I’ve just returned from a fantastic trip to North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Over the years, I’ve watched this area grow from a relatively unknown destination to one that’s now arguably among the top dive destinations in the world. People travel from across the globe to dive here. I’m lucky. Being based in Singapore, this world-class dive destination is practically in my backyard!

On this trip, I had a chance to visit three key areas in North Sulawesi — Manado/ Bunaken, Lembeh Strait, and Bangka. And as usual, I took many notes along the way, some of which follow:

[more...]

Important lesson learned today: Before you leave for an international trip, make sure that you have empty pages in your passport.

There were four people (two couples) at the airline counter while I was checking in this morning. One of the women was in tears, and there was a lot of animated discussion between the group and the airline staff.

At first, I thought it was probably just another tussle about excess baggage charges, seat assignments or another one of the normal irritations you encounter at the airport.

[more...]

キヨミさんがまさか本当にシンガポールまで来ると思わなかった。

明日から僕はマナドへ出発するけど、昨日から行けばよかったな〜

相変わらずよく喋り、何を言いたいのか分からない時がある。

今日から４泊５日のシンガポールの旅が始まるみたい。僕はいないけど、恵美子は犠牲者だ〜〜〜可哀相に

I’m off to North Sulawesi, to dive Manado, Bangka and Lembeh Strait. There’s been the usual chaotic mess that’s part-and-parcel of preparing for a dive trip. The most difficult thing about getting ready for this trip has been completely switching all the gear from my recent Tonga excursion.

For whale photography, having a lot of wide-angle lenses underwater was top priority. For this trip, it’s mostly macro gear, which means finding, testing, repairing, modifying and packing an entirely different set of ports, strobes, wires, tools, lenses, gears and just lots of junk. And of course, I didn’t have any scuba gear on the previous trip, so I’ve had to dig through my scuba pile too, first to find everything, and then to make sure it all works. Argh.

As part of the process, I did something I’ve been putting off for ages — I cleaned up my photo-gear piles. It’s truly amazing just how much stuff I’ve accumulated over the years, some of which I truly have no recollection of ever acquiring.

While I was uncharacteristically in the house-cleaning mood, I took mountains of camera gear I don’t use to my friends at Camera Workshop in Singapore and asked them to help me sort through everything and find new owners to adopt my much-neglected kit. And one day, I’m sure I’ll find the time and energy to sort through all my extraneous underwater camera stuff…not.

It’s actually been a couple of years since I’ve been to North Sulawesi. Amazing how quickly time flies. I’ll be staying with Murex Dive Resorts & Liveaboards, which is one of the area’s first dive operators and Kasawari Lembeh Resort, which is one of the newest places in Lembeh. I’ll also hopefully be seeing friends from other resorts, including a short stay on one of the Archipelago Fleet’s vessels and a visit to the new Sedona Hotel 5-star resort.

I’m particularly looking forward to two things — exploring Bangka Island, which is one of the many islands that is often overlooked by visitors to North Sulawesi, and enjoying the facilities at Kasawari Lembeh Resort, which has been built to provide luxury accommodation and customised service for photographers and videographers.

Net connections permitting, I’ll post some pix and thoughts from location, but otherwise I’ll post an update after I get back. In the meantime, here’s a slideshow of a few images from previous trips to the area:

Awareness throughout Asia about the overfishing of sharks has increased significantly in recent years. It’s encouraging to hear younger people talking about the issue in restaurants, and to see healthy debate in the media from time-to-time. However, many big companies still use shark fin to try to attract customers.

For instance, Starhub, one of Singapore’s leading telecommunications, television and internet providers, recently sent out a promotional package which includes a seemingly contradictory message.

On the one hand, there’s a 15% discount voucher for shark fin, promoted with the tagline “A taste of Thai I can’t resist.”

But on the other hand, there’s a 15% discount voucher for scuba diving courses, promoted with the tagline “I like my fish wild, not on a plate.”

Perhaps this is naive, but it seems to me that corporate entities should lead the way in responsible behaviour, and at least refrain from promoting something that’s so obviously detrimental to the world around us.

So Starhub — Which is it? Eat the sharks to oblivion, or swim with them?

Feel free to ask Starhub yourself via email.

Technorati Tags: shark, sharkfin, marine conservation, singapore, starhub, corporate responsibility

The 33rd World Festival of Underwater Pictures is taking place from 25 to 29 October this year in the Pré aux Pêcheurs / Antibes Vauban Port in southern France.

The Antibes Festival is arguably the world’s premier underwater imaging event, and it holds special significance for me, as it’s where my first book Silent Symphony received the grand prize for books several years ago.

This year, there will be a special focus on Papua New Guinea, with a dedicated exhibit, slideshows, etc.

I’m honoured that two of my photos have been selected to be among the images featured for the PNG exhibit, alongside images from some of the world’s top underwater photographers — people who’s work I admire and respect.

The first is a fisheye wide-angle image showing how dense the marine life is in PNG waters, and the second is an extreme macro profile photograph (shot at about 5x magnification) of an unidentified Tomiyamichthys goby.

