deep down nothing matters

The Philippines - Take 1

2008-08-22T12:02:12Z

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!!

A spectacular dropoff wall (30m +) on Verde Island, a magic day trip we did. Absolutely stunning diving - the best of the trip, I think.

A banded seasnake - we saw HEAPS of these, but this was the only good pic I managed to snap because most of the time they were swimming like made, and I was terrified they'd latch on to me!!!

A lionfish. I took heaps of these!

One of the two million nudibranch pictures I took. Never in my life have I seen so many of them, and so many varied species! Unbelievable, and they are so photographic! Andrew and I have a whole folder dedicated to nudibranch pictures, and our goal is to find all their real names and label them! We are so sad :)

A ghost pipefish. About 7cm long and looks like a bit of stick. Really cool!

A batfish on the Alma Jane, a wreck deliberately sunk a few years ago about two hundred metres off the beach (in 30m of water). Really really really pretty wreck dive, with so many cool critters around it!

Yet another nudibranch (there will be a few of these!)

Really closeup of a coral plate.

One of the many gorgonian fans we saw. They were so big and colourful and delicate, we were terrified of kicking them over.

Combined Clubs Weekend & Competition

2008-06-12T00:44:51Z

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.

portrait of a seadragon head taken on the night dive - for once, a nice one! I found two juveniles as well, which Andrew got a beautiful picture of. He entered it in the photocomp and came second in the section!!

A gurnard, also on the night dive. This one just sat still! I got some cool pictures of his fins and detail of his tail, but there was kelp in the way and the composition wasn't so good, so this is all you get (thankfully, they say!)

Another cute little pufferfish, also on the night dive.

Another night dive special - a nudibranch (really colourful slug).

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.

Bicheno & Best Of

2007-05-30T00:17:20Z

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 :)

Melbourne Photos

2007-05-30T00:15:39Z

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

A jellyfish

Dive 1: J4 Submarine - 26m of depth

The crew quarters

Looking toward the bow of the submarine. We entered through the entrance you can see, where the hull has broken apart. I was last in line and turned around to snap the silhoutte shot - the light at the top is the natural lighting from outside reflecting off the bubbles from the other divers which got trapped against the roof. Pretty cool, hey!

A with his kick-ass torch swimming ahead of me.

A on the safety stop checking his computer.

I got distracted on the stop because there were all these really cool jellyfish around. The others all buggered off on me, so I was the last one up and out as usual, because these jellyfish were really really cool!

Dive 2: Wildside on Lonsdale Wall - depth of 26m

Some random sponges which appealed. I took LOTS of sponge photos, but they don't seem to entertain people as much as they entertain me, so I'm restraining myself!

Some more feather things. Again, I love these!

Dive 3: Portsea Hole - depth of 20m

Stinkfish! I've never ever EVER been so close to one of these, let alone two of them!! They're a type of sea carp or something, but the common name is stinkfish. heh. Stinkfish!

More sponges. I can't help myself.

I got LOADS of leatherjacket shots. Be thankful I only spammed you with two :D

Gurnard Perch! I almost swam into this boy. There were two sitting right next to each other, but because of lighting issues (my strobe was on the wrong side for this shot) it just didn't work to get both in the pic. And then they got annoyed and swam off anyway.

Some weird hydroid/anemone thingos. no idea what they are, but they looked pretty cool.

A blue devil. We don't get these in Tassie, so I was stoked to get some relatively nice shots of them. I have heaps and heaps of shots, but I think this one was the best.

Farewell Beacon

2007-02-28T02:31:07Z

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 cosmopolitan leatherjacket at about 20m deep - see the amazing colours and life behind them? The ENTIRE WALL the WHOLE WAY DOWN (to about 70 odd meters) is this colour and this thriving. Seriously. This is one of the best dives in the world, I think

A red codfish that just posed for me - I think I have about thirty shots of him alone! He was at about 30m

Some of the amazing spongelife

A random kelp shop which I like

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*

Last two weeks worth

2007-02-18T23:13:30Z

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

Troy D

The Troy D was scuttled on February 10, 2007; these photos were taken on the 17/18 of Feb 2007 as part of a clearance operation. Once she's been down for a little while, and has some more life on her, I think she'll be amazing. Visiblity in this area is usually 30-40m, and the water is really blue, so it will be spectacular! She's lying in about 27m of water, with the bridge topping about 12m. Lots of good places to poke around in, including the engine room and crew quarters, forward holds and wheelhouse. Lots of interesting bits and pieces left on her too, so well worth a look!

