A few more pics from my Bali trip

[Leejnd]

I just started pursuing underwater photography, and took my brand new camera along with me on my recent trip to Bali. I brought my laptop along with me so I could download my shots every night, which I did. Naturally, my laptop hard drive fried on my last day, and most of my pictures are on there. Bummer! It's at the shop right now, where I pray they can recover all my data. Wish me luck.

In the meantime, there were a few shots left on my camera that I hadn't deleted yet. Here are the best ones. There are definitely way better shots on my laptop, but I'll have to wait to get it back. I'll post them in the Bali forum and post a link here, once I get them back.

Here's an eel at a cleaning station -- notice all the cleaner shrimp all over the place! Some of them are banded coral shrimp, but I don't know what the other ones are.

This is a mantis shrimp, which I learned is a pretty interesting creature...they are sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters" by divers because of the relative ease they have in mutilating small appendages — mantis shrimp sport powerful claws that they use to attack and kill prey by spearing, stunning or dismemberment. Mantis shrimp can break through aquarium glass with a single strike!

I don't know WHAT this guy is -- they were all over the place! He's about 16-18 inches long. They are quite territorial and agressive, and seem to have no fear of humans. Anyone know?

This is a juvie lionfish. I have some awesome shots of much bigger adult lionfish, in varying colors, on my laptop, which I look forward to posting later!

 

[Mo2vation]

Bali.

Warm?

I'm jealous.

LOVE the Lion Fish. I can't imagine diving in a place where you can just sort of roll up on one of those.

Amazing.

Thanks for sharing!!!

---
Ken

 

[Empty V]

Wow LeeAnne what great pics! The eel pics have so much life in them it's amazing! You've got Coral Banded Shrimp in the backgroud, a Cleaner Shrimp on the eel and the multitude of shrimp are called Camel Shrimp. What awesome pics! You're right on with the Mantis Shrimp I'm not sure on a particular name of that one, never have looked into the different mantis shrimp names. Your 4th pic is called a Titan Trigger and the 5th I believe is called an Antennata Lionfish. Excellent work my friend now where's the rest of em?

Hey Ken, check this out. I was diving in Charleston, SC last Friday and found 4 Lionfish. I had no idea they were out there and only got a few pics because my rig was acting up. I'll send em to you once I get off my lazy butt and CC them.

 

[sarita75]

Those are gorgeous shots - and I love the cleaning station. Something very endearing about it .

 

[Leejnd]

Billy you are just a FONT of knowledge! I figured I could count on you to ID the critters I didn't know. Yes, Titan Triggerfish -- I knew it was some kind of triggerfish, but didn't know the name. These dudes are really strong -- this particular one was grabbing pretty big chunks of rock with his teeth and completely flipping them over, then eating the stuff on the bottom. They were really hard to photograph -- they move really fast, and are always out in the blue, and without an external strobe most of my pictures of them are just washed out with ambient light.

Thanks also for ID'ing the camel shrimp. Cool looking little buggers, aren't they?

As for the lionfish -- this pic was actually taken on the south end of Bali, at Padang Bai and this was the only lionfish I saw in that region at all. However, on the NORTH coast, at Menjangan Island, they were there in abundance! I saw at least a couple or more on every dive (and I did some 9 or 10 dives up there). The best part about them was that they were always under a ledge, and pretty much stayed put, so I could get beautifully lit shots of them with my measly little internal strobe. Some of my pics of lionfish are just astonishing -- can't wait to get them back and post them!

Pray they are able to save my data from my fried laptop....

 

[paradicio]

Awesome photos! Thank you for sharing!