It’s a brand new year, and time for me to head to one of my favourite dive destinations…the Eastern Fields of Papua New Guinea. It’s been slightly over two years since I was there last, so I’m anxious to get back and see how things are.
As of this morning, I have news from Captain Craig of MV Golden Dawn that the conditions are fantastic. Keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll stay that way.
One of the highlights of my previous visit was when we stumbled upon a plump, pink frogfish at a dive site called Shaw Thing.
This discovery caused Craig to clap his hands in the water, skip around, and squeal like a gaggle of giggly girls high on helium.
This pretty pink piscine caused Craig to squeal with delight
Not that there’s anything wrong with said hypothetical congregation of snickering schoolgirls of course. It’s just that Craig so wants everyone to take him seriously and accord him the respect otherwise due to the captain of a marine-going vessel.
To this end, he invests considerable effort in trying to look steadfast and stalwart:
Craig trying (in vain) to look captainly
…but just can’t quite seem to pull it off (the dopey expression being an obvious contributing factor).
So back on the boat, pursuant to the Frogfish Incident, I felt obliged to advise him, as a caring friend, that tittering about in the water doesn’t help his cause.
We’ll see if he’s learned his lesson.
For everyone joining the upcoming trips…safe travels and see you soon!
I had a chance to catch up with my friend and fellow photographer Jon Cornforth yesterday.
It’s the first time that we’ve had a chance to talk since July, as I was in Tonga for all of August and September, and Jon was also away for several trips during that time.
A polar bear cub and mother walking on Barter Island in Alaska, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
We mainly caught up on recent events and coordinated a bit for our upcoming Alaska + Tonga Megaptera Mania humpback whale trip next year, but also told each other about a few of the respective highlights of our recent adventures:
Jon told me about his quick trip to the Bahamas to swim with Atlantic spotted dolphins, as well as two trips up north to spend time with brown bears and polar bears.
As a result of our conversation, I now know what bear spray is.
I haven’t the slightest notion of when such knowledge will ever be of use to me (I am sane. I have no immediate plans to stand in front of a hungry, 800-pound bear.), but hey…I learned something new.
Moreover, Jon also taught me that it’s possible to talk in a stern, but not aggressive, voice to brown bears, in order to show them who’s boss.
I should’ve asked Jon to demonstrate for your listening pleasure, but it didn’t occur to me until later. Drat.
Injured humpback whale calf with its mother, long-term escort whale following closely behind
In return, I told Jon about the amazing humpback whale season I had in Tonga, with at least 45 mother/ calf pairs ID-ed. In case it’s not obvious…that’s a lot of baby whales!
I also prattled on for a bit about some interesting, perhaps unique, observations I had this season with humpback whale escorts.
In the few days since I posted that text, I’ve literally received hundreds of emails and other messages from photographers around the world expressing frustration, anger and disappointment with respect to their own experiences.
Responding to all of the communication has taken lots of time, but it’s been educational and rewarding. In particular, I’ve seen lots of mind-blowing photography from viewing everyone’s sites. (Major thanks to Matthew Oldfield for helping out with updating the site!)
From the high number of responses across all areas of photography, it’s clear that this issue is one that resonates across the entire photographic community, as well as other creative professions.
If you’re a photographer, whether well-established or just getting started, it’s an issue you’ll probably have to face, so it might be worth a listen.
Finally, here’s a video Jon posted of himself shooting the polar bear photo above. And no, that’s not automatic weapon fire. It’s the super-amazing shooting speed of the Canon 1D MkIV.
I’ve just arrived back in Tonga after a really long trip to get here. It was raining when I arrived in Vava’u, but the weather has cleared up. My head is still foggy from the journey, but fortunately, I didn’t have any issues with jet lag. I slept 12 hours last night!
Though my settling-in process has just started, it’s been great seeing friends and saying hello.
For example, the photo below is of little Moses, one of my friend’s sons. We grabbed lunch together in Nuku’alofa just before I caught the flight to Vava’u. He’s a precocious little tyke, as you can see from his exasperation with the talkative adults.
Little Moses telling the adults to keep it down
And of course, I went to the Chinese restaurant in Vava’u last night to check-in and say hello to my favourite dish, fried roasted eggplant:
Roasted eggplant at Golden Lily restaurant in Vava’u
I’m delighted to report that dinner was…delicious.
