Archive for 2010

Nudibranchs

Tue, Nov 30th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 6 Comments

While I was in Ambon, I spent most, but not all, of my time with the Totomega lens. On many dives, I carried a normal 100mm macro lens with me as well, which I turned to whenever I came across decent-sized nudibranchs like the ones below.


Glossodoris nudibranch moving along the reef


Chromodoris hintuanensis lifting its skirt

If you’re a nudibranch fan, there are a lot(!) in Ambon Bay. Some are normal-size like these, but during my recent visit, there seemed to be many, many juvenile nudis, a number of which were barely the size of a grain of rice…if that.

I wasn’t in the mood to squint, so I generally passed those by, but some of my friends from Thailand took excellent photos of some truly unusual Lilliputian sea slugs. So if you’re good at searching through rubble, it’s worth keeping an eye out for the teeny-tiny nudibranchs in Ambon.


A pair of Nembrotha cristata nudibranchs enjoying a morning tryst

I really love the following photo, because it’s usually difficult to make Kentrodoris nudibranchs (which I refer to as puppy dog nudis) look good. [Note: Kentrodoris rubescens was renamed Jorunna rubescens in 2002. Thanks Ron!]

We found this juvenile in really shallow water (I think it was less than 5m) at the end of a dive. It happily sat on its perch, graciously affording each of us some private portrait time.


A baby Jorunna rubescens nudibranch

This Chromodoris nudi and others like it are pretty common all around the Indo-Pacific, so many people overlook them. I tried to impart a sense of glamour to an otherwise humdrum subject with a bit of dramatic lighting, sort of a film noir look:


A plump and juicy Chromodoris annae nudibranch

Some of my friends from Thailand are working on a book about nudibranchs, and Rani assigned me the “homework” of taking a pretty photograph of a Phyllidia nudibranch for her.

This was, of course, after I told her that I don’t like Phyllidia nudibranchs and that I’ve never taken a photograph of one, because, well…they’re boring lumps that just sit there and look stiff.

I can’t refuse helping my friends though, so on my last dive with them, I settled down to photograph the nudibranch below.

As luck would have it, I may have found the only Phyllidia nudibranch in the world that travels non-stop at lightning speed (for a nudibranch). Seriously!

Every other Phyllidia I can recall ever seeing just sat there doing nothing, and the one time I want to take a photo of one, it crawled all over the rubble, ducking in-an-out of crevices, moving up-and-down the slope, twisting and turning, making sudden dashes, etc. Sheesh.

Anyway, here’s my one and only, first and last, photograph of a Phyllidia:


Maybe the world’s fastest Phyllidia ocellata!

They still look like dull lumps to me.

Pipefish Portrait

Mon, Nov 29th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 2 Comments

Here’s another photo I took in Ambon with the Totomega lens:


Eye-to-eye with a pipefish in Ambon

It was toward the end of a late afternoon dive, and we were in relatively shallow water. The other divers were taking photos of robust ghost pipefishes (a pair and a single were nearby), so I decided to spend a bit of quality time with this stretched-out syngnathid.

It wasn’t a particularly pretty or special pipefish, just one of those really long bland brown ones that you sometimes find sitting on the bottom.

Perhaps I imagined it, but I got the feeling that this fish felt neglected, since its more photogenic cousins just a few metres away (the robust ghost pipefish) were receiving all the attention from the piscine paparazzi.

Sampai Jumpa Lagi

Sat, Nov 27th, 2010  |   Places, Adventures 1 Comment

It’s time for me to leave Ambon, after another adventure-packed stay filled with lots of critter encounters, new experiences and great times with friends from around the world.

I’d like to thank Maluku Divers for hosting the Ambon Night Safari (and even putting up with me for a couple of weeks thereafter!).

The nocturnal event went off without a hitch, and I’m looking forward to planning another after-dark adventure.


Bungalows in the tranquil setting of Maluku Divers

If a muck-diving trip is in the cards for you, Ambon is worth checking out, either as a dedicated trip or an add-on before/ after a liveaboard journey. The resort is located right next to the prime muck sites.

A few days of travel lie ahead of me, followed by the customary period of culture-shock/ re-adjustment to city life (oh the horror).

I’ll post more images after I’m back. In the meantime, here’s a special farewell from a friendly local resident:


Large, bright green frog outside my window after a night dive

Eye-Popping Perspective

Sat, Nov 27th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 1 Comment

One thing I’ve found the Totomega lens to be really useful for is making fish look almost manga-esque.

Take porcupine pufferfishes (Cyclichthys orbicularis) for instance. Oversized eyes, perpetually puckered lips, prickly unstreamedlined body…what’s not to love?


The Totomega lens made this big-eye perspective possible.

