Big Shout from Lembeh

Hey guys,

Just a quickie. Great to put everything through the tests with regards to the Gates, the Z1 and all achro diopters, green force lights et al. Here in Lembeh just finishing the first of my 4 week trip. So far found some amazing stuff, not having been to this neck of the woods before. Greaat Pygmy seahorse stuff, full frame using stacked achro diopters (3.5 and a 2) so many other critters to mention.

Try to give you all an update again in a week or so.

Tony Wu, thanks for the efforts regarding the Green Force battery. I got the message but am fine for the moment with the current one. Everything so far running like clockwork.

Cheers,

Mark.

Its a wonderful place there, I look forward to going back. Glad all is working well Mark.

Steve B)

Full frame pygmies - Mmmmmmm bet that looks amazing! Sounds like you're having a great time Mark!

Cheers, Simon

Adding to the list:

Hairy Frogfish 'fishing' with his lure and snapping up a small silverside.

Hairy Frogfish on a roll with ten Yawns in fast succession

Flamboyant Cuttlefish hunting and eating

Lacy and Weedy Rhinopias in same shot

Massively pregnant Pygmy Seahorse (Nightly vigil to see if I can get 'the' shot)

Soooooooo much other cool stuff. Just logged the 15th tape.

Having a blast.

Cheers,

Mark.

Don't listen to him..

I spotted Marky up Stoney cove trying to jump on my pike band wagon

Seriously

Sounds fascinating me old mate...can't wait to see the footage

Dive safe and remember the lens cap

DeanB

Sounds like you're having a great time Mark. Can't wait to see the results

Cheers,

Tony

Hey guys,

Just a quickie. Great to put everything through the tests with regards to the Gates, the Z1 and all achro diopters, green force lights et al. Here in Lembeh just finishing the first of my 4 week trip. So far found some amazing stuff, not having been to this neck of the woods before. Greaat Pygmy seahorse stuff, full frame using stacked achro diopters (3.5 and a 2) so many other critters to mention.

 

Try to give you all an update again in a week or so.

 

Tony Wu, thanks for the efforts regarding the Green Force battery. I got the message but am fine for the moment with the current one. Everything so far running like clockwork.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

Hey Mark,

Which resort are you staying at???

robin

A nice one

Dive safe

DeanB

Soooooooo much other cool stuff. Just logged the 15th tape.

Mark.

You go through tapes very fast - last time I was there Steve from KBR kindly got some more from me when he was in "town".

Don't forget to try for the mating Mandarins in the rubble at the North end of the Strait. B----y difficult to shoot on video as the blighters only do it at dusk, and don't like the lights. I never managed it even with my hands over the light until the last moment. Saw a lot of nooky but never manged to get it on film. My wife got some great stills though!

I bet after a week you will craving for the colours and the soft corals.

Have fun.

Roger

Usually when I go to a dive destination I try to be very discriminating when I shoot. This makes life much easier in post production when I only have 2 or 3 tapes to review. However, I came back with over 15 tapes the last time I was in KBR. It's an incredible place. The only problem, and I have noticed this in our San Diego Film Festival (which I am sure so many of you are preparing to send a submission) is that filming marine life seems to go by fades. A while back we had tons of Great White shark submissions due to the increased knowledge of Guadalupe Island, then we had a ton of tiger shark type submissions thanks to Jim Abernathy's feeding excursions. Last year it was a bunch of Lembeh films and super macro. Now we are seeing more and more ecology type films. Wonder what the next genre of underwater work will be.

Steve B)

Hey Mark,

Which resort are you staying at???

robin

I think Mark is diving with Two Fish Divers.

Glad it's going well Mark. Can't wait to see the results. I should be back there myself in September.

Nick

".

 

Don't forget to try for the mating Mandarins in the rubble at the North end of the Strait.

Roger

Hehe, i think Mark would be happy never to see another Mandarinfish again. He did a great short film on their behaviour a few years ago. Went out to shoot them everyday at dusk here in Yap...

Time must be about running out Mark! Hope you have been having a blast

Hehe, i think Mark would be happy never to see another Mandarinfish again. He did a great short film on their behaviour a few years ago. Went out to shoot them everyday at dusk here in Yap...

 

Time must be about running out Mark! Hope you have been having a blast

Just done my last dive in Lembeh last night!

Wow, time flies.

