Greetings from Manado!

[antacid]

Hi all,

Here are some pictures from my Manado trip. Only managed to process the first day's photos.

Had a great time with Bastianos at Lembeh. Friendly dive guides, rather friendly resort manager as well. We didn't get any nonsense from him as mentioned by some of the other forumers. Maybe cos we were a big group (16 divers) with DMs, instructors, and MIs making up more than half the group. hoho. Still, we inadvertently went into deco on several dives because of the depth (20+m) and wonderful photography subjects.

On average, I took about 200+ photos per day, with a surprisingly large number of keepers (about 90%!).

Ok, enough with my rambling. On with the photos! All photos taken with a Canon A620 and Inon D2000 strobe, both kindly loaned to me by my wonderful friends.

#1: Weedy rhinopias

#2: Pink scorpionfish lying in ambush

#3: A rather cheerful looking scorpionfish

#4: Hermit crab scurrying for cover

#5: Giant frogfish going for its annual dental check

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed them. I promise to post more from my other divings days at Manado when I'm back from Similans, hopefully with Mantas and Whalesharks this time!

Safe diving and happy snapping!

 

[R11S]

do post on some corals too ya...esp sps

 

[ScoobaKev]

Thanks for sharing! Makes me miss diving and photographing these unique critters.

 

[eudon]

Similans too?! Wah i jealous man.

Nice pics but a bit over-sharpened i feel.

 

[howeikwok]

maybe the resort manager kena #@#@#@# upside down after the long and very detailed comments sheet we wrote to the management when we left the resort. Anyway good to see service by him has improved.
Btw, happen to see a tusa dive knife when shooting the rhinopias at air perang? dropped my knife there.

 

[antacid]

eudon> thanks, you're right, they're over-sharpened..turned out i used the wrong sharpening action. heh.

howeikok> ah that's probably the reason why the manager (his name is sven) was more friendly this time round. he guided my friends for 2 dives. sadly, they didn't see anything much during those dives..hehe. sorry, no tusa dive knife at air perang. found one sticky slimy snorkel though. was quite reluctant to adopt it in that condition, so just brought it back to the boat as rubbish.

 

[howeikwok]

Heh lucky you didn't lose anything. Air perang was a freaky dive site. I lost my knife. The instructor with us lost his pointer the first time we were there and on our second dive back there the next day actually found his pointer right underneath where we moored the boat! Not to mention our computers giving us wierd readings. My computer was actually adding tons of minutes to my decompression obligations as i was ascending. By the time i reached 5m from 20m, i had a staggering 53 min of deco to clear. that made for a very long and boring wait.

 

[antacid]

oh yeah, come to think of it, my friend had a 30min deco obligation when he was diving the same profile as us and we only had like 5min. it happened at aer prang too. haha.

i seldom lose stuff cos everything's in my BC pockets..i only lose snorkels. lots and lots of them. haha

how many days did you spend there? i was quite bored on day 4 already..same ole stuff..hairy frogfish, giant frogfish, scorpionfish, pygmy seahorse...*yawn* haha

 

[antacid]

Here are some nudis from the trip. Am currently trying to ID them, so do holler if you know what they are! thanks in advance
((=

#1

#2

#3

#4

 

[antacid]

as promised, here are some photos that i'm particularly proud of
((=

#5 B&W shot of a zebra lionfish out hunting (my fave shot of the trip. ask me about the original, unprocessed shot.)

#6 Shrimp on a nudibranch (Ceratosoma tenue)

#7 Flying gurnard spreading its wings

#8 Strange bedfellows

#9 Bursting with eggs

more to come...

 

[antacid]

#10 Anemone shrimp

#11 Ornate ghost pipefish (male)

#12 Coralheads (by request from R11S. sorry bro, but lembeh isn't exactly famous for corals!)

#13 Hippocampus bargibanti

#14 More hippocampus bargibanti

 

[antacid]

#15 Lionfish in a barrel

#16 Chromodoris kuniei rearing its beautiful head

#17 Mating mandarinfish (1 out of many trashed shots)

#18 Swingin' those hairy arms

#19 Chromodoris magnifica

yet more to come...

 

[antacid]

#20 A bridge too far

#21 Flamboyant cuttlefish

#22 "OOoooh!" (this has got to be my favourite underwater portrait. haha)

That's all folks! I apologise for posting so many pictures, because I didn't have time to post only a few. *grin*

You can view the other 200+ photos here: www.antacid.os3.sg/site/Dive.htm

Back to processing more photos from a very, very cold Similans trip..Brrrr!

 

[howeikwok]

Hi all,

Had a great time with Bastianos at Lembeh. Friendly dive guides, rather friendly resort manager as well. We didn't get any nonsense from him as mentioned by some of the other forumers. Maybe cos we were a big group (16 divers) with DMs, instructors, and MIs making up more than half the group. hoho. Still, we inadvertently went into deco on several dives because of the depth (20+m) and wonderful photography subjects.


QUOTE]

Noticed from the pictures posted on your website that the resort had added several new features to their dive briefing board. Including a very clear and bold "No Deco Dives!" ;p

 

[digisnap]

Apologies for my ignorance but may I know where is Manado?

 

[antacid]

Manado is in Indonesia. Somewhere near Sulawesi. I'm not too sure myself! haha i just strap myself in, shoot down a few planes on my psp, and i'm there!

((=

 

[Wyatt]

Was there about a month and a half ago.... Dived with Barracuda resort and the Guide Noldy was very apt at finding small critters.... He just recently "discovered" a new species of "pygmy seahorse" or rather a pygmy sea dragon in Lembeh strait (read the full report in Asian Divers Magazine).... I found this small Nembrothid at Aer Perang (Lembeh Strait) when we were looking for the Rhinopias... Anyone has any idea what this is...?

Read my dive report on my Manado bay, Lembeh strait trip on http://dragondiver2005.blogspot.com

Help on the ID is appreciated thanks

Cheers!

Wyatt

 

[Dylan]

Juv. Purple-Lined Nembrotha
Nembrotha purpureolineata
Reference: 1001 Nudibranchs by Neville Coleman
Pg 44. Centre Column 4th image.

 

[foxwagon]

#1 is very clear & sharp.
Did you use (m)anual settings on the powershot?