One of the people I looked up to when I was growing up is a man named Flip Nicklin.
He is National Geographic’s top cetacean photographer, the person who was responsible for many of the wild-eyed dreams of my youth, those in which I ventured into the deep-blue ocean to swim among whales and dolphins.
That’s pretty much what Flip has been doing for his entire adult life, and yesterday, I had a chance to talk with him, thanks to the magic of the internet.
Flip has recently launched a new book called Among Giants, A Life with Whales, which contains photos and stories from his countless adventures with cetaceans.
During our 20-minute chat, Flip tells me about how he got started (turns out that cetaceans are sort of a family business!), relates a few of the tales from his book, and shares some perspective on how the relationship between humans and cetaceans has evolved over time.
If you’re as much of a fan of cetaceans as I am, it’s worth taking a bit of time to listen:
And of course, if you’d like to purchase a copy of Flip’s book, it’s available at book stores and via online retail outlets, but I’d recommend purchasing via the Whale Trust site, as the highest amount of money ends up going toward whale research.
The book is also available as an iPad App on the iTunes store: Among Giants iPad App.
It’s been a hectic few weeks for both Jon and me. Jon was away in Alaska until just a few days ago, while I was in Papua New Guinea for the entire month of June.
And…as it turns out, both of us are headed out on trips in the next few days that will see us on the road pretty much until October.
Jon’s headed to the Bahamas soon, where he’ll be trying out a new Aquatech housing for his 5D Mark II with the wild Atlantic spotted dolphins there, and I’m going south on my annual trip to Tonga to photograph humpback whales.
So it was good that we were able to find a little time to catch up over Skype yesterday, just before I was fortunate enough to have a chance to have a brief conversation with Flip Nicklin (see next post).
Among other topics we discussed, Jon told me about how he (accidentally) dumped(!) his dad into the water in Alaska. Talk about a unique father/ son bonding experience.
We also shared our experiences with weather during our respective trips. Even though we were in totally different parts of the world, the weather patterns were off…basically we both had a lot rain.
Despite difficult conditions, Jon came back with stunning images like this:
Dwarf fireweed (Chamerion latifolium) covering the old Columbia Glacier moraine bar on Heather Island at sunset in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Not to be outdone by Jon, I whined a bit about how bad the weather was in PNG during June and about the dearth of critter life. Again, not to be outdone by Jon, I came back with photos of large aggregations of fish like this:
Countless hardyhead silversides (Atherinomorus lacunosus) swarming under the jetty at Samarai Island in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
It’s been nearly three weeks since I got back from my recent trip to Milne Bay aboard MV Golden Dawn, and I still haven’t been able to sort through and process all my photos. Sigh.
I’ll be heading out to Tonga soon though, so I need to focus my attention on preparing for the humpback whales…which means I probably won’t make any more headway on my PNG images for a while.
To wrap up my PNG posts for now, here’s a final photo, one that I took when we stopped at a village called Boga Boga at Cape Vogel. It’s a picturesque place, with lots of friendly, energetic kids.
Kids on the beach at Boga Boga village, Cape Vogel, Milne Bay
Trips like this are about more than just diving. Experiences such as visiting beautiful Boga Boga and meeting the wonderful people who live there are enriching and memorable.
In addition, sharing adventures and laughs with old friends and new helps to keep life’s priorities in perspective. When you’re on a boat for a month, isolated from the daily madness of political turmoil, economic crises and other miscellaneous social woes…it’s much easier to focus on what’s important and forget about the things that aren’t.
Of course, there’s always the danger of going a bit funny in the head, as Bob demonstrates in the following video clip (though one could reasonably make the case that he was already somewhat off):
I’d like to say thanks to everyone who was silly enough to join joined me during the trip and put up with my antics…and of course to Craig (and his crew!) and Bob. All kidding aside, their experience, knowledge and patience made the trip, and I’m looking forward to my next opportunity to share another adventure with them.
It may not be obvious, but trips like this require a lot of preparation and logistical coordination (a situation exacerbated by the fact that I tend to schlep around so much junk and add new junk on a regular basis), and I need assistance and cooperation from a lot of people to pull everything together. So…thank you very much!
