Posts Tagged Maluku frogfish

Off to Ambon

Wed, Nov 3rd, 2010  |   Equipment, Technique, Places, Adventures 1 Comment

Finally. My junk gear is sorted. My batteries (both literal and figurative) are charged. My head is (as) clear (as can be expected). And I’m headed to Ambon.

This will be my third visit to Ambon in as many years, but this trip will be anything but routine.


My hopeless mess before packing

It’ll be my first opportunity to stay at the new Maluku Divers resort, which is conveniently located right next to the area’s main muck diving sites. The new resort was designed and built by my friend Yos.

Also, this will be the second Night Safari I’ve run this year. The first was at Kasawari Lembeh Resort (also designed and built by Yos) in the Lembeh Strait back in late February. Here’s a video from the Lembeh Night Safari to give you an idea of some of the awesomely cool stuff we saw.

The basic idea behind the Night Safari concept is simple. Instead of diving during the day, we’ll spend several days diving only after dark, when lots of creepy crawlies come out. Life doesn’t get much better than that now, does it?

Given the new resort’s prime location next to the main muck sites, access to Ambon’s nightlife should be easy, and I’m hoping that we’ll see lots of neat things like mating behaviour, predation, and of course, a plethora of bizarre, butt-ugly critters.

I also have a lot of new equipment and crazy ideas to try out. For example, I have three SOLA 600 lights with me, which I’m planning to use both as focus lights and for video.

I’ve never attached a focus light to my housing before, mainly because underwater lights tend to be bulky, unwieldy and clumsy…not exactly conducive to sneaking up on wildlife. The SOLA lights are unbelievably compact and easy to use, so putting one on my housing is a no-brainer. The built-in red light should also be quite handy for approaching shy animals at night.

I’ve also downsized strobes and am only taking Inon S-2000s, six to be precise. Some people seem to think that you need strobes the size of VW beetles in order to take decent photos. I relied almost entirely on YS-50s and YS-30s back in the day (how many of you remember those?), so I’m hoping that my “small is beautiful” gamble will pay off, especially since I don’t anticipate doing much wide-angle work on this trip.

Finally, I have a bunch of knick-knacks I’ve knocked together to try out (with a lot of help from my friends at Aquaforum and Zillion), some of it geared toward trying to take better video footage underwater with my DSLR cameras, some of it just experimenting with light as I always do. I have no idea if any of the stuff will work, but there’s only one way to find out. Right?


My somewhat neater mess after packing

If you’re joining me in Ambon…see you soon! If you’re not, I’m hoping to have a decent enough net connection during my month-long stay to post photos every once in a while, so please check back for updates.

Incidentally, here’s a bit of video (shot by Chutinun Mora) of the recently described Maluku frogfish, aptly named Histiophryne psychedelica, which to date has only been seen in Ambon.

Trip Update: Ambon

Mon, Jul 19th, 2010  |   Places, Adventures, Trips, Workshops No Comments

If you’re contemplating a dive adventure later this year, there are still a couple of spaces open for my trip to Ambon.

The trip, which I’m running jointly with Wetpixel and Eric Cheng, is scheduled for 7 to 16 November. We’ll be staying at the new Maluku Divers resort, situated right on the best muck sites in Ambon.


There are lots of Coleman shrimp on fire urchins in Ambon!

If you’re a fan of muck diving and observing amazing critter life in shallow water at close quarters without any other divers around(!), Ambon is worth considering.

Ambon hit the news recently because of the unusual new frogfish discovered there, but from personal experience, I can say that there’s a lot more to see than just the frogfish (sightings of which are unpredictable).


Tiny cuttlefish hunting in shallow water

With so few divers around + relatively easy diving conditions, it’s not difficult to spend quality time with animals that are considered rare or difficult-to-approach elsewhere.

In short…the conditions are ideal for observing and documenting marine life behaviour.