This was my very first sight of her underwater. Completely different to how she looked on land! And the vis, at this point, i thought was pretty speccy. That lasted until we reached the wreck and realised how stirred up it was. Ah well.

D laughed when he saw another pic, the first in this series. He says it looks like someone left a plug undone and she just filled up and sank to the bottom because of it. So from now on, we refer to this... thing as a plug. I got lots of photos of it!

QUOTE: "That toilet is so full of shit it's not funny"

Enough said ;)

The most amazing thing about diving this wreck while she's still in pristine condition, is comparing it to how it was when I was on board while she was still 'surface bound'. I'm normally scared of heights, so it was very cool to be 'flying' around her and whizzing up and down the levels whereas before it was a mammoth effort for me to climb and scale her heights (they stripped a lot of the ladders so you literally had to climb the walls). I much prefer it underwater!

Kelp Forests

Kelp forest I was in about a month ago, in 3m vis. Terribly green and murky. Got very few photos, other than the usual kelp silhouettes. Ah well.

Port Arthur last weekend

a crab. Kind self explanatory

Long snouted boarfish

I love boarfish. They're one of the most beautiful and graceful fish, and so elegant.

For some reason, this stingray shot REALLY appeals to me. Really. I think it's the eye.

This is as close as I could get to 'macro' a few days ago. 6cm, at best. Next time, I'll show you a pic with my new macro lens. i can get so close I can *TOUCH* the starfish and it still doesn't blur. Unfortunately, though, I need light too, so I can't quite get that clsoe and take a pic :P

Triabunna - this weekend

To be honest, there wasn't that much around on this dive (Saturday, with rolli), but I did manage to find this Southern Rockcod. The last pic is actually a different cod (same species) taken on a different day at a different location, but I figured I may as well post it!

These three pics alone, to me, justify the expense of my wideangle lense. I was about 5cm away from the seadragon, and could get the WHOLE THING in my frame, which is unreal!! Am so excited about it. I took about 40+ photos, and for the first time in my life, I'm relatively pleased with a seadragon shot! Normally they piss me off to no end, but these are sort-of okay!! *g*

A wandering anemone. Again, the ENTIRE thing in my frame, and I'm up nice and close. Really like this wide-angle lens!

To be honest, there wasn't really that much to see on these dives, other than the few great fines. I was so bored on the last dive, I ended up creating images to take photos of. This included bubblerings (as pictured above), finding a loose piece of kelp and posing it with the sun. Apparently my new wide-angle lens (ADORE IT SO MUCH) causes real honest-to-god sunflares on my photos, as opposed to the pink dots the usual lens makes. So I played with sunflares and kelp and bubbles for ages and ages and ages. I love bubblerings!

Two of the 'kelp posing' pics. I think I like the first one best...

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*

Dive Photo Update

2007-01-07T06:43:32Z

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]

Giant Cuttlefish

[the same cuttlefish, just different shots]

Tamar River Night Dive

[This was the dive that rolli missed out on right at the end of November]

[an ascidian]

[a seafan]

[some anemones]

[a really cool sponge - at least, I think it is]

[a fish we don't get in my area, and I can't remember the name which I was told]

[a sponge with these really cool little growths on them. no idea what they are]

[a sponge or ascidian - I'm not sure which - with a HID light on them...</i>]

[... the exact same sponge/asician, with some different lighting]

[the kelp in the little kelp forest right near the beacon]

SS Nord

[L on the ladder]

[amazing what a bit of visibility and light does for your pictures & colour, compared to the last lots I took on this!]

Random Night Dive Photos

[a crab on some kelp. taken at Fallen Cliffs back in July, I think]

[a cowfish, also taken at Fallen Cliffs on the same dive]

[a sea cucumber. Fallen Cliffs. Same dive!]

[a banded stingaree - Dead Man's Island. Back in August]

[a weedfish (can't remember the real name). Fallen Cliffs. The same dive as most of the others.]

