Indonesia 2009

[Neptune7]

It is time to start a new thread.
Since a few of us are going to Lembeh before Raja Ampat, I choose to name the thread Indonesia rather than Raja Ampat.
I am leaving tomorrow for Manado. First a week at Lembeh Divers Lodge and then Raja Ampat.
Scubagirl and David White already left for Indonesia. I am suppose to meet them in Lembeh. The rest of the gang, including the Birman himself, should be in Manado by the 31st or Nov 1st then we all fly to Sorong to board the MSY Seahorse.

David and I are video guys so it would be suprising to post any picture but at least we will keep you posted. I don't know if Scubagirl is taking pictures. If so, we will use hers.
We should be able to report late next monday.


Pierre

[nhdivenut]

Have fun you guys! I dove Manado/Lembeh last December and loved it! See you in Manado on 31October.
brandy

[scubagirl]

Jackie and I are here at Diver's Lodge; we just arrived this afternoon, completely jet-lagged. I'm sure you'll be hearing from David soon, Pierre.

I'll try to post photos when I get around to taking some ;)

Natalie

[Jonathan Bird]

Good idea Pierre! I would like to point out that for you video guys who like to capture footage in the field (Neptune!), you can get a very nice still frame from HDV for the web if you just want to post a couple shots of the action without having to edit and create a movie!

HDV is 1440x1080 with non-square pixels. That means they cut down the number of pixels on the horizontal axis to make the files smaller. When it's played back, the 1440 is interpolated to 1920 to create the right aspect ratio. It creates a small issue in making a still frame with the right aspect, but it's easy to fix.

To make a nice web frame, first export a still frame from FCP by putting the marker on a frame in the timeline, then selecting Export>Quicktime Conversion>Still Frame. Open the resulting file in photoshop. Resize it to 1920x1080 (you have to unclick the "constrain proportions" button so you can resize only one dimension). Now you have a proper aspect 16:9 image.

If there is a lot of motion in the image, you will see the "combing" effect of the two fields because there was 1/60 second in between them. No problem. Go to Filter>Video>De-interlace and select "interpolation". Now the combing will be gone, with a small loss in vertical resolution (it basically throws out one field and interpolates it from the other).

Now you can re-click the constrain proportions button and shrink the image to a size suitable for the web, such as 640x360. Post here. Voila, you are done. Sounds complicated but only takes about 30 seconds.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Just as an example, this image (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uOPgl4i3Zkk/SKr2iPEaImI/AAAAAAAAAAo/t9pG8OfhE_E/s1600-h/greenland_shark.jpg) came from HDV.

[Jonathan Bird]

Jackie and I are here at Diver's Lodge; we just arrived this afternoon, completely jet-lagged.

Natalie, I'm jealous! Have fun! Please say hi to Rob and Linda for me!

[Neptune7]

Cannot post anything because my luggage got lost in Singapore. I am in Lembeh with nothing. I can't dive, I can't shoot video, I am depressed.
Pierre

[tarczy]

Cannot post anything because my luggage got lost in Singapore. I am in Lembeh with nothing. I can't dive, I can't shoot video, I am depressed.
Pierre


Ahhhh . . . Mon Ami . . . cheer up . . . Singapore Airport operations are very sophisticated. If you saw, or claimed your luggage in Singapore, actually verifying the luggage did indeed arrive in Singapore, then you should probably get your lost luggage the very next day.

The real bummer would be if your luggage never left Canada. I had the same thing happen on my last trip to Indonesia. Apparently, weight is a critical issue on those loooong overseas flights and when the plane is overweight, they take off containers full of luggage in order for the plane to make weight. Fortunately, I scheduled a two day layover in Singapore, so my luggage was able to catch up with me one day later.

Hope it works out for you.

Mark

[Jonathan Bird]

That sucks mon ami. Are you doing a little diving without your camera? Rob has tons of gear you can use. At least you can scout some locations for when the gear arrives.

Jonathan

[David White]

After missing the connection to Manado and spending a couple of very expensive days in Singapore I finally arrived in Manado and then on to Lembeh. It is good to be back again. I have been diving with Natalie...sort of. We are on the same boat and each of us have our own personal divemaster, she is with Anders and I am with Paulus. This is civilized. Natalie has been completely spoiled though with sightings of the blue-ringed octopus, the mimic octopus and two different wonderpus. There have also been dual sightings of hairy frogfish and ambon scorpionfish plus all the requisite nudibranchs, lionfish, waspfish, ghost pipefish etc. etc. etc. It is the rainy season and every afternoon it pours which dramatically affects the available light for shooting. However, I have seen things in the past two days that I did not see when we were here two years ago.

Pierre's luggage arrived this afternoon and he was able to get wet and the smile has returned to his face. I have been trying to get Natalie to post some pictures but she is too busy downloading them to her computer. She is filling up memory cards at an alarming pace, probably taking in excess of 1000 shots each day. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

[sorvju-f]

After missing the connection to Manado and spending a couple of very expensive days in Singapore I finally arrived in Manado and then on to Lembeh. It is good to be back again. I have been diving with Natalie...sort of. We are on the same boat and each of us have our own personal divemaster, she is with Anders and I am with Paulus. This is civilized. Natalie has been completely spoiled though with sightings of the blue-ringed octopus, the mimic octopus and two different wonderpus. There have also been dual sightings of hairy frogfish and ambon scorpionfish plus all the requisite nudibranchs, lionfish, waspfish, ghost pipefish etc. etc. etc. It is the rainy season and every afternoon it pours which dramatically affects the available light for shooting. However, I have seen things in the past two days that I did not see when we were here two years ago.

Pierre's luggage arrived this afternoon and he was able to get wet and the smile has returned to his face. I have been trying to get Natalie to post some pictures but she is too busy downloading them to her computer. She is filling up memory cards at an alarming pace, probably taking in excess of 1000 shots each day. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

Great to hear that Pierre is now in real action...

The list of creatures is impressive...is there any reason to continue to RAJA:cool:

Dont even say that Natalie is taking 1000 pics per day and no posts...

What is the VIZ compared to your last trip?

Jukka

[scubagirl]

I'll try to post some photos this weekend when we're in Manado, when I have some downtime. We're doing 4 dives every day, so what's left of the evening after we show up late for dinner is spent downloading photos from the memory cards, looking at a few and then backing them up on another drive. It's taking much longer than I'd like. Anders is the best guide you could have; he has found so much cool stuff. In addition to what David mentioned, on my first day we saw the Denise pygmy seahorse and a pair of pipefish that look like a blade of grass, plus a pair of incredibly tiny pipehorses (think of the diameter of a thread and an inch long). I don't know how they spot these things but I'm happy they do! I've also seen a couple of coconut octopus, a white octopus and a hairy octopus. Today I was bitten by a large clownfish and it actually drew blood. Who knew these harmless looking fish could be so vicious?

Pierre is very happy this evening after getting his luggage and going for a dive!

[Jonathan Bird]

I'm very happy to hear that Pierre is back in action.

Sorry about the weather. We chose this time of the year because of more favorable conditions in Raja Ampat.

I am jealous. I'm still sitting here in my office finishing up work and wishing like hell I was with you in Lembeh, one of my favorite places. I remember being so exhausted after a day of diving in Lembeh--it was all I could do to prep my cameras for the next day, so I don't blame Natalie for not having the energy to post pics. But do not fear, they will come I'm sure!

I leave tomorrow afternoon for Manado--see you guys in a couple days!

[David White]

In order to maintain the pace of 4 dives a day and prepare for Raja Ampat I thought it prudent to check out a little current today. Anders took us out beyond the confines of the Lembeh Strait to a site that made the currents in Galapagos seem like a walk in the park in comparison. Ripping is not even a fair adjective. I very nearly lost a fin, just barely managed to grab a hold of my divemaster, Paulus, and after 20 minutes of clinging to the same spot on the wall decided to abort the dive. Within seconds we were whisked around to the other side of the island completely out of sight. There is something just a little disturbing about floating in open ocean hoping that the boat will eventually find you before you end up in another time zone.

