Maldives (Ari Atoll, Vaavu, Meemu, Faafu, Rasdu)

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

Hello,

 

I went to the Maldives early April for a 2 weeks trip, mixing a 10 days liveaboard and 4 days in Madoogali resort.

 

I had the chance to meet a great dive guide that has a very extensive knowledge of the the Maldives with more than 170 dive sites.

His name is Christophe Manesse and his company is "Amis des Maldives".

His promise for every dive trip is to show you the following species (http://www.amisdesmaldives.com/):

- hammerheads & grey sharks (we had schools in Fotteyo and Vanuravali)

- manta rays (20 in one dive on Doncalo Veli)

- whale sharks (3 in the same dive)

 

A great team dedicated to divers and not business oriented. For you CMAS divers, you'll find what you can expect from CMAS dives !!!!

Nitrox is available on board, but it is not recommended for dives below 40 m.

 

Few pics:

 

1. A trip to the Maldives should always start here...

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

5.

 

6. Christophe and his detailed briefing

 

7. Let's dive

 

8.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Bigeye Bubblefish

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

9. Manta on Doncalo Veli

 

10. The Whale shark and the diver

 

11. My first macro ever...

 

12. Eagle rays on Fotteyo

 

13. Manta on Doncalo veli

 

14. Maalhos Thila

 

15. Maalhos Thila

 

16. Enter Sandman...

 

17. Kudara Thila

 

18. Fesdu Wreck

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

19.

 

20. A manta ray while snorkeling

 

21.

 

22.

 

23.

 

24. Even in the maldives they love football

 

25.

 

26.

 

Hope you enjoyed it.

 

Damien

[howeikwok 27]

Fantastic.

[Stephen Colquitt 0]

Terrific - you saw so many rays!!

 

I love the first shot - looks so inviting

[anthp 0]

Superb work. Really magnificent.

[ckchong 0]

fantastic............

[Rothi 0]

Just one word.: Awesome!!!!

 

Absolutely Fantastic work!

 

Cheers Markus

[Damo 4]

As a devotee of the Maldives- all I can say is- awesome!! Thank you for tugging my heart strings this am.!

[Vimond 0]

Fantastic.

[marktol 0]

Fantastic shots,

 

Thanks a lot for sharing!

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

Thank you very much for your warm comments.

I sincerely appreciate it, but I feel ...

 

I had such a good time in the Maldives that I will look for booking another trip this year. I'll probably try to go again in Nov. or Dec.

 

Damien

[Nicholas S. 0]

Great Great Collection Damien !!!!

[edpdiver 21]

Beautiful shots.

[Elainew 1]

Really enjoyed seeing your photos - thanks for posting!

[Scubamoose 0]

Impressive!

Very well done :-)

 

Cheers

Karel

[stewsmith 14]

A great collection. Your WA is very good. I love the blues.

 

Stew

[Alexx 3]

Wonderful shots, seems to be Tokina is the right lens for the job:)! Oh boy, when will my housing arrive :-(

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

Thank you for your warm comments.

 

The 10-17 is the perfect match for the maldives if you love wide-angle shots.

I have seen so many critters, snails and other great things to shot macro... but every day during the briefing the guide was telling me "go large, go large".

I used my Sigma 17-70 for shots with sharks down the lagoon passes, but I still need to process the images.

 

10-17 is definitively a superb lens for cropped sensors.

 

Damien

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

A great collection. Your WA is very good. I love the blues.

 

Stew

 

Thank you Stew.

I recently changed my settings shooting RAW + JPEG, and I was afraid to loose this deep and intense blue you get with the "Landscape" color mode on Nikon.

Finally, the standard mode does a better job if you just add a little bit of contrast.

 

Damien

[DesertEagle 2]

Maalhos Thila is superb.

[Bigeye Bubblefish 7]

Thank you DesertEagle... I can only say +1 to Maalhos Thila.

That day we had terrible surface conditions with heavy rains and no sun at all. There was a terrific gloomy atmosphere.