oceanic whitetips - Egypt

Heres a link for a few shots from my recent trip to Egypt - trip report in the trip report section.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26034596@N08/...ith/2966853794/

All images taken with 350D canon

2 x ys90

Tokina 10-17mm

Please feel free to rate them or hate them.

Cheers for looking, Stew

Great shots. Especially the Oceanics and Napoleon. I'm off to Elphinstone in a couple of weeks. Hope we get some encounters like that! Must have been great. Were all the Oceanic shots with the 10-17, or did you use something longer for some of them?

Great shots. Especially the Oceanics and Napoleon. I'm off to Elphinstone in a couple of weeks. Hope we get some encounters like that! Must have been great. Were all the Oceanic shots with the 10-17, or did you use something longer for some of them?

all of the images were shot with the 10-17mm

Looks like a great trip, you have to be pretty pleased with that collection

i was well pleased with the results of the 10-17mm. it seems to produce much crisper images than the 10-22mm. the only downside was that on a lot of shots that i was trying to achieve i was ending up with a reflection of something circular on the images. it looks as if it is a reflection of the inside of the dome port base. It was only showing up when i was trying to get the sun bursting into the image. needless to say a lot of shots got deleted straight away. but coming away from the trip with 25 good shots in a weeks diving was very pleasing. the maldives will be next in january when hopefully i will be shooting at mantas and whalesharks

Stew, how many Longimanus made a showing at the 'Stone? Last year their numbers were fewer than previously - maybe only half a dozen...

Stew, how many Longimanus made a showing at the 'Stone? Last year their numbers were fewer than previously - maybe only half a dozen...

at Elphinstone we had 3 to ourselves for 2 dives which were way in the blue off of the southern end. other boats had them too though, so as for numbers i can only say more than 3. as a guestimate i would say 5 maybe 6. the brothers seem to have had a lot more though, which is a great sign that the fishermen have not got them yet. at the brothers on one dive we 6 circling us and again there were more around the other 8 boats so hopefully their numbers are increasing.

try and get at least one dive in out in the blue when you are there. at the end of the day, you are going there at this time of the year to see them. i am sure you have dived the walls of elphinstone before so to miss them and raise your chances of coming head to head with the longimanus isnt that bad. get your guide to go out to the furthest boat south and drop in there, put a DSMB up and go down to 5 metres. they will come to you. be patient though, we had to wait a whole 3 minutes on one dive..

Just to get your tastebuds going:

Nice collection, tells a good story of what the area has to offer.

Cheers

Todd

Great images, Stew.

Were you diving Elphinestone in October? If not, what month did you take these images?

I am considering a first-time dive trip to the Red Sea in 2009. What is the best month to go to see longimanus and what locations would you recommend?

Cheers for the comments..I was there in mid october. The best places for oceanics IMHO is the Brothers and Elphinstone. Do a week liveaboard. If you havent dived in Egypt before choose your liveaboard carefully. There are a lot of crap boats out there. I was on the Blue Pearl and it was very good. We were on the Grand Sea Serpent a few years ago when it was new and the Blue Pearl was as good. The food was very good on the BP to.

If you can, try and do the trip that includes Daedelus. That would be a great trip. I have been told that the best time for them is full moon in october. So try to get a trip around then.

On our trip last week we see : hammerheads most dives at the brothers, oceanics at the brothers and elphinstone, grey reefs on the south end of Big Brother all dives. They may not come in too close but with a longish lens you will get shots of the hammers and greys. for the oceanics, well any lens will do, as they come in so close they bump you.

Happy diving, Stew

The 'Pearl' its sister ship, the 'Blue Seas' and their first class guides, Pia, Nina and Ashraf, get my vote too...

I saw the Black Pearl in the port in Ensenada on my way to Guadalupe this summer!

I am off to try my luck shooting these with a Subal D700 combo next week - Wetpixel review to follow.

Alex

I saw the Black Pearl in the port in Ensenada on my way to Guadalupe this summer!

 

I am off to try my luck shooting these with a Subal D700 combo next week - Wetpixel review to follow.

 

Alex

Alex, I think I probably met her too but i can't remember in which port...

I'm just glad I got a few of my best efforts on here before Alex went. I doubt I would have posted after he had posted his. Have a great trip Alex and say hello to the Longimanus from me.

The one in Ensenada is the working one from the film:

As Fox Studios Baja is just North of the city.

Alex

I'm just glad I got a few of my best efforts on here before Alex went. I doubt I would have posted after he had posted his. Have a great trip Alex and say hello to the Longimanus from me.

Yeah, but if I use the D700 I won't be able to use the 10-17mm. Would you have liked to try and shoot those guys without that lens.

Anyway I am running a course - so I have to let everyone else get their shots first. So I'll be feeding on scraps.

Alex

Yeah, but if I use the D700 I won't be able to use the 10-17mm. Would you have liked to try and shoot those guys without that lens.

 

Anyway I am running a course - so I have to let everyone else get their shots first. So I'll be feeding on scraps.

 

Alex

the 10-17 was spot on. i love the lens. now i know why folk raved on about it.

as for running a course, there are plenty of them to go around !

Nice shots!

Hi,

Just got back from basically the same trip. However, I found that Daedalus was the best for the Longimanus.

The problem is basically the amount of boats&divers.

Are the Longimanus only showing up now?

I have heard from people going there in June and had plenty of Sharks and were the only boat.

/Erik

We were at Daedalus this last august and we have 3 longimanus for two days with us...and a lot of dolphines...and Thresher Sharks.... hammerheads...and...