[hermit crabs taken at blackman's bay blowhole.. one of my most usual night dive sites]

Seaspiders - Pycnagonids

[the same spider, just playing with the focus and snapping away as he walked across the rocks]

[another spider on a different dive. I didn't do anything to the lighting, but for some reason the shots look completely different. I think it has to do with the background focus... Still, kinda cool :)]

[probably one of my favourite shots ever, to date. i was teaching an advanced course and had thrown the camera at the students. I found this spider, and got them to take some shots of it. Only, they were a mile away and I realised they would have no idea later of what they were snapping, so I snatched the camera, snapped a quickie and gave it back. Of all the random, goodluck shots, I can't believe this one turned out! Needless to say, my students were totally awed by my total coolness with a camera :P]

Random General Photos

[a crab hiding under a ledge]

[a common banded stingaree at Canoe Bay in Fortescue Bay]

[some sponges at fortescue bay, on the same dive]

[a victorian diver on Twin Peaks back in August]

[a kelp shot at Frog Rock in June]

[the drone jellies at cray bay during the dive camp]

[an interesting growth on a sea feather at the sisters mid-December]

[a draughtboard shark taken at cray bay during the fortescue camp]

[a star (I think pincushion) taken at fallen cliffs on the same day as the shot at the sisters]

[a wandering anemone in it's resting/not feeding state, taken at fallen cliffs. I've posted pics of them feeding before, and they look spectacular, but there is something very alien and eerie about them when they're not doing anything at all]

[I think the official name for these are superbumgynasia, but I could have the gymnasia wrong... *shrugs* they still look beautiful with the right lighting]

[i think these are a tubeworm of some sort, but really, i have no idea. fallen cliffs.]

[just some random weed shots at fallen cliffs]

J5 & Coogee - Victoria

2006-07-13T12:15:11Z

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

I didn't take my camera down on the first day for the Lonsdale Wall [which is spectacular and everyone should dive it!], so the only photos I got of my trip were on the second day when I dived the J5 submarine, followed by the Coogee.

J5 Submarine

Initially I was supposed to dive the J1 on Saturday morning, but due to weather this wasn't the case. I ended up only diving the J5 on Sunday morning, and it was quite good. Visibility wasn't great, but the sub itself was well worth it!

Before I start posting pics, I have a confession to make. I finally cheated and used photoshop to tidy these up - visibility was SO BAD that I hardly got any good photos straight up, so they needed a bit of tweaking before I'd put them on display. Not my best pics by far, but still, gives you all an idea of what I saw!

This is the conning tower of the J5 sub. Notice all the yellow on it? That's because it's been colonised by a colony of zoanthids. I've posted millions (well, close to that) pics of zoanthids for you already - a type of hydroid - up close and personal, so you should know exactly what they look like by now. This is what they look like from afar - they absolutely COAT whatever it is that they're growing on.

Due to all the zoanthids which are all over this wreck, it's been dubbed the "Yellow Submarine" which is very appropriate!! It also is known as the "Intact Sub" because out of all the J Class subs scattered around it is the only one that was still "Intact". Unfortunately, in the last couple of weeks a lot of the bow has been torn away and disappeared, and an area where once you could penetrate is now unreachable, which is quite sad.

We did manage to penetrate one area toward the rear of the sub; we dropped down through a large hatch and swam forward until we reached a 'dead end' where one used to be able to pass through and continue penetration. As I said, the recent damage has stopped this, so we had to exit through a hatch very close to the conning tower.

This photo is, apparently, the crew quarters in the sub (How people can tell that I don't know, but they apparently can).

Here are some shots that illustrate how the superstructure is slowly being peeled away by the water movements. This is old damage - the infrastructure itself is still intact in this area and covered in growth, so you can still clearly see the shape of the submarine. These photos were taken heading towards the bow of the sub, where the towing ring is located.

And this is the towing ring. Notice that it is also coated completely in zoanthids? Looks very soft and fluffy in reality, but that is SO not the case!! Also, an interesting fact - all the J class subs (The seven that were built in the end) look completely identical; the only difference between them was the shape of their towing ring so people could identify them from one another. Obviously the J5's is round; I didn't get to see the others but I'm going to assume they don't look like this!

Swimming back along the other side of the sub to the stern, we were visited by a couple of schools of short finned pike, which I tried to take a photo of. Notice how dark everything is? It was so dark I had to turn the internal flash off, and because I had no torch I was relying completely on natural lighting. At 37m of water on a dark, overcast day with very bad visibility, there isn't a lot of natural light around at all and everything looks green and grey and miserable. Also, in those conditions automatic cameras (such as mine) 'automatically' compensate for the low lighting and decrease shutter speed which means very blurry photos. All of my attempts at shots like this failed miserably - the fish are silver blurs across the the top of the subs. This was the best one, and you can hardly see the fish on it.