But we enjoyed sunny skies today, shot some coral reef at California Dreaming, a couple of flamboyant cuttlefish on our third dive and finished up at nudi retreat to capture footage of two separate species of pygmy seahorses before the day's diving was complete. Tomorrow promises more of the same, only different.

[scubagirl]

My first dive today wasn't as bad as David's, but still had enough current for the first 5 minutes. Here are a few photos from the last couple of days; I haven't had time to do much post-processing so far. Hairy frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, coconut octopus and ? octopus.

[sorvju-f]

My first dive today wasn't as bad as David's, but still had enough current for the first 5 minutes. Here are a few photos from the last couple of days; I haven't had time to do much post-processing so far. Hairy frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, coconut octopus and ? octopus.

Nice set...giving Lembeh feeling...flamboyant is very special creature and it is posing nicely to you.

Hairy frogfish is of coarse must to see in Lembeh.

Thanks for posting middle of everything!

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

In order to maintain the pace of 4 dives a day and prepare for Raja Ampat I thought it prudent to check out a little current today. Anders took us out beyond the confines of the Lembeh Strait to a site that made the currents in Galapagos seem like a walk in the park in comparison. Ripping is not even a fair adjective. I very nearly lost a fin, just barely managed to grab a hold of my divemaster, Paulus, and after 20 minutes of clinging to the same spot on the wall decided to abort the dive. Within seconds we were whisked around to the other side of the island completely out of sight. There is something just a little disturbing about floating in open ocean hoping that the boat will eventually find you before you end up in another time zone.

But we enjoyed sunny skies today, shot some coral reef at California Dreaming, a couple of flamboyant cuttlefish on our third dive and finished up at nudi retreat to capture footage of two separate species of pygmy seahorses before the day's diving was complete. Tomorrow promises more of the same, only different.

Hi David!

Hi hope you have reef hook with you...if not do one yourself or try to buy one...sometimes in Raja I had current that no possibilities to use camera at all then I didn,t have this hook...now it would be first thing to pack.

It is not meaning that all the sites are same...current varies like everywhere, but it can be very strong. Strongest currents in my dive history I have had in Raja Ampat.

Jukka

[seafan]

Now you all have me really getting excited about my trip there in December. This will be my first time in Lembeh... staying, of course at Divers Lodge!

Since the person I'm heading there with hasn't joined this site... which dive guide should I try to get! :) :)

I'm trying to compose a list of everything I want them to find for me and think I will just have to wind up asking them to show me everything they can while I"m there... will be there for christmas and new year's eve. :D

This will be my first trip shooting with my Inon S-2000 and 10x subsee (Keri said it should ship out sometime next week)...

Keep posting reports... and pics!

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Gang,
Bob and I finally made it to Manado. I'm in the room with Pierre's stuff but no Pierre. I guess he is still out sightseeing.

My trip from Boston to Manado was not very fun. My flight from Boston to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic on Thursday was fine, although Virgin now has some new rules on being very strict about only one carry-on. I had to plead and explain that my cameras were very important and they finally let me slide so I could take my camera backpack and my video camera pelican--my standard two carry ons. The good news was that Virgin allows an extra piece of checked baggage for scuba gear, so I could take three check-ins with NO FEE! Of course, starting Nov 29, they go down to only one piece of check-in allowed, so the extra piece for scuba gear only gets you back to two. :( So, I got to Heathrow with no issue on Friday morning. BUT.....due to an air traffic control radar being out of commission in Germany, (I couldn't make stuff this up) we could not leave Heathrow on time. Apparently they can't fly through the airspace unless the radars are working. Two hours later, we finally left Heathrow. Since I had a two hour layover in Singapore, I was pretty sure I was going to miss the connection. Bob was on the flight with me, so we were both pretty much screwed.

To Singapore airline's credit, when we arrived in Singapore on Saturday, there were two agents waiting to meet us at the gate (I mean, there were two agents waiting specifically for me and Bob!), who explained our options. The next flight to Manado from Singapore was in two days, which would cause us to miss our flight to Sorong on Monday. If we could get to Manado the next day (Sunday) we would be OK to make our early Monday morning flight to Sorong. So they figured out that they could send us to Jakarta Saturday afternoon, we would spend the night in Jakarta, then head to Manado on Sunday morning from Jakarta on Garuda Airlines. They re-routed our baggage and we flew to Jakarta on Singapore Air. Again, the efficiency of Singapore air was impressive....when we stepped off the plane in Jakarta, an agent from Singapore airlines met us, helped us get our gear, guided us through customs, and got us in a cab to the hotel with vouchers for meals, taxis, hotel, everything. The hotel was fine, nothing special but not bad at all. We had dinner and hit the sack. Now at this point, Bob and I had been awake for 48 hours straight with only a couple nodding off naps on the plane.

The next morning we had to get up at 4 AM for a 7 AM flight because we needed to be there 90 minutes early and we had a 45 minute ride to the airport. We got to the airport 2 hours in advance, went to the counter and once again Singapore air had a guy to meet us! This is because they had to transfer us to Garuda Airlines to get us to Manado, and the Singapore rep was supposed to make it happen smoothly. I'm pretty impressed with how far Singapore Air had gone to help us at this point. The guy from Garuda Air explained that I didn't actually have a confirmed seat on the flight to Manado....only Bob did. So we couldn't check in until 6:30 when the flight check-in closed and they knew if they had an extra seat. We had some breakfast and waited. At 6:30, they came over and said they had a seat, and started weighing our luggage. Then the guy announced we were incredibly overweight on luggage and explained we had to pay a fee. (Of course, I was expecting this and asked the people at Singapore Air to make sure we didn't have to pay a fee, but they told me it wouldn't be a problem because the bags were already supposed to be tagged to Manado. Yeah right!)

I can't blame Garuda for wanting to get paid for the excess....they were helping out Singapore Air by taking us to Manado. So I explained that we were on Garuda because Singapore Air screwed up, my bags were already tagged to Manado and I shouldn't have to pay the fee--Singapore Air should. The guy agreed and so did the rep from Singapore Air. Only problem was that someone up higher in the organization had to approve it. While we waited for approval...the plane left!

Fortunately, there was another flight at 11. Our LAST chance to get to Manado. But again, we had no confirmed seats and the flight was full. We had to wait until 10 to find out if we could get on. But they tagged the bags and approved having Singapore Air pay for it. We waited three more hours in the airport. At 10 we had tickets, loaded the bags to the counter, and headed for the gate.

Just after we got though security, the agent from Singapore air came running up with 80,000 rupiah (about $8) saying that Singapore Air wanted to reimburse our airport tax too! Wow.

So we got on the plane and flew to Manado. We got off a couple hours ago in Manado. A day late, but still in time to make our connection to Sorong with the rest of the group tomorrow morning. Bob and I both have our luggage. And interestingly, neither of us has paid a cent in excess baggage so far. That will end tomorrow morning!

All I can say is that Singapore Air rocks! Incredible customer service, wonderful airplanes! In fact, the service and virtually everything about the flight in economy class was better than business class on American Airlines. The only thing business class on American had on Singapore Economy class was a bigger seat. Every single seat in Economy class on the Singapore Air A380 aircraft had a 10" (yes TEN inch) LCD display with on-demand entertainment system and 20+ movies. WOW! Hot towels to wipe your face, free alcohol, excellent meals, even socks to wear. Honestly, the level of service on most international airlines makes the American domestic airlines look like amateur operations.

So I am here in the lovely Swiss Bel-hotel in Manado, awaiting my next adventure, and boy am I tired!!

