Maldives (Ari Atoll, Vaavu, Meemu, Faafu, Rasdu)

Hello,

I went to the Maldives early April for a 2 weeks trip, mixing a 10 days liveaboard and 4 days in Madoogali resort.

I had the chance to meet a great dive guide that has a very extensive knowledge of the the Maldives with more than 170 dive sites.

His name is Christophe Manesse and his company is "Amis des Maldives".

His promise for every dive trip is to show you the following species (http://www.amisdesmaldives.com/):

- hammerheads & grey sharks (we had schools in Fotteyo and Vanuravali)

- manta rays (20 in one dive on Doncalo Veli)

- whale sharks (3 in the same dive)

A great team dedicated to divers and not business oriented. For you CMAS divers, you'll find what you can expect from CMAS dives !!!!

Nitrox is available on board, but it is not recommended for dives below 40 m.

Few pics:

1. A trip to the Maldives should always start here...

2.

3.

4.

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6. Christophe and his detailed briefing

7. Let's dive

8.

9. Manta on Doncalo Veli

10. The Whale shark and the diver

11. My first macro ever...

12. Eagle rays on Fotteyo

13. Manta on Doncalo veli

14. Maalhos Thila

15. Maalhos Thila

16. Enter Sandman...

17. Kudara Thila

18. Fesdu Wreck

19.

20. A manta ray while snorkeling

21.

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23.

24. Even in the maldives they love football

25.

26.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Damien

Fantastic.

Terrific - you saw so many rays!!

I love the first shot - looks so inviting

Superb work. Really magnificent.

Just one word.: Awesome!!!!

Absolutely Fantastic work!

Cheers Markus

As a devotee of the Maldives- all I can say is- awesome!! Thank you for tugging my heart strings this am.!

Fantastic.

Fantastic shots,

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Thank you very much for your warm comments.

I sincerely appreciate it, but I feel ...

I had such a good time in the Maldives that I will look for booking another trip this year. I'll probably try to go again in Nov. or Dec.

Damien

Great Great Collection Damien !!!!

Beautiful shots.

Really enjoyed seeing your photos - thanks for posting!

Impressive!

Very well done :-)

Cheers

Karel

A great collection. Your WA is very good. I love the blues.

Stew

Wonderful shots, seems to be Tokina is the right lens for the job:)! Oh boy, when will my housing arrive :-(

Thank you for your warm comments.

The 10-17 is the perfect match for the maldives if you love wide-angle shots.

I have seen so many critters, snails and other great things to shot macro... but every day during the briefing the guide was telling me "go large, go large".

I used my Sigma 17-70 for shots with sharks down the lagoon passes, but I still need to process the images.

10-17 is definitively a superb lens for cropped sensors.

Damien

A great collection. Your WA is very good. I love the blues.

 

Stew

Thank you Stew.

I recently changed my settings shooting RAW + JPEG, and I was afraid to loose this deep and intense blue you get with the "Landscape" color mode on Nikon.

Finally, the standard mode does a better job if you just add a little bit of contrast.

Damien