This is me! I'm wearing my purple suit and BRIGHT PINK REGS (the thing in my mouth, that is). They were SO BRIGHT you can STILL tell they're pink even though I'm still at 37m and there's NEVER red down that deep (it's the first colour to disappear underwater due to length of the light waves). Normally I have normal black regs, but I borrowed a pair off one of Rob's friend and they are BRIGHT PINK! I felt like a total dork in my purple suit with pink regs, ditzy personality and slightly blondish hair... *sighs* ;)

Notice the bright yellowy thing under my arm? That's a pony bottle. In Victoria you have to carry "spare" or "redundant" air outside the heads (where we were diving). Most people do this as a set of twins (Two smaller tanks banded together) but I'm pretty good on air so I just had a single small tank (A 85cft/10L steelie for those who get the talk) and this pony which I borrowed from another of Rob's friends. I didn't use the pony at all; did the whole dive on my 85, and everyone was much in awe of me and my "one lung tendencies" ;P They teach us to dive real good in Tassie!!!

And this is Rob. He is way cool and I totally adore him. *HUG*

So I sat on a depth of 37m and did a bottom time of about 35mins on that one (a touch of deco, but we did nice long stops).

Coogee

I admit to knowing hardly anything about the coogee other than it was sank and raised quite a few times before finally being sunk for good around the same time as the subs. This wreck is pretty smashed up, a fair bit of growth and blah blah. In all honesty, the Betsey wrecks near my place sitting in about 25m of water (crap vis though) are WAY better than this because you can poke around in them and there's more to physically see. Still, it was a good dive and I enjoyed it; the biggest downside being once again we hit about 34m so we only had a short bottom time for decompression reasons. WOE.

Like I said, I have no idea about the coogee. Only thing of real interest during the dive was Rob hanging off that "skew railing" as other divers went past waving as though he was the queen. Cracked me up, but I didn't get decent photos of it. WOE. Still, gave me much cause for mocking, especially since his parents were laying into him that afternoon about his "Poofter shoes" (Crocs! They reckon crocs are poofter shoes! LOLOLOL!)

So yeah. My weekend of diving. Had a good time even though vis was shit and I didn't take the camera down on the first two dives! Was absolutely brilliant to get away for a weekend and dive somewhere completely different! I removed a "to dive" pin from my map when I got home, adn replaced it with a "dived" flag! Very exciting stuff :P

PS - The history on the J5 and other J class subs is really interesting - I'd recommend googling them or checking out wikipedia.org because it's definitely a fascinating read!

night dives

2006-05-19T01:28:49Z

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.

The seadragons. I got loads of photos, but they were all shit because I had a sucky night. It frustrates me. Still, these give you an idea of what they sort of look like. Much better in RL.

These two were the same anemone from the same perspective, just different lighting. I like how they look totally different.

Big Leatherjacket fish. Really big one, but he wouldn't move to give me a clear shot. Meh.

A seahorse!

More Jellies from different perspectives and lighting. There are SO MANY of these at this site. Really.

A globefish (aka pufferish)

A flathead. And yes, that is what they are called.

More Jellies. I like these two. Again, the lighting thing.

Hermit Crab. These you have seen many of!

Jewel Anemones. If it wasn't so red I might like this one.

A female wrasse (parrotfish). Stupid thing moved at JUST the wrong movement so the lighting got her in just the wrong spot. WOE.

This jelly would have been nice if the lighting worked... but it didn't.

Seahorses. Too much backscatter and surge to get a good, sharp focus.

An urchin. About the only thing really in focus because it just doesn't move AT ALL.

Stars on kelp. Meh. This was on the Tuesday dive and about the only salvageable pics of the lot. GRRRR.

---

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!

Night Dive & Photos!

2006-04-29T03:13:49Z

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

When we first got in, there was a lot of tannin in the water which was an initial disappointment because I thought the vis was going to be terrible. It ended up being really, really clear, so I could get some nice kelp shots.

While the macrocysitis (giant kelp) isn't very big here (only about 2-3m) it's in really good condition, which is nice because these days so much of it is dying or looking really ratshit. I love the golden tones it has, and it feels so cool and smooth when you touch it. I love my kelp.

The next thing I found was the 'swimming anemone' (I really don't think that is what it's actually called, but it's how I think of it!). It was quite big - about 15cm tall and 10cm or so wide. A cylindrical pile of jelly beans with a pretty anemone stuck on the top is a good way to think of it ;) Unfortunately, because it was actively feeding and there was a fair bit of silt and stuff around (including many juvenile schools of fish) I couldn't get a good shot of it as a whole. This is the best I had.

these two shot shows how the anemone 'sits' on the jelly beans ;)

The jelly beans ;)

The more it fed, and the more I harrassed it with my torch the more it kept pulling in on itself and eventually it just turned into a ball of jellybeans again. Unfortunately, my movements, its movements and the already present crap in the water due to the surge meant the area was so churned up I couldn't even get a good shot of the jelly-bean-ball it turned into. I did get some shots of it pulling into itself, but they're pretty gritty and not very clear.