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Hey Gang,


Jonathan

Sounds like normal trip to Manado...as I had couple of years ago. I dont wan't to paint more problems, but you are not yet in Sorong...we had two cancellations and one extra night in Manado.

That excellent news that you have all the gears with you!

To eastern flights I have always used Singapore airlines...the quality rocks...only thing negative is that they can really be tight is excess fees and they can be really high.

Hope no more problems and enjoyable rest of the trip.

Jukka

[tarczy]

Yeah . . . I'm in TOTAL agreement with Jukka. Your adventure has yet to begin. Manado->Sorong and Sorong->Manado will be one "seat-gripper" of a ride . . . WHEN and if you take off.

Good luck and God's speed to all of you. You're gonna need it!

Mark

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Gang,
Our whole group of 14 is here and has all their luggage. We are now checked in at Manado Airport on Lion Air to Sorong. We paid about $7 each for access to the executive lounge, where they have free food, drinks, A/C and internet so we can chill for an hour or so. They CLAIM the flight is on time and all the luggage will go on the plane. For the record, they charge about $1/pound in excess baggage for anything over 15 kilos (~35 pounds). I paid $117.00 in excess. Not too bad actually! As long as the stuff makes it on the plane, I'm a happy camper. This may be the last you hear from us for a while since I'm pretty sure we will have no internet once we reach Sorong.

Jukka, Clay and Mark, it is your job to watch over the site and keep everyone awake!!

Take care and talk to you soon!!

Jonathan

[scubagirl]

I managed to edit couple more photos at the Manado airport. Sorry I didn't have time to edit more or fix these up better. Next time you hear from us will be in 2 weeks!

[sorvju-f]

As it is coming snow here in Finland it is nice to be jealous to our Group in Raja...here is the views they are having:

Topside:

http://sorvjuf.1g.fi/kuvat/2008%20Papua%2C%20Raja%20Ampat/Seahorse%20bow%20800.jpg/full

UW:

http://sorvjuf.1g.fi/kuvat/2008%20Papua%2C%20Raja%20Ampat/Sieni%20800.jpg/full

Hope everything is OK there...anyhow it looks like they were moving smoothly from Manado to Sorong.

Jukka

[Christie]

Just beautiful Jukka...how I wish I had mailed my deposit in on time...oh well...live and learn...the hard way! Can you post some more so I can be even more jealous?? lol:D

[tarczy]

Taking a cue from Jukka, our Senior Vice President of European Operations, and while our intrepid travelers are having a blast in Raja, with no access to the Internet, I too will post some of my other Raja pics as examples of what they are seeing . . .

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Raja%20Ampat%202008/_MG_1308.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Raja%20Ampat%202008/_MG_1742-1.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Raja%20Ampat%202008/_MG_1508-1.jpg

[sorvju-f]

Taking a cue from Jukka, our Senior Vice President of European Operations, and while our intrepid travelers are having a blast in Raja, with no access to the Internet, I too will post some of my other Raja pics as examples of what they are seeing . . .



Mark,
as always your pictures are world top level...there are really some challenge to our Raja team.

Jukka ( Senior something...:D )

[tarczy]

Thanks Jukka!

Here's another one . . .

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/mongo255/Raja%20Ampat%202008/IMG_65282.jpg

[Clay Coleman]

Beautiful stuff, Natalie, Mark, and Jukka. I'm working on getting over there (somewhere) next year. -Clay

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Gang!

Bob and I are in the Singapore Airport now. We ponied up about $25 each to use a nice lounge with food, drinks, internet, etc. rather than sit with the riff raff. ;) Anyway, the trip was spectacular fun! I'm sure that many people will post thoughts and comments. We had a great group of fun people. The boat is great and the crew is great as well. I have some constructive feedback for the boat for improvements, but it's a good boat. We had very good luck with only a few dives having ripping current that made photography difficult or impossible. Many dives really lived up to the expectations I had for Raja Ampat--serious coral and fish action. Many other sites honestly did not, either due to visibility or critters. We had some dives with 20 feet of viz, and some with 60, but that was about the limit. The area is not known for viz since you need to feed all that coral with something. Also, there was in my opinion much less in the way of macro life than you would find in Lembeh, even though there is NO shortage of pygmy seahorses!

We saw a lot of cool stuff like mangroves right at the edge of the reef, mantas, beautiful reefs, and all kinds of great "typical" Indonesian reef stuff like cuttlefish, anemonefish, etc. I'll post a few pics now and then add a few more over the next few days. I hope others from the trip will post as well and not just "lurk"--I'm talking to you Amy!

Right now I am honestly just looking forward to being home. I miss my family and my nice comfy bed in my own house! It has been a long trip at the end of a huge string of travel for me over the last few months.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

OK, I can't resist posting a couple more...

[Jonathan Bird]

We had quite the uwphotochat crew on this trip. I finally had the pleasure of Meeting Natalie "scubagirl." In the future I look forward to meeting more of the UWPhotochatters on dive trips!

We missed Mark, Jukka, Clay and the rest of ya'all!

Hey Mark, you won't believe this, but BOTH of our Lion Air flights went off on time and without a hitch and all the luggage made it!

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Hey Gang!

Bob and I are in the Singapore Airport now. We ponied up about $25 each to use a nice lounge with food, drinks, internet, etc. rather than sit with the riff raff. ;) Anyway, the trip was spectacular fun! I'm sure that many people will post thoughts and comments. We had a great group of fun people. The boat is great and the crew is great as well. I have some constructive feedback for the boat for improvements, but it's a good boat. We had very good luck with only a few dives having ripping current that made photography difficult or impossible. Many dives really lived up to the expectations I had for Raja Ampat--serious coral and fish action. Many other sites honestly did not, either due to visibility or critters. We had some dives with 20 feet of viz, and some with 60, but that was about the limit. The area is not known for viz since you need to feed all that coral with something. Also, there was in my opinion much less in the way of macro life than you would find in Lembeh, even though there is NO shortage of pygmy seahorses!

We saw a lot of cool stuff like mangroves right at the edge of the reef, mantas, beautiful reefs, and all kinds of great "typical" Indonesian reef stuff like cuttlefish, anemonefish, etc. I'll post a few pics now and then add a few more over the next few days. I hope others from the trip will post as well and not just "lurk"--I'm talking to you Amy!

Right now I am honestly just looking forward to being home. I miss my family and my nice comfy bed in my own house! It has been a long trip at the end of a huge string of travel for me over the last few months.

Jonathan

Happy to hear that you all are safely back...hope the rest of the trip goes as smoothly as it sounds going the whole trip. You are the first group I know with so little problems.

Pictures are making me willing to get UW soon.

Wish you get yourself to your own family, house and bed soon!

Jukka

[Andrew]

Wow Jonathan, seems like you had a wonderful trip. Bon voyage for the rest of your trip home.

Great pictures and looking forward to seeing some more from you and the rest of the gang...

Andrew

[walsh2000]

I plan to post some photos from the Sea Horse live aboard in Raja Ampat. But, for starters, I wanted to wish all of the other folks happy flights home while I hang out at Divers Lodge Lembeh for 5 additional days in Indonesia.

After completing our Raja diving yesterday (Nov 12), I managed to make the flight to Manado and squeeze in a night dive on the house reef at Divers Lodge Lembeh... not bad for the first dive... see photo...

-mike-

[Jonathan Bird]

Mike, you are a mad man!! Bob and I are still sitting here in the airport in Singapore waiting for our flight to Heathrow and you have already done a dive in Lembeh and posted a blue ringed octo! NICE!!

This reminds me. Some of you may remember that in my Lembeh trip last year, the only thing I didn't see that I wanted was a Wonderpus. Well, at our last two dive sites in Raja Ampat, we did muck dives and look what Natalie found all by herself:

[tarczy]

Right now I am honestly just looking forward to being home. I miss my family and my nice comfy bed in my own house!

