Mike Saunders

Depressing instagram post https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU9X8SegftG/?igsh=b3ljNDV4cXV6c3Zs

only very slightly jealous watching this from my outpatient clinic this morning....

your CV to date is making me feel pretty pedestrian.....

South Ari atol in Maldives is organised snorkelling trips not diving Can also get crowded -about 6 boats when we were there 2024

I’ve found some slightly thicker garden irrigation pipe which can squeeze over the end of the L-shaped plug to make a complete cover Looks robust but time will tell

swimming over sharks towing a dummy seal behind you is not something I would rush into...

attached image is ISO200. shutter 1/250 f16 and pretty much as close at the outfit allows

the bath test are pretty much done and I am looking impatiently at the calendar for my first warm water trip of the year in conclusion the 90mm on an APSC is not great unless you are prepared to go high ISO or not take macro images at f16 or f11 but happy to go wider, significantly sacrificing depth on a long focal length. I will use the traditional strobes with this lens. Smaller apertures are leading to unacceptably long shutter speeds and unless you are able to sit tripod still it will blur the newly 30mm f3.5 Sony macro is a whole different story. It is incredibly close focusing so that illumination with the ring light is brilliant and allows small aperture and a decent ISA. Photo of a British banknote is my standard test of image and luckily recent UK banknotes are waterproof... Can't wait to give this a go, the small rig with no strobe arms will also be a major plus. If I get any decent pictures I will post them.

Huge level of smugness! 👍

not directly relevant but in the Similan trip the guy on the left had brought along a lot of toys including a long selfie stick with his go pro. This made quite a good entry shot my wife on the right

my other half often seems to just land in the water on her back without rolling completely. I suppose you might be less likely to lose your mask this way generally speaking I get someone to hand it to me from the boat

I thought you had to have one hand on your mask for back rolls?

This is great thanks. I’ve made some new cables with right angle howshot plugs and toslink cable Tested inevitably in the bath… Work perfectly. Great tip

there are plenty of youtube videos which I will crack on with but I wondered if there was anything that any of you specifically recommend?

over the years I have tended to JPEG photos but now I am getting more serious I am thinking of shooting in raw and using lightroom to import and then make better I have lightroom on the laptop but am woefully ignorant about how to use it is there a decent online resource to show me how to use it without too much pain?

5 nights in Bangkok? 😳 Only been once -I though the place was mental. Quite fun for a few days but I wouldn't want to live there. I suspect Koh Tao will be a bit touristy but better than Koh Samui. I reckon you'll have a decent time. We went to the Similans in December and although we didn't see any pelagics it was great in many other ways and the food is of course amazing.

thanks quite the story but rather depressing for those involved The new site is excellent though.

hoping I am not putting my foot in it by asking but is this site in any way related to the wetpixels site? When I looked at it it seemed to have stopped functioning in 2023.

The cap has arrived. It’s great for big heads (me 63cm) but rather than the cheaper plastic poppers it is elasticised and much more comfortable Very nice quality too

masses of macro on the right dive site but the main thrust will be sharks and mantas I would bolt a go-pro onto your rig when doing macro so if something huge turns up you can at least get some images or footage

hopefully minor wounds - filming large shoals of grouper with feeding sharks at dusk has got to be high risk

what was it like in October?

Welcome is there decent diving in coastal Georgia? - or would you go down to Florida to dive?

Baseball cap ordered. I’ll wear it with pride on my next trip (Tenerife)

one wouldn't want to get too close to Iran in case they arrested you and accused you of spying or just machine gunned you on the spot I'm imagining the reefs on the Oman side might be quite un-dived and intact this week might not be ideal but it would be bloody quiet and you could always watch the missiles flying overhead from the RIB...