Onwards we went, and then I saw this:

This is an abalone. Abalone sit on rocks and do very little. This is the first time I've actually gotten a photo of an abalone that looks semi-decent. They're hard to photo artistically - normally they just look like an abalone. This one, in my opinion, is sort of looking pretty ;)

I also saw the tiniest abalone EVER on this dive (about 2cm big if that) and I got a fairly nice shot of it so I could show people how small it was. Again, though, it just looks like an abalone and there's nothing special about it other than it's size. The only way you'd realise that if you were familiar with how big the surroundings normally are in comparison, and seeing as only one of you on my flist dive where I dive, it's kinda stupid spamming you all with that pic ;)

Next I found another feeding thing. I think it's a worm of some descript, similar to a christman tree worm or a tube worm, but I honestly don't know what it's called. Normally these ones are purple or creamy coloured - this one was a deep, vibrant red and yellow which is quite possibly due to the very reddish light I was using...

To break up all this redness (the light... really need to find a better light), here is some green weedy stuff.

I like taking a lot of photos of the same thing from different angles and playing with different lighting. Way back when I first got my camera about a year ago, I took millions and millions of photos of basketstars. I haven't taken as many of them recently because of various reasons (mainly, I'm experimenting more these days) but last night there were so many around holding such beautiful formations I couldn't resist. Most looks the same though, so I'll only post one.

One thing about this site, particularly on a night dive, is the sheer amount of LIFE around. Different species tend to congregate in this area, and I just see more of them here than anywhere else. Particularly, this is true for the dragonets.

They're actually quite hard to snap because they move around a lot, hate the light, and like wedging themselves in between rocks where you can't easily get with your camera.

This one is quite well camouflaged! I almost didn't see him!!

Me playing around with lighting and angles...

This one just appeals to me.

I also got a pic of a fish. I have no idea what it is, but I got one!

Right around the same area as I snapped this fish, I saw a velvet star with some basketstars, and decided to play around a little with lighting and angles again, as well as focusing.

I love how rich the colours on the velvet stars are, really aptly named, in my opinion!!

This is another type of star - me just fooling around with the lighting here to get some texture effects. They look kind of vicious, these stars, and they get fairly large! This one was only little by normal standards - about 30cm across.

In line with fooling around with lighting and stuff... here's some shots of shells on kelp.

I keep taking lots of pictures of the same thing, right? Well, here's lots of pictures of different types of crabs! (and a crayfish!)

This guy was eating his dinner and got shitty with me for getting too close - see how his back legs are lifted in warning?!

This guy was busy entertaining a girl (at least, I think this is the guy!) but she scuttled off when I arrived and he sat quite happily for a few minutes before crating a cloud of dust and running away. They had been in the middle of a dinner date, munching on a white urchin, before I blinded them with my light. You can see the urchin right between his claws...

These guys make me laugh, they look like grumpy little soldiers with their red claws!

Look how big his claws are! I have no idea what he is. I'm surprised this one-shot worked because I literally just clicked before he disappeared.

This cray is Teh Evil Cray! Look at the light reflecting in his eyes! He was pretty big too - if A had been there I'm fairly certain I wouldn't even have had a chance to take pics!! Actually, there were HEAPS of big crayfish around, all well over size! I'm not a hunter, and D left his catchbag, so neither of us got any but I'm certain D won't forget the catchbag next time!!

I'm fairly impressed with this photo. Really. *preens*

Silly little guy wouldn't come out, and my light was dying at this stage hence the really, REALLY orange glow. WOE.

Last but not least - an abstract of the weed.

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!!!

photos

2006-03-12T11:52:03Z

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.

Am playing with lighting. Zoanthids, as you have seen before. I LOVE zoanthids.

You've seen these before, but this is the first picture of a star that I'm actually happy with. The lighting worked (ZOMG!!) and I think it's in pretty good focus. It's kinda hard to shoot these in an 'interesting' and 'different' perspective though.

Am ecstatically happy with this photo of a feather. It's not often they turn out, and I actually managed to get this one with colour! Just a pity it was slightly broken... Am enjoying playing with the lighting!