Jonathan

I can totally identify with that sentiment! Traveling to the end of the Earth and back again, on multiple flights, is about the most fatiguing thing one can do. You'll probably sleep for two days once you're home. ;)


Hey Mark, you won't believe this, but BOTH of our Lion Air flights went off on time and without a hitch and all the luggage made it!

Jonathan

Lucky dawg!! Didn't you find those Lion Air flights to be absolutely scary?



Hey Mike . . . awesome shot of the Blue Ringed Octo. Really shows off the blue rings. For the life of me, I just could not get my Blue Ringed Octo to turn light.

Jonathan . . . great shots Mon!!! Preggo Pygmy Seahorse - SWEET! Great under/over shot with the red coral and the Mangroves. And . . . of course, the irresistible Clownfish shot (you probably have eleventy billion of those shots!)

Sounds like all of you had a great time. Have a safe trip home. Can't wait to read the trip reports and see all the great images.

Mark

P.S. We apologize for hijacking your thread. We all got bored while all of you were off the grid. Happy to have you back!

[sorvju-f]

Hey Gang!

Bob and I are in the Singapore Airport now. We ponied up about $25 each to use a nice lounge with food, drinks, internet, etc. rather than sit with the riff raff. ;) Anyway, the trip was spectacular fun! I'm sure that many people will post thoughts and comments. We had a great group of fun people. The boat is great and the crew is great as well. I have some constructive feedback for the boat for improvements, but it's a good boat. We had very good luck with only a few dives having ripping current that made photography difficult or impossible. Many dives really lived up to the expectations I had for Raja Ampat--serious coral and fish action. Many other sites honestly did not, either due to visibility or critters. We had some dives with 20 feet of viz, and some with 60, but that was about the limit. The area is not known for viz since you need to feed all that coral with something. Also, there was in my opinion much less in the way of macro life than you would find in Lembeh, even though there is NO shortage of pygmy seahorses!

We saw a lot of cool stuff like mangroves right at the edge of the reef, mantas, beautiful reefs, and all kinds of great "typical" Indonesian reef stuff like cuttlefish, anemonefish, etc. I'll post a few pics now and then add a few more over the next few days. I hope others from the trip will post as well and not just "lurk"--I'm talking to you Amy!

Right now I am honestly just looking forward to being home. I miss my family and my nice comfy bed in my own house! It has been a long trip at the end of a huge string of travel for me over the last few months.

Jonathan

What was you set for the split mangrove shot...did you use 50 %-diopter...

Anemon fish is great....everybody are having books from sharks...is there any books from anemonfishes...is this false clown fish or clown fish?

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

I just was discussing with Pierre ( and many others ). He is still in Bunaken, Living colours dive center ( http://www.livingcolours.fi/page.php?page_id=13 )...having party with many fins...after having eight dives there.

He reported that specially night dives have made him impressed.

He have made incredible 35 casettes of video during whole trip. Hope to see some material later on.

He is leaving tomorrow back to Canada trough Singapore and having straight flight from Singapore to NY ( 19 hours ) and of coarse in business class;)

Jukka

[Andrew]

Hey Jukka,

That living colours looks nice. I would have thought that video would now all be taken on digital rather than tapes, I know nothing about video but I would have thought that technology would be that advanced? Either way... I would not want to be the person editing it!

Business class... now there is a way to get around excess baggage charges, you just pay 5 times the cost for your ticket!

Andrew

[sorvju-f]

Hey Jukka,

That living colours looks nice. I would have thought that video would now all be taken on digital rather than tapes, I know nothing about video but I would have thought that technology would be that advanced? Either way... I would not want to be the person editing it!

Business class... now there is a way to get around excess baggage charges, you just pay 5 times the cost for your ticket!

Andrew

It is still rather many like myself, who love tapes, because it is one of the best back up systems.

When looking development...flash-memory ( no circulation parts ) is coming format in new videocameras and you can also work with full 1920x1080 level...tapes are always compressed when capturing. Still today I am using tapes.

Jukka

PS I am still fighting rather than paying 5x:cool:

[Neptune7]

Hey Jukka,

That living colours looks nice. I would have thought that video would now all be taken on digital rather than tapes, I know nothing about video but I would have thought that technology would be that advanced? Either way... I would not want to be the person editing it!

Business class... now there is a way to get around excess baggage charges, you just pay 5 times the cost for your ticket!

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Media cards are very expensive. If I had shoot everything on digital media, I wouls have need 280 Gb of cards. The cheapest cards are about 50$ for 2 hours (16 Gb) that 18 cards x 50$ = 900$. I would also had to back-up everything on at least 2 redundant hard drives. A lot of work and certainly less practical. As for tape, once finished, you store it and insert a new tape and on the way we go. Tapes are also much better for archiving.
For now, tapes are still the way to go for a travelling videographer.

Business Class: Do I feel a bit of jealousy?

I can travel business because I get those tickets with my credit card miles...

Pierre (still at Living Colors in Bunaken)

[sorvju-f]

Business Class: Do I feel a bit of jealousy?

Of coarse we are:D ...if I fly business you all will hear about it:D

[Neptune7]

Hi everyone,
I just left Living Colors in Bunaken Park. Here a quick word while in the Manado airport waiting for my flight in the Garuda business Class lounge (don't worry Andrew, even you can afford it), it only 60 000 rupiah (about 6$) for food, all you can drink, air conditionning and a fast internet wifi connection.

Living Colors is great little resort. Nothing luxurious but elegantly rustic and comfortable. All the staff is very dedicated to your comfort and the dive masters know their trade. Fantastic food and beer and soft drink available at minimal costs.

Good diving boats but no nitrox. I was diving with Marthin, my dive guide as suggested my our friend Jukka. He very good at finding things and critters. He is also very "safety oriented". The staff carry all your gear from and to the boat. That was much appreciated because I use a big and heavy Amphibico Phenom housing. By the way it's my third Amphibico housing and never had a problem. I love my housings and Jonathan actually agreed that it's quite a fine housing and a joy to work with. JB only reserve might be the optics. After seeing his results with his set-up, I have to agreed that the lens he has on his housing is quite fantastic since he has a greater width of angle and the focus is sharp from all the zooming range. But still what I get out of my housing is most satisfying and good enough for all JB prject I worked on.
Sorry for this little disgression. Back to Living Colors in Bunaken.

The diving is excellent and the night dive a just fantastic. Better actually critter wise than all I did in Raja Ampat. Day time diving is more tricky. You got to tell your DM about the sun position (this is for the videographer) because some nice walls are often on the wrong side of the sun and in the shadow. The walls are nice and richly covered in hard and soft corals (a lot of mushroom and leathery corals but few of the colorfull one like we saw in quantity in Raja last week.
There are quite a lot of life on the walls: plenty of turtles, many large Napoleon wrasses, some tunas and a lot of butterfly fish. Many anthias in the shallow (5 m area).
We even had a half muck and half coral reef dive where I shot robust ghost pipe fish, pipefish, a couple of large cuttlefish and a group of squids. Many small shrimps on sea wip, anemone...

On the summary, it was a long shot after a week in Lembeh and a liveaboard in Rala Ampat but I actually enjoyed it very much and I would go back anytime.

We also had a party yesterday night with the local band. They guys are great and you should see the drums set made of empty thinner and oil cans. Wait until you see the cimbals. Iwill try to post a picture when I get home...in two day in planes and airport.

Pierre

[Andrew]

Hi Pierre,

Thanks for the feedback, it looks like a nice place from their website and I look forward to seeing some pictures (and video...?)

I am not jealous of a 19 hour flight, business class or not as it is a very long flight! I am happy for you... at least you will be looked after and hopefully get some sleep after all that diving and nitrogen. I do the same with my credit card and get most of my flights now in business which is very nice and especially the 119kg of check in baggage allowance (each!) on my South African flights!

