Archive for Musings 
Me and Eric at Work
Eric put together a nice time-lapse video of us setting up our cameras a couple of nights ago. It actually looks like we know what we’re doing:
Tony Wu and Eric Cheng set up cameras in Isla Mujeres from Eric Cheng on Vimeo.
All Work and No Play?
After something on the order of 30 hours on the road and in the air, I arrived safe and sound for a brief stopover in San Francisco before I head down to Mexico.
Despite the concerns I had about travelling to and transiting through the US, everything went smoothly. There were more body checks than usual, but nothing excessive. Best of all, my baggage made it through the transfer in Los Angeles with no problems. Hurray!
Eric picked me up at the airport, and after a delicious and much-needed meal at a local Thai restaurant (where I had my favourite dish phad kaprao gai, with khai dao), we went back to his place…where we immediately got to work.
While it may not appear from this snapshot as if I’m engaged in a serious endeavour, I was actually looking through a pair of diopters that Keri Wilk from ReefNet sent over for me to use in Lembeh later this year. (Eric posted a 3-D version of this photo).
I’ve actually ordered (but not yet received) a pair of these, so Keri was nice enough to lend this set to me in advance of my units being delivered. The diopters are +5 and +10 power, and I was looking through them to view the relative difference in magnification. They have a 67mm thread, which means they’ll fit directly onto my macro ports. Can’t wait to try them out!
Eric also had to engrave his name and signature for a couple of prints he sold, but he encountered a few minor technical difficulties due to a mismatch of Dremel bits (No, I didn’t know what a Dremel was until Eric pulled one out):
…and to round things out, we ended the evening with a practical lesson in aerodynamics:
On the Road Again
Time to hit the road once more…off in search of big animals in Mexico and Dominica.
Though I won’t be staying in the US, my itinerary takes me in and out of the US a few times.
Security concerns are understandably at an all-time high given the Christmas Day fiasco last year, and airport personnel will probably be stressed out and on edge. US air carriers are also raising checked baggage fees, and quite of few of my friends who’ve flown to and through the States recently have had bags go missing.
Travel is stressful in the best of times; we are, unfortunately, in anything but the best of times.
To minimise the risk of encountering problems, I’ve consolidated down to one suitcase to check-in and one Think Tank Airport Antidote backpack that I’ll carry on…the lightest and most compact configuration I’ve travelled with in many years.
In my non-descript, normal-looking suitcase (i.e., not a case that screams “Expensive stuff inside. Please steal me!”) are clothes, a wetsuit, mask, snorkel, fins…plus one Zillion 5D MkII housing, a Pro-one dome port, and some associated tools and parts.
More importantly, in my backpack are all my cameras, lenses, a Zillion 5D MkII housing, a Pro-one dome port, extension tubes…plus all the things I need to make my cameras and computer work. My laptop goes into the backpack too.
So, in the worst case, if my suitcase disappears, I’ll have no clean underwear or toothpaste, but I’ll still be able to shoot as long as I can borrow a pair of fins, a mask and a snorkel. One has to have appropriate priorities after all.
My only concern is that my housing requires a metal handle set, pictured below:
Normally, I doubt this would pose a problem, but someone pointed out that if I pack the handle set as-is, an overzealous airport security person might decide that it’s a weapon.
Yes, it sounds silly, but I’ve found myself having considerably more ridiculous “discussions” with airport personnel in the past (see the Travel Silliness section).
So, to hedge this risk, I’ve disassembled the handle set to try to make it look more innocuous, and I’ve packed a spare set in my suitcase, plus another spare in a co-traveller’s suitcase.
Time to go…I’ll guess I’ll know shortly whether my packing protocol works or not.
New Laptop
My poor 15-inch Macbook Pro is over three years old now. It’s choking and sputtering from the overwhelming workload I’m subjecting it to, especially from the increase in video stuff.
So…my friend Eric Cheng is helping me to configure a new souped-up 15-inch, 2.8GHz Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM, a 160GB SSD start up drive, and a 500GB spinning drive for storage. In fact, he’s setting it up right now, and sent me this preview of the blazing-fast start-up time.
