Sardinia (Italy) best spot for UW photography

Hi guys,

Due to this years Covid travel restrictions (not able to travel to the top destinations) we are looking at travelling to Sardinia from the UK for a holiday.

Ideally we want to dive somewhere good for pictures if possible. 

We have looked at Azores but they require a negative PCR test on arrival so Italy/Greece/Turkey are the most likely destinations at the moment. 

Would appreciate if anyone has dived in Sardinia before and has any places that are worth visiting. 

Cheers

Hi,

it's been a while since I last dived in Sardinia, but I have really good memories of the north-east region, round Isla Maddalena and Lavezzi (that dive site is actually off the south-east coast of Corsica). Lavezzi is a special place, because you can see lots of groupers at a site called Merouville ("Grouper city"). Generally speaking, expect very good visibility, not a huge amount of fish (compared with the Red Sea, obviously...), and nice underwater scenery. Check out these guys: https://www.scubapoint.info/en/

This being Italy, the food and wine are simply amazing!

Cheers,

Matt

If you are interested in caves and stalactites, central eastern coast is a good destination and dive operator called "Protec Sardinia". There are several extensive cave systems that require cave diving certificates. However, two of them have direct access to the water surface above for the first 50-150 meters and thus you can enter them eventhough you would only have an oper water dive certificate. The entrances are quite photogenic.

I was in Sardinia last week - visiting family and friends and enjoying the warm sea and beautiful beaches. Although I didn't dive (partly because I've hurt my neck - see the latest Wetpixel Live videos!). I also lived there for 2 years. 

There is scuba diving all around Sardinia. I have more experience of the northern half of the island than the southern. 

I really like the diving around La Maddalena archipelago - topography dominated by granite - from where it is possible to do trips to Lavezzi too. You can dive this area either from dive centres on the island or on the Sardinian coast. I would suggest going with Vinny at Nautilus in Palau (https://www.divesardegna.com) who is a photographer and also Wetpixel member. 

I also really like the diving around Alghero (where I used to live, although we did live on La Maddelena for 3 months too). This is a limestone area - with lots of caverns to explore. The water here is always a couple of degrees colder than elsewhere. I have dived the most there with https://www.capogalera.com/default.aspx?ver=en

I also really like diving in Tavolara and also the wreck KT-12 in Orosei - both of which could be done as a day trip from anywhere in the north of Sardinia with an early start. There is interesting diving almost everywhere - so if other factors decide where you are staying - then dive there and maybe do some of the other locations as day trips. 

There are very few decent shore dives in Sardinia.

Here are a few of my pictures from Sardinia (unusually the first seahorse is shot with the rarely used Nikon 85mm macro lens) : 

http://www.amustard.com/library/page/search/sardinia/1/

Avoid the night clubs this summer!

Alex

Thank you all for the recommendations much appreciated. We have decided to stay near Olbia close to a beautiful stretch of sand called 'La Cinta'. This is a 15min drive to dive centres that take you to AMP Tavolara which I thought looked like a nice place to dive after seeing a few pictures taken there - glad to have this confirmed @Alex_Mustard (I did actually watch that video a few days ago, in fact, I watch all of them, very valuable for a novice like me.)

I have a small Sony Rx100v4 compact setup with a Nauticam WWL-1 + CMC-1 but I am really looking forward to this trip as it will be the first time I will be taking 2x Inon Z240 strobes, will see how it goes...

Cheers 

Igor

On 8/29/2020 at 3:37 PM, Blenny84 said:

Thank you all for the recommendations much appreciated. We have decided to stay near Olbia close to a beautiful stretch of sand called 'La Cinta'. This is a 15min drive to dive centres that take you to AMP Tavolara which I thought looked like a nice place to dive after seeing a few pictures taken there - glad to have this confirmed @Alex_Mustard (I did actually watch that video a few days ago, in fact, I watch all of them, very valuable for a novice like me.)

I have a small Sony Rx100v4 compact setup with a Nauticam WWL-1 + CMC-1 but I am really looking forward to this trip as it will be the first time I will be taking 2x Inon Z240 strobes, will see how it goes...

Cheers 

Igor

 

Hello Igor,  you would definetely be welcome to come and visit us in Coda Cavallo at AQUARIUS about 10 minutes by car from la Cinta.  We have the islands of Tavolara and Molara right in front of us within 10 minutes by boat and we love photographers.  :))

You can also find us on facebook under my name or DIVE AQUARIUS

We had a great time in Sardinia, it was our first time there and we loved it. 

People were really nice, the coast and the beaches are stunning, food, wine, weather it has it all!

The diving was slightly better than what I was expecting since I dived in the Med a few years ago.

We mainly dived around Isola Tavolara and Molara with Blu Infinito dive centre (great and smooth operation run by Fabio, great guy) nice coral and massive groupers if you dive Secca del Papa I and II.

Strobes, first time I use them...it is tricky. I read the CFWA section from @Alex_Mustard s UWP Masterclass book at least 5 times. Quite tricky to work out distance to subject and strobe positions 9 - 3 or 10-2 for verticals and the impact in lighting. Hopefully we can go on some sort of photo trip next year and learn properly covid permitting... 

A lot of the pictures were also really dark when I had my strobes to Full and I checked they where firing...Shutter speed was 1/125 and F8 aperture so don't understand why?

Anyway, great place for a holiday with some decent diving if Red Sea, SEA or Americas are a no go due to covid or other reasons. 

You can see the pictures here - 

More than happy to take on any comments constructive criticism to help me improve. 

Cheers

Igor