So Jukka, in addition to all the normal baggage, camera's, video's, housing... you also have to take tapes!! I really thought that technology would have 100gb hard drives stuck to the side of the cameras which you could switch over when full and back up onto computer or elsewhere. Does this mean when you get home you have to copy these all onto your computer to then get editing?

Andrew

[Jonathan Bird]

Lucky dawg!! Didn't you find those Lion Air flights to be absolutely scary?

Nah. Just the threat of not getting my luggage. On the way home, the flight was really full so Cici of the Seahorse took the luggage to the airport at 5:30 AM and checked us in first. All the luggage made it!

What was you set for the split mangrove shot...did you use 50 %-diopter...

No, just a Tokina 10-17 set on 10--full fisheye. This makes the lens have so much depth of field that you just shoot at f/11 or more and everything is in focus. Get the water line right on the center of the frame and no "bending" distortion in the water line.

Anemon fish is great....everybody are having books from sharks...is there any books from anemonfishes...is this false clown fish or clown fish?


False clown, same as Nemo.

A few more, including one of the infamous "walking" Raja cat shark.

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Andrew,

especially the 119kg of check in baggage allowance (each!) on my South African flights!

WOW, maybe I should give a second thinking...

Does this mean when you get home you have to copy these all onto your computer to then get editing?

Unfortunately

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

A few more, including one of the infamous "walking" Raja cat shark.

Jonathan

Cat shark is nice and special ( I have not seen earlier ), but this mangrove split is fabulous!

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Gang,
I'll be posting a few more favorites here soon, but I also just uploaded 271 of my best from this trip to my stock photo website so if you want to browse, here is a link to a lightbox (http://www.jonathanbird.net/cgi-bin/saved_light_box.asp?s=382738185&t=40134.5120717593) of the images which will remain active for 90 days.

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Hey Gang,
I'll be posting a few more favorites here soon, but I also just uploaded 271 of my best from this trip to my stock photo website so if you want to browse, here is a link to a lightbox (http://www.jonathanbird.net/cgi-bin/saved_light_box.asp?s=382738185&t=40134.5120717593) of the images which will remain active for 90 days.

Jonathan

Absolutely marvellous set...beutiful corals and LOT OF PYGMIS...and spilts I like...

It is always nice to get some feedback so here is my ranking:

Best picture: Sea whip ID 4452
No 2:Cleaner schrimb in bubble coral ID 4313
No 3 False clown fish ID 4329

More:
Best Pygmi pics: ID 4324 and 4392
Best Manta: ID 4257
Best corals ID 4429

Just my IMHO.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Damn Jukka! You are thorough! The sea whip is your favorite, really? Just goes to show how subjective pictures are. I wouldn't have expected that one in my wildest dreams. Thanks for the comments.

Yes, lots of pygmies. They were found at virtually every dive site--the divemasters find them like nobody's business.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

OK, today's posting of a few more of my favorites. The diver is Pierre.

[Jonathan Bird]

Absolutely marvellous set...beutiful corals and LOT OF PYGMIS...and spilts I like...

Hey Jukka, splits have gotten easier with small sensor digicams. The Dx format Nikon sensor gives enough depth of field with a fisheye and f/11+ to do splits with no diopter. I used the Tokina 10-17 set at 10mm (180 degrees) and f/11-f/16 to do these splits and everything is in sharp focus above and below. I moved the AF spot on the camera to focus on the underwater foreground subject and then let everything else fall where it did and there was plenty of depth of field. I'm sure this wouldn't work with the 12-24, but with the fisheye, no problem. I'm pretty much done with split diopters. They are a pain and very limiting (i.e. once you have one on the camera, you can't shoot anything else except splits, nor can you decide to shoot on the other orientation without rotating the filter).

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

Hey Jukka, splits have gotten easier with small sensor digicams. The Dx format Nikon sensor gives enough depth of field with a fisheye and f/11+ to do splits with no diopter. I used the Tokina 10-17 set at 10mm (180 degrees) and f/11-f/16 to do these splits and everything is in sharp focus above and below. I moved the AF spot on the camera to focus on the underwater foreground subject and then let everything else fall where it did and there was plenty of depth of field. I'm sure this wouldn't work with the 12-24, but with the fisheye, no problem. I'm pretty much done with split diopters. They are a pain and very limiting (i.e. once you have one on the camera, you can't shoot anything else except splits, nor can you decide to shoot on the other orientation without rotating the filter).

Jonathan

Still thinking my upgrade...how the behavior with FX/DX?

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

OK, today's posting of a few more of my favorites. The diver is Pierre.

I think this seahorse was in my ranking list?

Jukka

[Andrew]

Great pictures Jonathan and the split shots are fantastic. As a true nemo lover (not being able to swim past without taking a photo), I love the vibrance of that false clown fish (can I ask what the settings you took that with?)

I am unsure how you work out the ID's that Jukka rates in his top rated ones but I would have trouble limiting it to a top 10?!

Andrew

[Jonathan Bird]

Still thinking my upgrade...how the behavior with FX/DX?


The FX sensor will have less depth of field. As you know, I believe the DX sensor to be better for underwater work.

Great pictures Jonathan and the split shots are fantastic. As a true nemo lover (not being able to swim past without taking a photo), I love the vibrance of that false clown fish (can I ask what the settings you took that with?)

Thanks Andrew. I too have an inability to swim past an anemonefish (especially a false clown) without stopping for pictures. It's like an addiction. There is absolutely no reason for me to make any more pics of these stupid fish but I can't help myself. Most of the shots I got this trip were done with a 105 lens, twin DS-125 strobes, and around f/11. I did some with the 50 mm too but the really colorful anemone with the purple and green was my favorite and I had a 105 on the camera.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

FYI, my "go to" lenses on this trip were the Tokina 10-17 fisheye zoom and the 105 macro. Seemed like everything was either HUGE (reefs) or tiny. Usually the 50 mm macro is my favorite macro lens, but I think I only used it on 2 dives. In general the 12-24 is a more useful wide lens because it can do fish portraits too, but the reefs needed wider and the viz was marginal. The fisheye was better. I think I only used the 12-24 for 2 dives.

[scubagirl]

Great photos Jonathan. Are you going to write up a trip report too?

Natalie

[Neptune7]

Here a couple of pictures from Lembeh (extracted from video) of two fish of the same species that I didn't taught were worth much attention. I quickly shot them not to be rude for my guide. The focus isn't sharp either. During the Rapa Ampat, my roomy told me that he wished he could photograph the very rare Lacy Rhinopias. Jonathan showed me a picture from a book and I remember the "mossy brown scorpionfish" I saw a few time in Lembeh. The both pictures were taken at the Pantaï Parigi site, subject no 1; on a night dive, actually my very first dive at Lembeh and the second one, the next day. Maybe it was the same fish. Are these the very rare Lacy Rhinopias?

Pierre

[Jonathan Bird]

No, Weedy Scorpionfish. Still rare, but not as rare as the the Lacy.

[tkelly]

My favorites are: (no particular order)

Nudi 4462
Reefs 4429,4351
Clown 4329,4343
shrimp 4314
But it is hard to judge the details and focus.

[Andrew]

How do you find out the numbers?

[Jonathan Bird]

Click the thumbnail and it opens larger with a "stock number" that clients can use to reference the image. I have taken some crap for posting such small pictures (350 pixels wide) but lets just say I have had experience with people swiping my pics, so I keep them small. Furthermore, for web layouts using columns, that's about as big as you want.

Todd, rest assured I only post images that are in sharp focus. :) It wouldn't do me much good if a client called looking to use one of the images and when I sent the high res file they found it soft! Hence 2000+ images from Raja Ampat is boiled down to 270 to post to my stock photo site after I have eliminated bad images, boring composition, similar shots, poor lighting, etc.