Fish were schooling today around Sick Rock. I have NO idea what they are, and no-one I've harrassed can tell me satisfactorily what they are. Still, they are very cool - i got some okay shots of them! (these three are merely the beginning...!!)

played around with lighting techniques to get some different effects. Best two of the set.
Lighting still needs work; functioning with a very-close-to-batteries-dying-torch really isn't the most effective source of external light...

Jewel Anemones. I had fun with them at both Maria Island and on the second dive today at Port Arthur.

More Unknown!fish.

Little Scorpionfish or Dragonet - not sure which pic I liked more so I posted them both. One's a little glarey, one's a little dark. Ah well.

Last anemone (and pic) of the day. Have lots more, but am not posting because I imagine this is more than enough spammage for all of you :)

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.

Several dive's worth of photos

2006-03-02T09:38:29Z

I have not spammed you all for a while, so here's a literal STACK of photos I've collected since my last posting spree. Seahorses and the like from my night dive last night; anemones and the like from Port Arthur and Sick Rock several weeks ago.

I was quite happy to have my camera with me on a 'Seahorse dive' for once - this is my first go at photographing them because I've just never had the camera with me on a dive where I've seen them before. This site, where we did our night dive last night, has a MILLION seahorses. The only place that comes close to having this many would be the Eaglehawk Jetty. It was very cool, finding them, unfortunately they're really shy and love hiding themselves in the kelp.

This star was walking across a log. It was so cool watching it move I forgot to keep taking photos, so I only got one 'moving' shot of it. Pity a bit of weed came across the lens, but I didn't think it turned out that bad.

Kelp. This you have all seen before.

A nudibranch on a shell. VERY cute!! Note the little feelery things on it's head? It makes me think of a Furballs or Furbies!! *g* I didn't set this up, as a few people have asked me, I honest to God found them like that. Had I hassled the little nudibranch, he'd be all curled up and his feelers tucked in. HA!

A seaurchin. Can't remember it's official name, but it's really cool.

A teeny tiny little threefin hiding in a dead oyster shell! I got a few shots of this, and randomly picked one to post, but I have a suspicion one of the others is better.

Velvetstars. They have a really cool texture; I'm sure I've posted them before.

Anemones!! I really do like photographing these - they're very photogenic!

Another type of anemone, about 4cm wide. Very cool and very abundant.

Two of the divers I dived with.

I couldn't decide which one to post so I put them all up. A common nudibranch - the one I see most often.

VERY cool photo of two crabs - it looks like a reflection if you just glance at it, but it was two crabs positioned very perfectly for a shot! *g*

A sponge and me playing with my torch for lighting effects. Thought they were a bit abstract ;)

There you go. Hope that didn't kill your servers - I know there were quite a few in that post!!

photos

2006-01-30T09:49:27Z

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

A few of the Butterfly Perch schooling against the wall at Deep Glen Bay

a crayfish. Bet you recognise these by now!

Spongey doovers (yes, reeeal technical tonight).

A swim through.

zoanthids

Deep Glen Bay

2005-12-23T11:03:48Z

Kelp & Cathedral Lights at Deep Glen Bay

Visibility was brilliant yesterday, so I tried for scene shots rather than my usual macros. Only took a few, and even fewer worked. Water was too murky - I really need a Wide Angle lens.

This is a shot of Andreas (one of my ducklings) descending down to about 13m. Most of the photos in this set were taken at around 13m, so you can see we had some really good vis!

Kelp growing over a huge bommie and overhang - absolutely beautiful the way the cathedral lights were playing. The colour and awesomeness of this spot was AMAZING. Pics do it no justice.

Bubbles. I love bubbles. :D MY BUBBLES!

My brother, Justin, and Andreas all swimming around the bommie and into the mouth of a small little hollowed out sea cave. Very cool spot :)

Justin (another duckling) swimming toward the big bommie from earlier, where we did our safety stop on.

A seadragon head - from the dodgy night dive a few days ago :)

And that's it - not many pics this time ;)

Night Dive Photos

2005-12-23T10:30:23Z

Here they are - as promised :)

These four little guys are hermit crabs! *g* you don't normally see them during the day - they lie around looking like dead shells and don't move. At night they come out to eat, and if they get spooked they jerk back into their shells and it takes AGES for them to come back out again. We saw heaps on this dive.

