Blue Water Macro Dive - Amed, Bali

[afieldofblue]

Here's a little something I shot last week, two days after the full-moon in east Bali, on the Lombok Strait.



Going to my usual critter hunting spot, I expected to spend the dive on the black sand as usual. But as I reached the edge of the plateau and the sandy-slope facing the deep waters of the strait, my attention was instantly caught by the weird critters floating around everywhere, including quite a few jewels I'd never seen before...

Water was quite clear, with a mild current, and I spent the whole dive hovering and drifting with the plankton, then returning to the same area and drifting again with a new subject.

An exciting and fascinating day-dive - for someone in love with larval and planktonic lifeforms at least - and a welcome change from the usual bottom-dwelling macro suspects found in the area!






Equipment used:

- Panasonic Lumix LX10 (LX9/LX15 in some locales) compact camera in a NALX10 Nauticam housing, AOI UCL-09 +18.5 diopter, Inon UCL-165M67 +6 diopter
- Backscatter MW 4300 video light and two Archon D11V2 video lights
- Shot in Amed, east Bali, in 4K 30fps, CineD profile


cheers!
ben

 

[creativemacs]

Looks amazing! Do you have recommend dive shops, resorts, and dive sites in Amed for macro focus divers?

 

[afieldofblue]

Hi there - for Amed, not really, I live here so dive independently. But the whole east-Bali area is macro-focused, with only a few reef dives.

On a limited-time trip, your best bet would be to stay in neighbouring Tulamben instead, which has plenty of resorts catering to image makers and other than the Drop off and the Liberty Wreck, very macro focused in general.
Look into places like Villa Markisa, Villa Utama, Mata Hari, Tauchterminal, Bali Dive Resort, just to give a few names.

In Amed, it's mostly dive centers, and there are more courses, introductory dives etc...
However if you're intent on staying in Amed (15 minutes drive from Tulamben, and more of a little town), you can find good spotters there as well, look at shops like Ocean Tree, Fresh Fins for instance.

But in terms of resorts, spotter guides, and just macro critters in general, Tulamben is your best bet.

hope this helps

cheers
ben