With the combination of my Totomega lens and the red-light function of a SOLA 600 light, I was able to get really close to one particular pufferfish during a night dive at the Air Manis jetty in Ambon and capture a series of pretty porcupine pufferfish portraits.


This sort of begs the caption: “I’ve got my eye on you”

Colo Colo

Thu, Nov 25th, 2010  |   Food, Places, Adventures 7 Comments

When I first visited Ambon a couple of years ago, I went for a tour of the island and bought some grilled fish (I think it was bonito or small tuna) along the way, together with a spicy, somewhat tangy sauce. The fish was fresh, and the sauce was out-of-this-world delicious.

Turns out that the sauce I had is a local specialty called colo colo (pronounced cholo cholo). Dewa, one of the chefs at Maluku Divers, made the sauce for dinner a few nights ago (yes!).


Colo Colo sauce, made with chili, tomato, red onion,

lime juice, sale, hot water and fresh basil

The best way to describe the flavour is probably to say that it’s somewhat like salsa with a Southeast Asian flair. Not quite accurate, but at least you get the idea.

Pak Dewa was kind enough to make some more today, and even to write down the ingredients for future reference (to stop me from pestering him, no doubt).


Pak Dewa and his delicious colo colo sauce

Ingredients for Colo Colo Sauce:
- Chopped red chili
- Sliced tomato
- Sliced red onion
- Lime juice
- Hot water
- Salt
- Fresh basil

If you visit Ambon, make sure to try this sauce, which is primarily served with grilled fish. Be aware that it carries a bit of a punch from the chili peppers.


Pak Dewa cutting chili for the colo colo sauce

Incidentally, there’s apparently a similar sauce in the Manado area called dabu dabu, with the primary difference being that colo colo is made with water, while dabu dabu is made with vegetable oil. Whatever the name, I can at least verify that colo colo is yummy yummy, so I’m confident dabu dabu is as well.

Oh…Hafes, one of the ever-jovial staff members at the resort, saw me taking photos of Dewa and wanted in on the action, so here’s a portrait of Hafes giving his thumbs-up to the colo colo:


Hafes is always friendly and entertaining

Attitude is Everything

Wed, Nov 24th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 3 Comments

For a tiny little tyke, this jawfish sure had attitude:


You can almost hear this jawfish saying:

“What are you looking at?”

The look of indignation on its face is unmistakeable, no doubt in response to my having the temerity to interrupt its all-important sand-spitting routine.

Pufferfish Poop

Tue, Nov 23rd, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 2 Comments

In a classic illustration of: “What goes in must come out”, here’s a juvenile star pufferfish (Arothron stellatus) grabbing a treat:


Juvenile star pufferfish eating

…then getting serious about the task at hand:


Juvenile pufferfish really chowing down

…and finally, defecating in my general direction:


Juvenile star pufferfish taking a dump

I don’t know what it is that makes animals want to poop around, in front of, or at me, but as long as it’s happening, I might as well photograph it, right? (Note: See Shrimp Poo and Whale Poo).

Equipment Note: SOLA 600 Lights

Mon, Nov 22nd, 2010  |   Equipment, Technique 12 Comments

This has been the trip to try new stuff.

In addition to the Totomega insect eye lens, I’ve been using three SOLA 600 lights (made by Light & Motion) for the first time.

I normally don’t use focus lights on my camera, primarily because most lights made for underwater use are some combination of large, heavy and awkward. In addition, many have bulky, brick-like chargers, which can be a pain to pack/ carry.

To date, I’ve relied on natural light during the day and help from a dive guide at night. On occasion I’ve hand-carried a standard dive torch, shining the light with one hand while working my camera with the other. Not the most ideal set-up, but I’ve been making do for many years.

All that’s changed now with the SOLA lights. Here’s why:

First, the lights are small. Really small. Like “fits-in-your-palm, Japanese-miniaturised” small, which means they’re easy to transport, no trivial consideration in this age of draconian baggage restrictions. As a bonus, the chargers for the SOLA are also tiny.


Light & Motion’s SOLA 600 light

The lights are self-contained, so there’s minimal flooding risk, and no worrying about which batteries to buy/ replace before/ during your trip. Just plug the charger into the back of the light and let the power grid do its thing.

Most importantly, the lights are oh-so-simple to use: Push the toggle on the top of the light forward to cycle through medium, high, and low power; push forward (or backward) and hold for two seconds to turn the light off; twist the toggle sideways to lock the power button; And the best part…pull the toggle backward for red light.

The built-in red light means you don’t have to wrap red plastic around your light for night dives, and you can easily switch back-and-forth between white and red illumination. How’s that for convenience?

In case you couldn’t tell, I love these lights.

