Raja Ampat MultiMedia show up

Fancy way of saying slide show with music and video. HD version is locking up when trying to save to hard drive but this version looks fairly clean. It was a great trip and the Paradise Dancer is quite a ship.

Raja Ampat

http://www.vimeo.com/3633301

Stunning Martin and Julie! Truly outstanding. Thank you for the best 16 min. in a long time.

Can you share some more about how you liked the boat and the operation?

Cheers, loud cheers,

Steve

Fantastic! A great combo of pics and video from a clearly amazing trip.

When were you there?

Phil

All of that in 10 days is amazing diving - photography and videography. You certainly had a great time. The boat looks very very nice.

stew

Very nice.

Having just come back from Raja Ampat it brings back plenty of memories. Really enjoyed the mangrove swaps bit.

Alex

Its on my wish list for sure and your presentation gave a very good idea of what to expect. Very nicely done with some amazing video footage. Thanks for sharing

Cheers,

Diggy

Thanks for a great 16 minutes, Some great shots and nice video to boot.

WOW...well done...

Julie and I thank you for the kind comments. It is a great place and one we will repeat.

Regarding the Paradise Dancer I will do a trip report. In short it is a new boat and they are new to the area and on occasion this was obvious. The boat is HUGE and ultra comfortable. Most of the time you don't even realize the boat is moving. The food is good to excellent and the service is great. The issues I have are minor and I know they are working on. 1. Our ceiling leaked when there were heavy rains. Even on our trip the crew knocked the leaks in half. 2. The boat does take 18 divers (we tend to book boats that take -14, when possible) and they are still figuring out some of the dive sites out. They split you into two pangas of 9 and would sometimes drop you on the far ends of the same site. This often ended in a scrum when everyone crossed in the middle of the site. The guides are working on plans to insure they drop the pangas at different sites whenever possible. Our group all had cameras but there were several bad divers in the group. One so poor that they needed to assign a dive guide to them almost full time. This meant that the one panga had a ratio of divers to guide of 8 to 1 (at times) a problem on pygmy seahorse dives. The crew admitted this was one of their more problematic groups but it was something they need to plan for. But they were very flexible. Example Mike and I wanted to do another day in the mangroves so we convinced our shipmates and the boat obliged doing another day of dives in the area.

So if you are a gung-ho photographer that can stay at one site all day trying to get the right shot than their might be better ops, but probably not a more comfortable ship. But if you want to enjoy the variety of Raja on a ship that is very photog friendly than we have no problem recommending the Paradise Dancer.

Wife noticed that I can't spell and you are all to nice to point it out. Here is the corrected version

http://www.vimeo.com/3645119

Amazing presentation of video and images. Did you take your images with the video camera or did you have two rigs? I cant believe how cute the bobtail squid with the little shrimp was, that was my fav bit

Thanks for sharing.

Suzy

Killer vid Martin, it brings back some great memories. Nice editing job, and you had some great footage to work with... Give my best to your personal videographer. Hope you guys are well.

I still think that shot of the young batfish is absolutely perfect...

Heading to Anilao first week of May - you should come out!

Mike

PS: Leo is my hero...

Thanks. My wonderful wife shoots most of the video. It's a Sony HC7 in a Gates housing, Fathoms SWP25 port and L&M LED2000 Lights. I shoot the D200 in an Aquatica housing. This trip I mainly shot the Tokina 10-17mm 50% of the time, Nikon 105vr 40% of the time and 1st trip with the Sigma 17-70mm 10%. We were hoping to see the walking shark so had the Sigma 17-70mm on when we found the squid and shrimp, AHHHHHH if I only had the 105mm on.

Mike want to here about Anilao, looks like a great spot.

Thanks for putting together this wonderful show. I enjoyed the multi-media. Combining video with your excellent digital images gives a much more complete sense of the place. I hoping my next digital camera has video capability since it it would be impractical for me to travel with two systems.

Packing a second system is no big deal.

I just had to find a girl that was a biology major, marry her. Put a tropical fish tank in the living room so she got interested in the critters. Then take her on a tropical trip where she could fall in love with warm water and snorkeling. When she brought up getting certified but worried she would freeze I ran out and had a custom wet suit made for her. Once certified took her to another incredible tropical location to get her hooked on the diving. Then eventually take her to a place were there is no video pro, Cocos Island, and she wants proof to show family and friends she dove with a lot of sharks. So I get to go out and buy a video system. Learn it myself, book another trip to teach her how to use it (she is a warm water diver only) and viola we have a second set-up and shooter....17yrs after meeting girl.

See so carrying an extra system is no big deal just takes a little planning.

Packing a second system is no big deal.

 

I just had to find a girl that was a biology major, marry her. Put a tropical fish tank in the living room so she got interested in the critters. Then take her on a tropical trip where she could fall in love with warm water and snorkeling. When she brought up getting certified but worried she would freeze I ran out and had a custom wet suit made for her. Once certified took her to another incredible tropical location to get her hooked on the diving. Then eventually take her to a place were there is no video pro, Cocos Island, and she wants proof to show family and friends she dove with a lot of sharks. So I get to go out and buy a video system. Learn it myself, book another trip to teach her how to use it (she is a warm water diver only) and viola we have a second set-up and shooter....17yrs after meeting girl.

 

See so carrying an extra system is no big deal just takes a little planning.

creepy level of planning lol

LOL, Martin. Oh how gullible, innocent and unsuspecting we men can be. Are you sure that she didn't pick you out of the crowd knowing that you would help her learn of the beautiful world underwater and take her on fabulous tropical vacations? The best part of their artful guile is they let us think it was all our idea. I fear you're not giving Julie quite enough credit. Not to worry though, it's the ultimate Win-Win!

Have fun!

Steve

Steve you are probably right, she did have the biology degree when we met.