Oh…if you’re planning a visit to PNG, please note that Air Niugini has a specific baggage allowance for scuba divers, which some travel/ booking agents may not necessarily know. From Air Niugini’s website:
Air Niugini offers the following baggage allowance for scuba divers; International flights – 20kgs (44lbs) plus an additional 15kgs (33lbs) per person. Domestic flights – 16kgs (35lbs) plus an additional 15kgs (33lbs) per person. Air Niugini honours the International allowance for International passengers in direct transit on same day to a domestic port in PNG
While I was away in Papua New Guinea, Apple released Final Cut Pro X, which has been entirely revamped from the previous Final Cut Pro software.
For normal people, this isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but for video editors (and possibly also for photographers), it is. The changes to Final Cut are so significant and at such a core level that the initial feedback from parts of the video editing community, i.e., those people who’ve invested lots of time and effort over the years to become proficient with FCP, was overwhelmingly negative.
This caused me stress. Not because I’m a video editing expert (not by a long shot!), but because I had recently invested a great deal of effort learning the basics of Final Cut Pro, and I wasn’t all that happy with the prospect of (a) unlearning and re-learning everything, or (b) possibly even having to switch to something else.
In this context, I contacted my friend Mary Lynn Price, who is an Apple-certified FCP Pro and also the driving force behind DiveFilm.com, to ask her opinion.
She’s just started playing with the new software, but she’s already come to the conclusion that she “loves it”, in her words. Since Mary Lynn makes her living using FCP, this came as a huge relief.
After talking with Mary Lynn, I’m coming to the view that…while there are certainly still teething issues for the newly launched software…for people who want to edit home videos, put together quick-and-dirty short productions, and create multimedia essays (me!), FCPX might actually be a welcome development, as opposed to the abomination that some early reviews have suggested.
In this informative hour+ conversation, Mary Lynn highlights some of the key new features that many photographers looking to create multimedia pieces may find useful…like working in native H.264 format for DSLR footage (no transcoding!), one-click color balance (similar to the white balance function in Aperture and Lightroom) and clip auditioning (think: being able to try on clothes before you decide what to buy).
So if you’re just starting out with multimedia or wondering about if and when to try FCPX, it’s worth listening to what she has to say.
Note that you can use the links in the embedded audio player above to download the file, open it in iTunes, or even embed it on another site. If that fails, here’s a direct download link for the mp3 (about 87MB): Photo chat with Mary Lynn Price
Toward the end of our chat, we also talked a little bit about the skills and art involved with telling a story, whether through words, photos, video, or a mix of all these.
Note: When I was recording this, somewhere near me, someone turned on machinery that made a low-frequency throbbing sound, perhaps a large aircon unit (since it’s boiling hot right now), which I wasn’t able to hear while we were talking, but came through really loud on my voice track. I had to edit that out, which makes me sound at some points like I’m in a tunnel with cotton in my mouth.
Last night, I attended the opening reception for the charity photo exhibition organised to raise funds for the people of Northeast Japan who are suffering the fallout from the March earthquake and tsunami.
Though the underlying impetus for the event is nothing to be happy about, it was certainly good to see so many people, particularly from the underwater photo and video community, pulling together and cooperating for the purpose of raising funds.
There was food, drink, a few speeches (No one warned me I had to get up and say something!), and an opportunity to see many people I haven’t been able to spend time with for a while.
Among the highlights of the evening for me was bumping into Tateishi-san, who founded Diver magazine and was the first person in Japan to support my work and help me get established. He has since retired, so it was a rare pleasure to have a chance to catch up with him:
Tateishi-san, who was the first publisher to support me in Japan
Also among the attendees was Ikuo Nakamura, who is one of the most well-known underwater photographers in Japan. I first met him some years ago when he visited Singapore courtesy of a photo exhibit organised by Epson.
Since then, we’ve made it a point to get together every once in a while to brainstorm (i.e., get ridiculously drunk), but my intense travel schedule in recent months has meant that we’re long overdue for another problem-solving session to address the woes of the world.
Me with Ikuo Nakamura
At the end of the evening, the organisers sent the contributing photographers off with a nice present, commemorative sake (rice wine) produced in honour of Dr Hideyo Noguchi.
Commemorative sake in honour of Hideyo Noguchi
The exhibition at Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Hall continues until 31 July, open daily from 12:00 to 20:00. In addition to T-shirts, photo books, and products from northeastern Japan, the photos on display are also available for purchase…with every last Yen being donated to relief and reconstruction efforts.