I need to upgrade to the latest Adobe lightroom so I can get unsharp masking in the export process. The small jpegs look soft without it, and I just don't have time to sharpen them all in photoshop, although I guess I could do it as a batch. It just adds another step that I don't always have time for.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Todays fun shots....(and I'm still waiting for others from the trip to post pics! HINT!!)

The gorgeous colors of the reefs really blew my mind. All the tiny fish swirling above the reef is better seen on video though. This little soft coral crab was my absolute favorite macro subject of the trip because I had never photographed one before.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

My favorites are: (no particular order)

Nudi 4462
Reefs 4429,4351
Clown 4329,4343
shrimp 4314
But it is hard to judge the details and focus.

Funny, everyone likes the macro, and Raja Ampat is really not a macro place. We saw considerably less diversity in the macro subjects than Lembeh. I only photographed a handful of nudies--less than I often saw in a single dive in Lembeh. Pygmies they got though!

The Raja Ampat reefs are amazingly spectacular and the fish life prolific. However, for macro, Lembeh is better, closer, easier and cheaper!

I loved the trip but it was one of the most difficult places to reach I have ever visited, and that includes Antarctica.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

There were not many nudibranchs at "Nudi Rock" so I wonder why they call it that???

http://www.jonathanbird.net/jpegs21/jbirdimg_0450.jpg

[sorvju-f]

Todays fun shots....(and I'm still waiting for others from the trip to post pics! HINT!!)

The gorgeous colors of the reefs really blew my mind. All the tiny fish swirling above the reef is better seen on video though. This little soft coral crab was my absolute favorite macro subject of the trip because I had never photographed one before.

Jonathan

The crab is great as it looks like its background...anyhow there are other colours of this crab also. This one from bunaken with compact Olympus 5060 long time ago:

http://sorvjuf.1g.fi/kuvat/Underwater%20collection/Spider%20crab.jpg/full

It is great to see little big bigger this sponge coral arrounded with fishes...it stays in my ranking list;)

Jukka

[sorvju-f]

There were not many nudibranchs at "Nudi Rock" so I wonder why they call it that???


From the other side:

[sorvju-f]

Here a couple of pictures from Lembeh (extracted from video) of two fish of the same species that I didn't taught were worth much attention. I quickly shot them not to be rude for my guide. The focus isn't sharp either. During the Rapa Ampat, my roomy told me that he wished he could photograph the very rare Lacy Rhinopias. Jonathan showed me a picture from a book and I remember the "mossy brown scorpionfish" I saw a few time in Lembeh. The both pictures were taken at the Pantaï Parigi site, subject no 1; on a night dive, actually my very first dive at Lembeh and the second one, the next day. Maybe it was the same fish. Are these the very rare Lacy Rhinopias?

Pierre

Pierre! How it feels to be photographer:p

Actually rather good quality as captured from video.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

From the other side:

LOL! Yep, still looks like a nudi!

[Jonathan Bird]

A few more for today....

A Marbled ray, a wobbegong, a couple cuttlefish and an ornate ghost pipefish hanging in a crinoid.

I was surprised to see a Marbled ray...thought they were more Eastern Pacific, but apparently not.

Jonathan

[Ken Hawk]

I would love to go there one day.
So many places so little time ( well money ;) )

[Jonathan Bird]

I sure wish some of the other people who were on this trip would post some pics!! (MIKE!! AMY!! NATALIE!! Help me out here!)

[sorvju-f]

I sure wish some of the other people who were on this trip would post some pics!! (MIKE!! AMY!! NATALIE!! Help me out here!)

Jonathan is right this is chat not monolog...value of thread is greated by taking part to it.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Yeah, it's getting pretty lonely. I post a pic, a couple people say "cool pics" then I post another....

C'mon people...there were 14 of you on the boat!!

[tkelly]

Greate reef colors.

I did not mean to imply that your would ever have, let alone post, an out of focus shot. I was really refering to the subjective use of focus and depth of field as part of the whole composition. For example, I liked several of the clown fish shots, but as the shots are very similar in a series it is the little differances that matter.
With the small images it is hard to appreciate the fine detail.

[Jonathan Bird]

I see what you mean!

[sorvju-f]

Have you missed the group picture...that I think is tradition?

Jukka

[Andrew]

Well Jukka... maybe as there is so much silence from the other members on the trip, maybe it was only Jonathan and Pierre who went... hence no group pic or posts from anyone else? :D

Maybe to qualify for future JB trips you have to guarantee a certain number of posts within 2 weeks of returning ;)

[Ken Hawk]

Trouble is JB sets a high standard ;)

[sorvju-f]

Trouble is JB sets a high standard ;)

Ken you might hit the point...but how then to solve it...Jonathan is afraid to post the pictures because then others are not posting and the total result will be that nobody posting...no pictures...

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Nah, I was looking over plenty of shoulder at other people's computers and lots of great shots are out there. Mike and Natalie both have some great stuff. Mike got a stellar shot of two pygmies together that is fantastic. C'mon Mike!

Group shot!! Forgot all about that! Will post when I get on the other computer where the pics are.

Jonathan

[Bob Pitasi]

I would be happy to post some pics, but I don't think people want to look at bad photographs.

[Andrew]

Come on Bob, please share your pictures and experiences. :D

The only way I have improved so far is by looking at other peoples pictures, posting my own and getting feedback from the pro's (Jonathan, Jukka, etc, etc). It also makes the forum/community work if everyone is involved...

Andrew

[sorvju-f]

I would be happy to post some pics, but I don't think people want to look at bad photographs.

Bob, I agree with Andrew. I saw your pictures from Galapagos and they were good and part of making good thread...now this thread is not the same yet...sort of empty...but we have time;)

Jukka

[Ken Hawk]

I have to agree with Andrew.
We are all here to learn, even JB ;)

Infact look back at Jukka's early pics and you will see a how he has progressed since joining the forum :eek:

If you want bad pics look at my Scapa thread :D

[scubagirl]

I'd love to post some photos but I haven't had time to get to them besides the few I posted from Lembeh a few weeks back. Jet lag, work and family issues have conspired to keep me from my photos. I've only managed to complete my Lembeh trip report this evening, however I'd like to add some photos to it before I post it. I hope to get it posted, complete with photos, this weekend. After that, I'll tackle the Raja Ampat portion of the trip.

Natalie

[Jonathan Bird]

Natalie,

As long as we know your report is coming, we are happy! :) If you are writing up a full trip report on Lembeh and on Raja Ampat, complete with pics, please feel free to start a special thread or threads for your trip report(s). It doesn't have to be wedged into this thread if you would like it to stand on its own.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

We are all here to learn, even JB ;)


ESPECIALLY ME! I learn stuff from this group all the time! Jukka especially constantly amazes me and makes me ask "Why didn't I see that shot?"

[sorvju-f]

"Why didn't I see that shot?"

Then there are 2 of us ( meaning your shots );)

Jonathan is right...big part of learning is to follow how others have done it, but without forgetting to have something your own in picture.

Natalie, when knowing that you are working with report/pictures it is easier to wait:p

Jukka

[walsh2000]

Wide Angle to start...

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_1.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_5.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_7.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_2.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_3.jpg

[walsh2000]

I think I'll be at my upload quota with this post...

The diver in the picture is ChiChi of the Sea Horse. She is looking for divers to direct down to 90+ feet to the Marble Ray... I had to take advantage of having a model in the frame!

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_4.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_6.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_8.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_10.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_9.jpg

[sorvju-f]

Michael, you are really showing the colours of Raja Ampat. Corals are real colour explotion.

Somehow I like the really first one with school of fishes ( rather far ) over the corals.

The viz looks like rather good.

Jukka

[walsh2000]

Michael, you are really showing the colours of Raja Ampat. Corals are real colour explotion.

Somehow I like the really first one with school of fishes ( rather far ) over the corals.

The viz looks like rather good.