After diving with them for a couple of weeks, I’ve found three uses:

1. As a torch. Strap a lanyard onto the SOLA 600, and it’s a lightweight, versatile torch.

2. As a focus light. As I mentioned above, I’ve never used focus lights on my cameras, because underwater lights tend to be bulky and/ or fiddly. SOLA lights are small, light, decidedly non-fiddly.

Also, the red light function is invaluable for night dives. Some of the critters I’ve come across in Ambon still seem to be able to see the red light, but this built-in stealth mode works in most instances, allowing you to sneak up on unwary photographic quarry.


SOLA 600 light as a focus light

3. As video lights. Two to three SOLA 600s have been enough to light video footage (which I’ll post after I get back) I shot during the Ambon Night Safari with my DSLR cameras. I was able to use a decent ISO (160 to 640 range on my Canon cameras), with exact settings depending upon lighting I wanted, subject size, colour and distance. (Note: Light & Motion has just released a new SOLA 1200 light, which provides even more light for video, in the same compact package.)

It was probably no small coincidence that there were lots of SOLA lights on the Ambon Night Safari trip, since all the participants were dedicated, well-informed divers. We also had a couple of prototype SOLA 1200 units that Eric Cheng brought along.

In summary: For travelling photographers, who need to cut down on baggage, standardise equipment, and have maximum redundancy…SOLA lights are a no brainer. In fact, if you have a dive-addicted person in your life, SOLA lights would make a perfect stocking stuffer for the coming holiday season (how’s that for a subtle hint?).

No product is perfect, of course, so if you get the lights, I’d recommend going easy on the toggle switch that turns the lights on-and-off. I’ve had no issues, but one person who was here snapped the toggle off by accident. The light still worked fine, but without the plastic toggle, it can be a bit more cumerbersome to operate.

Also, a few people experienced a red tint to their photos when they used the red light. This can happen if you allow a lot of light into your photo, i.e., open up aperture, slow down shutter and/ or pump up ISO. I haven’t had this issue, but it’s something to take into consideration when you use the red light function.


Collection of SOLA 600 and SOLA 1200 lights

To wrap up, I’d like to thank Light & Motion and Scubacam for providing me with the use of the SOLA 600 lights. The lights were critical to getting many shots, particularly several of the photos I took with the Totomega lens at night. Sneaking up with the red light made all the difference.

Rest assured that I wouldn’t talk-up a product I don’t truly love. I’ve lent the lights to several divers who arrived in Ambon after the Night Safari participants left. Based on their reactions, I think it’s pretty safe to say there will be several people purchasing SOLA lights when they get home.

Bottom line…The SOLA 600 lights are a home run.

Gawking Gurnard

Sat, Nov 20th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 9 Comments

I like this photo. A lot.

Not because this is a particularly rare or unusual animal, but because it’s a unique image of a fish that divers come across quite often…a flying gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis).


Close-up portrait of a flying gurnard, taken with the Totomega lens

The fish was big, probably just under 35cm (about a foot) or so, and it wasn’t particularly shy.

Normally, gurnards turn and show you their rear ends as they scurry across the sea floor (which is why you mostly see butt-shots of gurnards), so capturing an image of this fish staring directly at me was a pretty thrilling experience (…sad what I find exciting, isn’t it?).

I wouldn’t have been able to take this photo without (a) an exceptionally docile subject and (b) the Totomega lens, which allowed me to get really close while achieving a wide-angle perspective that exaggerates the fish’s bulbous eye and bird-like snout.

The end result? Proof that even fish can have dorky expressions.

Equipment Note: Totomega Insect-Eye Lens

Fri, Nov 19th, 2010  |   Equipment, Technique 8 Comments

If you’re an underwater photographer, you may have noticed that the photos I recently posted of Barney the moray eel and the red frogfish have a somewhat unusual perspective.

I took the photos with a new insect-eye lens.

By way of background…the purpose of an insect-eye lens is to allow you to take wide-angle photographs from the vantage point of a very small animal, such as an insect. Some people call it a bug-eye lens, or a WAM lens (short for wide-angle macro).

Whatever your choice of nomenclature, the concept isn’t new. People have been using lenses like this for many years, especially for land photography.

The use of insect-eye lenses in underwater photography has been less prevalent however, probably because major lens manufacturers don’t make such lenses, which means they’re not readily available.

In addition, designing and making an insect eye lens with good optics is complicated and costs a lot of money, which is always a bit of a bummer.

And finally, assuming you actually make a decent insect-eye lens, you then have to waterproof it! What a hassle.

In recent months, several of my friends have been using the insect-eye lens manufactured by Inon and have been producing some really interesting images and video.