Bob made a print of one of my Lubricogobius dinah goby photos to give to his wife, and just forwarded me this terrific snapshot of Dinah with her namesake fish:
Dinah Halstead with pair of Dinah’s gobies from Milne Bay
The print hangs on the hook that’s just visible on the wall behind Dinah, next to a drawing by Valerie Taylor.
This picture represents the culmination of ten years of obsession for me.
I must have come across a reference to Lubricogobius dinah when Randall and Senou published a description of the species in 2000-2001, and ever since then, I’ve been hoping for an opportunity to see and photograph these adorable fish.
I met Dinah in early 2006, when she, Bob and I were on MV Chertan together for a TV project. And finally, in 2011, I succeeded in taking pretty photographs of these fish to help bring a lovely smile to Dinah’s face.
Today marks five years since I posted my first entry to this blog. Time certainly flies.
I’m not sure exactly why I started this site, or what I hoped to achieve, but in hindsight, I’m happy that I struggled through my initial ignorance of most things web-related and persevered through the times when I thought: “Why bother?”.
From time-to-time, I look back at the thoughts I’ve written and media I’ve posted. I re-live the good times, have occasion to contemplate lessons learned from difficult times, and of course, take pause to be thankful for how fortunate I am.
Perhaps the biggest benefit to accrue from the time and effort I’ve invested in this site is the friends I’ve made and friends with whom I’ve re-established communication. Many of the people I first met online have since become close friends…people I look forward to seeing, sharing adventures with, or even just receiving an email from.
Right now, for instance, I’m sitting on a boat in Papua New Guinea, preparing to post the photo below of two such friends…Julian from the UK and Jenny from Taiwan. Believe it or not, I didn’t need to coax them into posing like silly tourists when we were at Gona Balu Balu in Milne Bay. It just happened.
Jenny, Julian, and a giant clam in Milne Bay, PNG
The way I look at it…you have to be really good friends to act like hams with a clam. Especially when I have a camera to capture evidence for posterity!
So…here’s to five fantastic fun-and-friend-filled years…and hopefully many more to come.
It’s almost time for me to head out to Papua New Guinea. I’m submerged in my normal pre-trip chaos (which, come to think of it, is inevitably followed by trip-long chaos, and then post-trip chaos), trying to sort through which bits and pieces to take along, and which other bits and pieces to leave behind. The fact that I have so much junk equipment and so many crazy notions photo ideas doesn’t help much.
Despite my discombobulated state of being, I did manage to catch my friend Jon Cornforth for another photography chat yesterday, along with another photographer friend, Steven Kazlowski.
Jon and Steve were on a trip together recently to photograph stuff in Alaska, shooting images like this one that Jon sent me:
Sea otter on an iceberg in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Adorable, but brrrrrrrr…..
Jon manages to get to reasonable climates (read: warm places) on occasion, but Steve specialises in cold-weather stuff. Like, all the time. (You can hear the incredulity in my voice if you listen to our conversation.)
Among Steve’s images, I particularly admire his photographs of polar bears, perhaps because he makes them look so cute:
Polar bear cub along a barrier island, Alaska
I mean…how can you not fall in love with that furry face and floppy paw raised in ursine salutation?
Anyway, the three of us spent just over an hour talking about a range of topics, including:
- The ins and outs of polar bear photography;
- The importance of understanding/ relating to your subject for nature photography/ animals;
- Equipment we use for photographing polar bears, humpback whales;
- The role of pig-headedness in developing a sixth sense for animal behavior;
- How we address requests for free images; and
- The outlook for the professional nature photography market.
If you’re interested and can bear (like the pun?) listening to us ramble for over an hour, here’s the recording:
I’ve posted the audio file to my iTunes podcast as well, and here’s a direct link (80MB, m4a file) if you prefer to download a copy of our mellifluous voices for later listening pleasure.
To close out this post, here’s a photograph I took in Papua New Guinea, where the water is blue, warm and filled with pretty fish…just the way I like it:
I prefer warm blue water with lush, colourful coral and pretty fish!
Here are links to equipment, places and people mentioned in our discussion:
That’s pretty much what Flip has been doing for his entire adult life, and yesterday, I had a chance to talk with him, thanks to the magic of the internet.
