A Zebra crab in the magnificent sea urchin

This Zebra crab ( Zebrida adamsii) and this Coleman shrimp ( Periclimenes colemani ) could not choose a brighter and more colorful home to live in.

Both the crab and shrimp they are only a couple of cm in size and they are found in the Variable fire sea urchin.

The reason why the sea urchin is called like this, it is not only for the vivid red color that it has got, but also because if you touch it, it is going to burn you.
Unfortunately I have found that out myself :s . The good news was that, after a good minute of excruciating pain , it all passed and I had almost no sign of it, once I was back to the surface.

In the south of Komodo, in Horse Shoe Bay there are many of this fire sea urchin. However, not all of them have a Zebra crab or a Coleman Shrimp in it.

This makes finding of one of these critters more exciting.
I could find these two critters in Cannibal Rock in Horse Shoe Bay and they both were around 27m in a small colony of sea urchin.

A Coleman Shrimp in the variable fire sea urchin.

The Magnificent Sea Urchin

Now I am having some trouble deciding which crab is my favorite: The Zebra or the Mosaic Boxer?

a comparison between a zebra crab and a boxer crab

A beautiful day in January in the Komodo National Park

I was in Komodo Island for 11 days cruise and had an other fabulous trip with a fantastic group of people leaded from the United States from Jack and Sue Drafahl. http://jackandsuedrafahl.com/
The trip Started in Bima and ended in Labuan Bajo.
Bima once again turned out to be an excellent critters spot, with Wonderpus and Mimic Octopus, many nudibranches, beautiful thorny sea horses , 3 Giant frogfish and many more critters every few meters into the dive.

Even though the dive at Manta Alley was without Manta Rays, we had a great time over there as the visibility was about 30m and we had twice a huge group of Bumped head Parrotfish.

This Mantishrimp was not shy at all

At Pink Beach it was very fishy , with groups of fusiliers been hunted by  giant and the blue fin Trevally.

We dived almost 4 times a day every day and We have spent most of the time In Horse Shoe Bay.

"Cannibal Rock" in Horse Shoe Bay

A Sea Eagle hunting in horse shoe bay

In January, even though the weather conditions are not the best , underwater the South of Komodo is great to dive.
We had very warm water, with a nice 28.C and the visibility was spectacular about 25m blue waters.
The dives as usual were outstanding , with an excellent critter life also this time.
We also went several times to the beach to meet the resident Komodo Dragons of Rinca Island and we had few beautiful Sea Eagle patrolling the waters from the Sky.

The last dive of the trip was at Batu Bolong, this is a big pinnacle rising in the middle of the strait between Rinca Island and Flores. The current was smocking but on the lee side when we entered it was very easy and calm, we had a few white tip reef Sharks, a couple of big Napoleon Wrasses, Jackfish cruising back and forward a turtle eating and then swimming in the blue, thousands of Anthias and great visibility.

An excellent dive to finish our journey

This Time I had the chance to make 4 dives with the camera and I could take some nice shots underwater as well.

A small selection of the many nudibraches that can be seen in Komodo National Park

If you like nudibraches , this is the perfect destination for you. There are an infinity of beautiful and colorful nudibranches to be seen in the Komodo National park. You could easily spend 10 days dedicating yourself to only Nudibranches.

The giant frogfish in its environment

The Frogfish above was found in “Cannibal Rock” dive site. A great dive site we have dived several time during this trip. I tried to take a shot from a bit far with the 60mm lens, not only to get the full body of the fish , but also to try to show the environment that he is living in.

By its right “leg” there was a sponge of its exact same color and size. The frog fish sit on a coral head without moving for most of the day disguising itself as a sponge confusing its predators and preys.

Myself with the Group. An other successful trip to one of the best Destinations in the world. We keep scoring 100% happy people .

A special Thanks to Jack and Sue Drafahl from Underwater Photo Adventure to have taken an other great group to Indonesia and to have given such a nice and easy to understand presentation about photo tutorials during the trip.

You can subscribe to Jack and Sue underwater photo Tutorials at the following site : www.underwaterphototutorials.com

And the adventure continues ………

Wetar Island at the horizon

Wetar Island day 11

In the morning we arrived at the Island of Wetar. This big island is located right on the North of Timor Leste.
The first impression I had was how beautiful and untouched the vegetation was. The landscape looked very wild and we could barely see any signs of civilization.  The sea and weather conditions , once again were perfect.

The first dive was on the west side of Wetar coastline. It was an interesting ridge dropping down vertically to more than 40m. The visibility was perfect and fish life was very good. We could see a very big Napoleon Wrasse, it must have been at least 1.5m and the top reef of this dive site was just gorgeous. At about 10m depth we had a vast flat area which was covered entirely with table corals.
The visibility was great , around 30m+ and the table corals garden was as immense as I have ever seen.

We then moved to an island called Reon. This is a satellite island of Wetar.
It was beautiful , like a gem in the sea. A tropical lush with white sand beaches and surrounded by crystal clear water and a turquoise reef.
The current was running strong so Alberto and Jimmy went to look all around the island to decide where we were going to jump.
At the end they opted for the NW side and it turned out to be the right choice as it was an easy but also very pretty dive with a small school of juvenile barracudas, interesting critters ( Jimmy found a ghost pipefish) and very good corals, especially in the shallow area.

Just Open Sea and nothing else

For the third and the fourth dive of the day we have moved back to the mainland progressing further east until we arrived to Larry Smith point and made 2 critter dives over there. Something interesting to report was that during the night dive a pigmy octopus swam to Dave and sat on his torch. That for sure was the highlight of the dive.

Overall it has been a very nice day in the region of Wetar.

Gunung Api ( Snake Island ) Day 12

Gunung Api dormant Volcano

In the morning we arrived at Gunung Api in the Banda sea. It is a dormant Volcano that rises in the middle of the ocean at about 60 miles from everywhere.
An outstanding place with many frigate birds. I have never seen so many birds in Indonesia like at Gunung Api.

