Sanctuary Under the Sea

www.andylim.com/aqua

My underwater photography website, with both underwater and topside photos.

So far, the underwater photos were taken on a disposable camera and a Canon Ixus X1 APS camera. My next batch of pictures will be taken on a Canon S50 digicam with underwater housing

Hi Andy very nice Site with a creative Design. I like the "Camera Picture Selector".

I Also just Updated to the S50 (after I realised I can't afford to get mny D60 Housed and my S40 died on my last Trip.) I would like to share experience.

Simon

Hi Andy,

Very creative! Where are Regang and Tenggol Islands located. Sounds like a great place for the next "Survivor" series.

Thanks guys!

Redang, Tenggol, Perhentian and Lang Tengah islands are off the east coast of West Malaysia. Diveable months are from April to October, with May to September being your best bet for good weather and visibility.

I'll be diving Perhentian in July, that's when I'll be using the S50. Will share my experience.

I just got back from the Perhentian islands. Tried out my Canon S50 in WP-DC300 underwater housing and Sea & Sea 16mm wide angle lens. Here are 2 sample photos:

Look great........nice composition

Karl

Hey Karl

You have a fantastic gallery! I'll be getting a strobe eventually. Right now my photos are all using available light only.

Andy, your natural light shots are excellent, but the addition of a strobe will give you the ability to go deeper for more shots. Keep up the good work!

Your website is very original and well done.

Karl

Hi Andy,

I really like your imaginative site. Are the images in the "LCD" supposed to enlarge when you click on them? For some reason all I get is a beep on my machine. All the other controls work fine. Thanks TedJ

Thanks Karl and Ted, glad you liked my website! I'll be uploading my latest trip photos to the "camera" soon. Yes, clicking on the LCD will pop up a window with the enlarged photo.

I'm not sure exactly why it behaves differently on your computer. Perhaps you have Javascript turned off? The site requires Javascript turned on to work (this is the default setting on most computers).

I have Javascript turned on. All other settings seem to be correct, but it may be one of my surfing tools that is blocking and making the little beep noise when I click on the image. I really want to see them.

TedJ

Ahh... I think it's the ad-blocking or popup-blocking software that's causing the popups not to pop up

A quick fix would be to temporarily disable that software just to view the site, and then enable it again later. I promise, there are no ads on my website

As a long term solution however, I will try to improve the navigation and viewing method.

Andy,

Thanks very much for the diagnosis. It turns out I have exactly what you thought and after doing some digging I found that I could disable the blocking by simply holding Ctrl and clicking on your images. You get my vote for the most imaginative u/w presentation site. Well done.

TedJ

Thanks Ted!

I've just updated my site with the underwater photos taken in Perhentian Island.

Check it out: www.andylim.com/aqua

I've improved the navigation method slightly. On the popup window where the large images appear, clicking on the image leads you to the next image, instead of closing the window.

I hope to get a strobe soon.

Hi Andy

I enjoyed looking at your Perhentian photos. In 1996 for the first time I donned facemask and snorkel and went out from a beach ... and it was at Perhentian. I saw a turtle and a stingray (amongst many other things) on that first foray and I was hooked! So this brought back good memories and maybe that's why my favourite picture is the turtle. I like the pose.

Navigating the website ... I'm using a 1024x600 screen (on my subnotebook) most of the time, and some of your windows don't fit in that screen. I'm not really an expert in this stuff, but there wasn't always a window control to resize to fit my screen, and no scrollbar on the openng page. So I don't know whether I'm missing anything on the site by virtue of perhaps not being able to see all the controls?

Other than that, I like the way you put it together. Good stuff!

-David

Hi David

Thanks for the feedback!

I prefer Perhentian Island to Redang Island, in my opinion it has more marine life. The accommodation is generally not as luxurious as on Redang though.

I designed the site to fit even on a 800x600 screen, so I'm not sure why your 1024x600 (or 768?) screen is not showing the whole site. The front page doesn't need a scrollbar as it's just the clownfish photo containing 5 links. On the pop-up window where the camera appears, there's no scrollbar but it's designed to fit everything in without the need to scroll.

Are you using a browser other than Internet Explorer?

OK, I just had another look ...

Actually the screen that doesn't fit is the one with the camera. I guess maybe my toolbars take up more space than yours do! I just couldn't tell whether there were any more options at the bottom of that screen.

The front page doesn't fit but it does have a scroll bar so no problems for me there. On my system (Internet Explorer 6.0, pretty much up-to-date) the camera screen has no window controls - ie no scroll bar, and the maximise button is disabled. When I pull this window up the screen as far as I can (I only know how to do this by grabbing the bar at the top of the window) I still can't see the bottom of the window.

Not a big deal, anyway, but I guess I'm missing a little of hte impression you wanted to create!

-David

Hi David, I moved the items that were at the bottom a little higher (actually it's just a link to my main website). I think you should be able to see it without it being cropped off now

Thanks again for letting me know.