Indonesia Dive Photos
Some photos from the trip to the Derawan Islands. All with Sony α7R III in an Ikelite housing, Ikelite DS160 strobe and Big Blue VL3500P video light.
This was our cabin aboard the Ocean Rover, also known as the Raja Ampat Aggressor. Turns out to be pretty cosy but a perfect size and man that bed felt good after a day diving!
Our first dive was under a Bagan which, as it turns out, is a popular place for juvenile Whale Sharks Rhincodon typus to hang out. Unfortunately the visibility in the water was so poor it was much like a night dive and very few pictures came out and those that did were rich dark greens. Converting to black and white though really brought out the few close encounters such as this one (taken with a Sony FE 28mm f2-22 lens and Sony 21mm f2.8-22 ultra-wide converter using the 8” dome port; 21mm 1/50 f4.5 ISO640).
Another whale shark, with Sandi, not great focus but I love the balance in the image. These were about 12-17 foot juveniles, big enough when they appeared right next to you out of the gloom (21mm 1/60 f4.5 ISO640).
Not long after we entered this dive we swam past this Green Turtle Chelonia mydas, it was a natural ledge on the side of the reef and he seemed to be just watching the world go by. You can still see the amount of particles in the water which made a lot of pictures a challenge (taken with a Sony E 30mm F3.5 prime macro using the macro port, not a perfect choice but again I like the composition of the subject; 1/60 ISO640).
I love to capture the coral details, they do have the advantage of not moving quite as much as the fish and other critters, but the diversity, the colors and the detail are fascinating (macro 1/250 ISO640).
This little group of fish though were very cooperative and the little bright yellow flashes from the pair of Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Labroides dimidiatus made the picture fun for me (macro 1/250 ISO640).
More coral, these had a wonderful texture to them, the slightly more pink right hand side is probably the Big Blue light which I need to spend some more time with (macro 1/250 f4 ISO640).
A mix of hard and soft corals, but the white one looked so much like a chrysanthemum firework it seems to give the picture a sense of motion (macro 1/250 f4 ISO640).
One of my favorite images of the whole trip, a fan under an overhang. The DS160 strobe on the right and the VL3500P on the right actually picked out the colors perfectly. I haven’t tried to remove any of the backscatter at all, maybe one day (macro 1/250 f4 ISO320).
Anemone fish are crazy! These little suckers are always on the move and anyone that gets that perfect photo of one in its anemone home deserves a drink. This wasn’t the usual Clown Anemonefish but a Pink Anemonefish Amphiprion perideraion (macro 1/250 f4 ISO320).
Obviously, there’s a lot more, but those are a few favorites.