Right in the middle of the island there is the crater which is collapsed in one of its side.
In the crater there are many new trees growing .  This island is not only home of Many birds but it is also home of a great number of sea snakes.
As a matter of fact, during all three dives we have seen sea snakes pretty much all the time with a pick , during the second dive, of at least 50 of them right in front of us  during the safety stop.
The sea conditions were great and the sun was shining. Visibility underwater has been the best of all trip with 40m on all dives and the water temperature has been between 27 and 29 C.
Dive # 1
It was a ridge in the south east side. We have entered the water in a steep sandy slope, with two huge coral heads at about 20 m .
As we descended, also a sea snake did. When we reached the 20m depth I saw a decorated fire dartfish, but the snake aimed straight for it, so the dartfish went back in his hole.
We then proceeded keeping the reef on our left at about 25m depth and from a slope the profile of the reef change into a vertical wall going down so deep that we could not see the bottom, there where snakes cruising up and down and side ways during the whole dive , along the wall the coral was very healthy with many sponges and black coral bushes. There were also a couple of  dog tooth Tunas swimming back and forward and during a certain moment we where surrounded by the blue and red stripe fusiliers and black surgeonfish.
We then continue until the corner of the ridge where we started to slowly ascend to shallower depth. The top reef was gently slopping down until 10-12m and it was fully cover with fire coral .
We followed the deepest profile of the top reef, still keeping the reef on or left and then we arrived to an other very deep drop off. Here the visibility must have exceeded 40m, as we where at about 14m deep and we could see the bottom slopping down very deep, at least we could see until 70m  depth vertically and 40 m horizontally. In this part the reef was quite damaged, but we could see a lobster , more snakes and an octopus.

Dive # 2

The second dive site was also an underwater ridge formation . This one in particularly , was extending very far out into the sea. The top reef was slopping down until 12-15m .
We started close to the island walls where we could see a couple of big sulfur spots. We descended and we went along its underwater wall, at 24m depth, with the reef on our right.
There where many dog tooth tuna cruising back and forward and we have also seen a big bumped head Parrotfish.
In the outer part of the wall , we could see that there was a second ridge , probably starting at 50 m and stretching further out to very deep water. This part of the wall was very beautiful as we had many sponges and Black coral as well as some nice soft corals. The sea snakes where keeping swimming along us. After a while the reef turned into a small natural bay with a rubble slope. Over there there where a couple of octopus.
After that slope there was an other wall  where the top was at about 5m . The reef was mainly made by fire coral and the place was packed with sea snakes.
I could count for a moment 32 sea snakes in front of me, some of them swimming three together and some of them sleeping on the bottom.
We stayed there with sea snakes all around , below and on top of us. It was a very exceptional and memorable dive, but I also have to admit that , even though I normally do not care about sea snakes, when they were swimming to me and alongside my belly, I felt a bit uncomfortable .

Dive # 3

once again we have found a small underwater ridge at one end of the collapsed crater. This was the outer part of a natural bay .
There was a small initial wall covered by hard corals with many fusiliers and surgeonfish swimming around.
As for all day there were few snakes cruising up and down.
Because one of my divers had a little problem with her gear,  I could not enter on the decided entry point.
As a result the current moved us across and we passed the  small ridge.
When we then descended we were at a steep  sandy slope around 14m . We could see a reef formation right at the bottom of the slope at around 30m and the area was covered with big sea fan.
Just after the slope , the reef continued and change into a wall.
At the corner of this wall there was an overhang at 25m depth. Over there it was fantastic as we were surrounded by fusiliers swimming back and forward .
In addition to this we had a couple of juvenile great barracuda, a school of black surgeon fish , a couple of sea snake and a hawksbill turtle swimming into the fusiliers.
The wall was completely covered by yellow soft coral and there where also many barrel sponges, a few black coral bushes and some big sea fan .
Only Denise and I were there. We hanged there for 5-10 minutes  admiring all the fish swimming around us, creating a wonderful display.
After we continued with the reef on our right and for about 70m we had a vertical wall covered by yellow soft corals , sea fan and sponges. The, now usual, sea snakes were keeping cruising every where.
In my opinion, this was the best dive of the day and maybe the most exciting underwater moment of the trip.

Leaving Gunung Api at Sunset

Overall the day at Gunung Api has been fantastic, the thousand snakes we must have seen, the great visibility, the amazing reef formation, the many fish around us and the beautiful scenario made it just perfect.

Day 13 Lucipara Atoll

Kadula Island in the Lucipara Atoll

This for many of us including myself was the last day.
We were in the middle of nowhere in the Banda Sea and all of the sudden at the horizon we could spot three small islands.
The islands were all beautiful with long white sandy beaches around them. No body was living there and we were the only boat in this great place with the sea flat like a mirror.

Bingkudu Island, inhabited island in the Banda Sea

The dives were the most fantastic wall dives of the whole trip, with a very good coral growth, fish life and visibility.

Before the second dive when I went to check the current I could see a baby gray reef shark and before the third dive I could see a manta ray.

Funny enough there were some very very friendly batfish during the second dive. A couple of them have followed us for the entire dive. Sometimes all of the sudden they were quickly appearing in front of our mask . Funny!!

Oudin taking us slowly to Bingkudu Island during low tide

Only a bird's foot prints on the beach of Bingkudu Island

After dive 3, just before sunset, Bert And Dave and Denise and I with the help of Oudin, our very good speed boat captain, went to explore one of this gorgeous islands.
We arrived there and it was amazing. We walked on the beach  and found few Nautilus shells and one of them was very nice. Probably, right now as I am writing, our dearest Dave is having a look at it in his office back in the US and still dream about this great trip .
We walked around a little bit and then we returned to the boat. By then it was sunset and we started cruising to the final destination of our trip which was Ambon.
The sunset was fabulous and perfect to end our last day diving with beautiful touch.
Jimmy, El Toro, Linda and I were there, at the bow of the boat , sipping a cold Bintang beer with a lovely scenery in front of our eyes and all the emotions of this trip, still alive in our thoughts and soul.

