First of many from Raja Ampat

There were at least 3 Wetpixelians shooting in Raja last week, so I am sure you will see a glut of shots shortly.

Be prepared for pygmy overload

Fellow Wetpixel member Mike, who is getting married today! Pictured here sitting Indo waiting....

Attempt at Mangrove over/under never did find any colorful soft corals hanging on roots.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3475/321705...dd1071d56_o.jpg

All kudos for getting in first!

I do like your bargibanti.

Which mangrove was drab?

Tim

OMG what a pygmy shot.

What boat were you on?

Thanks.

Will do a more detailed trip report latter but we went out with Peter Hughes on their new boat the Paradise Dancer. Boat is HUGE, incredible, and the cabins would be master suites on any other boat. The crew was fantastic. Food good to very good. The diving is really amazing. That said a few issues.

1. The boat is all wood and new so they are still working out issues. When it rained hard our cabin and one other sprang leaks from the ceiling, ours had over a dozen. Only two hit the bed and the crew was on it. By the end of the trip they had it down to ½ dozen but this needs to be resolved.

2. This boat takes up to 20 divers split between two pangas. Being new to this area they are still learning the sites. They would drop both pangas at opposite ends of a site and work our way to the opposite end, bad plan. You always ended up with 18-20 people in one place halfway thru the dive. This is an area where it is good to keep up with the guides as they can find the pygmy seahorses, etc... I spoke with the Dive Masters about this. IMHO they need to have two dive masters per panga, they need to send each panga to a different site. Then drop groups of 4-5 at each end of the site. I think this will come to pass with time.

3. After this trip I am now committed to coming up with "Guidelines for Underwater Photographers". Everyone on the boat had cameras. Over 1/2 these people were semi pros, award winners, had been out with David Doubilet and other noted pros. THEY WERE HORRIBLE! Some wore gloves and just molested the reef. Others would capitalize subjects found by the dive guides for 15-20minutes or until the poor creature would disappear. I watched one diver straddle a sea fan while trying to get a shot, he looked back saw what he was doing, thought about it, realized he did not have the skill to move to another position that would have spared the fan, so just continued to ride the fan. One was so bad the guides would have to hold them in place while they shot so they would not destroy the reef. "Off the record" the Guides agreed some kind of widely accepted Guidelines would have helped in dealing with some of these people without putting their incomes at risk. (Rant over for now, thanks)

Again I am NOT claiming buoyancy perfection. But I am very, very conscious about what I am doing and regularly pass up shots I see others taking because there is no way to get the shot without impacting the reef.

I now have a ton of respect for the amazing over/unders I have seen in the past, they are tough.

Thanks for sharing, beautiful pictures.

some nice shots there. cant wait for the full trip report, especially if naming and shaming is within it.

stew

Hi Martin! Some awesome shots. I just love the batfish. I spent my whole safety stop watching you get that shot just right. What skill!

You are right, I did get married last Friday, and let me tell you, i was a lot happier getting married in upcountry Thailand than sitting in the airport in Makassar all damn day. Thanks for the over/under of me, you are too clever! I am looking forward to more photos from you, and thanks again for all of your wonderful help on the boat. You were so amazingly helpful to me, and I don't even think you know it.... Say hi to Julie from me! Hope to dive with you again soon!

Now, Scuba lessons for my bride... here is a photo of the happy couple

Congratulations, you clearly married well above your caste! Welcome to the world of marital bliss, now you just have to get her diving. Only took my 4-5yrs. Congrats again....

Gorgeous shot of the yellow shrimp!

some nice shots there. cant wait for the full trip report, especially if naming and shaming is within it.

 

stew

Me too - You hear stories and rumours but it always good to hear about such issues from someone who witnessed them first hand. Its sad to hear about the "fan rider"

Beautiful images so far in this post.

That shot of Mike at Makassar brings back some horrible memories for me. What a way to waste an afternoon!

You have every right to show off these images. Wow!