This of course made me really anxious to test the new lens pictured below:


The Totomega insect eye lens with my Canon 7D camera
in a Zillion housing + two SOLA 600 lights for lighting

The lens is made by a photographer friend of mine in Japan, who calls his creation the Totomega lens. It’s a self-enclosed relay lens that fits on to a custom-built port, which houses a lens attached to an APS sensor camera…in my case, a Canon EOS 7D. The main lens is a 28-80mm Sigma lens, stacked on a 1.4x teleconverter.

When all is said and done, the resulting field of view underwater is somewhere in the 160-degree range.

Shooting with this type of lens is unlike anything I’ve tried before. Given that it’s my first experience with the lens and that there aren’t exactly a lot of people I can ask for advice, it took me a few dives to figure out how to use the Totomega.

Autofocus works like a charm, with one significant catch: The actual focus isn’t where the camera’s focus point locks on, meaning I have to adjust the camera position to take into account the differential in what the camera thinks is in focus and what actually is in focus.

The method I’ve developed to deal with this conundrum is to estimate the lens-to-subject distance for the point I want to be in focus, estimate a distance of approximately 1+ cm closer than my desired focus, AF lock at that distance, then reposition to my actual desired focus distance and shoot, keeping in mind that my desired focus distance usually means lens-to-critter-eye distance, not simply lens-to-critter distance.

Sound complicated?

It is.

I’m sure you can see why it took me a bit of trial-and-error over several dives (accompanied by considerable muttering under my breath) until I figured out a system that works. At this point, I can nail a significant proportion of the shots I try.

Two people on the Ambon Night Safari trip, Eric Cheng and Julian Cohen, had Inon lenses with them, so we inevitably traded notes and compared images. Here’s what we concluded (Eric, Julian: please correct me if I mis-stated or forgot something):

1. The Inon lens requires manual focus. The Totomega uses AF, but the AF position is not where it seems (or at least, I haven’t yet been able to get the actual AF to be where the AF point locks).

2. The Inon lens can focus right up to the lens surface. The Totomega can focus to about 1cm away from the lens surface.

3. The Inon lens can make really small things look big in the frame. Eric came up with the best description for the Totomega’s optical characteristics. In his words: “It makes big things look like small things made to look big.” I love that description.

4. When both lenses are at their sharpest, the Totomega lens is sharper than the Inon lens.

5. Both lenses are good for shooting video.

6. Both lenses exhibit significant chromatic aberration.

The bottom line is that the two lenses were created with a similar objective, but have different optical characteristics. Both are a challenge to shoot, but the unique perspective can make the effort worthwhile.

I’m sure there are still many things I’ll figure out in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll have to cross-check my experience with my friend in Japan after I get back home.

I have a suspicion that there may be some way to tweak my lens set up so that I can focus more closely. I hope that’s the case, so that I’ll be able to use this lens for smaller subjects in the future.

Given my limited experience with the lens so far, please consider my views on the Totomega an evolving (mis)understanding, rather than a definitive description.

Frogfish!

Thu, Nov 18th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 3 Comments

If you’re keen to see frogfish, there are a lot in Ambon (major understatement)!

Phil, one of the keen-eyed divers on the Ambon Night Safari trip, counted 18 (or was it 20?) different frogfish over the course of eight days of diving, including this pretty reddish one:


The waters around Ambon are chocked full of frogfish!

Among other frogfish highlights I can recall were several pitch-black frogfish, a few yellow ones, a white one, several mottled-puke colour individuals, and a lovely lavender fish.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see the Maluku frogfish, but that’s not surprising given how rare sightings of that enigmatic piscine are.

Greetings from Ambon

Wed, Nov 17th, 2010  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures 2 Comments

Internet access at the Maluku Divers Resort in Ambon is now live!

Bandwidth is limited though, so I’ll keep my updates short and sweet.

The Night Safari was a huge success, with all sorts of critters coming out after dark to play. In fact, I’m so infatuated with diving after dark now that I’m taking the days off and saving the bulk of my bottom time for the night shift.

One of the highlights of my recent nocturnal forays was an extended encounter with the largest(!) moray eel I’ve ever come across:


Gigantic moray eel in Ambon

I think it’s a honeycomb moray (Gymnothorax favagineus).

If you have kids (or you have childish tendencies like me), you might note the uncanny resemblance to Barney the dinosaur, except for the colour of course. (For the uninitiated, Barney is a talking purple dinosaur. Really.)

I felt compelled to name this eel Barney, because well…an animal that’s as thick as a sumo wrestler’s thigh and looks like a cuddly T. rex deserves a proper name.

If you visit Ambon and want to pay respects to Barney, he (I don’t actually know if it’s a he or a she) makes nightly appearances at the Laha 1 dive site.