way through Shanghai airport at 6:30 a.m. is not much of a problem since there is nobody there, trying to make your way down to the arrivals level through throngs of people completely oblivious to your presence, all chattering in a language that is completely foreign to me, is quite another. I had to go through the security searches again before I could claim my luggage, then it was back upstairs to the departures level. I waited in line once again until they closed the gate. Apparently, in my absence they figured they had enough passengers to make the flight to Toronto cost effective. So, I had to cut through a line of indignant fellow travelers to get to the ticket counter where I was informed that my luggage was overweight and payment would be required at the counter at the far end of the aisle. So, off I go to pay the overweight fee and return to get my boarding pass. Not so fast; apparently my luggage requires a security search. Expecting to have to explain the intricacies of an underwater video housing in English, to people who only speak Chinese, and probably have never even seen the ocean, I was confronted with my dive gear bag and instructed through hand signals to open the regulator bag. They could not seem to make any sense of the regulator until I shoved it into my mouth. They still didn't understand but they let me through anyway. Now I received my boarding pass and had to go through customs. So, again I waited in line until it was my turn whereupon the police officer manning the booth showed me a form that I was supposed to have filled out. I am now directed toward a table at the far end of the floor and so, with form in hand, I go over to the desk and complete the necessary documentation and then back to waiting in line. Once through customs I now have to negotiate the complete length of Shanghai airport to get to the Air Canada gate and again I sit and wait. 45 minutes after the plane is supposed to have left the airport we start the boarding process and eventually everyone gets on the plane. Now, for the past several flights we have enjoyed the luxury of being attended to by rather attractive, young Asian stewardesses who seem to have an innate ability to realize and attend to your needs before you even realize you have them. Well, most needs anyway. Scair Canada, in comparison, obviously staffs it's flights by tenure. There was one stewardess who might still have been in her forties, although definitely toward the end of them, two others that you could not pass down the aisle since they consumed so much of the space, and the rest looked as though retirement was either something they were considering in the very near future or something that they were returning from. The service was less than exemplary and the entertainment is still being played on VHS tapes. I know this because several hours into the flight they rewound the tape without pressing stop so I got to watch the whole thing over again, back wards, at high speed. Anything to keep me awake. Mercifully the 14 hour flight to Toronto eventually came to an end and although one of the first off the plane, my luggage was not. So, once again, I was afforded an opportunity to test my patience. Now, with all my luggage in tow, customs declaration forms filled out, I was ready to leave. Having pre-arranged a limousine to pick me up I proceeded to the pick-up area only to be told that since our flight was late, the limousine had left without me. So, I contacted the limousine company and they dispatched another vehicle which arrived 40 minutes later. By now, completely knackered, I just wanted the process to be over but Toronto traffic had other ideas. The trip from the airport to home can be made in twenty minutes during periods of light traffic, or it can be bumper to bumper, stop and go, and take more than an hour to complete. Obviously, we chose the latter. Arriving home, I dumped my bags and went to bed, sleeping for a full 12 hours. Problem is, now it is midnight in Canada but my body keeps telling me it is noon. Perhaps next time you could consider organizing a dive trip that just keeps going in one direction, from dive resort to dive resort all the way around the globe. Although this might minimize jet lag it may have a tendency to maximize the costs. Perhaps a round the world live aboard would be in order?

[Jonathan Bird]

Oh man!! That sounds worse than my Heathrow experience! Sorry to hear about Shanghai!

Important tip people: Don't go through China!!

I like the idea of just going from resort to resort until you get home. That would be a neat trip!

Your comment on the attractive flight attendants (they hate the word stewardess) on Silk Air made me remember something. When I got on the flight in Manado, I flashed my boarding pass to the woman at the door of the plane as they ask, so they can direct you to the right seat (which anyone with a brain can find by himself, but whatever). Anyway, she looked at the ticket and said "Right down there on the right, Mr. Bird." and off I went. When I got off the plane in Singapore, 4 hours later, the same flight attendant said "Have a good trip home Mr. Bird." Yes, she remembered my name for 4 hours. Now you might think that was a fluke, but she remembered another person in our dive group's name as well and we both marveled at that getting off the plane. I wonder how many passengers names she remembered?

Jonathan

[walsh2000]

I'm back from Lembeh/Indonesia now and thought I'd put up a few more pictures that compliment Jonathan's. The blue ring is the same one Jonathan shot, except that mine includes the dive master's finger for scale.

Three of the pictures are from Bunaken Marine Preserve: the nudi, the detail of the giant clam and the crinoid with rolled up arms.

I'm aware that the black sand beach of the Sulawesi side of Lembeh Strait shot has some vignetting from my polarizer... not sure why....

The Sulawesi side of the strait has black volcanic sand where as the Lembeh Island side has white sand... maybe from limestone.

