Few photos from Anilao, Philippines

Had the pleasure to stay at Solana Bezo Resort in Anilao, Philippines. The owner Joel and his son Adrien (wetpixel member) have got a great operation out in Anilao and have done an excellent job training their local DM's to be spotters. A very photographer friendly resort. The resort is a bit pricey vs your standard resorts for the Anilao area, but well worth it IMHO.

Anyways, to the pics... I'll start off with the various pipefish found at the site Basura ("garbage" in tagalog), all found on a single dive. Shots take with a Canon 40D, Canon 60mm macro lens, S&S housing, 2x Inon Z-240's.

Ornate Ghost Pipefish

Banded Pipefish

Do you have a blue ring? If so i want to see it.

Oh, and nice photos!

Do you have a blue ring? If so i want to see it.

 

Oh, and nice photos!

we didn't do that site... will have to do it next time...

BTW, those "mimic" octos are pretty boring aren't they ...

wait, what's it trying to mimic? umm... ooh an octopus...

i dont think that's a mimic...

the mantle doesn't look right, did it have one little antennae thing above each eye?

I saw them(BR) on the beach by your countrymen's lovely up and coming resort.

I think it's hiding it's antennae and mimicking a regular 'pus...

ah i see, were you diving with Selso?

Maybe you needed to stab it with a 'sand spike' to get it's colours out....

Did you get any shots of the eggs in the pouch of the 5th Ghost Pipe?

Shall i stop ruining your thread now? sorry!

Maybe you needed to stab it with a 'sand spike' to get its colours out....

And those would be...pink?

Great pics, Mike (also on Flickr)

ah i see, were you diving with Selso?

 

Maybe you needed to stab it with a 'sand spike' to get it's colours out...

Was diving with Glen.

not sure why the octo turned ghostly white... :glare: honestly I didn't beat it senseless with my pointer when it dawned on me it wasn't a mimic octo and wouldn't do an Elvis imitation...

ah i see, were you diving with Selso?

 

Maybe you needed to stab it with a 'sand spike' to get it's colours out....

 

Did you get any shots of the eggs in the pouch of the 5th Ghost Pipe?

couldn't get a good angle on the eggs... On closer look, one of them was peeping at me. Should have used my pointer to help the lil bugger out...

Wow! Lovely shots, Pak! Bravo!

Ed.

Great Pics Pak.......awesome! What do you think of using the 40 D down below ? Was looking at it as an option..but then they announced the 450:(

Cheers,

Diggy

Thanks Diggy,

I've only used the 40D on 1 trip so far u/w but to summarize at this point I would say (in terms of 40D vs 400D)

1. Larger and brighter viewfinder

2. Faster/ more accurate AF

3. Better high ISO noise

4. possibly better handling of highlights

5. dedicated aperture command dial

6. liveview* nice to have, but didn't find it that practical for macro.

Cons

1. Heavier and slightly larger

Will be interesting to see what the 450D will bring to the table. Has some potential for making of a great compact DLSR setup.

Excellent results Pakman - thanks for sharing. I love the ghost pipes!

Mike,

Good photos, very good details. I have to say that is quite funny the fact that I took photos (already on my site) of the same ghost pipefish, of the same pouch last week.

Chilly water, wasn't it.

alex

Chilly indeed Alex.

Hurry up and get your D300 housed. We need to go find those elusive blue ring octopi in HK...

HK? silly....

You are absolutely right. We would have been silly to think that till 6 months ago when someone had the "great" idea of releasing 200 blue ring octopus coming from a shop!!!!!

The sightings of BRO are more and more frequent.

alex

HK? silly....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caminu/2208424938/

they're out there...

Yep, nice shot.

But Pak, I meant diving in cold water is silly.

You are always complainin of cold!

it's slowly starting to warm up... but still semi-dry season...

Thanks for the input on 40D. Did check it out and feels far more solid than the 400D for sure. Am waiting for the 450D to release and will make a call after that. Most likely will pick up the DSLR ASAP to get used to it. Housing etc. by the end of the year.

SHOULD have gone in for a DSLR in the first place !!!! Will seek advice on the lenses from you once i get that DAMN DSLR. This OCD is burning holes in my pocket and am also getting those "special" comments from the wife that burn even more "water off a ducks back" !!

Cheers,

Diggy

Thanks Diggy,

 

I've only used the 40D on 1 trip so far u/w but to summarize at this point I would say (in terms of 40D vs 400D)

 

1. Larger and brighter viewfinder

 

2. Faster/ more accurate AF

 

3. Better high ISO noise

 

4. possibly better handling of highlights

 

5. dedicated aperture command dial

 

6. liveview* nice to have, but didn't find it that practical for macro.

 

Cons

1. Heavier and slightly larger

 

Will be interesting to see what the 450D will bring to the table. Has some potential for making of a great compact DLSR setup.