This year we went on holiday to the Philippines. We stayed at a resort called Atlantis Hotel: Puerto Galera for ten nights and had the best service I have ever experienced at a dive resort. The food was amazing, the people were beautiful and the diving absolutely spectacular.

I took well over 6 gigabytes of photos (again) and have narrowed the field of favourites down to just over 50 (which is still pretty impressive for me!).

I'm breaking them up into installments and posting them as and when I have time.

Just for continuity of information - the island we were staying on was Mindoro, and the resort is located on Sabang Beach, a five or so minute drive out of the main city of Puerto Galera. To be honest, we only went into PG once because Sabang has more nightlife and activity than even my group of divers needed! Certainly a magic place to have a holiday.

Enough rambling - here goes the photos!





The classic (and real!) nemo!!

( 9 more under here )

1.Pictures - because I have not spammed you all with teh awesomeness that is diving, here are some new pics I took this weekend at the combined clubs weekend in Bicheno...if I can remember how to put pictures in posts... [headdesk]



A brittle star on a sponge at 45m on the Golden Bommies.

( four more )

2. More Picture stuff

Once upon a time shaz took this picture:



Shaz was convinced by various peoples, including her boy, to enter it in the photo competition at the combined club weekend. Guess who came second!?!??!!

What impressed me more than placing, though, was the photographer who was judging it (a professional U/W photographer) said it was the best shot of a seahorse he'd ever seen. *preens*

Excuse me while my ego takes over the world.

Some pictures taken over the last few months - hardly any worth looking at really.



a pufferfish i harrassed at the ODP xmas party during my safety stop.

( only a few more under here )

Yes, it's that time of the year again - PHOTO TIME!

I have taken lots of photos lately (aside from Melbourne pics with which I spammed you), so here are my favourites of the new batch, and the photos from my bicheno weekend :)



( Favourites )



( Bicheno Weekend - including a Monster Cray! )

Because I know you've all just been waiting for them!



A jellyfish

( Submarines & Fishlife )

Went for a night dive at Farewell Beacon up north monday night. BRILLIANT. We ended up right in a coral spawning too, which was absolutely amazing and total fluke because it's SO UNLIKELY that the timing would ever work, but it did!

Anyway, the dive was amazing, the coral spawning was unreal, and my STROBE IS AWESOME!

First pics taken with my new STROBE! YEAH BABY!





Sponge in the river

( a few more here; not as much as the usual spam! )

The most amazing thing about this dive, photography aside, is that the coral was spawning!! I know in QLD on the barrier reef, the coral spawns once a year and people pay hundreds of dollars for tickets on boats to witness it, and even then they're not exactly sure when it'll go. For us to have gotten in, randomly, on a night limited by tidal flow (you have to time the dives just right) and to have witnessed it was just incredible!! I have photos of the spawning; it just looks like a lot of backscatter, but very very thick. It was something I never thought I'd seen in tassie, let alone dive in ever!

On the other note - the strobe is AMAZING. I can light everything up with true colour now, instead of the red-tint everything had before, AND there is very little if no backscatter! The other postiive I found of the strobe, was the fact that it has a red focus light which, apparently, fish aren't scared of so they just sat there instead of swimming away the way they normally do if you shine a white light on them!
HEE! I AM SO IN LOVE WITH MY NEW GEAR!

*adores*

Camera: Sony DSC P150 (7.2mpx)
Lighting: Natural light for most, however the shot of the starfish and one other used a very small LED.
Lenses: Wideangle for the seadragon, bubblerings & last two kelp silhouettes.



Long Snouted Boarfish

( A few more of fish and the Troy D )

And that would be it for this times' spam :D It won't be the last though.

I didn't use my strobe or the macro lens this time (paranoid am I) which I don't really regret, because it's not something I want to ruin or break or not use properly and then screw things up. I had fun playing with the wideangle on the last dive (as is apparent by the seadragon shots) and will keep that permanently on my camera housing now, until I have the rest figure out. Hopefully I'll get in a night dive or three this week, and fool around with the gear!

And really, Photobucket is TOTALLY giving me the annoyance tonight. It is SO SLOW. *bashes it*

I haven't spammed you all photos recently. I've been quite slack, actually.

Rather than post all the photos I've taken in the last months, I've picked out my new favourites.

x



[Giant cuttlefish]

( dive in )

Like I promised threatened, here are my photos from Melbourne [Australia] of diving on a submarine and a wreck.



( Dive in! )

The usual ZOMG I HAVE BEEN DIVING HERE ARE MY PHOTOS post.

The photos though, are not particularly brilliant or different to other posts with photos I've made... still, personal reference and all that jazz... I'm posting them anyway.

Majority of these are the "Jelly Anemones" I'm so very fond of, and seahorses. There are also a few random fish and crabs and stuff thrown in... but mostly Jelly Anemones. Oh, and a couple of seadragons too.

Feel free to skip.



( a 'few' more! )

---

Probably just exam tension that's making me so hard to be pleased with things at the moment...back to the books.

PS - Andreas, I'm waiting for you to set your account up and show off your pics!

site: Secret Site! (AKA - Norm's Place or MiddleOfNowhere Site)
water temp: Balmy 12*C
depth: 6.8m
Vis: Bloody brilliant once we got past the tannin (about 15m, I think).

camera: Sony DSC P150 7.2 mpx with my BRAND NEW 1 GIG MEMORY STICK! *g*
lighting: Alpha 2000 (has a very orange/red light hence the really red tones of most of my pics)



A type of anemone which by day looks like a ball of jelly beans and by night looks like this. I think it swims around too... but I can't remember it's name. Very cool though! Similar to the very cool "Jelly anemones" I keep posting, but not the same really

( Onto the dive and many, MANY pics! )

Overall, I'm fairly happy with them. I'm having lots of fun playing around with light and angles and starting to experiment now with my focusing as well, which is good. The thing I'm still finding hardest is lighting - the Alpha is a lot better than what I had before (NOTHING!) but I'm starting to get irritated by how red it's turning everything up close. I like red, red is good, but too much red is not good.

Also, the dive itself was fantastic. It was excellent going with D who is a brilliant diver - I don't have to worry about him or watch him because he's more than competent, and that means I can relax and have a dive to myself. And hanging out with him and his family is always fun!!

So yes. One of my favourite night dive spots, and definitely one of the best places to go with a camera!!!

Went for a glorious few days of diving - yesterday at Maria Island under the jetty, and today down at Port Arthur again. These are the result.



( quite a few more here )

Overall, am happy with most of the shots and starting to experiment with lighting and composition. I can see my pics improving, and that makes me happy. WHOO.

camera: Sony DSCP150; only internal flash, no external light sources
locations: Deep Glen Bay, Waterfall Bay, Little Waterfall Bay
date: 19-22 January 2006
editing: None other than cropping and adding a white border



A seastar

( more here )

Here they are - as promised :)



( LOTS more here )

+

Hope you all found that entertaining and want to dive a little more than you did a few days ago ;)

Locations: Sick/James Rock; Dogleg Cave; Waterfall Bay; The Spire; Pirate's Cave; Patterson's Arch
Camera: Sony Cybershot DSCP150 7.2mpx. No strobe; only a torch.
Photoshopping: Other than cropping, none.

The first of me moving all my photos over to this Livejournal - sorry for spamming!!


Dogleg Cave - Waterfall Bay

( A fair few... heh )

That's it for the U/W photos - Land photos will follow in another post to save your servers :)

Apologies to those who have seen these before, but i'm moving them over so i don't lose them in the millions of other posts!

taken last monday instead of studying between airport trips!



( 14 in total - smallish sizes )