Sunset in the Banda Sea

Day 14 Ambon

Ambon

On this day most of us did not do much. As we had to fly the next day we could not go diving. However, Mike and Linda , Bob and Janet , could go diving as they were going to stay in Ambon for few more days. For the record they had some great diving and they were very enthusiastic about the many critters they have seen.
The rest of us spend the day packing, reading or simply laying under the sun and just before sunset we have taken our group photos.

The Group

Right now I am here writing the last words of this very long journey and I have a smile on my face as I think back to how great this trip has been.
We had some of the best diving in the world, especially Komodo was amazing, we met amazing people and very friendly locals in Alor. We visited and dived by an erupting volcano and by a Volcano surrounded by Birds and Snakes. We have been the only one in inhabited islands 100 of miles in the middle of nowhere and we have been blessed all the way with some excellent weather conditions and calm sea.
We had a memorable experience and what I have been thinking since, is that I want to go back and share this experience with others again .
The Damai crews were wonderful and they were there all the time for us. Alberto has given us the best we could get from this trip and pampered all of us genuinely .
I would recommend this trip to anyone that wants to experience something complete, as the diving and the journey was a great combinations.
Finally I would like to thank Janet, Bob, Linda, Mike, Mardel, Michele, Denise, Loretta, Bert and Dave to have been such a wonderful people to be together in such a long and wonderful journey.

The End for now ……

meetering for the blue, compose the shot, wait for the fish, adjust the strobes

Living in Indonesia and having the opportunity to dive in one of the most rich critters environment in the world , there are normally a couple of points that I really look into before changing my lens to a wide angle:

1)Weather: Before going to the diving center I always have a look at the weather. If the sun is shining and it is a nice blue sky day I will bring my wide angle lens with me. Shooting on a cloudy day would drastically have an effect on the blue in the background, making it looking a bit underexposed.

2)Visibility:

I would think about how visibility has been in my previous day diving and if on the first day I would ask this information to the dive operation. Shooting wide Angle in water with lots of particles is way more difficult and would easily cause backscatter. However, I believe that anything from 15m up is ok to do shoot in wide angle.

A lucky settings:

It is advisable to set your camera long before the dive itself. Make sure  that your battery is full, especially your strobe batteries must be fully charged ( you may shoot at stronger power than what you normally do in macro ), check your ISO, I normally use 200 and Dial a shutter speed of 1/125, an aperture of f9 and your strobes at about half power.

In several occasion it happen to me that, as soon as I was descending, there was something worth to shoot.

Fish tend to move away as you go down, but being prepared might gives you the chance to take a great shot right at the beginning.

Tricks to set your camera:

Once you are underwater there are a couple of trick that will help you to have a good starting reference to shoot reefscapes underwater .
First if you shoot towards the deep part try to keep a shutter speed  1/80, if you shoot straight set to 1/100 and if you shoot up set 1/125.

After that, point the camera in the blue nearby your subject at the same angle  you would like to shoot the subject, set the aperture between f8-f14 and find out which setting is going to give the best result for your blue. Once you have achieved that, get close to your subject, compose your picture and adjust the power intensity of your strobe accordingly.
Understand that there are many factors and conditions that requires you to have different settings , but this, normally is a good starting point.

Composition:

There are an infinity of different picture you can take underwater. However, I tend to like shots that shows a nice blue in the background. I normally try to avoid to have the rest of the reef in the background as it will look all blueish, so I try to keep an angle slightly towards the blue of the water or upward.
In a reef with many fish  around, find your angle first and then wait until the fish get use to you and come back close to the reef.

waiting for the fish to come back and shooting with the blue in the background

Do not despair:

Wide angle photography can be frustrating and can take you more shots than macro photography before you can achieve a good result. Peace yourself underwater, swim slowly, breath slowly and take your time to set the camera and compose the picture.

Have a patient buddy or a private guide:

It can take you a long time before you are properly set for a terrific shot where you have found an angle for best composition, all the fish has come back to the reef and you have properly expose for the blue. The last thing you want is that the dive guide , correctly, come to call you to carry on with the dive because everyone else is understandably so bored to wait for you. Get a private guide, it is worth the money and you can always use him as a model for your shots .

These are few basic knowledge that should help to get you started with Wide Angle underwater photography, there is so much more we could discuss about, but for the time being you will have to wait .

To be continued…………..

I am changing a little bit the way I am reporting the trip as for the diving side, the highlight were definitely in the Komodo area, therefore was definitely worth to describe each dive in detail.
During this last 2 posts of the trip I will try to cut a little short on the diving and describe more what the trip has been beside the underwater part.
Please do not get me wrong and think that the diving was not good enough, as on the contrary the diving has continued to be fantastic during the whole trip.
This is also to try not to be boring and repeating myself constantly about critters I have seen constantly  during the trip.

Ok here we go…….

Once we have left The Komodo National Park , we sailed to Flores Island , where we dived for a couple of days. From the chilly (25-26C.) waters of Komodo we were changing into warm waters ( 29C.) and great visibility.

Flores Island at the horizon during Sunrise

Flores Day 6-7-8

We have dived in the North of Flores for a couple of days, overall the diving was very pretty, the hard coral gardens were very healthy.

There was this dive in particular, called ” Tanjung Batu Boga”, where a white sandy bottom was very gently slopping from 14m to 30m.
In this vast area, there were several coral patches and each one of them was very pristine with seafans, barrel sponges and a very healthy hard coral formation.

Tanjung Batu Boga, a very good dive in Flores, Indonesia

The 30m visibility made this dive site perfect for Wide Angle photography.
On one night dive by Teluk Nanga , as we descended we could see the biggest “Spanish Dancer” I have ever seen. It was almost 40cm long and 20cm wide ( I have been measuring it with my stick). During the same dive we could see three pigmy squid and a beautiful juvenile pinnate batfish, only 5 cm  long with its vivid orange contour line, contrasting its dark brown body.
The Days around Flores have been fantastic we had the best of conditions, warm water, great visibility, flat sea and lots of sunshine.

Adonara-Kawula

Early in the morning we have arrived and made our first dive in Adonara, It was proper wall dive with a very healthy reef and nice visibility. We could see a black Tip Reef Shark and in the shallow water there was a very good coral formation with many Damselfish.