Jukka

Glad you like them. I also really like the one with the school of silver sides (I guess) in the background. That's one of my photos where the little fish are not blown out.

I was having overexpose problems with those little guys. On the one hand, I want them as a compositional element in the photo, but, they were so prolific and had such dynamic movements, that many of my photos have numerous individuals or small bunches blown out. Its difficult to get one fish to cooperate, never mine 1000 fish!

[Ken Hawk]

The pics were worth waiting for :D

[Sharp]

So colorful pictures:)

Thank you Michael.

[Andrew]

Great wide angled shots and great colour. What are you shooting with in those pictures Michael?

Andrew

[walsh2000]

Great wide angled shots and great colour. What are you shooting with in those pictures Michael?

Andrew

Same lens as Jonathan... Tokina 10-17mm. Camera is a Nikon D90, dual Ikelite DS125 strobes, Ikelite housing.

For day one in Raja Ampat, I set up for wide angle with my 12-24mm. I kept the setup for day two, but, on day 3, I switched to the 10-17mm and didn't switch back. The other lenses were 50mm macro and 105mm macro.

I'll post some macro shots, but, I think I'll need to remove the wide angle pictures to make room in my quota. Does anyone know if your upload quota goes up after passing the UW Photo Chat Minnow level?

[Jonathan Bird]

Unfortunately not. I have been meaning to come up with a way to increase it but we don't have enough revenue for the site. Someone bring us another couple of advertisers!!

I like the second to last one the best with the table coral in the mangroves. beautiful!

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

FYI, the trick is to host your pics on another site like photobucket and then just link them so they appear here. Click the icon that looks like a postcard with a mountain and sun and then type/paste in the URL of the pic, and it will appear in this thread as if hosted here.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

Group shot!

Back Row: Mary, Jackie G, Mike (aka walsh2000), Roslyn, Ray, Bob, David, Pierre (aka Neptune7)
Two guys in middle: Tim, Jonathan
Front Row: Brandy, Natalie (aka scubagirl), Amy, Jackie K

[Andrew]

Hey Jonathan,

Can you give us a run down of who is who so that we can put a name to the face?

Andrew

[scubagirl]

I've finally posted my Lembeh trip report here, and links to the photos so far:

http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=836

Natalie

[walsh2000]

Some nudis and/or flatworms...

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_11.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_12.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_13.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_14.jpg

[walsh2000]

Things with fins and/or tentacles...

Note the copepod on the whip coral goby

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_15.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_16.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_17.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_18.jpg

[walsh2000]

I found that sea star at a Sponge Bob casting call...


http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_20.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_21.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_22.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_19.jpg

[Jonathan Bird]

Great shots Mike. I love the two pygmies! That's the pygmy shot of the trip! Well done. Some of those shots look a tad dark....might want to lighten them up in lightroom a smidge.

I have a shot of that same purple nudi!

[walsh2000]

Great shots Mike. I love the two pygmies! That's the pygmy shot of the trip! Well done. Some of those shots look a tad dark....might want to lighten them up in lightroom a smidge.

I have a shot of that same purple nudi!

Ahhh... they do look dark from my work computer. They didn't look so bad at home. I'll tough them up a bit and edit the posting.

I just realized the cuttlefish pic was posted twice... I just fixed that by posting the intended other image: soft coral crab or what Cedric the dive master calls "candy crabs"

[Jonathan Bird]

Did anyone else notice that Mike has the cuttlefish in mid-grab?

[scubagirl]

Yeah, Mike showed some of us that photo on the boat. It's a cool shot.

[walsh2000]

Check out the awesome new Lembeh pygmy pipe sea dragon picture on the main page of the Divers Lodge Lembeh web site. And, notice the other awesome bluering octopus picture...

http://www.diverslodgelembeh.com/

[Bob Pitasi]

OK, here goes: These are some Raja Ampat photos taken with my crappy little Sea & Sea (Ricoh) point & shoot camera. Any comments, critiques, etc. are welcome.

Thanks,

Bob Pitasi

[scubagirl]

OK, here goes: These are some Raja Ampat photos taken with my crappy little Sea & Sea (Ricoh) point & shoot camera. Any comments, critiques, etc. are welcome.

Thanks,

Bob Pitasi


I don't see any photos, Bob.

[Jonathan Bird]

Check out the awesome new Lembeh pygmy pipe sea dragon picture on the main page of the Divers Lodge Lembeh web site. And, notice the other awesome bluering octopus picture...

http://www.diverslodgelembeh.com/

Pygmy pipefish! Holy crap!! That is awesome! Post a bigger version for us to see!! Never even heard of that!

I don't see any photos, Bob.

Me neither.

[walsh2000]

Pygmy pipefish! Holy crap!! That is awesome! Post a bigger version for us to see!! Never even heard of that!



Me neither.


I'm still going through my Raja Ampat photos from 36 dives. My Indonesia extension was another 15 at Divers Lodge Lembeh. Soon, I'll be done reviewing everything. For now, here's a larger image of the Lembeh Pygmy Pipe Sea Dragon. I'm not sure what these guys are exactly... something between a pipefish and a seahorse it seems.

Does anyone know what they are?

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/sea_dragon.jpg

[scubagirl]

Here's another photo of the pygmy pipefish: It was moving around a lot and it's tiny, so it was hard to get a shot that was in focus. Not a lot of contrast in this shot because of the background. My ID book says it's a Shortpouch Pygmy Pipehorse.

http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC7242/727449342_oSRrN-M.jpg

[walsh2000]

Here's another photo of the pygmy pipefish: It was moving around a lot and it's tiny, so it was hard to get a shot that was in focus. Not a lot of contrast in this shot because of the background. My ID book says it's a Shortpouch Pygmy Pipehorse.

http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC7242/727449342_oSRrN-M.jpg

I got really lucky when my subject latched on with its tail. It was very difficult shooting it free swimming.

[sorvju-f]

I'm still going through my Raja Ampat photos from 35 dives. My Indonesia extension was another 15 at Divers Lodge Lembeh. Soon, I'll be done reviewing everything. For now, here's a larger image of the Lembeh Pygmy Pipe Sea Dragon. I'm not sure what these guys are exactly... something between a pipefish and a seahorse it seems.

Does anyone know what they are?



First time to me also to hear and thanks to Natalie and Mike...to see those.

It has like antennas on the back...Maybe it:eek: is alien from the space:eek:

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

That thing is super cool!!

[scubagirl]

Some of us from the Indonesia trip went on a sightseeing trip the day before we left for Sorong. We visited a dormant volcano crater in the Minahasa highlands, and Lake Linow, a sulfur lake.

In Manado we saw some interesting vehicles:
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1555/734887938_GZDSe-M.jpg

We hiked to the top of the crater's edge
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1495/734888738_ebJdG-M.jpg

We had to stop to rest at the top, in some shade next to the really tall grass
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1506/734888570_3VEMi-M.jpg

Our first view of the crater:
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1532/734888092_CDCLa-M.jpg

We walked a long way on a path through the tall grass to the other side of the crater, to see this view:
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1525/734888254_7yBA6-M.jpg

There's another volcano smoking in the distance
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1516/734888333_68n6b-M.jpg

[scubagirl]

The green waters of Lake Linow
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1589/734889214_RGYyZ-M.jpg

http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1576/734889241_6UGoJ-M.jpg

On the way back we passed through an agricultural area
http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1548/734889342_xsYaw-M.jpg

http://scubagirl.smugmug.com/Tropical-Diving/L/DSC1540/734887989_trKzv-M.jpg

[seafan]

Amazing pics!!

Even with my new contacts I wouldn't be able to find it.... the dive guide that gets "stuck" showing me around underwater sure is going to need a lot of patience trying to get me to see what he is pointing to!!! :p :p

[scubagirl]

Thanks Seafan!

