Magical Maldives, 2011

[antacid]

Hi everyone, just got back from a 8 day trip to the Maldives. We had 7 dive days on a liveaboard, and did nothing but dive, eat, and sleep the whole time.

In summary, the trip was...

Vis wasn't as good, but weather was very good. We had some 15-minute passing showers, but otherwise it was good sun and flat seas for the whole trip.

It was also my first big trip with the 60D and Ikelite housing. The housing controls were easy to get to, especially when shooting video. In fact, the camera was easier to use in the housing than without! This was because of that irritating control mode lock. Still, my main gripe was the fact that PASM modes are at one end of the dial, and movie mode on the other end. So you have turn it through 355 degrees to get from shooting stills to video. Quite a pain, especially during night dives.

#1 Turtle, Terry Richardson-style

#2 Relak one corner

#3 The reefs of the Maldives were blanketed with anthias everywhere

#4 Move, b, get out the way!

TBC...

 

[antacid]

#5 A "deserted" island where we had our mid-trip dinner on the island

#6 Obviously, Fred lost the fight last night

#7 The sun sets on the Maldivian seas

#8 Double stacked -- this was at Dhonkalho Thila, which had a massive sandbank in the middle of the channel. The current was really ripping, and we had to crawl to position and use reef hooks. But it was well worth it when we had 6 mantas at once circling around us!

#9 Coming in for a closer look

 

[antacid]

#10 On approach -- the mantas love hovering and letting our bubbles wash over them. see how we had to anchor ourselves against the current! Thankfully it was mostly rock and not much coral. Hard to imagine anything growing in that current!

#11 Closer

#12 Soaring

#13 Turtle ambling along

#14 Fish fries

You can see more pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=274015&id=710531221&l=7537a7f85d

I think we're already planning our next trip! Seems like it just keeps getting better!

By the way, you can see my initial and updated impressions of the 60D here in this thread: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/threads/850888-What-I-hate-about-the-60D

 

[GRbenji]

Nice series of shots John. :thumbsup:

 

[diver-hloc]

Any Macro John ?? You know how I like Macro :bsmilie:

 

[antacid]

uh.. i didn't even bring my macro lens and port... hahaha

 

[diver-hloc]

Wao lao.... I opps from you. No WA is perfectly fine by me as long as got Macro :bsmilie:

 

[swee sin]

wow ... nice!!
really like the last one ...

 

[antacid]

wow ... nice!!
really like the last one ...

thanks! there's more of the same type of pictures in the facebook album... i had a fun time at that rock looking at the swirling fishes. there was a grouper lurking within that was picking off the fries one at a time. very interesting

 

[antacid]

Here's a video I put together with the many video clips I took during the trip. I had about 18GB worth of video from the trip. It was a steep learning curve trying to figure out how to properly encode the video for sharing on the internet.

Please watch it full-screen to enjoy it in 720p goodness. I had to down-res it from 1080p to 720p to make it smaller for uploading. It's already 2.8GB at 720p and took me 18 hours to upload!

You might want to take some motion sickness pills before viewing.

Enjoy!

[video=vimeo;21191139]http://vimeo.com/21191139[/video]

 

[koljaho]

wow. How did you manage to bring all your gear down with you? Must be really expensive to do that? Very nice video! Inspired me to do it next time

 

[airfins]

John is RICH

 

[antacid]

oh it's not a lot of gear.. the whole set up is only around 15kg which is pretty much all the DSLR set-ups weigh anyway. It does cost more than a normal compact camera set up, but the quality is awesome! I accumulated the gear over the years, so now it's just about getting a new camera and housing every 3-4 years. everything else stays the same as long as they don't break down.

desmond> yah but not as rich as you! haha how you been? long time no see man...

 

[ManWearPants]

Just out of curiosity, which did you have more fun with - as a videographer or photographer?

 

[antacid]

i had more fun being neither! haha

to be honest i really don't know. to answer your question properly would take about 6-12 bottles of beer

i think i still prefer photography because it's all about "the moment", and video gives more context and is more engaging.

photography is easier to manage - my post-processing workflow is pretty smooth now so i can get my pictures done in an hour or so.

i'm still learning about working with video files, and its a major headache. i spent a whole week rendering files and figuring out how to work best with the source files. encoding the final 16-min clip took me 4 hours, and i had a 2.7GB video clip. uploading to vimeo (i had no choice but to pay $80 for annual membership) took me 18 hours for the first try, and i got an error at 99.9%! another 18 hours later, the clip was finally uploaded.

i'm pretty sure i'm doing a lot of things wrong with video now, so hopefully things will get better! i'm working on a short clip from my test-dive with the new camera and housing at hantu.

 

[rush.]

nice photos .. I like it

 

[starflight]

Great photos! I saw your video in Vimeo! My goodness... I can't wait. I'm going to Maldives tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to grabbing some shots like yours. Amazing photos and vids!

 

[tirimasu]

Nice!!! which housing are you using?

 

[antacid]

starflight> hope you have a good trip! many mantas and whalesharks are waiting for you...

tirimasu> im using the ikelite housing + 8" dome with the 60D.

 

[freedomx10]

Wow, nice photos. Possible to share the contacts for the LOB diving operator? Thanks in advance.