After the dive we have entered in the Strait between Island Volcano of Andora and Kawula Island. The area was very nice, we could see local taxi boat bringing people and supplies up and down.
The Volcano of Andora was showing its imposing hight at the horizon. The weather was cloudy and we had some little rain showers creating a more dramatic scenery in front of us.

in the Strait we have made 2 dives at the same dive site  as it was very good for critters. We could see some interesting cuttlefish, a big octopus, a frogfish, a yellow Danded Pipefish, a school of Catfish by a small overhang on a coral block, many nudibranches and  really many small Peacock Mantishrimps .

During one of the dive one of our diver , Mike, accidentally placed his arm near the elbow on a spiny Devilfish. Amazingly, even though one of the spines pierced through his wetsuit and skin, He did not have any problem at all , just a small mosquito bite like mark  on his arm. Super Strong Mike or Super Lucky Mike .

The Kawula strait with a very drammatic mix of light

At the end of the third dive I could take a shot of the sun rays going through the dark clouds and a little bit of sunset in the background. I personally love to shoot this kind of conditions and lighting. I feel that they create a great harmony between darkness and the sublime.

The Andora Volcano in the Kawula Region during Sunset

That evening we have left the area and sailed all night to a place that turned out to be one the most extraordinary of my life.

Komba Volcano Day 9

Komba Volcano erupting early in the morning

After a night navigating almost a 100 miles, we arrived early in the morning to Komba Volcano. The weather was a bit cloudy early in the morning but the hit of the sun would have dissipate the clouds a little later into the day.
I was sitting on the the deck, it was 6 am and , like every morning , I was having my cup of cereals admiring the fantastic view. By then we were turning around towards the east side of the Volcano were  the crater has partially collapsed and a hash slope is present going all the way to the sea.
At a certain point , very unexpected , a big rumble occurred , and there there was a contained eruption of the Volcano. It was like being hit by the sound of a thunderstorm and a big ashy cloud raised up in the sky and the big volcanic rocks, coming right from the center of earth, were rolling down the ashy slope.
I cannot describe how excited we all were . We were all cheering at it. An exceptional moment was unfolding right in front of our eyes and , just like that , I have found out that Komba Volcano was pretty much an active volcano .
During the day it erupted every 20-30minutes grabbing our attention at each time. By the time we were going to make our first dive the sun was high in the sky and most of the clouds were gone, leaving us with a very clear sky and deep a blue ocean.

The water was very clear and deep all around the volcano. Dive 1 has been my favorite, we were in the south-east side corner of the volcano and we descended along a steep sandy slope were we had 2 huge barrel sponges with pink Squat lobsters in it and 2 giant morays. One was very big! We then moved towards a coral steep and deep slope were we could see few dog-tooth Tuna cruising back and forward looking for some prays. The reef was very fishy as it had zillions of juvenile fusiliers forming clouds of fish.

During the end of the third dive on the top reef there was an area with many kinds of Dartfish. We could see the very common Fire Dartfish, the Spottail Dartfish, the Twotone Dartfishand the Zebra Dartfish. It was quite interesting to see so many of them all at once.

Between Dive 2 and 3 Jimmy and I went by the volcano slope as I wanted take some photos of the volcano with the fisheye and Jimmy wanted to collect some volcanic rock as a souvenir to give to the guests. We were approaching the slope and the adrenaline started pumping in our veins. I jumped in the water a bit before the slope as I wanted try to make some half and half shots. Jimmy proceeded and reached the ashy beach which was full of rocks. As soon as He stepped on the beach, Komba erupted and Jimmy was trying to escape. It was so funny and so dangerously stupid in the same time. Well, luckily everything was ok and He could collect the rocks.
As I have jumped too far away I had to swim towards the slope, my fisheye lens was not helping me at all in terms of keeping a safety distance and as a result I also end up being by the ashy slope and as I arrived the Volcano had an eruption , ops :s ……….

Right below the crater at Komba Volcano

At the end my pics were not that good cause I was shooting against the sun , but we could all get some nice rocks from Jimmy ……….

As soon it became dark, the level of excitement among us really raised to the sky.
What during the day looked like a grey smoke and black rocks being spitted into the sky by the mighty volcano, turned out to be a spectacular display of incandescent red dust and rocks being spitted high into the sky, like a fire fountain.

We watched and stared at it waiting for its eruptions, Komba Volcano was the best performer of the day…
We went for a night dive few hundreds meter by the ashy slope. On our way we could see it erupting again, but the best has been as soon as we ended the dive, as we surfaced when the volcano had a big blast.

Komba Volcano just before sunset, with the ash cloud on top

This Volcano experience will be something I will remember forever and tell this story for many years to come. It was night we were leaving the island to go back to the mainland and Alor. Komba was keeping erupting until it then disappeared in the distance.

Alor Day 10

Two Kids curiously come to look at us in Alor

We arrived in the morning to Alor and it looked like it was a busy place , (it was not at all ), but we could see more villages along the coastline than what we did till that moment. There was also an other liveaboard in the area.
We anchored nearby a small fisherman village with many friendly local kids that they came to great us with their canoes and locally made wooden googles. After the first dive we had a couple of ladies bringing on board some sarongs ( fabrics ) that they had made by hand in the village with natural cotton. They were so beautiful that I decided to buy a couple of them and bring them home.

The first dive was a nice coral dive, with many fish around. We had some current around the corner but nothing difficult to control. Towards the end of the dive I could find a couple of Mandarinefish swimming in the Acropora corals. That night we came back to that same spot and made a mandarin dive. It turned out to be a successful Mandarinefish dive.

Ladies from Alor selling hand made sarongs

Friendly Kid from Alor poses for me

My favorite dive of the day was at the “Boat Room”. It was a nice corner with lots of corals, red Anthias, Fusiliers, Snappers and a big school of Surgeonfish and one of Batfish. Even though there was a mild current, it was not too difficult to hang around the corner and we could stay staring at the fish for a while.
In the afternoon we moved to Babylon Point, it is so called as in the wall there are many overhangs, creating a layers effect, like a high tower. It has been an excellent dive with a huge diversity of corals and many fish.