Our plan is to do a lot of night diving, which means that the chances of seeing predation, mating and other fun stuff increases significantly. Up to this point, it has been difficult to do extensive night diving in Ambon, because there was no dive resort near the muck sites!


Some sort of cardinalfish with a clutch of eggs

Take a look at my 2010 trip announcement and the trip summary on Wetpixel for more trip information.

Here’s a multimedia collage I put together after my first trip to Ambon a couple years back.

Contact Dan Baldocchi to join the adventure!

Mimicry

Wed, Dec 23rd, 2009  |   Funny Stuff, Marine Life, Places, Adventures 11 Comments

Just over a year ago, I was fortunate enough to see and photograph the recently described Maluku frogfish (Histiophryne psychedelica) in Ambon, Indonesia. (More information about that trip posted here.)

Maluku frogfish

…which is why I jumped up and immediately took notice when I saw the following image on a computer screen during my recent trip to the Eastern Fields in Papua New Guinea.

mushroom coral

Julie Edwards took this photo during a different trip, and it popped up on her display while we were sharing images and stories from past adventures.

Now…while I don’t want to jump to conclusions, I’d be remiss not to point out the obvious and striking similarity between the two images…and suggest the possibility that this could be the first-ever documentary evidence of a type of coral that’s generally under-appreciated and ignored by most divers crying out for attention by mimicking an exceedingly rare and only recently described frogfish.

Or…of course…it could just be a meaningless coincidence that would only excite an easily distracted photographer with a hyperactive imagination who has better things to do but just can’t seem to focus for long enough to make any significant progress.

Going to Ambon

Fri, Apr 24th, 2009  |   Places, Adventures 4 Comments

Histiophryne psychedelicaI’m headed to Ambon to dive with Maluku Divers. On my last visit, I was fortunate enough to see the new frogfish, Histiophryne psychedelica.

I expect that I’ll be offline for the duration of my trip, so if you send me an email or other message over the next couple of weeks, I most likely won’t be able to reply.

Ambon Adventure

Sat, Nov 8th, 2008  |   Marine Life, Places, Adventures, Video, Multimedia 4 Comments

Instead of writing a trip report about my recent visit to Ambon, I played around with a web 2.0 service I’ve been watching for some time to put together a multimedia essay of sorts. The service is called Vuvox, and essentially, it allows you to combine various media forms into online shows and presentations, which you can share on the Vuvox site and also cross-post to other places on the net.

I created what’s known as a Collage in Vuvox, with a series of photographs and a bit of text, supplemented by a few video snippets and hyperlinks. The photos and text carry the story line, and the video segments help give you a feel for the particular animals and locations. The hyperlinks take you to additional information.

Vuvox is still in beta, so there are a few quirks here and there. I had a minor problem while putting this together and emailed Vuvox for help. A representative responded within minutes, which tells me they’re on the ball.

After playing around with the service, I can say that I really like Vuvox. It’s a slightly different way to tell a story, and the final product you come up with can take many forms, depending on the content, the intent and your storytelling skills (as well as how much work you want…or don’t want…to put into it).

The primary drawback I see is that whatever you create lives “in the cloud”, to use the parlance of the times, which means you can’t download it and keep it on your computer, iPod or other media player. That’s kind of a bummer, but it’s a relatively minor point, and perhaps they’ll figure a way around this at some point in the future.

To all divers and fish buffs: take particular note of the segment on the newly identified Maluku frogfish. The embedded video may be the first evidence of a frogfish using toxins or some other noxious substance to ward off a would-be predator. As far as I know, there is no other documented instance of a frogfish being toxic. (If someone out there knows of such a case, please send me a message.)

The video of the Maluku frogfish fish was taken by Chutinun Mora, who is the graphic designer of FiNS Magazine.

One cautionary note: You may need relatively high bandwidth to watch the video clips. If you experience stuttering, let the clip load, then hit play again.

If you want to see a wider view of this, go directly to the Vuvox page here. The collage effect is arguably nicer with a wide screen.