Jenny

At ease everyone, Simon found the answer. For the record the correct setting Is to make sure EVF Auto Switch in the Built in EVF menu in custom settings is turned off. This enables the left side |O| Switch to toggle the views. As for 2, the back dial does this but topside and in the Nsuticam housing.

That is so funny - Wetpixel is magic!

Hello from Lembeh Strait where I am taking my OMD EM 1 out for the first time, I've read Alex's suggestions for settings and mostly this is working well. I can't though find a solution to two problems, hopefully someone here can help - 1. I'm using a Nauticam Housing with 45 degree viewfinder and need a way to toggle easily between the viewfinder and the LCD screen. So far I can only manage this by going through the custom menu and turning the EVF on or off. 2. I can't find a way to enable zooming into an image while previewing, to check focus, before re shooting. Topside I mostly use the touch screen. Moving up from a G12 one strobe to the EM1 with two strobes and multiple lenses and ports is proving to be excellent entertainment - hope the photos improve. Thanks in advance for your assistance, Jenny

How come unpacking is so much easier than packing but so much sadder? This was a great trip. The boat, not at the luxury end of the market, was comfortable and well equipped. What makes the difference though - the crew were about the best I've encountered (and I'm such an expert), absolutely wonderful. The guides were terrific and Mark had a real knack for finding dead things. Strangely we had a series of strobe floods - I think five in total. Fortunately nothing catastrophic. For me it was particularly terrific to share the trip with my daughter, Phoebe. We spent a couple of days in Bali first playing with our Underwater Tribe friends - this time rafting and bike riding. Highly recommend it so long as you put in a bit of training ahead of the hills first. As always travelling with Eric and this time Adam as well, meant there was plenty of opportunity to watch, ask, listen and learn. I'm still cropping for gold and it's time to update my camera so travelling with these generous folk was very timely. I've been able to pick their brains and cut through a whole lot of the complexity that comes with an upgrade decision. And really, hanging out with my first best californians again was bliss. Safe back in Oz, really missing Wetpixel friends but plotting away to be ready for the next one. Here are a couple of images, G12- Inon Z240x1. See you next time lovely people ...

Thanks for the feedback all. Tim and Sasdasdaf - Liberty Wreck before breakfast is probably the way to go - me, I'm partial to drinking coffee in the early morning tropical sun before getting in the water Two of my group did a late afternoon dive and seemed to have the wreck to themselves. Two of us opted for the Coral Garden shore dive - it was a tough choice which in itself is a good sign. Paul, Lucky you, you should be able to get some really good diving in in 5 days, look forward to hearing about it when you get back. Thanks Steve, the website is a bit behind now - I have 3 trip reports in draft.

I was so focussed on protecting my camera on a back roll negative entry at Castle Rock, Komodo recently, my mask came off. Luckily someone below caught it but so much for a negative entry. Next time I'll try the 'face first side slip'.