In the late afternoon many kids came over to play around our boat and I could have the chance to take few pictures of them in exchange for a few coca-cola cans . The day in Alor has been very nice, we had clear and warm water, nice corals and lots of fish during the dives. The area is fantastic and the people are very nice and friendly. I wish I could stay longer and see the many other dive sites of the area, but we had still many miles to cover and some new remote areas were waiting for us to come.

local kids play around our boat

To be continued………

The Cliff of Uluwatu with the Temple on top

Last Week I went to Uluwatu Temple with some friends.
Uluwatu Temple is one of the 9 directional Temple in Bali, It has been constructed in the 11th Century and it is right on top of a huge limestone peninsula.

Uluwatu is always a special place. The high cliffs, the turquoise water, the temples and a sunny day, makes this place one of the most beautiful on earth.

this time we have stayed until late in the afternoon to watch the Cek Cek Balinese dance. This is dance is performed following the melody of the vocal sounds of 60 people. It is not only a Dance it is a story too.

A princess being taken away, theatre act

A portrait of a beautiful Balinese Dancer

The leader of the Monkey's Army has been left tied up in the fire

It is a very nice and entertaining theater act to watch. It is played during sunset giving the opportunity to take some pictures with interesting people and beautiful colors in the background.

The price for the act was only 70.000 IDR, less than 10 USD.

If you come to Bali do not miss to go to Uluwatu

Day 4: Komodo National Park.

Rincan Island at the Horizon during sunrise

It was just about sunrise and I woke up. The weather was beautiful and we were sailing by the South coast of Komodo Island.

No signs of civilizations were around us, just open sea and many islands of different size and shapes. I was feeling like one explorer of the 15th Century getting to unknown places for the first time. It was great!!

After less than an hour or so we were entering in Horse Shoe Bay. This is a narrow strait curved like an horse shoe between the big Island of “Rinca” and small Island of “Kode”.
There in the distance, in the calm and sheltered waters,  a pod of spinner dolphins were displaying their acrobatics, welcoming us in this wonderful place.
We moored our vessel to a nearby beach that had a couple of funny monkey looking for a seafood breakfast. By this beach also the Komodo Dragons like to hang, even though we could not see them at that time.

The western entrance of Horse Shoe Bay

It was 7:30 am and we were ready to make our first dive of the day.

Dive one was at “The Boulders”. This place it is so called because of some huge rocks that are laying  underwater between 30m and 5m. Such a rocks became corals block as the soft coral, hard corals , sponges, seafans, crinoids were covering it entirely . The fish life was also very abundant , with school of fusiliers, big size angelfish, butterflyfish, crocodile fish  and many dragonets. Nudibranches were big and of many different colors. Sea Apple were feeding and Magnificent Sea Urchin were crawling. Small yellow or white Sea Cucumber were everywhere.
At the beginning of the dive there was some current, however we could find shelter behind some of the big boulders and look for small critters in there. By mid-dive the current was gone.

On the way back to the boat we could see a small group of bottle-nose dolphins that briefly swam alongside of our skiff. “What a finish to celebrate our first dive in the Komodo National Park”!

For the Second and the Third dive of the day we have moved to “Cannibal Rock”.
“Cannibal Rock” is an underwater sea mount laying between 40m and 5m. It is one of the top spot dive site in the Komodo National Park and it is definitely one of the world best dive spot in the world.
The current was running from the North so we descended in its northern side facing it. It turned out to be the right choice as we could see schools of Fusiliers, Surgeonfish, Black and Red snappers and Jacks.  It was more fishy comparing with the previous dive at “The Boulders” . The soft corals once again were magnificent and very big in size. In one of the huge soft coral , which was at least 1.5m, I have spotted a pair of Soft Coral’s white Goby which must have been at least 8-10cm. I have never seen so big ones.

Once again we had a vast quantity of colorful feather stars and at a certain point at around 20m we had a yellow, a white and a brown-orange black coral bush. All of them had inside a pair of Longnose Hawkfish.
The highlight of the dive was when we saw two common octopuses getting together. We stayed watching them a little bit to see if they were going to mate, but even after several try, with one of them petting the other, it did not happen.
It has been incredible to be able to be at just 1 meter from two very big sizes octopuses petting each others and mutating their colors and shapes.
During the third dive we could see an enormous Cuttelfish, the biggest I have ever seen and an Hawksbill turtle. Between both dives we have seen an incredible numbers of nudibranches and yellow sea Cucumber. We have also seen a small white sea Cucumber with a pair of tiny Ladybugs Amphipods on it and few sea apples.

Cannibal Rock was awesome. We did not have a great visibility though, maybe 10-15m. This place when visibility is about 30m must be just perfect.

a portrait of the Komodo Dragon on Rincan Island

After the third dive, we had a little break to set our cameras and then we headed off to the beach to see the Komodo Dragons. We could see two of them, When we came closer to the shore with our Skiff , they suddenly activated and start to walk towards us. They did not look aggressive so to get get a closer shot I have decided to get off the boat to get a bit closer ( but not too much ). I cannot hide that my heart was pumping hard and the adrenaline was rushing all over my body. Luckly the dragons seemed not to care much about myself. After few close-up shots I went back on the skiff and we all headed back to the Damai1.
The Dragons experience was just amazing. A perfect finish to a day of great diving in a great place with great people.

a Komodo Dragon walking by the beach in Rinca Island

Day 5: More Diving In Horse Shoe Bay

We started very early in the morning, a full day of diving and a night dive were in our schedule before we would had left this fantastic place. In the morning, while waiting for dive 1 , we could see the monkeys by the beach once again , Sea Hawks were flying in the sky and a pod of Dolphins was right in the Middle of the channel. The sun was shining to make the conditions just perfect.
We started the diving day in “Rodeo Point”, close to the Eastern entrance of Horse Shoe Bay by the side of Kode Island.
“Rodeo Point” is an underwater sea mount right by the side of a vertical cliff of Kode Island. Like in the other spots in the bay, the fish life was very abundant and the corals were amazing. This sea mount has got a big crack going across all the top reef . The dive itself was very very nice….. As soon as we descended we were surrounded by Red Snappers, Fusiliers, Red-toothed Triggerfish, Bannerfish and Surgeonfish. Anthias and Damselfish were very abundant between 14m to 7m.