Robin - Nick was right, staying with Two Fish Divers on Lembeh. Great, small operation, had my own dive guide for a month. Think I wore them all out!! Oops.

Roger - I spent 7 months in 2002 filming Mandains about 5 times a week. Going out with a double sea kayak loaded with dive gear and filming rig. I have pretty much all aspects of their behavior logged in full colour, pin sharp but in DV (God, make it stooooop) means I'll have to do it all again in HDV, or I may just skip it and do it with RED next year!! The film was selected as a finalist at Antibes that year. I think you can also still see it at the Ocean Channel (www.ocean.com) as they were offering some of my short films as viewing pieces. The Mandarin film is called 'A Rainbow Colored Fish'.

Dean - Pike, bwahahahahahahhh does that live in an Anemone? Don't worry mate, your COLD water fish are safe from my prying lenses!

Steve - Been a blast, now I gotta make sense of the 30 odd hours of footage!! Some will be fining its way to your festival.

Tony - You said it. Highlights are: Mating common seahorses, hugely pregnant Pygmy seahorse, mating bobtail squid, hunting and feeding Hairy Frogfish, Territorial yawning from Painted and Hairy Frogfish, Jawfish building its new hole, Nudibranch laying an egg ribbon, Two completely Yellow Ribbon eels in the same hole, Harlequin Shrimp etc.

So much other Symbiotic stuff too its mind boggling. Great place, no one ever 'tapped me on the head" though but thanks or the warning. In fact We only bumped into a few other divers on maybe six of the dives I made their in total. Great trip.

To all, I will be prepping a full trip report with images when I get back to Palau.

Mike - Heading to Bali on Friday so will hope to have a faster connection there. Have some things to discuss with you etc.

Cheers all, and LONG LIVE LEMBEH!!

Mark.

Sounds great Mark. I'm back there in September for a few days after Bali. Looking forward to the full report but a few quickies...

How far out did they take you? Did you get beyond Angels Window?

How did the tripod work out?

Did you end up attaching your batteries to your chest to get the housing lower?

Finally was Opo your guide and has he got a guitar these days?

If anyone is looking for the mandarin video, here is a direct link: A rainbow colored fish. Absolutely fantastic!

Hey Mark,

We land in Bali on the 4th at 7pm and will be at the Mercure Hotel. We board the Voyager on the 6th. Maybe you can stop by. Would love to meet up with you. I have a large group to watch over so not sure just how flexible I will be able to be about going places but a R & C or 2 might be a good thing.

Steve

Nick - Went to Angels Window and then another site a bit further north, can't remember the name of it though. Old fishing boat wreck and sloping reef. Big Cuttlefish and Ornate Ghost Pipes from that dive. My main regard was for the black sand stuff and I'd request a break from that routine to rest the eyes from searching through the sand and trash.

Tripod worked fine, with a slight modification. Great static shots of an insanely pregnant pygmy seahorse with stacked diopters. Battery packs are attached to me as you say to allow for lower filming angles.

Opo was a blast, playing the guitar left handed and treating us all to his great voice. Nightly concert and couple of impromptu piss ups were fun. Next time you're out there take a look above the dining area in the rafters of the roof, we left a couple of the guilty 'receptacles' zip tied to the roof. Each one with a list of the present drinkers that night, but thats another story! Opo had an ear infection so I was guided the complete month by Vanus from Bunaken, great guy, great guide, highly reccommended. One day I asked him to find Skeleton shrimps, ten minutes into the dive he had 'em. All good.

OK Steve,

Got it noted, will contact you there. Now just landed in Singapore.............cold, tired and ready for bed!!

Cheers all.

Mark.

receptacles??? ... *thinks hard* ... nope, i'm too young and naive to know what you're talking about. Will look in the rafters.

Yeah, I remember Vanus. Great guy and guide and seems to out-hunt even the great Opo quite often. Last year Opo had a chest infection for months. But I suppose 4-5 hours in the water every day comes with its risks. Maybe I'll take him a bottle of mix to stop him getting future ear infections.

OK, so we had a couple of crazy drinking game parties with some of the guests and crew, using the duty free Absolut 100 Vodka from a few of the divers there. Using the spine labels from HD tape insert slips we put a list of the peoples names on each bottle and zip tied them to the rafters. Nigel just laughed, shook his head and said he thought we may have started a craze. Hopefully they will be there next year as I'm planning a return with RED asap.

Cheers,

Mark.