I’m picking up the new laptop when I hook up with Eric later next week to head out to sea again. Woohoo!
Yes, it’s sad. I get emotional about stuff like this.
Me At Work
Somewhat of a departure from my normal “me at work” snapshots…this is me yesterday morning hauling stuff through the mikan trees. Note my new year’s fashion statement:
Many of my friends have heard me rant and rave about how awesome the fruits are in Japan. A few have even had the chance to sample some of the fruits here…and all agree.
One of the reasons for the incredible flavours and quality of the fruits in this country is attention to detail. Many fruits, for instance, are given individual care. By “individual”, I don’t mean “per tree”. I mean “per fruit”.
As an example, this is a short video of me wrapping a “kara” citrus fruit, which matures in April/ May and is apparently so good that the entire crop is reserved in advance, so they’re not readily available in stores.
Each kara is individually wrapped to protect it from birds (who, in this area at least, apparently know enough about citrus fruits to discriminate among varieties), rain, and cold.
I and some friends wrapped all the fruits on two trees before calling it quits for the day. I’ve never had a kara orange, so I guess I’ll have to come back here in April or May to enjoy the fruits of my labour (I know, terrible pun).
Munching Mikans
To work off some of the calories from indulging in far too many new year treats, I spent most of the afternoon yesterday helping out at a friend’s citrus farm, a place called Suzuki-en (鈴木園).
There are acres and acres of citrus trees, with different varieties in season throughout the year. Mandarin oranges, known in Japan as mikan (蜜柑, ミカン, or みかん), are the main fruit right now.
Since I spend much of my time in tropical climates with white sand and palm trees, it took a while to acclimate to the single-digit ºC temperature and winter wind, but it was certainly refreshing being outside, breathing in the crisp, clean air while I raked up leaves and fallen citrus bits, emptied containers, hauled stuff around, etc.
My body ached a bit last night from the manual labour, but I had so much fun that I’m heading back after I post this to lend a hand again.
Of course, I sampled a few mikans here and there throughout the day, and took some back as natural Vitamin C supplements for the cold winter evening…which is to say…I ate too much again.
Making Mochi
Eating (too much) is an integral part of the new year celebration in Japan.
A staple of new year fare here is mochi (お餅), which is basically mashed-up sticky rice.
In times gone by, everyone made their own mochi by steaming and pounding the rice themselves. In our modern, civilised existence, most people just buy mochi pre-prepared.
Store-bought mochi can still be delicious and filling, but it’s even better hand-made, as I learned a few days ago when I had a chance to participate in a mochi-making party (餅つき) for the first time.
Below is a short video:
Making Mochi from Tony Wu on Vimeo.
In case you’re interested, l took all the footage with a Canon EOS 7D.
…time to eat again.
Happy New Year
Happy 2010 everyone, from a nice, relaxed getaway in Izu…
Looking Back on 2009
Last year around this time, I penned a brief retrospective on a few highlights from 2008. One year doesn’t make a tradition, but before I head to the Izu Peninsula to take a year-end break (read: chill out and pig out), here’s a list of personal milestones and memorable moments from the past 12 months that stand out in my mind:
Favourite Photo: I’ve been fortunate and have had an absolutely amazing year photographically, so it’s tough to pick just one image. Some images I’ve taken have required months or even years of obsessing over junk fine-tuning equipment to develop just the right technique. A few examples include: King Kong crab; glowing nudibranch; more nudibranch images; yet another nudibranch; anemone shrimp photos; cuttlefish images; plus many more that I haven’t posted.
Then there are the photos of cute things: blennies; little filefish with pink lips; pineconefish; lumpsucker; young friends…
Entertaining things: Free Willy; fish that looks like a floating turd; whale poo; sea lion playing with filefish…
and much more.
But I guess my favourite image this year has to be this photograph of a female sperm whale with a piece of giant squid in its mouth:
I took this image in Ogasawara, Japan, with fellow underwater photographers/ videographers Douglas Seifert, Eric Cheng and Julia Sumerling.
It’s not every day you get to witness, much less photograph, something like this (In fact, this photo and the other photos/ video we took might be the first visual documentation).
