tdpriest

Some say Australians can be divided into two groups - those that holiday in Bali and those that don't. For me Bali is a frustrating mix - affordable luxury for when you need to be comatose along but with about a million other tourists. Hot, crowded, noisy and far too many Aussies in unflattering Bintang singlets behaving badly. I'd seen beautiful footage of diving the Liberty Wreck but understood it was usually super crowded and the Mola Mola dives at Nusa Penida looked pretty good but potentially treacherous with the wrong dive operator.

 

For me - Bali has been one of the necessary evils, along with excess luggage fees and the push and shove of boarding small planes, you learn to flow with on the way to or from wonderful dive trips to other parts of Indonesia. 

 

Then a couple of diver/photographers I respect started talking about Bali as a credible dive destination...

 

Thanks, Jenny. The Liberty is pretty quiet...

 

... if you get in the water before breakfast!

 

I think that Bali has a lot to offer, if you stay away from the Aussie-traps in the south. I have to admit to having been swept up and down Nusa Penida without any Mola mola, but, hey, nothing's perfect...

 

... I would put in a photographer's recommendation for Scuba Seraya in Tulamben. I also enjoyed Menjangan, but that's more do-it-yourself photography. Here's a link from late 2012:

 

http://wetpixel.com/...showtopic=48774

 

 

I could tell you lots of BBC Wildlife stories but I don't want to spoil your illusions!

 

Including the one where Richard and David Attenborough were mysteriously swapped?

... if you are want to get more than 1:1 with diopters you will want the 105 mm...

 

It's good, but it's hard to use the 105mm with a DX sensor. I did use the 105mm with diopters, but I have friends who have happily used teleconverters and "wet" diopters with the 60mm micro lens and a DX sensor.

 

 

 

Handing-off the gear is best, but it's not always possible in a current. Rolling in with the camera held in both hands in front of your jacket, trying to hold it above your nose so that it enters the water last reduces the shock to the o-rings. This also works when jumping in, but it's hard to hold the camera up above your head...

 

... I haven't actually seen a leak as a result. Dunk buckets are the worst culprits when it comes to wet cameras!

It's not that funny: I'm joining the competitors on Dolphin Dream next week...

Maybe they should make a minimum certification level of rescue diver+peak performance buoyancy and +100 logged dives, now that would make sense.

 

Not everyone is PADI...

 

... other Wetpixies can speak to my own bouyancy control, but I've never done "peak performance bouyancy", just my BSAC and IANTD training.

 

There are times when I think that it took me 1000 dives, rather than 100, to get it right!

Several years ago I learned something very, very valuable (from Alex Mustard, in fact): the best images are carefully planned, and the dive is constructed around that plan.

 

The lens, the port, the lighting, the time of day, the position of the subject - they all matter.

 

"General purpose" kit yields snapshots: zoom lenses, multi-purpose domes and infinitely flexible strobe arms may let us photograph a multiplicity of subjects, but how many would we photograph well?

 

Carrying two set-ups just increases the tendency to jump from subject to subject, without giving each one the consideration it deserves, and without committing the dive to the aim of that one, perfect, image. My best photographs have been taken when I've carried a very specific camera set-up, and worked creatively to match its characteristics to the potential of the subject.

 

I think that flexibility is a blind alley!

The more I learn, the more controls that I use...

Slideshow, at last:

Bali slideshow: thanks to Shannon Conway and DiveQuest!

Despite being one of the first images from my D800, not the highest of resolutions...

... a weird optical set-up and a high ISO, thanks to having no strobes (my old gear almost certainly imploded at 500m or more off a Sudanese reef). Nonetheless, I find this image one of the most evocative of British wreck diving, my first passion as a cold-water diver, that I have ever taken.

Technical dive training has been teaching the skills of solo diving from the outset, emphasising personal skills self-reliance and equipment redundancy. It is possible that a diver with a less well-developed skill set and less familiarity with their equipment could be permitted to dive alone when an experienced technical diver is not...

... simply from the name of their qualification (for myself: IANTD Normoxic Trimix). With apologies to Alex M. (and, latterly Shannon Conway), technical diving training has helped my photography more than any photo workshop!

The strobes need to be angled upwards to darken the intrusive sand, and, as we have all done, you haven't got close enough. Your rig should let you get much closer to the subject, and that, by itself, will improve the strobe lighting.

I would shoot this sort of subject by getting close, shooting upwards to remove the sand from the frame, and choosing a shutter speed to get the colour of the blue background right:

Rather than the Macbook Air, I think I would go for the 13" Macbook Pro as it would be...

... heavier, and not what Pam's asked for. My 13" is definitely too heavy in the era of excess baggage and weighed hand luggage.

It's a zoom gear, not a focus gear (they fit to different parts of the lens) that you need. Using both can be a struggle in many housings.