Hi folks,
I just returned from 17 days at KBR in Lembeh and wanted to share a few pictures. I have a lot to edit still but I have some that are coming along just fine. Photographically speaking, the black sand can make the photography challenging and in some cases easy to get black backgrounds. When you have a dark animal and are shooting it against the dark sand, it is very hard to get any contrast. However, when you have a nice nudibranch or yellow frogfish on ther black sand, you can get a nice contrast, in fact some of my raw images had to be toned down in contrast as opposed to bumping it up in PS. I have posted one of my pics of two mating nudibranchs on black sand at night. Almost no PS at all except for a couple of particles removed.
The sand is hard on the gear and if you are going there o-ring maintenance is essential, often between dives depending on how much sand is stirred up. I had no water leaks other than a floded dive light, but had my fair share of housing and camera problems. Got through it though and only missed a couple of dives with my camera.
The diving was a bit regimented. After the first day, I had to talk to the managers because the guides (my guide specifically) would not give me enough time to compose and shoot professional grade pictures. 1-3 shots and he moved you along. I was able to get another guide and reorganize my co-divers to get on a boat with more hard core photographers and a couple of authors. That helped tremendously and Steve Coverdale (manager) was very accommodating and helpful. Just have to ask and he will do what he can to make you happy.
I spent my time hob-knobing with Ned Deloach of Fish I.D. fame. He is co-author with Paul Human on those fantastic fish I.D. books. What an excellent example of a human being, as he was gracious and helpful...aside from being one hell of a crack up. For those of you going there, bring a 12-15 inch stainless rod with a 1 inch loop in the end. It is good for holding on in current and prodding around debris. There is a lot of trash in the water and many of the unique animals live in and around that trash.
Also, if you think you are an expert at spotting marine life like me, forget it. You MUST stay with the guides to get the good shots. They can see things that look like sand to you and me, but are animals. However, if you want a specific animal you must ask. About midway through the trip I was without certain pictures and began to ask about them and where the sites were that hosted them. Once the guides know what you want, they make special efforts to find them while diving. I got lucky to get a squat lobster and coleman shrimp. The coleman shrimp have all but dissappeared, but at the end of the trip a guide found a lone shrimp on a sea urchin. It stayed around for 2 days then bailed. I was also fortunate to whitness occurrences that have not yet been seen by the guides. Specifically, a mimic octopus shooting to the surface of the water. Also got to photograph what may be an undescribed species of yellow ambon scorpion fish. That was a last minute dive before I left the resort....someone came up hollaring that they found this yellow ambon and I was offered a chance to go photograph it, so I did.
For mandrins, be ready for frustration. There are other resorts in Lembeh and now liveaboards, all of whome drop divers on the mandrin site to compete with you for the fish. Videographers are a pain in the ass because they need light to film the fish. Well, light scares them away, so it's a lose lose situation. It took me three times on the site to get some alone time with the fish. I got one decent shot, while the videographer with me agreed to concentrate on another area of the mandrin site. He was happy and so was I.
Another highlight that is new to the area is blue ring octopus. We had about five encounters with them. They are very charismatic creatures doing mimics to evade you. Just don't think they are too damn cute and try to pet one. They can kill you with their powerful venom. Do not miss any night dives. We had so many excellent encounters that I am still in awe over the experience. The octopus are out at night and there are several kinds; mimic, wonderpus, blue ring, coconut, and even hairy octopus. One night dive we jumped in the water and met 10 feet below the boat. We never eft for the dive because we found an octopus that performed brilliantly for us. 5 photographers simply used very good photo etiquite and took turns photographing the octopus. During this we got to watch the coconut octopus pick up its coconut shell and walk away with it across the bottom. It was fantastic.
Bring redundant battery packs and batteries. I found myself shooting so much that I only had three dives per charge on my strobes and camera battery, so I did a complete changeover every two dives. I shot about 200-300 pics a day, not counting all the test shots and deleted shots. For those of you new to photography, it is best to belly crawl slowly to your subjects. Descending down on them usually scares them away. A lot of the Lembeh animals turn their asses to you, especially if you move toward them too quickly. Be patient and ask for help. I found that certain animals require two people to photograph such as pygmie sea horses and the squat lobsters. There were spectacular yellow pygmies on the house reef at the resort. The little fish were pregnant. I posted a pic of the yellow one, but have some red pygmies as well (also pregnant). To get the shot, I had my wife on the other side of the sea fan wiggling a small twig in front of the fish. When it turned away from her, it turned toward me. In this shot I was able to get both eyes in the picture and also its little fins on either side of the head.
I'd recommend the highland tour and the Takongo rainforest tour. The highlands tour is a cultural and scenic tour of one highland community. Beware, if you tour the market, they have slaughtered dogs there and live ones getting ready to slaughter. My wife almost puked just from the small of smoked dog. I shot pics of the caged dogs (very sad sight and totally inhumane) and they were just stacked on top of each other (alive but unable to move) in a huge pile, waiting to have their heads smacked against the ground. I shot pics of the dogs being butchered too, but when I came home I petted my dog for an hour.
On the rainforest tour, be ready for a workout and raid. We spent a few hours hiking up hill in between spiders, their webs, some kind of huge steriod infected mosquitos, humidity, thorny plant like things and heat. If it rains, pull off a palm leaf and use it for an umbrella. They work great. After a few hours we found the small 6-inch monkeys. They look just like gremlins, with huge round eyes and they are cute as hell. If I had to summize them, they are a cross between a rat and a monkey. I posted a pic for you.
Well, if you have any questions about the trip just drop me a note.
Joe