The very first pic in this lot I've got blown up HUGE - 10x20 - because it was a 'print so many small ones and we'll give you a big one FREE!' deal at the printers and mom liked that pic. I've put it in a frame, need to find a nice border, and that will be her Christmas gift taken care of :-D

These guys are called "Shaw's Cowfish". The blue ones are males and the brown ones the females. It's really strange to see two males near each other - they're normally territorial and rule over their 'harem'. When the male dies, the biggest female becomes a male! I love them - the look like they're going to kiss you.

Teeny tiny little fish about 3-4cm long called "Blennies". They are EVERYWHERE - very quick movements and love hiding between the weed. It's the first time I've tried taking photos of them, and because it was so hard to stay still (Lots of surge) I didn't get many good shots.

Jewel Anemones - look like the zoanthids I keep posting ;) Except these are even smaller and have beautiful little drops on the ends of their army things - hence the 'jewel' anemones. They come in a fantastic array of colours - fuschia, blue, purple, pink, red, yellow and white to name a few, but I only found red and yellow ones. However, the "Only" is deceiving - huge WALLS of anemones on this dive!!! Never seen them so abundant at this site before.

This is another anemone. There is a latin name I can't remember, and despite the fact that they're found EVERYWHERE, I can't find a common name for them (rolli, if you know different please let me know!) so I've decided to christen them Jelly Anemones because the blue stuff (top pic) looks like jelly beans all squashed up together. Also, the red stuff down the bottom is the tentacles of this anemone. Very pretty red colour, very common, not photographed enough IMHO.

Octopus. Two of the heaps and heaps I saw throughout the dive. Not the one that attacked me ;) That one I didn't even get a good pic of!! I kept cutting it's head off or getting horrible backscatter.

I *think* this is a Gurnard. It looks like it's related to the stone fish and gurnard family, so I hope I'm not wrong. As I said, I don't have my book handy so I can't confirm my guesses. These things are EVERYWHERE at night, but I kept forgetting that they're ideal subjects because they don't move unless you give them a fright!! My bad.

edit: They are called Little Scorpion Fish or Dragonets

Seadragon. Juvenile still. I think I've posted lots about seadragons already, so I won't continue to bore you all with facts ;)

A common ray. Very cool. They glide around and try to get away from your torch. Bigger rays and skates like the Eagles or the Melbourne's tend to follow your torch cos they're curious - not very comforting; a touch disconcerting, actually!

A teeny tiny little shrimp with an urchin and more jewel anemones under it. Very cute - they attack you even though you're like heaps bigger than them!

And another sea star. I love the textures and shapes these make!

+

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

Tasman Peninsula

2005-12-23T10:28:23Z

This is where I live.

Well, technically I don't live here because here would be on a boat in the ocean, but I do spend an awful lot of time here :D

The Fortress

I call this area/formation "The Fortress" because it feels like a huge fortress. I have no idea what it's real name is, but it's way cool. Very very VERY far south of the Tasman Peninsula, between Cape Pillar and Cape Raoul.

I am inside what we call the "Pirate Cave". It's a huge cave we fit into - boat and all - and we're the only boat around that does it :) all the tour boats which run down here (charging around $120/head for the trip) only *look* at the caves and incuts. We go INTO them, and dive them if it's flat! Diving is so much better than touring!! The big thing out front is a pillar or a spire. Very cool :) We got 'rained on' going in and out of the cave because it had been raining heavily the day before. Very cool stuff.

Some pretty scenic shots of Cape Raoul and Cape Pillar with Tasman Island. Not telling which is which - requires too much effort and I'm lazy now :)

The cliffs that dominate the area. Very speccy in RL - these photos do them NO justice at all. Really.

Some birds at the rocks in front of the Fortress. I thought they were cool :)

*adores her part of the world*

It was amazingly calm this week - normally it's so rough here all you see are cliffs and water breaking OVER them. This day it was like a lake - absolutely amazing. I'm just a touch upset because the sun angle was horrendous I kept getting lens flares and the sky is coloured all funny and the cliffs are too dark. *Grumbles*

Dive photos

2005-12-15T05:23:21Z

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

Once again, my funky jelly anemone friends. I do so adore these. Sorry for spamming you with them!

I took this photo at 45m (my housing is apparently only rated to 40m... oops) on ~~sick~~ James' Rock [we call it sick rock because people ALWAYS get sick out there on the boat, but last time they didn't so now we have to call it by it's real name again. Damn]. I was narked off my face and randomly snapping, and TA DA! The one beneath it was also taken there, at around 46m I think.

BLENNIES! (or three fins... take your pick). Taken at The Spire/Patterson's Arch in Waterfall Bay on Monday. Shit vis, great life!

