Papua New Guinea, Sept 06

I've just returned from a few weeks in paradise. It was my 3rd trip to the pacific side but first time in PNG. After hearing how hard it is to get there, I really feel I was super lucky! Air Nuigini didn't screw me this round but others on our boat didn't fare as well. I just wanted to post my gallery and get some critiques from the board. You guys are always very helpful. It was my first run with a new rig from Ryan at Reef and I wanna thank him for getting me the whole kit in time for the trip...heroic effort Ryan! I struggled quite a bit with my first foray of fisheye composition. I found it to be huge fun but I still haven't found the trick to lighting. Only one photo with my fin in it though!

PNG really is incredible...we even saw a juvy whaleshark (6-8ft) and I wanna give a hip hip for the 3 divemasters on the boat...Pippa, Martin and Jamie. They made it a spectacular trip!

I just have the pix up atm but am working on a trip report by the end of next week for anyone heading over there.

Thanx for taking the time and please don't hold back on the critiques!

John Abramo

http://web.mac.com/madguppy2

follow the gallery link or just hit the papua new guinea link on the top of the site

just a few really quick here

Awesome series there. Hard to know which are my favorites. Sort of Blenny and the Razorfish compositions stand out. Like the whitetip under the boat. You have some real winners here. Aperture is great isn't it - I get my Xeon desktop with 23" screen this week, it should really fly then. Let us know when you post your final edits, though it does'nt look like they need too much work. Good job.

Hi,

I have just been looking at your pics.

They are amazing.

I hope to learn to dive soon so I can go get some of my own.

Brilliant.

Matt

Heading to New Guinea in Nov 07 to dive aboard the Star Dancer. Would appreciate hearing more about Air Niugini challenges. I know their excess baggage charge is pretty high.

We went last year with Mike Ball and had no problem with Air Niugini and almost all our bags where at least 10lbs overweight. My "carryon" w/housing, camera, lenses, etc was way overweight and they never looked twice at it. So it is very hit or miss with them. I have a trip report at my site.

I have dealt with Air Nuigini only a few times but find them very good to deal with, their excess baggage allowance is probably one of the bets fro divers. Their charges are not over the top really!

So glad to see you had a great time in this area, great to see you saw and photographed plenty of cool critters. I will be leading a few groups of mad keen photograpehrs and marine life enthusiasts there myself in November 2007 on the very same boat, though I have asked if I cna get Elsie on board, she is one of my all time favourite dive guides. Fantastic person and wicked critter spotter!

Your photos rocked....how in the world did you spot those tiny ornate ghost pipefish?! I trust those were juveniles?

mreid---I went to PNG via singapore...I got lucky at Changi airport with the transfer desk...I never had to check in my bags personally so I got past OW charges on that leg...when I hit Port Moresby I guess my puppy eyes got me through...both my bags came to 106lbs so well over the 30kg limit...on the way back from walindi resort, I gave the bus driver 20kina for grabbing my bags and he then FORCED his way past the whole line...pushed my bags in front of 8 other people then came back and grabbed my ticket and tossed it at the sole air nuigini rep...I guess my 20kina got me pushed through there at no charge! In all I only got hit once for $25 by continental...I was lucky!

RebreatherDave---it's actually a funny story...we get on the boat and they tell us the first day that they have reports of where there may be a ornate ghost...so they take us to restorf island and sure nuff...there it is!...we all go crazy cuz for most of us it was our first one. We then hit another reef the next day and find another...then another on the night dive. The weather was pretty bad that week so we headed in to restorf again and I say great...maybe I can grab a better shot this time...so we head back to same gal...she's still there..more photos...another dive at restorf...more photos..and then another guest points out a 2nd one there...a male...we are like wow! 3 dives and nobody noticed the 2nd bugger! Then on the 3rd dive that day there I find another ghost about 20 yards away. So that makes 3 pipes at restorf. The boat trip ends, and I have to lay over at walindi resort for 4 days till I can make a flight out...so I go diving on the day boats...bad weather lands me at Restorf again. I still wasn't happy about my previous shots so I decide at the end of my dive to head over and nab a few more. I was just watching the pipe for a bit cuz it would constantly give me ass shots instead of a nice profile...it was almost as if it wanted to show me the brood. Cuz as I'm looking at her I notice the rear "flaps" doing a fanning motion almost like a venus flytrap would open and close. I tuck in closer and thats when I saw all the lil guys inside. Kinda freaked me cuz I thought that was just an ornate fin...not a brood sac. I was so excited all my shots came out crappy and cuz I waited till about 500lbs to head over I was outa air pretty fast. So don't forget when u go to check for junk in the trunk on those pipes!

john

you have some really nice images!!

Excellent work John and a funny story about the ornate pipes! I really enjoyed all the macros and the wide angles were great too.

Fascinating ?anemone? thing (0981) - never seen anything like it!

You did really well with the pygmys too! I saw one at Kapalai recently, but didn't get any good shots as I was reluctant to encourage the DM to bend the gorgonian and poke the poor bugger more than he already was for the other photogs...I'm sure yours were sitting pretty though and just required MUCH patience.

Excellent work John and a funny story about the ornate pipes! I really enjoyed all the macros and the wide angles were great too.

 

Fascinating ?anemone? thing (0981) - never seen anything like it!

 

You did really well with the pygmys too! I saw one at Kapalai recently, but didn't get any good shots as I was reluctant to encourage the DM to bend the gorgonian and poke the poor bugger more than he already was for the other photogs...I'm sure yours were sitting pretty though and just required MUCH patience.

Not really Anthony, I had maybe 5 mins in each "session" and the first 2 chances i took 5 shots total...there was kinda a "line" behind me.

Then even more kudos is due!