Some say Australians can be divided into two groups - those that holiday in Bali and those that don't. Simplistic for sure, but I fall into the 'don't' group. For me Bali is a frustrating mix - affordable luxury for when you need to be comatose along but with about a million other tourists. Glimpses of a colourful, rich culture that is only superficially available at best. 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 - perfect to add on to the start or end of a trip. I was joining a group of local dive friends on a trip through Komodo on Phi Siren, so a couple of us added a few extra days to the start of the trip and signed up with Mike Veitch and Luca Vaime's new outfit, Underwater Tribe, for a five day explore of Bali diving. I was pretty unsure of what to expect but figured these were people we could trust. And I am so glad we did. Luca put together a 6 day itinerary that worked beautifully. It took from Sanur, our pick up point, up to the north western coast to dive Menjangan Island, along the north coast to Lovina, Tulamben and Amed finishing up with a night and day in Ubud for those of us travelling on to dry our gear before the meeting up with our Canberra friends ahead of the flight to Bima. Underwater Tribe took care of everything - we had a fantastic dive master from Manado with us, Niko, and very capable driver (essential in that crazy traffic), Julian, who also knew a huge amount about the areas we were travelling through and the various ceremonies we were to encounter and a great sense of humour. All accommodation was taken care of and most meals. Really we just had to roll out of bed and follow them around. As a particular treat, Mike and Made Dwi Suarsana (I know how lucky was that!) travelled with us as well. The first long day of travel was easier than I expected - broken up with stops for breakfast, a walk (through torrential rain) to a pretty speccy waterfall, stops a beautiful mountain lookouts and a stop for those who find monkeys endearing (I'm not in that group either). Mike, Cathy and Patto and that's cat civet poo coffee they are drinking. Diving started with a full day, three boat dives at Menjangan Island. The first of what would turn out to be many wonderful surprises. This island offers terrific, healthy hard and soft coral, massive gorgonian fans, schooling fish (I just love watching big schools of moorish idol) and an array of macro subjects. The island is a popular day trip destination for snorkelling tourists, wrapped around pool noodles, but we seemed to be the only divers. The Island is home to a very impressive temple to which a constant flow of Balinese arrived to make offerings. Sadly my photo of the temple really sucks. I think that's the first creature with eggs I've photographed. Next we travelled down to Lovina and from here on in the diving was shore entry style, either across black sand beaches or rocky shorelines. All the entries were pretty straightforward although we each did occasionally embarrass ourselves and I was glad to have bought open heel fins and boots. In Lovina we dived twice at Puri Jati, these were classic black sand muck dives and we loved it. Long arm and coconut octopus (I think Made found a bobtail quid) and a first me, a mimic octopus. Sea horse, ghost pipefish, pipefish, juvenile lionfish, most things you'd expect to see on this type of dive. Watching a Balinese cleansing ceremony on the beach was an unexpected addition to the day. Our presence didn't seem to intrude on proceedings at all. Juvenile Batfish Octopus in a bone. From Lovina we travelled down to Tulamben and spent a very happy day and half diving the Liberty Wreck and great little shore dive, Coral Gardens, which also turned out to be a great little muck dive. The Liberty Wreck was fantastic - it is so beautiful it is easy to see why so many people want to dive it. It was busy while we were there, but not so that it was a bother. My photos of the wreck are especially bad so I suggest you google it. From Tulamben we travelled further south along the coast (or easy, I'm not sure) to Amed, another area of Bali I hadn't heard of and it too was a fantastic surprise. The coastline reminded me of the Amalfi cost, lots of bays and high cliffs and the area seems to be favoured by either the very wealthy with beautiful cliff top compounds or raggedy hippies hanging out in cheap home stays. Here we dived the Japanese wreck, very shallow and after getting past the rocky shoreline the first white sand of the trip. It created that lovely milky aqua water. Along with the wreck covered in soft corals, this site offers a variety of macro subjects for keen eyed including fire dart gobies, loads of nudibranchs, leaf fish etc.. Schools of fish hang out under the wreck and while fun to try to shoot, I have to conclude that a single strobe (in my hands) and the inside or under of wrecks isn't that great but this gives an idea - Our final two dives were at Cafe Garam further down the coast. What a great way to end the diving part of this trip. Two fantastic muck dives - And now I've reached the photo upload limit so will have to upload the rest and longer trip report on my website. But these last dives were breathtaking. Classic start - acres of grey sand, suddenly turns out there are dozens of blue spotted sting rays in that sand and then when you reach some tyres used for mooring boats and the place comes alive. Amongst other things three beautiful juvenile emperor angel fish a perfect foil for three fat ugly stone fish. A great way to end a trip that was characterised by dives ending with huge smiles and lots of chatter about what we had seen and the passing around of cameras to view the evidence. Of course topside there was plenty of laughter, good food, fru fru drinks, and wonderful landscapes. While it sounds like a hectic itinerary, our experience, thanks to the Underwater Tribe crew, was relaxed and happy. We were very, very well looked after. I can't wait to go back. Top Tips - 1. Add this on to the next time you are travelling to Asia 2. Dive Bali with Underwater Tribe. It is clear from the itinerary, staff etc. that these people are photographers and will know what you are looking for. Not so the Phi Siren but that's a different story for another time. 3. Take open heel fins - the entries were pretty easy but I was glad to have dive boots. 4. Take plenty of insect repellant - the higher the proportion of DEET the better 5. Make the most of the driving. Julian and Niko were more than happy to stop at photogenic locations even if it did mean falling behind that dratted truck again. 6. Don't leave your exotic disease immunisation shots to the last minute - this didn't work so well for me 7. Bali is a pretty lovely place after all, but I still strongly recommend you avoid Kuta at all costs 8. Get washing done whenever the opportunity presents because sometimes you move on too quickly 9. Depending on the time of year - adding Nusa Penida with Mike and Luca would probably work very well. 10. There is absolutely nothing that an expert, Balinese massage can't cure. Big shout out to Luca, Miho, Mike, Made, Niko and Julian. Thank you so much for introducing us to the wonderful diving opportunities right at our door step. YAY