[walsh2000]

here's the other 6 of my 12 pics...

[tarczy]

Walsh2000-

NICE JOB!!!!

I especially like the first image in post #80.

Sweet! :cool:

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Mike,
Awesome shots. I live the mini-baitball and the little octopus with the blue fringes on his tentacles. Which one was that???

Jonathan

[Neptune7]

Great Pictures Mike. Never saw this octopus (pict #2 post 80) before! Endemic species? Name?

Pierre

[Neptune7]

Thanks for the infos about Shanghai airport. Like Heathrow, an airport to avoid at all cost. I also have to agree with you about Scair Canada. I actually don't care about the age and look of the staff but the quality of the service with Air Canada is lame, very lame. I try to avoid them too. It's hard to say (beeing a proud Canadian) but I had better and kinger service with American Airlines. And you know what? They leave on time! :eek:

Now keep logging those tapes and show us some footage! If you cannot sleep, Log! Log!;)

Pierre

[walsh2000]

Thanks for the compliments.

The dark colored octopus with the bluish suckers (pict #2 post 80)... I think its a veined octopus, aka coconut octopus. I found a web page listing its distribution as "Indo-west Pacific". Jonathan: Ungke found that guy on dive 4 on October 9th at the site named Tanduk Rusa.

One of the pictures I really like is the tiny crab on the sea cucumber (pict #6 post 79). Its a great example of my fascination with macro... there's no way I could make out what the crab was doing until I saw the picture on my computer... the little guy is holding on for dear life with both claws!

[David White]

OK Pierre, if I cannot sleep may just as well edit. Only three of the tapes have been downloaded thus far and a few clips have been put together to give you an idea as to what all the fuss is about. Trust me, the rest will take longer. To have a look go to: http://stage6.divx.com/OceanView-HD/video/1774720/The-Weird-and-the-Wonderful.

[Neptune7]

Cool! Very cool David. Nice footage...I wasn't expecting anything less.

Pierre

[Ken Hawk]

Now thats what I call a thread.
Thanks for sharing Ken

[Jonathan Bird]

For those of you who went on the trip to Lembeh, I'll give you two guesses what product I just had to buy at the grocery store yesterday when I saw it.

:cool:

[tarczy]

For those of you who went on the trip to Lembeh, I'll give you two guesses what product I just had to buy at the grocery store yesterday when I saw it.

:cool:


http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Miscellaneous/pic_elimination.gif

[Jonathan Bird]

LMAO! No, that's not it! :p

[sorvju-f]

For those of you who went on the trip to Lembeh, I'll give you two guesses what product I just had to buy at the grocery store yesterday when I saw it.

:cool:

Quess!

I think that your lap top had over flow...Quess 1TeraB external memory?

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

I actually just did buy a 1TB drive, but not at the grocery store. I am not counting these two guesses though because they didn't come from people on the trip. Two more guesses!!

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

I have just been checking overweight fees from Singapore Airlines. From Finland to Singapore its 38 EUR per kg to one way...I think I will have 40 kg...UHH...UW-photographers life has been made rather difficult.

Manado to Sorong ( from where our live board to Raja Ampat starts) overweight is 1 EUR per kg.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

I finally got all my images from Lembeh cataloged, captioned and sorted. I put 467 on my website. Here's a link to a lightbox for those interested:

http://www.jonathanbird.net/cgi-bin/saved_light_box.asp?s=834690314&t=39396.8949884259

In total I have 2,760 keepers from 10 days. Not sure how many I deleted, but plenty!

Jonathan

[David White]

My guess would be a jar of Nutella. Will you be teaching your children to be creative by spreading it on crepes with pineapple and peanut butter? Gotta love sugar!

[sorvju-f]

I finally got all my images from Lembeh cataloged, captioned and sorted. I put 467 on my website. Here's a link to a lightbox for those interested:

http://www.jonathanbird.net/cgi-bin/saved_light_box.asp?s=834690314&t=39396.8949884259

In total I have 2,760 keepers from 10 days. Not sure how many I deleted, but plenty!

Jonathan

Great enjoyment for 1,5 hour.

Even world is full of of anemonfish pics I always love them wit colorfull anemons.

What was your rig for pygmy seahorses?

How did you shoot these Helmut Gurnard fishes with back-groud movement?

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Hi Jukka,
Thanks....and sorry I contributed to wasting an hour on the internet!! I neverfget tired of anemonefish either. I can't help myself!

The pygmys were shot with a 105 and an external "Woody" diopter. What I really needed was to put on the internal +4 diopter, but that limits the subject matter to really small things and the dive had other things to see. I have done considerably better with pygmy seahorses in the past using the 105 with a +4 screwed directly onto the lens. Surprisingly, even though Lembeh is known for pygmys, we didn't see that many.