The little whale in the photo is a calf, and it’s possible that the adult female was teaching the baby to dive and hunt for squid.
On that same trip, we found giant squid parts too, notably a 3.5-metre segment from a feeding arm, which Douglas was kind enough to measure (it was far too smelly for anyone else to want to touch).
Most Memorable Dive: Bigfin reef squid mating. En masse squid mating is something I’ve wanted to see for a while. I’ve known about the annual aggregation and mass mating/ spawning of bigfin reef squid in Izu, Japan for some time…but it wasn’t until this year that I was able to get to the right place at the right time with the right equipment. Finally having a chance to witness this event up-close was simply awesome…though I haven’t been able to eat calamari since.
Most Memorable Critter Encounter: Lizardfish eating pufferfish. Take a look at the photos, and it’ll be obvious why this encounter was memorable.
Most Meaningful Project: Continuation of my calf count in Tonga. As of today, I have 30 confirmed calf IDs for the 2009 humpback whale season in Vava’u. There are still a few more IDs pending, with images and/ or video contributed by other people. I’ve been on the road so much that I haven’t had time to look through the materials I’ve received. To confirm a new calf, I need to look through thousands of images in order to be as certain as possible that I’m not double-counting.
(To the people who’ve sent me photos with pending IDs…thank you, and sorry for the delay!)
To complement the visual documentation and verbal descriptions of calf IDs, I’ve incorporated GPS coordinates this year, in order to establish a visual reference for where calf sightings are taking place. I’m making use of Google Maps to share this information with anyone who’s interested.
Favourite New Photo Gear: Without question, my Canon 5D Mark II cameras. Besides the excellent image quality from this camera, the 1080p video capability has opened up an entirely new way for me to document and tell stories. On my recent trip to the Eastern Fields, for example, I spent more time shooting video than taking photos. Of course, I have a lot to learn, but this camera has changed my approach to photojournalism and story-telling forever.
Here’s a short sample clip from the Eastern Fields. It’s unedited, ungraded, un-manipulated, un-everything (just a quick-and-dirty conversion to FLV format)…in large part because my laptop can’t handle working with 1080p footage (which, of course, means more hardware and software purchases on the horizon)…but take a look, and you’ll see how promising DSLR video is.
Favourite New Gadget: My Drobo units. If you don’t know what a Drobo is, I highly recommend taking a look at the site. In short, Drobo units provide you with a layer of protection for your data by automatically creating redundancy…it’s like RAID 5 for dummies (hence, perfect for me). The Drobo system is plug-and-play technology, so you don’t need to be an IT wizard.
Most Useful Online Service: Dropbox. I signed up for Dropbox some time ago, but only recently started taking advantage of the online backup (free up to 2GB) and file-sharing capabilities. Dropbox is even more useful if you have an iPhone. The Dropbox iPhone app makes it easy to access/ update/ use files while you’re on-the-go.
And if you’re really ambitious, you can combine Dropbox and 1Password (my favourite software selection from last year), along with their respective iPhone apps, to ensure that you have access to all your passwords on every computer you use, plus on your iPhone.
Favourite Food Experience: Dinner at Kushihana (串花) in Nishi-azabu, as much for the evening’s entertainment as for the excellent food and drink (actually, drinks…many drinks…and many more after that).
Favourite Movie: Star Trek. Yes, I’m a sci-fi geek. But even my non-sci-fi-friends liked this movie.
Favourite Book: I read a lot this year, thanks in large part to being able to carry around eBooks on my iPhone (it’s impossible to lug physical books around these days). My favourite book was A Thousand Splendid Suns
Happiest and Saddest Moment: The happiest moments throughout the year were all the occasions I had to meet terrific people from around the world…far too many people to name…but here are a few examples of the fun and games: Khun Pachara of Hotwave Wetsuits; Andy, who had the misfortune good fortune of diving with me in Lembeh; the terrific guys and gals at Kasawari Lembeh Resort; the DEEP Indonesia team; Atsumaru-san; my friends in Tonga; Julia (and yes, I suppose even Douglas); Phil…and many, many, many more. Thank you all for making 2009 an incredible year!!!