Hey Sharon, really fantastic video - you have captured the look and feel of those dives beautifully. Thank you so much for sharing it. Together with Eric's video, and everyone's stills, we have a wonderful record of these trips to treasure.

Hello all, 2011/12 has been a remarkable time for me. Here is my fave, amongst many - Dmitry

Oh and these two classics, from Raja Ampat, Boo windows and fromTriton Bay, flasher wrasse with some great post prod magic from Dan KozynDan Kitchen.

Thanks Mike. This time I was sure the Arif bandana and sunglasses would have done the trick Not such a colourful sea apple as yours from Komodo - but this one is with a frogfish and I did get quite close. Ambon harbour which was extremely disgusting Drove myself quite mad trying to get a decent shot of these small Pontohi These were more my size And there was a bit of wide-angle skills backsliding with the occasional good shot. I blame the milky viz

And of course some silliness is always in order - I was very sad to leave the boat and not stay on for Trip 3 - in fact I wondered whether I did really need to leave the boat - This wasn't much of a hiding place, but I did find Emily's stash of Nutella And this wold have been a good place, but I don't really like heights - I tried swapping my ticket home with Arif's bandana, but the Captain wouldn't hear of it - This turned out to be the best spot - Until Lupo and Douglas inconveniently turned up - And insisted I make way for the paid up Trip 3 guests - How unreasonable! So now I'm home facing the horror of the shopping malls for last minute Christmas preparations, really wishing I was in Raja Ampat with Wetpixel.

Hello all, I was lucky enough to be on Trips 1 and 2 of this terrific Wetpixel expedition. Travelling from Ambon, through Banda to Triton Bay and then on through Raja Ampat to Sorong, provided a great mix of diving and photography. From rather ghastly but interesting muck diving in Ambon, to beautiful sea mounts covered with soft corals, drift diving along beautiful walls and in raging currents on some of the fishiest dives I've seen. And of course, beautiful, beautiful manta ray - we were lucky enough on the last two dives to have oceanic and reef mantas! This was my second Wetpixel trip and I was a little nervous that perhaps I had just been especially lucky last year. Not so! This trip confirmed for me that travelling with Wetpixel is a really great way to experience the best of underwater photography/diving. Trip leaders like Eric and Douglas know when and where the best diving will be and the trips attract people who are not just fantastic underwater photographers but who bring a Wetpixel culture of comraderie and generosity that means that despite the intense photography focus, the small groups create a lively, funny, intelligent and thoughtful experience. So shout out to my new first best Californians from Trip 1 and more mature group from Trip 2 who, unlike Trip 1 peeps, managed to get through the whole trip without talking about poop. Special thanks to Lupo for lending me a brand new Inon Z240 following a dreadful explosion and flood in my one and only one, and to Eric and Douglas and Emily for creating such a wonderful experience. Here is a set of photos I hope demonstrates the diversity of underwater environment we had to explore -

Woo hoo, the legislation passed through our fractious parliament yesterday. Thanks all for contributing!

Jenny, I love your beautiful goby photos. I had thought Bali might be crowded and crushed. Obviously not. Wished I could get that narrow depth of field on my G12. Cheers, Jennifer