I have just spent 3 days diving with Wetpixel member DuncanS of RedSeaSnapper. I am staying in Nabq which is just a short ride north of the international airport at Sharm El Sheikh. Pick up is by a nice sized air conditioned mini bus at 0730. By 800 we are making our way down to the port at Naama Bay and once everyone is there it is a case of going through what seems a pointless ritual walking through an airport style scanning device. Then it is a case of locating the boat, which for these 3 days was the Jemmy1. The Jemmy1 is an Emperor Divers owned boat which is used for day trips rather than for longer safaris or week long liveaboards. The boat is comfortable, clean and has plenty of sun and shaded areas. It has a rinse tank and fresh water hose for camera rinsing.
Before every dive a full briefing is given of what should be expected in the way of current strength and also as to what we are likely to encounter once at depth on each particular dive site. Before we were allowed to giant stride off of the boat, a current check would be done to establish the direction and strength of the current. If the dive plan required altering due to the current being different from the briefing then it would be.
In the 3 days that I dove with RedSeaSnapper this week I dived at 3 local sites on day 1, day 2 was at Tiran ( Jacksons and Gordons Reef ) and on the last day Ras Mohamed ( Shark & Yolanda and also Eel Garden & Shark Observatory. On day Shark & Yolanda I actually requested that Louise and I actually spend our entire dive on the reef close to Shark and Yolanda which is called Anemone Reef. I love this site and could dive it every day as it has so many photo opportunities, especially if the sun is in the correct position. The rest of the boat dived Shark & Yolanda with another guide and Louise, myself and 2 other photographers jumped in with Duncan at Anemone Reef to spend the next 60 minutes diving in near perfect conditions.
I love the Red Sea and although we were not blessed with any sharks or mantas or big schools of fish, what we did see and photograph were in my opinion is what makes the Red Sea what it is. Amazing corals and great vis.
I was very limited to what weight I could take on the flight as I was taking a load of things for my newly built apartment. So on this trip I opted to use the following.
Canon 350D
Sea and Sea housing
40mm extension ring
Tokina 10 -17mm
Zen mini 100mm dome
2 x ys 90's
Here are a selection of unedited images that were taken from the last 3 days ( 7 dives ) with the 10-17mm/ 1/4 TC set up.
Comments and questions welcome as always
Stew