On the flip side, perhaps the most difficult moment of the past 12 months was receiving the news of my dear friend Ongo’s passing. As a child, I’d never even heard of The Kingdom of Tonga and yet, due in no small part to Ongo’s friendship and tutelage, I’ve spent a significant portion of my life there, have lots of friends in Vava’u, and look forward to going back each year. Thank you Ongo. I miss you.
Reality Check
It’s been a hectic couple of days getting ready for the first group of people who’ll be getting on Golden Dawn with me. Captain Craig and the crew have been busy prepping the boat, and I’ve been helping out where I can. Everything’s looking good, and we’ll be picking passengers up at the airport and from Lololata Island Resort tomorrow.
In the midst of all the activity, Craig took me to see a little girl he’s been helping. Her name is Gaudi. She has meningitis…an infection that affects the outside of the brain. Gaudi just turned one year old recently, and she’s been sick for about four months.
Gaudi’s father Naume asked Craig for help when his daughter fell ill, and Craig, being the incredibly nice guy he is, has been sending money for the past four months…without ever having seen Gaudi.
Given that Craig has paid a lot of money over the past four months, you’d think Gaudi’s family were long-time friends of his. No. Craig met Naume, Gaudi’s father, only about a year ago. Craig had a bit of car trouble, and Naume happened to wander by with some mates and helped out. Naume catches and sells crabs for a living, so Craig has been buying crabs from him ever since.
That was the extent of their relationship.
Craig visited Gaudi in the hospital for the first time about ten days ago, and as he described it, was heartbroken by the sight. Little Gaudi was frozen stiff in pain, entirely unable to function.
When I saw her today, she was better. There was recognition in her eyes, and she even grabbed my finger…holding tight, if only for a moment. She’s still weak, but the medicine that Craig’s been paying for is apparently working. Gaudi is getting better.
It’s easy to get absorbed in our own lives, our own problems…all the tasks at hand. But experiences like this are a vital reality check…a reminder of the importance of helping other people. I’m not sure how much longer it’ll take for Gaudi to get better, but Craig’s committed to seeing her through to recovery.
AlI told, I spent about half an hour with Naume and his family at the hospital. I put together this little video for Craig to show passengers on Golden Dawn, in case any of his clients decide to chip in for Gaudi’s medicine. The people who were on Craig’s last cruise contributed about US$170, which will go a long way to sustaining Gaudi through her recovery.
The Last Supper
A few weeks ago, I welcomed Eric, Julia, Douglas and Emily to Japan for the start of our quest to photograph and video sperm whales by taking them to dinner at a small sushi restaurant outside Tokyo.
Our trip was a wild success, and Eric and Julia have already gone back. Tonight, we had dinner with Douglas and Emily to say goodbye, as they’ll be boarding a plane for the long trip home tomorrow. Tom, one of Douglas’s friends from high school, joined us too.
I took them to a small kushiyaki restaurant called Kushihana (串花) in Nishi-azabu. In case you’re not familiar with kushiyaki cuisine, it’s basically delicious bite-sized morsels of stuff skewered and deep-fried on little sticks, generally washed down with copious quantities of beer, shochu, or whatever other form of alcohol is on hand.
Nishi-azabu a swank neighborhood in Tokyo with lots of fancy shops, restaurants and clubs, but this place is quaint and cozy, and just about everyone who goes there is a diver. The owner is a diver and a big fan of underwater photography, so it seemed like an appropriate place for our last dinner together.
Of course, we couldn’t let the evening go by without a bit of fun…at Douglas’s expense:
I’m sure Douglas had a nagging feeling that he was being set up, but he was a good sport and played along, much to the amusement of all the other people in the restaurant (who were all in on the gag).
If you’re ever in Tokyo and feel like going to a small place that’s not packed with tourists and socialites, this is a map to Kushihana, and the address is Minato-ku, Nishiazabu 4-2-15, 106-0031 (港区西麻布4-2-15, 106-0031). You have to speak Japanese though.
And make sure you visit the bathroom, where one of my sperm whale photos is on display.
