Odd Couples of Borneo

I just got back from a trip to Borneo with a couple Wet Pixelers and personal friends (drsteve and davephd). We spent 6 days diving Sipadan, Kapalai, and Mabul; followed by a couple days in a nature reserve/area to watch monkeys.

These are some of my favorite "odd couple" pictures.

btw - no equipment failures or floods on this trip, but I did manage to lose my expensive Macromate.

Some loveable orangutans...

A weird jack and turtle couple.

A 2 cm baby squid and a shrimp.

A pair of scorpionfish.

Finally a couple lost in a school.

Great Pics.. Monkeys are wonderfull..which one is you

I would say, that Jack is abit sick and is hanging around the tutle for protection till it gets better.

Great shot of the 2cm squid...that's tiny..

Excellent work Will - thanks heaps for sharing!

We are headed there in October all going well.

Did you find 6 days diving to be enough? And where did you stay? We are thinking Kapalai.

Anthony,

Kapalai is a first rate run place. They treat camera equipment like gold. They even provide sherpa service to carry your camera back and forth to your room. I did the 5:30 AM dive every morning and I got a kindly knock on the door every morning at 5:15am to pickup my camera rig in a plastic basket lined with a life jacket as padding. If the dive staff saw you carrying your camera, they would "run" to intercept and help you.

A couple notes and I think others who have been there would concur. 1. Do the 5:30 am dive several times. The bumphead parrotfish are awesome. If you are lucky you might see schools of hundreds of these beasts as well as large schools of batfish. 2. I would shoot wide most of the time but save a couple early morning dives to shoot the parrotfish with a 50-60mm. 2. Bite the bullet and hire a guide to find the mandarin fish in the house reef the first night you can.

6 days goes by very quickly. It's enough to see the marine life but you really need a few additional days to really plan out and get your shots once you know what's there. I would have liked an additional 3 days for a total of 9 days to nail down some shots and get a few more dives in Kapalai and Mabul for some macro.

This is quite a remarkable area for photogs. You will enjoy this area very much. It's plain awesome.

Thanks Will - really appreciate the feedback. Didn't you find you were too tired after 9 days straight of 5 AM starts??

Geez, I'm such a wusss

5am???? sheesh... i'd still be drunk..

great shots Will, i especially like the little squid and shrimp shot

I'm going there in August. I'm hoping to get pics of mimic octos. They tell me they are there. Did you see any??

Look forward to seeing your mimics Allison.

Great images, Will. Nice theme too. That squid must be tiny.

You do get mimics there from time to time - but I am not aware of a site in the area that has them reliably. Kapalai is good place to see a blue-ring octo - although can't be guarenteed. I had a very nice encounter with one during my stay there - and the resort manager told me he had seen several hundred during his diving there.

Alex

Here is a black cobra from Borneo, same trip as William.