We could see an Hawksbill turtle relaxing near an overhang, a couple of Moray Eels, a pink Squat Lobster, a big white-pink Scorpionfish and many, really many Nembrotha Chamberlaini nudibranch as well as other colorful nudibranches.
The current were a bit tricky, even though , they were not strong, they were changing direction very often. By advancing slowly we could manage not to make to much effort to go around the corners. I have also noticed some very big sizes Emperor Angelfish in this dive.

For the Second Dive we went to ” Yellow Wall” . This place it is so called because of the huge congregation of yellow soft coral grown between 10m and 30m. A very good dive site wit lots of critters to spot.
In this dive site I was able to find a feeding Sea Apple with a Ladybug Amphipod on it, next to it there was a small white sea cucumber and it must have had hundreds of the tiny Ladybugs and right on the side of the white sea cucumber there was a crinoid with also so many Amphipods! During the dive I could see some amazing Nudibranches like the beautiful “Thecacera Pacifica” and the “Redline Flabellina”.
I could see a black Sea Spider. I have never seen this critter before.

In one area I could see many anemone shrimp and also an anemone with 4 Peacock-tail shrimps living in it. The dive site turned out to be also good for turtles as we could see some hawksbill feeding and some swimming around.

We decided to make our afternoon dive once again in Cannibal Rock, but when we went to check the conditions the current was very strong and because of this we decided to make our third dive at ” Torpedo Alley” .

This is a black sand slope and it is right at the end of the beach were the Komodo Dragons like to rest. It turned out to be an extraordinary critter dive, we have also made our night dive and between the two dives we could see:
- a Porcelain Crab with eggs living on a seapen, many interesting Spider Crabs of different kinds, a very tiny black Frogfish, two white and red painted Frogfish, a vivid yellow Frogfish, a white Worty Frogfish, a Long arm Octopus, a beautiful Wonderpus, many light blue Flat Worms, 4 black Ornate Ghost Pipefish, and hundreds of very nice and amazing Skeleton Shrimps, a couple of Bob tail squids, 2 Pleurobranches , a Spanish Dancer and a vast variety of Crabs.

Sunset in Horse Shoe Bay, Komodo National Park

Heading to Flores during full moon

With this spectacular night dive our stay in Horse Shoe bay ended.

We have had the most rewarding couple of days . Even though we have made only 7 dives , the variety of critters, coral and fish we have seen was incredible. The visit to the dragons, the Sea Hawks flying around , dolphin cruising and amazing sunsets , have made our stay in the Komodo National Park just perfect.

At night time, the sea was flat and the moon was full , brightening up all the islands. I was writing my diary, with still the fresh impressions and excitement from the couple of days just passed. It was beautiful and we were sailing to the Island of Flores.

To be continued……..

Damai1 at sunset in Banda Sea

I have just recently come back from a mind blowing Liveaboard trip. I was on Board of the MSY Damai 1 , a luxury , 130 feet traditional  style vessel built in Indonesia .

We departed on the 08th of Nov form Bali and arrived the 22nd of Nov in Ambon. During the 14 days cruise we have made more than 40 dives across half of Indonesia, stopping by the island of Moyo, Bima and Satonda, in the Sumbawa Region, Rinca Island in the Komodo National Park, Flores, Komba Volcano, Alor, Wetar and Gunung Api, Lucipara Atoll in the Banda Sea and finished in Ambon.
During this fantastic journey we have crossed more than 1200 miles, dived in world class dive sites as well as in places nobody dived before. We encountered the magnificent Komodo Dragon, we watched the Komba Volcano erupting and dived with hundreds of sea sneaks by Gunung Api Volcano. We also had the pleasure of meeting very friendly local villagers in Alor as well as being all by ourselves in the inhabited islands of the Lucipara Atoll in the Banda Sea.
In the coming days I will be publishing few posts about this trip , describing the dive sites as well as the impression we had .
During this trip I have been leading dives, as a result I had no chances to take pictures underwater, however,  I had the opportunity to take photos of some very nice topsides locations during this journey.

I would like to give a special thanks to Aberto, co-owner of the Dive Dimai fleet , who also was on board and made our trip even more fun and interesting.

"Living Bali and the Kintamani Volcano"

Day 1 picking up the group.

The day started early. At about 5 am we were sailing from the South of Bali towards Tulamben in the North. It took us a while before we could get to the first destination and pick up our guests as the currents were very strong and our Vessel at certain stages was going as slow as 3 knots. Anyway the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day to be at sea.
Early in the Afternoon we arrived at Scuba Seraya and picked up Janet and Bob, Linda and Mike, Mardel and Michele, Loretta and Denise, Dave and Bert.
Janet is the group leader. She is the owner of Dive Travel Services in the US.

As soon as the guests were on board we sailed towards Moyo Island, a satellite island of the Big Sumbawa Island.

Day 2 Diving Moyo and Satonda.
We arrived at Moyo Island early in the morning and made 2 dives at a nearby underwater reef in the west side of the island.

There were two underwater reef side by side and one of them in particular had a very small sandy patch surfacing at low tide.
It has been a very pretty reef to begin our diving with , we could admire some very huge barrel sponges, seafans and hard corals in the shallow part. It was also very fishy, with school of Bannerfish, Yellowback and Scissortail Fusiliers and Sargent fish. Thousands of Anthias and Damselfish were adding additional color in the shallow area on top of the hard coral garden.
At about 27m, on the steep slope, there was a sandy rubble patch with a small group of 6 purple Decorated Firedartfish Gobies. I have never seen so many together, they really made my dive!
Between the 2 dives we have made at Moyo we could also see a pair of big Six-Banded Angelfish, Blue-Girdled and Emperor Angelfish, a big size Banded Sea Snake, few Bluefin Trevally hunting the fusiliers, a Dogtooth Tuna and a big seacucumber with three emperor shrimps on it.
During Both dives we had a very mild current and the visibility was about 25m, the water temperature was a comfortable 28C.