Both of these photos are from a recent trip to PNG, where I was filming a couple of documentaries for NHK TV of Japan, one with Dr. Eugenie Clark, Bob & Dinah Halstead, Rob van der Loos and Hiroyuki Watanabe, and another with the help of Craig Dewit.

Unfortunately, I can’t attend the Antibes Festival. I’ll be diving in Japan (brrrrrr), which will my first extended drysuit diving trip…assuming, of course, I actually get into the water once I’m there!

If you’re lucky enough to attend this great event, be sure to say hi to the terrific gang from PNG, who will be there in force. If you haven’t dived PNG yet, you’re really missing out!

Technorati Tags: Papua New Guinea, PNG, Antibes, Underwater Photography, Scuba, Diving

Pictured here are three (out of five) of my Thai friends who put together the Pocket Divesite guidebooks about diving in the Similans and the Andaman Sea. I’ve nicknamed them the “Terrible Trio”, a name which makes perfect sense if you meet them.

This picture makes it look like they’re working hard on the upcoming update (due out at the end of October) to their first guidebook on the Similans. In fact, from this photo, you’d think that the three of them — Aey, Mean and Noi — are updating the text, adding more descriptive text and putting in additional pictures.

Actually, they’re just playing video games…

Here’s a Google calendar of some of my upcoming photography trips. Click on the entries for more information and hyperlinks. If you’re going to be in the same place as I am, please let me know via my contact form.

[more...]

Imagine being surrounded by playful, mischievous puppies zipping acrobatically by you, sneaking up behind you to play tag, nipping at your limbs, and just generally having lots of fun. That’s what it’s like being in the water with sea lions.

I’m planning to visit Western Australia in early January 2007 to snorkel among friendly Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea). Yeah!

In my view, these are absolutely the cutest, most adorable of sea lions. They have light-blond hair, big puppy-dog eyes, and incredibly curious and friendly dispositions. Unfortunately, they are among the most endangered of pinnipeds, with an estimated population of only about 12,000; they’re protected, so hopefully their numbers will grow.

Unlike with some of the other places I visit, this isn’t going to be a difficult trip. I’ll be staying at a hotel in Perth (hence luxuries like hot water, restaurant food, TV, and all the other things I don’t have on other trips), and will be getting up early to catch the sea lions when they’re most active and playful. It’s a short drive to the sea lion colony, so you won’t need to worry about being stuck on a boat.

I’ll be there with photographer Takaji Ochi from Japan, and a few friends from Japan will be joining us as well.

Since we’ll just be snorkelling, you don’t have to be a diver and won’t need a lot of gear. The water will be a bit chilly, around 20ºC to 22ºC, so you’ll either need to have your own temperate-water wetsuit and hood, or we should be able to arrange rental suits.

Obviously, it’s best if you’re good at snorkelling/ swimming and can dive down, play around, and otherwise attract attention to yourself. The sea lions will play with everyone, but the more you play, the more they respond.

We’ll be in shallow, protected waters, so the conditions should be fairly easy, and the sea lions don’t venture far, so it won’t be difficult to find them. And if you’re keen on underwater photography, the Australian sea lions are about as attractive and cooperative a subject as you can hope for.

We’re still working out the specific itinerary and other trip details, but generally, we’re shooting for the second week of January (starting around the 6th) and staying for a week or two.

We have a few spaces open, so if you’re interested in frolicking with these irresistibly cute animals, drop me a line via my contact form.

Technorati Tags: Underwater Photography, Western Australia, Sea Lion

The first few days after getting back from an extended trip are always chaotic — answering emails, returning calls, paying bills, running errands, writing articles, attending meetings, following up, processing photos, washing gear…it’s utter chaos.

The past few days have been no different. After something around 40 hours of travel, I reached home, took a hot shower, unpacked, slept for about five hours, got up, started work, and haven’t stopped since. Another couple of weeks and I might even catch up with everything I need to do. But of course, I’m off again soon, so my chances of getting through everything I need to do are about as good as Wile E. Coyote’s chances of catching the Road Runner.

[more...]

Here’s a photo juxtaposing me at 20 metres depth with a male humpback whale on his way up for a breath of air. Talk about feeling small! Even though I spend a lot of time in the water, I don’t have many photos of myself, since I’m usually behind the lens, not in front.

Allowing for the fact that I’m closer to the person who took this photo than the whale is, and also that there’s some foreshortening of the whale since it’s facing away from the photographer, this photo should provide a sense of scale..the bull whale is probably about six times my body size. This was one of three very relaxed whales that we “hung out” with one afternoon. The two males came up right next to us from time-to-time to breathe, while the female spent relatively more time at depth, just chilling out and relishing the attention of the other two whales.

Technorati Tags: Humpback Whale, Tonga, Underwater Photography

It’s time to wrap up my humpback whale season for this year. It’s been another productive and fantastic season — so many whales, lots of friends, and learning more about humpbacks.

[more...]