The Gurnard "motion" shots were achieved with a slow shutter speed and slow sync (not rear curtain sync). I may do a tutorial on slow-sync at some point and explain when you use rear-curtain and when you use front-curtain (slow sync). Anyway, I spent a considerable amount of time working with that fish to get a few nice "motion blur" shots. Thanks for noticing!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

My guess would be a jar of Nutella. Will you be teaching your children to be creative by spreading it on crepes with pineapple and peanut butter? Gotta love sugar!

We have a winner!!! Toast with peanut butter and nutella!! MMMM!

[tarczy]

I just read through all your posts again and could not find a reference to the thickness of wetsuit you guys used.

I get the fact that the water temps are near bath water at 85 degrees, but your dives last 90 to 100 minutes per dive. That's a helluva lot of core temperature loss per dive . . . and doing four or five dives per day, I would imagine one gets pretty cold toward that last dive.

I'm wondering if I should bring a 5mm or a 3mm on my trip next month. What do you think? :cool:

[Jonathan Bird]

I wore a full 3mm and was quite happy.

[David White]

Just finished editing the video from the 3 days of diving in Bunaken Marine Preserve that a few of us tacked on to the end of the Lembeh trip. The videos have been uploaded to Stage6 and are available at: http://www.stage6.com/OceanView-HD/videos/group:36623. Now I can get started on editing all the footage shot in Lembeh.

Enjoy,

David

[sorvju-f]

Just finished editing the video from the 3 days of diving in Bunaken Marine Preserve that a few of us tacked on to the end of the Lembeh trip. The videos have been uploaded to Stage6 and are available at: http://www.stage6.com/OceanView-HD/videos/group:36623. Now I can get started on editing all the footage shot in Lembeh.

Enjoy,

David

Hi David!

Great videos again!

I enjoyd!

After trying to develop as videographer I have interviewed some pro editors who have not dived ( I presented to them also yours footages ;) ) and who looked the UW-material only based on editorial view.

One thing stayed clearly in my mind that specially when the audience is nondivers the clips shoud be UW little bit longer than top side to let audience brains to handle the whole information. When the clips are topside much of the info is already familiar to audience( like houses , roads, trees etc ) and brains are handling that information faster.

I have also tried maily to use 3-5 second clips UW. and comment was that they are too short rather 7 to 10 second. I got the feeling when looking you videos I understood, some clips i wanted too see little bit longer.

I hope that you dont mind but I would like too see and hear from you one day one video, with narration...music you have is beutiful, but narration would give more UW-value...compination of both would be perfect.

Most I enjoyed the night video...but thats my favourite time of dive.

Jonathan when choosing next to interview, why not some video editor...might be very intresting...to me it was...and i was taken down to ground from clouds and dreams...but this can be sometimes important to put your efforts to right things.

Jukka

[David White]

Thanks for your comments Jukka. You raise some rather interesting points regarding the non diving audience that, to be honest, I had not considered. Narration is another area that I have not previously explored. By the way, can anybody recommend a good microphone with a USB connection for attaching to the computer? To some extent my videos represent the ultimate dive log since they simply chronicle the dive and allow for the opportunity to revisit the site over and over again. This may become invaluable as I age and memory starts to fail.

My initial forays into underwater videography were to record a week of diving in some tropical paradise and recover the costs of the trip by selling copies of the finished product to the other divers . However, the fact of the matter is that I was barely able to recover production costs. Nowadays, I consider myself fortunate if I am even able to recover the excess baggage charges.

So, this begs the question, "Why keep on doing it?" Many divers are passionate about diving. I would venture to say that most underwater photographers and videographers that I know take this passion to an even greater depth (pardon the pun). Some are fortunate enough, and talented enough, to make a career and a living from their work. The rest of us just keep honing our skills in an effort to improve our output. This is where your critique becomes invaluable, since it is through the eyes of others that we are able to see how and where we can make the necessary adjustments to our work.

As an independent underwater videographer it is necessary to wear many hats; producer, director, script writer, videographer, announcer, editor, audio engineer, computer geek, web designer, porter and general all around good guy. Did I miss any? Every once in a while Jonathan puts on the Ultimate Underwater Video Course. Perhaps it is time for me to attend.

[sorvju-f]

Thanks for your comments Jukka. You raise some rather interesting points regarding the non diving audience that, to be honest, I had not considered. Narration is another area that I have not previously explored. By the way, can anybody recommend a good microphone with a USB connection for attaching to the computer? To some extent my videos represent the ultimate dive log since they simply chronicle the dive and allow for the opportunity to revisit the site over and over again. This may become invaluable as I age and memory starts to fail.