After the second dive we have moved to Satonda Island. When we arrived it was a bit late into the afternoon so we made a dusk dive. We entered the water by a small Jetty. Over there there was a gentle sandy slope with a big sunken wood trunk with many shrimp on it and some very friendly Lionfish that eventually would have end up following us during the whole dive. Funny,  at a certain moment, by seeing the lionfish keep swimming along side us , I thought it may had some identity crisis. Once we have left the slope sandy slope we had a transitional part with some reef and rubble patches. In one of the rubble patch I could see a Jawfish , spitting out its eggs from the mouth to mix them. I knew about this behavior but this was the first time I could actually witnessed it . It was fast but brilliant. By that time, it all turned dark and we were having a night dive. The reef turned out to be in good conditions and we could find some very interesting Nudibranches such us the Nembrota Kubariana and the Twin Chromodoris. Just before the end of our 80 minutes dive we could see a Twinspot Lionfish.

"Satonda island at the horizon with Sumbawa mainland on the right"

Right After the dive we Sailed to Bima.

"Bima Bay Entrance"

A Ship fully loaded with shallots bags in Bima Harbor

Day 3 The best Critter diving I have ever had.

Mike (Cruise Director) and I have worked in North Sulawesi for few years and made more than a few dives in the Lembeh Strait ( the world capital of critter diving), so when Mike was telling me that we were going to Dive one of the best spot for critter in Indonesia, He knew that my expectations would have been very high……
We arrived in the Bay of Bima very early in the morning.
At Bima we have made 3 dives. The first one and the third dive of the day were on a black sand slope.

In the morning we first follow the slope to pick up some depth, but it took a while to reach 18m because ,as soon as we descended, we could see very interesting critters. There were Blunt Decorator Crabs and there were also very colorful group of cowries on top of Seapens  and soft corals. We could see a couple of Black-Rayed Shrimp Gobies as well as a two small Common Seahorses.  A big 12 cm black and white Thorny Seahorse had been a magnificent encountered. Few baby cuttlefish were swimming and hiding behind Seapens. Every few meters there was something that captured our attention. The was the vastest variety of colorful nudibranches I have ever seen and some of them had 1 or even a couple of Emperor shrimp living  near their gills and cleaning them , like the big  Three-Lobed T-Bar Nudibranch we have encountered. We could also see plenty of Porcelain crabs living in the Seapens or in the Anemone as well as cleaner shrimps, magnificent Sea Urchins and a Whoospfish.

I did not want to surface, there was too much to see. While we were waiting for the boat to come to pick us up a solitary Juvenile Sargassum Frogfish came to pay us a visit and swam around us while we were passing our diving gears to the crew. Brilliant!!!!

After the dive we have moved to Bima Harbor to refuel our vessel. We docked right by a local ship fully loaded with bags containing shallots, once all the fuel was loaded we moved to make our second dive by a small dry cape that was on fire when we arrived. Here it was different than the previous dive. We had no black sand but instead we had a reef formation similar to rice paddies on a mountain slope, with many flat area balconies with Seafans , sandy patches, rubbled, soft coral and many crinoids.

I have to admit that the beginning of the dive was quite slow on critter action, probably this was also due to the fact that we were coming from That outstanding dive made earlier in the day.

After 15 minutes into the dive, the dive site started to show us why we were diving there ! I could find a pair of beautiful white and black Ornate Ghost Pipefish. They were right by a crinoid of similar color patterns. One of the Ghost Pipefish, the bigger one, had eggs, while the smaller one was without the tail’s fin. It must have been bitten off by a fish.

Along a small wall I could find two very tiny ( 0.5 cm) and two big ( 3cm) Desirable Flabellina Nudibranches. When then I moved on top of that small wall , there was a small coral head with many crinoids and in It there was a black and yellow Ornate Ghost Pipefish  that moved from the black crinoid,where it was perfectly blending in, to an orange crinoid . The contrast in color created a great photo composition ( Dammit!!! if I only had my camera ).
During the dive we could also see few more Chromodoris and a beautiful Dark Margin Glossodoris Nudibranch. There were also many bubble coral with shrimps in it and a couple of juvenile oriental sweetlips doing their dances.

We then took a nice break on the boat and late into the afternoon we decided to come back to the first dive spot and make a dive looking for Mimic Octopuses, which supposedly  they live and feed at the black sand dive site. For the 3rd dive , as I wanted to see the octopuses, I have changed my approach to the dive and this time I descended to 8-10m and dived pretty much all the time at that depth.

The dive started with two Porcelain Crabs, two Banded Coral shrimp and a yellow juvenile Lionfish all in the same spot around an Anemone that had five voracious Clark Anemonefish living in it.

While slowly swimming and cruising along the slope we could find , once again, many different Nudibranches in pairs and some of them were mating. Hermit Crabs where crawling everywhere on the slope, a red Orangutan Crab was looking for shelter in the rubble area and a crocodilefish was quietly resting on the sand.

Towards mid dive I could see an Octopus head sticking out from the sand. It was looking at me and it was a Mimic Octopus. To do not make it going deep into the sand I stopped a bit far from it and slowly approached it. I gently started swinging my stick tickling the sand in front of it. It worked. the octopus came all out and show us its beautiful long legs and banded pattern. At that point The Mimic was not shy nor worried anymore and we could  admire it for a while.

We then moved on and spot a White-V Octopus or Long Arms Octopus. I used the same trick to have him coming out from its hole. We followed it a little bit and then carried on until I finally could find my favorite  octopus of all. The wonderful Wonderpus. This Octopus was not shy at all and it kept swimming and looking around for some tiny shrimp or crabs to feast with. It displayed to us all its camouflage skills , intensifying the color of its orange rings. We stayed with it for at least 10min observing how it was patiently looking for a prey inside the holes in the rubles.