Kudos to you for being honest and open about the less-than-perfect behavior you witnessed. It's too bad some folks can't pass up a shot even though it will likely damage the reef. More of them should read Martin Edge's book and read about his philosophy on this topic. When I was at Wakatobi this past fall, they have Martin Edge's comments about photographer behavior displayed prominently in the camera room Too bad those fellows just don't seem to care.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the images and hope to see you and Julie at a future Pacific Northwest dive event.

Ellen

PS Congrats to the happy couple

Kudos to you for being honest and open about the less-than-perfect behavior you witnessed. It's too bad some folks can't pass up a shot even though it will likely damage the reef. More of them should read Martin Edge's book and read about his philosophy on this topic. When I was at Wakatobi this past fall, they have Martin Edge's comments about photographer behavior displayed prominently in the camera room Too bad those fellows just don't seem to care.

A little off topic but....When I first read this post a few days ago, the part about photog behavior really touched a nerve and I've been thinking about it ever since. Now it's come up again so I must comment. As a resort operator, we deal with this problem daily. I want our operation to be photo-friendly (since that's where my passion lies) but all my guides have been informed that if they see photogs with bad buoyancy they need to point it out to them, correct it, and if the behavior continues we will counsel that person above water. Many times they are completely unaware of it. Other times, we've had to tell them to leave the camera behind. My husband refuses to dive with photographers now because of what he's seen.

I would like to post something in our shop also regarding UW Photographer ethics. Where can I find Martin Edge's comments? (I checked his website and couldn't find it there). Or if someone knows of another good list that might be helpful, I'd like to do my part in our shop to improve the problem.

Wow, great shots! I love them all.

I' glad you liked your trip and that is a great pygmy shot. R4 is truly a great place to dive. However, one would hope that a company with as big a reach as Peter Hughes (and with such a nice looking boat) would get to know the area a bit before bringing paying customers along to help them. Given the diving strategy you've described, I am curious to know if you dived places (Kri, in particular) in current. My experience there has been that if you do not dive in current MUCH to strong to attack two ends of the dive site at the same time and cross in the middle, you don't get the best diving. I'm also very perturbed about their apparent ambivalence about divers wrecking the reef. Then again, I probably shouldn't be surprised as it would appear that there are several boats out there who are apparently actively ruining the dive sites on a regular basis. Having been to the area the last five years (and knowing people who dive there much more than me), I've seen and heard about some pretty silly activity. I posted here a some time back about a couple boats that tie off way too close to dive sites, despite a park "rule" forbidding such activity. I then sent a note to one of the boat operators to complain and received only marketing material in return. I've heard from friends that this kind of activity is continuing, and this is just one example of how the boat operators are making money in the short term at the long term expense of the area. The diving out there is so wonderful, it would be a shame if the growing popularity of the area was its undoing, but then again that is a fundamental feature of human nature, it appears . . .

But then again, this is the photo posting board and you've posted some good ones, so I'll get off my soap box now.

Mike

I just want to put a quick note in defense of the guides for Peter Hughes on the Paradise Dancer. They literally escorted and physically supported the worst offender, Jane. This left the other Panga with one dive guide to find things for and watch over 8 other divers. Every guide spoke with Jane as did I after I saved her from putting her hand directly on a scorpion fish. She ignored all of us. I have never been with any operator anywhere where they banned a diver. I have a rule of never saying/printing anything behind someones back that I have not said to their face. As I did discuss with Jane, in private, calmly, her buoyancy issues due to packing a camera I have no problem making her the poster "child" for why we need Guidelines. Sadly I typically had the 105mm lens on when seeing these transgressions. Below is one shot I did get of Jane, this is probably the least offense of her sins.

The other guides where typically doing what good guides do, finding stuff for us to look at and photograph. Most of the indiscretions I witnessed where once the guides had moved on and careless/thoughtless photogs where going after their shots. So again I do want to say the Guides did an excellent job. I do wish they and all dive ops would ban gloves. One more disclaimer, I did like many of these people "on deck" it was just underwater I had issues with them.

PS We were happy enough with are Raja Ampat trip w/Peter Hughes we just booked a 2week Galapagos trip with them for 2010.