My initial forays into underwater videography were to record a week of diving in some tropical paradise and recover the costs of the trip by selling copies of the finished product to the other divers . However, the fact of the matter is that I was barely able to recover production costs. Nowadays, I consider myself fortunate if I am even able to recover the excess baggage charges.

So, this begs the question, "Why keep on doing it?" Many divers are passionate about diving. I would venture to say that most underwater photographers and videographers that I know take this passion to an even greater depth (pardon the pun). Some are fortunate enough, and talented enough, to make a career and a living from their work. The rest of us just keep honing our skills in an effort to improve our output. This is where your critique becomes invaluable, since it is through the eyes of others that we are able to see how and where we can make the necessary adjustments to our work.

As an independent underwater videographer it is necessary to wear many hats; producer, director, script writer, videographer, announcer, editor, audio engineer, computer geek, web designer, porter and general all around good guy. Did I miss any? Every once in a while Jonathan puts on the Ultimate Underwater Video Course. Perhaps it is time for me to attend.

Somethimes in the chats people are too polite to give creative comments and I also thought much if to give it...I have to say that in your videos the clip handling is great and if you yourself feel happy to them...that is the key point.

I learned that the sound in videos is a total own world...hometheaters surround...5.1 channels, 7.1 channels systems need total own army to diving trips and weight of gears is exploring totally new figures. Mixing, collecting sounds, editing sound, effects needs also a huge number of new skills.

Normal way of adding sound to amateur videos is music. I think that in non pro footages 99% have just music. Maybe many have tried to add narration and after noticing that it is actually much more difficult they have jumped to this familiar easy way of sound. Underwater sound world is "rather empty, but if you catch it to video its gives great plus to video. Dolfins and whales voices we all know, but there is more like some anemon fishes are making sound with teeth and spotted drum fish is making sound with swim bladders.

Hi folks what other sounds you have heard underwater?

Actually I am middle of thoughs to put one commercial production to market and thats why I have collected some other owners to different hats you mentioned.

Safe way even in pro productions is to add narration after wards and if I enter to make commercial version thats my choice. ( not me...pro one )

To me driven force is not money...I just want to see if I am able to.

I also learned that when joining clips there are much rules. I have normally softened the transition litlle bit. Pro editor is using that like last case. They are choosing content of clip and joinig them straight to next clip.

Some rules:

- Movement to movement
- Composition...object is end of first clip upper right corner and object ( even it is different ) is upper right corner in next clip.
- thinkable connection...like fish to fisherman.
- size change to same object have to be big enough...no midlle points

People:
- upwards give value to person or can make person ridiculous
- downwars make person sad or seen like resignedly
- In coposition leave room to eyes/look direction
- dont cut peole from the joints...makes handicapped or unreal feeling when making composition

If you know some more rules just add them here ( or should this discussion be in some other threads? )

Jukka

[David White]

You raise some valid points Jukka and some valuable insights. However, this should probably be a new thread on editing techniques...so let's start one.

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Mark, seen the top level page of Diver's Lodge Lembeh (http://www.diving-on-sulawesi.com/)?

[sorvju-f]

Hey Mark, seen the top level page of Diver's Lodge Lembeh (http://www.diving-on-sulawesi.com/)?

Jonathan and Mark! Have a look inside the gallery!

You should have a good discount next time;)

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Jonathan and Mark! Have a look inside the gallery!

You should have a good discount next time;)


That's for sure!! :D

Mark, I'm jealous that you found the Wonderpus!! That was the ONE thing I didn't see. Just a good reason to go back.

[tarczy]

Mark, I'm jealous that you found the Wonderpus!! That was the ONE thing I didn't see. Just a good reason to go back.

I believe you found a Mimic and I didn't . . . so we're "even" on the jealousy part.

Read your e-mail saying you are planning a return to Lembeh. Keep me in mind. I might join you for this trip seeing as how I'm all moved in and settled down with the "just-add-water" instant family. :rolleyes:

P.S. Besides the sinking of the Odyssea 1, whatever happened to your Raja trip? You should think about a Lembeh/Raja trip combined. The haul out to Indonesia is such a pain in the butt, I found it better to get it all done in one trip.

JMHO

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Mark,
Good to hear from you! Things were quiet around here...I was wondering where you went!

Congrats on the move and the addition of your new family!! It's about time you settled down...:)

My Raja trip (http://www.jonathanbird.net/raja_ampat_trip.htm) was moved to a better boat and November. Unfortunately, with my little kids, there is no way Christine would let me extend the trip for another week to add Lembeh! I would love to do it, but that would mean I would be away for 3 weeks!!

Jonathan

[Neptune7]

I am happy for you man. Life is good for you? You deserve it buddy!
I will be in Lembeh with Jean Oiseau and I plan to stay a little longer...
Hanging around with you in Indonesia is no problem.

Got plans?

Best,
Pierre