Ajay

@Luko your gallery is awesome! Thanks. Ajay

Great description @fruehaufsteher2. We dived Fuvamulah earlier this year (January). Couple of minor things to add: 1. There is a resident Sand Tiger shark that comes up form the deep (almost) every afternoon at a site (if I recall, Havitha Fannu). 2. The dive site Ferikkade has thresher sharks (we saw them couple of times, when I was at 43m, and the shark at 50+). Several in our group also ran into a school of hammerheads there, at around 46m. By the way, we stayed and dived with Tiger Shark Residence: it's owned and run by a group of Chinese/Singaporeans. They managed to catch a chef from China, and we had the best ever meals at the resort (we're quite used to eating Chinese food a lot, what with being in Hong Kong). I'd go back just for the food, haha. My dive blog post is here. Kind regards, Ajay

Simon runs a diving business (travel and more) out of HK. He recently posted this video to a whatsapp group - it's rather nice.. in fact.. downright amazing for me. Thought I'd share it with you folks. Simon Lorenz with albino baby humpback in Tonga Kind regards, Ajay

Reporting a short dive trip to Bali couple of weeks ago. Stayed with Utama resort, and overall quite happy with the arrangement. My last trip to Bali was ten years ago, and in this period, it seems to have turned into much more of a macro, I might even say, ultra macro, destination. Guides compete to find the smallest of nudibranchs, it seems. My trip blog is here. Feel free to comment on the images - apologies if the download speed is a bit slow. I managed to flood the battery compartment of my YS-01 strobe on one dive. Upon opening, it was a total mess inside, I was not optimistic. But our guide, Jaya, offered to give it a shot.. a shot of good old coke. Soaked it for few hours in coke, rinsed, cleaned, repeat. And amazingly it worked just fine the day after. It was the first can of coke I have bought in a couple of years (being a carbonated water person) - and it was the best coke I might have bought in my life :-). Anyway, here is a teaser for the trip photos.. a Donut (Doto) nudibranch. Kind regards, Ajay

Just a quick follow-up from my questions. We spent a few days at Utama. The executive brief: Resort: A Dive arrangements and dive guides: A Food: C. I think these are a bunch of good folks, and with a bit of guidance on food side of things, it can well be an ideal diving holiday resort in the Tulamben area. I will make a more detailed report of the trip, together with some selected photos and post in a few days. Kind regards, Ajay.

Thanks Luko. We ended up booking with Utama (they had very good response to my inquiry).. Hope it'll be all good. We will be there late June. Kind regards Ajay

Thanks folks, all of these three look nice, esp. Markisa and Utika. Shall start planning :-). Ajay.

Hi folks, Pre-covid, our favorite dive resort in Bali/Tulamben was Scuba Seraya. I cannot see their website any more, although I can see bookings available for staying at the resort on tripadvisor. Does anyone have updated info about whether they are up and running once again, and if so, do they have a dive operation and also the same restaurant that they used to have before (😃). If not, would welcome any other recommendations for Tulamben. Kind regards Ajay

Back in 2018, our trip to Triton Bay (nearest airport is Kaimana) was: Jakarta - <Batik air> - Manokwari - <Wings air> - Kaimana; the return was Kaimana - <Wings air> - Sorong - <Batik Air> - Jakarta. I don't know if these airlines and routes are still operating, I know Covid changed a lot of these things. I do recall that finding info about local airlines in Indonesia used to be a bit of challenge - Triton Bay divers had helped us make the bookings (they had experience with what flights tend to get delayed, and planned a schedule that was more tolerant to delays). Kind regards Ajay p.s. If you do get to dive in the neighborhood, Triton Bay is really amazing - I'm sure you know.

Easter gave me a chance to do three days in Anilao (Philippines). I really cannot post anything that hasn't yet been done there, by now. The mandate to the dive guide (Ernesto) was "hairy". And he did lead us to various hairy frogfish and a hairy rhinopias. There were a couple of instances of mating nudibranches. Here are the teaser photos. I also have a trip report with more photos, linked from here. Comments/criticisms are welcome - I'm getting used to the Sony A7 IV, and there is much to learn. Kind regards Ajay

Thanks for the video, gives a good idea of Malpelo, diving and above. I like that you left the beeping of the computer telling to to ascend towards the end 🙂; if my computer was programmable, I'd have this beep replaced by the *knock* *knock* It's time to go (from Pink Floyd's Bring the boys back home) on a loop..

Thanks @Davide DB. I haven't studied optics - so this is a naive question.. Is it the case that one can stick any macro/close-focus lens in front of any of these small cameras and expect it to perform (optically) more or less the same? Or is there also some lens design required? I can imagine that if the lens can be used interchangeably, then it should be easy to design (and share) and print adapters. Kind regards Ajay

Just a brief note about the three (currently) popular choices for action cameras in this category, namely, GoPro Hero 12, Insta360 Ace Pro, and the DJI Action 4. All of these have a closest focus distance in air of ~0.4m (so, perhaps 0.6m underwater). Of these, Backscatter has a clip-on wet macro lens for only the GoPro among these; it brings the closes focus distance to 15~20cm inch. It's possible similar solutions for other action cams exist or will arrive soon. I hope to report more on the GoPro with the macro attachment (and without) in a month or so - planning to spend 3 days in Anilao in Easter. Kind regards Ajay

Thanks for the comments! To answer @Davide DB - I was hoping that the WF074 and it's nominal 8000 lumen would give me enough light to illuminate and put some color into things at a distance of 3m or less. I felt that this is enough for schools of fish, like batfish, jacks, and anything closer, like fish+coral scene, for videos. @Nikolausz - the idea to consider SF 7000 (WF081) is a good one! WF074 has 8000 lumen spread over 120 deg, and WF081 has 7000 lumen over 100 deg (so, probably similar illuminance). I am wondering how the effect will be if I just print a simple plastic cone to get some snoot effect, regardless of whether the lamp front is flat or dome. Kind regards Ajay

I have shot images (and mostly macro) for many years, but am considering to venture into making videos. On my previous trip, I immediately felt that a smaller video light (2500 lumen) just wasn't enough. When looking for a more powerful one, I am finding this light, the Weefine 074 a bit interesting: it can provide I think, around 8000 lumen for videos, and on top of that, with a fiber optic cable attached, if also acts as a strobe - a weak one, but nevertheless it can suffice for me as a second strobe. This makes my gear compact and light: camera, one strobe, one video light that can also act as second strobe. I would love to get some opinions: (a) If you have experience with the WF074 (b) Any obvious flaws in my planned setup (still learning how to make passable videos). Kind regards, Ajay