You should all know what these are called by now, so that's all I'm going to say :-D

Taken on Monday as well, in the same Patterson's Arch/The Spire vicinity - not sure which rock formations I've captured here because I took a few and they all look reasonably alike underwater ;) It was shocking vis though, for this area (only about 15m) and horribly cloudy, so I turned the flash off to get some silhouttes. If you look really closely, you can still see some of the crap in the water picked up as backscatter by my torch. Darn.

A crayfish, taken at The Hotspot just behind the Candlestick in Fortescue Bay several weeks ago ;)

Dogleg Cave in Waterfall Bay - taken on Monday. Absolutely STUNNING scenery, not much life though, and shit vis. I like the way you can see Cathedral light's in the second shot, and the bubbles in the other shot :) This cave hooks around and joins up witht he main Cathedral Cave network, which is awesome but I didn't get to do :(

I chased this little guy around a Bommie three times before I got a shot - it was HARD WORK damnit, they move REAL fast! He's a carpet or draughtboard shark, also known as gummy sharks cos they don't really have teeth and if they do bite it's like sandpaper. They tend to be shy - I have some good video footage of another one from an earlier dive.

Green weedy stuff. You've seen this before.

Kelp silhouttes. Vis was really shit, as you can see by these murky shots. Meh. I got some shots where you could see the surface foam and stuff breaking over the rocks, but they're so murky you'd have no idea what you're looking at.

Another little scorpionfish, taken in the Back Pirate's Cave south of Port Arthur (I will post some awesome scenic shots of the cliffs and caves in another post!).

Pycnagonids (or something like that). I have no idea how to spell it's 'name' but it's also known as a sea spider, which is MUCH easier to spell and say!

Red weed. This you haven't seen before ;)

Taken right next the basket star at 45m when I was narked. I love random snappage!

Patterson's arch, growing on a wall. I think you've seen this type of sponge before ;)

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

kingston beach

2005-06-05T12:28:10Z

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!

Friends Only

2005-03-07T10:22:44Z

Hi, this Livejournal is Friends Only. Comment if you want to be added.

The Last Dive

2005-02-20T09:49:49Z

The most AMAZING dives yesterday. Spent almost an hour on the second dive literally swimming IN a huge school of mackeral. It was amazing. It was awesome. Thousands of fish all around us. Turned the water so dark it was like night time. Not to mention kelp!

Kelp!

*squee*

kelp forest!

Pics below - there are many though. You have been warned.

Have I mentioned I totally ::heart:: my camera, even though it's totally sucky and crap and I really want one that can do macro?

Kelp. Big kelp.

Fish. Much fish.

A cry for kelp

2005-02-20T09:44:29Z

For those few remaining people on my flist who aren't currently aware of my diving obsession, hopefully this post kind of whacks you across the head with it ;)

I learnt to dive two years ago in the most magnificent and awe-inspiring giant kelp fields. The kelp towered for METRES above you, the fishlife incredible. Six months ago, those same sites still had kelp, even though it was looking a bit bedraggled and not quite as thick as I was used to. Becuase of Uni and time and stuff, i haven't been down to the kelp fields there for about six months, and on Sunday I finally got to go back.

The kelp is gone. As in, there is NOTHING there. From thriving forests teeming with life, the entire area has been decimated. NO kelp forests - just some loose coating of bull kelp on the rocks and a few weedy looking attempts at regrowing the giant kelp.

Apparently the warmer waters of the ocean are helping to kill our kelp forests. I'd heard about it before, but until actually being faced with the disappearance of the kelp in a site where it was once abundant, I didn't realise just how serious it is. Granted, warm water isn't the SOLE cause for the kelp dying, but the fact is the kelp beds are retreating down Tasmania's east coast, and the only places we find it these days are in the shallow, murkier waters near where I live and further down the coast which is almost inaccessible for every day divers.

The kelp is gone. I can't get over that. Sure, we still have the 10-14m forests, but the 28m forests were SO AMAZING and spectacular and the water was so clear. But they're gone.

The point of this post?

This is *our* environment. Not just my kelp forests in my little corner of the world. EVERY single ocean is affected - coral bleaching in the tropics, temperate waters warming resulting in the loss of an amazing amount of fishlife you only find in cold water...

And on land? I don't have to tell you about the effects of warming on land. I guess I"m trying to push some awareness, because it's hit home really hard in the last two days that the warming IS affecting stuff NOW, and if we act now there's still soemthing we can possibly do.

Please, consider the environment and realise that our planet is not going to survive unless we start making some serious changes to how we do things.