This dive was , once again, amazing and to finish in great style we could see a giant white Seahorse and right beside it there was a small crinoid with a juvenile black Ornate Ghost Pipefish.
We surfaced and there was the sunset!

Thinking back at that day , I have to admit that in Bima I had some world class critters diving. I could barely believe that in only three dives I could see so many special critters. I think that I could spend more than a good week photographing in this divesite.

It was Dark and we started sailing once again. With the fresh impression and great feeling from the dive we have just made, we were heading to Horse Shoe Bay in the Komodo National Park………… To be Continued!!

A tiny soft coral crab living on the soft coral

This is one of the last underwater shot I have been taking in North Sulawesi in july 2011.

I was diving on the mainland along the coast at about 25-30km from Manado City. In this dive site we used to see many Pigmy Seahorse at 30m depth, but in the recent days all the pigmies have died or moved to other locations*.

The creature in the picture is a Soft Coral Crab (Hoplophrys Oatesii), it lives in symbiotic relationship with the soft coral. It takes the same color of the host literally attaching piece of the coral onto its skeleton.

I have seen this kind of crab in different color variation , from yellow to purple. It is a master of camouflage and hiding by pulling and bending small coral branches over is body. Not to mention that it is very difficult to spot it.

During the many years diving, guiding and taking pictures in Sulawesi, I have determined a way to spot these small critters fairly quickly.

Most of the time if the coral (host) is not touched , it will have all its polyps (small tiny tentacles looking like hairs )outside, giving the coral a fluffy look. this tentacles are actually catching plankton to feed the corals. When inspecting carefully the “body” and “branches” of the coral there will be few parts where the hairs are not present, resulting in a small contrast of colors. Most of the time that is the point where some tiny marine stars are living or the beautiful crab is hiding from predators.

This shot has been taken with a 105 mm Nikkor lens, shutter speed was at 1/200s and the Aperture value was set at f14, ISO 100. To view more images taken in Sulawesi CLICK HERE .

Interesting Note:

*I was discussing about the pigmy seahorse expected life time with Nad Deloach, co-author of the series of books Reef ID ( http://www.fishid.com/ ) . Nad and his lovely wife Anna where holding a “Critter Hunt” at our Resort in Manado. During our conversation He told me that the smaller the animal is , the less is going to live. He thoughts that Pigmy Seahorse, could survive more or less 1 year, however, I could tell him that I could see the same pigmy for at least 2 years in that same location.

During my diving career as an instructor and in the last years as a manager , I have been lucky enough to dive with some of the best underwater photographer in the world. Yeah , that is right!!!! some of the “Best” underwater Photographer.

But…….

Who really decide who is the best? What factors should it be taken under consideration before assign the status of ” Best” to somebody?

A picture can transmit lots of emotions to somebody as well as leave no impression to somebody else, therefore rather than talk about the picture itself, which is very personal to all of us, I would rather talk about what are other factors to consider.

Somebody could choose as the main criteria, how many times this photographer has been published by magazines, what magazines and/or how many book He/She has published.
I think that globally, among professional underwater photographer, this would be the main reason to define “great” someone with good underwater photography skills.

But…….

Do you think that the people, that are published constantly, are actually the REAL BEST Underwater Photographer?

Let’s see together what it takes you to be a very good underwater photographer:

-Buoyancy control:

Even the best National Geographic nature photographer won’t produce great images underwater without having the proper scuba diving skills. By this I mean having a GREAT buoyancy control ( “good” is not enough ).

-Fitness:

The sea can be a very challenging environment ( strong currents, waves, cold water, depth).
Carrying a dive cylinder on your back plus a big DSLR housing with double strobes while kicking against the current to make it back to safety , it is quite an aerobic activity. Being in a current taking pictures requires you to have fitness and great buoyancy control.

-Photographic Skills:

Be a very good photographer on land , being creative and have a great understanding of the photographic equipment , by all means they are essential knowledge you should have. While on the surface we can easily look for or add light , underwater sunlight looses its brightness very quickly as you go deep. Dark environment requires you to have the knowledge and equipment to compensate for the loss of light..
Of course the techniques are something very important to master to make yourself a good underwater photographer, nobody can argue about that.
A great image would transmit plenty of emotions and would sell to magazines or other commercial entities.

-Marketing:

Being good with social media, advertising your images and especially being good at marketing yourself would also help you to become a very well known photographer in the industry as well as selling your images.

Summarizing the points I have made above to be a great photographer you would need:

-A great buoyancy control.
-To be Fit.
-To be Proficient with your camera and have good photographic techniques.
-Be good at marketing

Now, let’s assume that you are well known all over the globe. Dived every sea, even in difficult conditions. Your pictures are recognized by most as being great and that is thanks to the effort you have put in marketing.

Does this makes you one of the best underwater photographer, is that enough?

In my opinion, NOT! It is not enough.

As I have said in my opening statement I have been diving with many professional underwater photographer as well as hobbyist that were taking very nice images . Most of them were really great people and I had an excellent time spending the day diving with them as well as learning always something new.
However, it happened to me more than a few time to have to deal with divers that were so keen to get a good image, to complete disregard the environment around them. This often resulted in the Reef getting damage.
I once have seen a photographer putting his huge camera on a table coral , because he wanted adjust his weight belt. I have seen people collecting and putting marine life in a pet bottle to keep shooting the subject after their lunch break. I even had a photographer bringing scissor underwater to cut a piece of the seafan , where there was the Pigmy Seahorse, so that he could place it towards the blue and get a black background or so many times have seen people moving nudibranches (colorful sea slugs) to get a better angle on the subject.
I could spend hours writing about the things that I have seen.

Do not worry, I have got really upset with all of them and in some circumstances denied them to go diving with us again!

But let’s come back on track,……….. the point that I want to make and the philosophy that I really believe and follow is that:
-you will be one of the BEST Underwater Photographer when you will be able to produce top quality images without damaging or disturbing marine life!

The Reef is so fragile and important for the balance of the environment that none of your picture would ever worth more than it.
Whether you are a beginner, amateur or professional underwater photographer, this is what you should have in mind next time you will be diving taking photos!

To be continued……………….