Just point the camera and shoot at what the dive guide points to. Figure out what it is later ;)

[sorvju-f]

Thanks Scubagirl...I feel that topsides are really part of dive trip reporting and we too often forget them.

It is nice too see those as I can see that you really have used time for composition....great work!

Jukka

[Bob Pitasi]

Thanks Natalie and Jonathan,

For some reason the pics didn't upload. I resent them and they should be with my original post on page 12 of this thread.

Bob

[seafan]

Thanks Natalie and Jonathan,

For some reason the pics didn't upload. I resent them and they should be with my original post on page 12 of this thread.

Bob

Hey, if you were using their 8000G, it's not a crappy little camera. I used it from when it was released until selling it this fall and buying the canon G10. I really liked it some of the pics that I got with it. I really like how compact the housing was and the fact that I didn't need an external strobe because I mainly shoot macro.

Just hope I can get used to working with the G10 and a strobe.... won't be able to get into those tiny crevices any more. :mad:

[seafan]

Thanks Seafan!

Just point the camera and shoot at what the dive guide points to. Figure out what it is later ;)

That's pretty much what I intended to do. Just kinda hard to focus when you don't know what you're shooting! ;) ;)

[scubagirl]

Thanks Scubagirl...I feel that topsides are really part of dive trip reporting and we too often forget them.

It is nice too see those as I can see that you really have used time for composition....great work!

Jukka

Thanks, Jukka!:)

[Andrew]

Great pics everyone, and I love the pictures of that pigmy pipe dragon! Wow, I have never even heard of that one! The topside shots are great too to get an idea of what the place is like out of the water.

It seems as if you were lucky divers and managed to see everything, I am very jealous as would love to go there.

Andrew

[Jonathan Bird]

I agree with Jukka, the topside pictures really give more of a feel for a place and make you feel like you were there yourself.

[Jonathan Bird]

For some reason the pics didn't upload. I resent them and they should be with my original post on page 12 of this thread.


Hey Bob,
Those are very good for such a compact little camera! I'm impressed how nice the wide angle came out. With a little tweaking in photoshop, you could enhance the contrast and colors a tad to make them pop a little more.

It looks like the flash didn't go off on the anemonefish.

Jonathan

[scubagirl]

I agree with Jonathan. The wide angles turned out pretty nice, Bob. And yes, it looks like the strobe didn't go off on the anemonefish. How did you like shooting stills? Would you do it again and with this particular camera or are you going to stick with video? Did you have the option to adjust white balance in-camera?

[Bob Pitasi]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

Jonathan: I would think that Lightroom has the capabilities to make the tweaks you suggest to make the photos "pop" a little more? I have both tools, but Lightroom seems quicker and easier to perform these tasks.

Natalie: I do like to take stills and would like to become more competent with this format which I believe is more challenging whereas video is more challenging in the planning and post-production process. Ideally, I would like to wait until I can shoot good HD video with a professional digital SLR setup to avoid duplication of equipment to make travel easier and of course avoid duplication of cost. Jonathan & I have had discussions about when this may happen and what it might look like.

Seafan: Yes, I do have the Sea & Sea 8000G (a Ricoh camera) and it has some good points, but the things about it that I can't stand are the very long on/off cycles and shutter lag times that cause me to miss a lot of good shots, as well as the fact that it can't capture in RAW format.

Best regards,

Bob

[seafan]

Seafan: Yes, I do have the Sea & Sea 8000G (a Ricoh camera) and it has some good points, but the things about it that I can't stand are the very long on/off cycles and shutter lag times that cause me to miss a lot of good shots, as well as the fact that it can't capture in RAW format.

Best regards,

Bob

Those the reasons that I sold mine and bought the G10... however I will admit that the G10 is heavier and the housing bulkier which makes for a hassle when packing my stuff and trying to keep it under the 15lb carryone limit. :(

[scubagirl]

Those the reasons that I sold mine and bought the G10... however I will admit that the G10 is heavier and the housing bulkier which makes for a hassle when packing my stuff and trying to keep it under the 15lb carryone limit. :(

Ha! Try packing a DSLR rig and keeping it under the carry on weight limit ;)

[seafan]

Ha! Try packing a DSLR rig and keeping it under the carry on weight limit ;)

No thanks! :)

[sorvju-f]

No thanks! :)

I just would like to add...try DSLR ( full set with laptop and spares ) with full set Video gears ( with lights and spares ):cool:

Even though I would say that it is wort it...why otherwise to do it:p

Jukka

[seafan]

I just would like to add...try DSLR ( full set with laptop and spares ) with full set Video gears ( with lights and spares ):cool:

Even though I would say that it is wort it...why otherwise to do it:p

Jukka

Well, I do remember how nice it was to just simply dive and enjoy the peace when I sold off all my nikonis equipment..... and then I got bored and went to a simple P+S canon digital... think it was the S45 more than 10 years ago... then I got bored and upgraded to the S+S 8000G and that kept me satisfied.... for a while.... and then I upgraded to the G10 with Inon S2000 and subsee magnifier this fall. I hope that it will be a long, long time before I get bored again! ;)

[walsh2000]

As it turns out, all the guides at Divers Lodge Lembeh are great. I had the fortunate opportunity to extend my Raja Ampat trip on the backside and spend 5 days at Divers Lodge Lembeh. I saw all the desirable creatures mostly pointed out by a variety of the DLL guides.

So, one day, my dive partner Simone, spotted a juvenile flamboyant cuttlefish... see first two pictures with and without pointer to give perspective... that guy is tiny!

On the same dive, the dive master spotted an adult in an algae patch. As I cautiously followed the little guy with my camera, it may have begun to concentrate on the threat of the big camera... flashing its colors and performing various arm displays... it may have forgotten about other threats in the strait. The displays were great for my photos, but, proved fatal to the cuttlefish. (Sorry!) What follows are three photos taken just seconds apart.

Picture 3 is the last known picture of that cuttlefish, picture 4 is the shutter release intended to be of the cuttlefish, but, turned out to the a false stone fish. Picture 4 is the "after" shot of the cuttlefish in the belly of the false stone fish. I was shocked. I didn't see if the cuttle fish scooted away or not. Unfortunately, it turned out that the false stone fish swallowed the cuttle fish.

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_53.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_54.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_55.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_56.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_57.jpg

[scubagirl]

Too bad you didn't have a video camera; would have made for some interesting footage!

[seafan]

Hi All.... arrived at the lodge yesterday afternoon but managed to bring whatever bug I had before I left with me so am sitting outside playing on the net while my roommate is diving! :mad:

Am hoping that I will feel well enough to go dive this afternoon.

Either way.... I am in the water tomorrow for christmas!! :D

BTW... Mann is our dive guide.

[Jonathan Bird]

Too bad you didn't have a video camera; would have made for some interesting footage!

Exactly what I was just thinking!

[Jonathan Bird]

Have fun seafan!

[walsh2000]

Hi All.... arrived at the lodge yesterday afternoon but managed to bring whatever bug I had before I left with me so am sitting outside playing on the net while my roommate is diving! :mad:

Am hoping that I will feel well enough to go dive this afternoon.

Either way.... I am in the water tomorrow for christmas!! :D

BTW... Mann is our dive guide.

Have a great time at DLL. You can't go wrong with any dive master. I hope you're feeling better and diving by now!

During my 2007 trip I knew DLL had Tarsius Monkeys on the grounds, but, I never saw one. For my 2009 visit, I found some.

As it turns out, they are sometimes in a tree down on the beach. I learned about this on my next to last day and snapped a few shots. They were in the same tree on my last day and so I snapped a few more shots on the way to the airport.

Look for them in the morning high up in the trees by "the bench" which is really just a few planks on top of the sand. Some of the DLL staff can help you find them.

http://home.comcast.net/~walsh2000/indo/raja_58.jpg

[Jonathan Bird]

That's interesting. You would think they would point them out to people more often!