Palau Gallery

I purchased a MacBook Pro and Apple's Aperture software in mid-November, a few days before I left for Palau. 17+ hours of flying time, plus time in the airports, was enough to learn the basics of Aperture. I had already transferred my existing 5000+ photos into Aperture before I left. I am very pleased with Aperture. It is fast, great for organizing/selecting photos, and has all the tools I required to process my photos. I never needed to leave Aperture to do any editing in PSCS2. I was easily able to keep up with my photos daily, in spite of doing 4 or 5 dives each day on the liveaboard. At the end of the week I put on a slideshow for the other divers, having fully processed the photos. A quantum leap over Bridge and PSCS2, IMHO.

After reviewing the first day's photos, I realized that one of my strobes was not working. As a result, all photos from the trip are with only one strobe.

My Palau gallery is online. Here are a few samples:

That last one is cool, was the lighting from a pier or your strobes? Sometimes one strobe is enough and gives you dramatic shadows that you wouldn't have had with two.

great looking stuff JOhn...

What liveaboard?

I love #5 in your gallery (jellyfish in the clouds).

One word; WOW!

Nice work John. Glad you were able to take the vision that you had in your mind and translate it so beautifully.

Todd

That last one is cool, was the lighting from a pier or your strobes?

There was a light mounted on the dock. Two lights, in fact. One facing me, and one pointing into the water. I used the timer on the camera, then sprinted over to block the light facing the camera, to prevent lens flare.

What liveaboard?

The group was led by Ed Robinson from Maui. We had both Ocean Hunter boats for the first week, to fit our group of 18 divers. I was on Ocean Hunter II. It was awesome! The boat looks like a tug, but was very comfortable and roomy. It has a great dry area for cameras ... best I have seen. The food was amazing, and the dive guides excellent. The second week we stayed at Palau Pacific Resort and dove with Neco Marine. The resort was beautiful. The first shot in my gallery is the Resort's pool, and the last photo is from the dock. After the first day, Neco would bring the boat to the resort to pick us up. A very nice touch. The diving with Neco was good, but I far prefer a liveaboard. More dives per day, and more freedom to travel to dive sites. Also no 60 minute (one way) boat rides to the sites. Just jump of the liveaboard boat into the water and relax. Spoiled

With shots like that who needs two strobes...

Lovely.

Dive safe

DeanB