Wetpixel South Komodo Expedition

As I write, folks from around the world are winging their ways towards Labuan Bajo, where they will board The Seven Seas for 11 days of amazing underwater encounters and imaging opportunities. After a brief spell in port, a second group will arrive and will embark for a further 11 days.

We will be diving in the Komodo National Park, concentrating on the Deep South. At this time of year, the north west monsoon completely changes the south sides of the Komodo Island group. This means that the area is washed by crystal clear currents and as the wind moves form south east to north west, the swells flatten out and the southern upwellings cease.

Here is some video shot by Linda Johnson in the south:

We plan to add updates to this thread as we sail, although it is likely that internet connectivity will, at times, be limited. Please keep checking back for updates and images from the trip.

We are all now gathered in Bali and met up for a group meal at Mama San:

We were joined by Keri Bingham and Robert Delfs.

We catch an early flight tomorrow to Labuan Bajo, from where we will board The Seven Seas and start the trip "proper."

I'll be posting updates here whenever I get the opportunity, and encouraging my fellow travellers to do the same!

Adam

Hello, everyone! We are having a great time on our 2nd day of diving aboard the Seven Seas here in Komodo. Yesterday's dives at Wainilu were great, for critters. And today? Mantas!

During this trip, I'm shooting a BMD Pocket Cinema Camera for the first time, underwater. The Nauticam USA housing for it is fantastic, and the Panasonic 8mm fisheye lens is pleasing with the slight crop factor. Best of all, I'm shooting CinemaDNG (raw) with a Magic Filter. The colors in today's manta shoot, which was in murky water, looks pretty good after light processing in Lightroom!

I don't think I have enough hard disks, though. CinemaDNG is around 3.6 GB per minute, and I'm shooting about 30 GBs worth of frames per dive.

Oooooh! Have fun out there guys, looking forward in seeing your pics!

cheers

Barry

Some more images:

Hi, everyone! We have just motored into mobile data range near Labuanbajo. The trip was fantastic, although when we arrived in Horseshoe Bay, it looked like it often does in the dry season: green and murky. By the end of the trip, the water had cleared up, so trip 2 should have fantastic conditions by the time they get here. Still, the diving has been great, as has the boat and company. Also, I've been flying the quad around, and the new perspective is fantastic.

We spent a long time playing with bobbit worms at Torpedo Alley

This is Cannibal Rock, from the air.

Horseshoe Bay. Gorgeous!

I am hoping that other group members will start adding their images here soon too.

As a prompt (!), here is a group shot:

We were having a "heavy brain" day.

Eric shot the images using a housing and strobes...

Great photos. Really like the boat over the reef shot.

Are the aerial shots using the DJII Phantom Quadcopter? with the FPV camera

I would be really interested in finding out more, how good the camera is for stills & video & if its easy to fly.

I am very tempted to get one before my next trip.

Just got back from the Wetpixel South Komodo trip yesterday.

I had a great time, terrific company excellent organisation and a whole lot of great diving.

I spent a lot of the time on reefscapes and got some great images.

MV Seven Seas is highly recommended as a liveaboard.

Thanks to Eric and Adam and underexposures. Hope to see you guys at Dema.

Best, Mark

Some more South Komodo pics

Mark Goyen

Those aerial pics are really gorgeous. What kind of camery is crried by the quad?

Eric is still traveling, and I will leave questions about his quad and setup to him when he gets back.

In the meantime, he put together a slideshow of the participants' images and videos from the trip:

Adam

Very cool, thank you.

Hi, everyone. The quad is a DJI Phantom 2, and I've modified it to carry a Ricoh GR camera, which is a 16-megapixel APS-C camera with no anti-aliasing filter. It weighs less than 250g including its fixed 28-mm-equiv lens, which is incredibly light. You can see more pictures from the kit over at my other site, Skypixel.org.

All of the posts tagged Ricoh GR, including tech posts about the modification, are here: http://skypixel.org/tagged/ricoh-gr

How come unpacking is so much easier than packing but so much sadder? This was a great trip. The boat, not at the luxury end of the market, was comfortable and well equipped. What makes the difference though - the crew were about the best I've encountered (and I'm such an expert), absolutely wonderful. The guides were terrific and Mark had a real knack for finding dead things. Strangely we had a series of strobe floods - I think five in total. Fortunately nothing catastrophic.

For me it was particularly terrific to share the trip with my daughter, Phoebe. We spent a couple of days in Bali first playing with our Underwater Tribe friends - this time rafting and bike riding. Highly recommend it so long as you put in a bit of training ahead of the hills first.

As always travelling with Eric and this time Adam as well, meant there was plenty of opportunity to watch, ask, listen and learn. I'm still cropping for gold and it's time to update my camera so travelling with these generous folk was very timely. I've been able to pick their brains and cut through a whole lot of the complexity that comes with an upgrade decision. And really, hanging out with my first best californians again was bliss.

Safe back in Oz, really missing Wetpixel friends but plotting away to be ready for the next one.

Here are a couple of images, G12- Inon Z240x1.

See you next time lovely people ...

Lovely images Jenny!

Here are a few more:

Two crested nembrotha (Nembrotha cristata) making more nudibranchs!
Nikon D800, Nikkor 105mm VR, 1/320 at f40. Two Inon S2000 strobes

Wide angle scene from Cannibal Rock. Magnificent schools of fish and colorful soft corals abound.
Nikon D800, Tokina 17mm f3.5 in a Zen 170mm dome port. 1/160 at f14. Inon Z240 strobes with Clark Miller custom diffusers

Coleman shrimps (Periclimens colemani) on a fire urchin (Asthenosoma varium). These often live as pairs on an urchin.
Nikon D800, Nikkor 105mm VR, Nauticam SMC, Two Inon s2000 strobes. 1/320 at f40

Here are a few more photo's