Destination in Carribean for UW photography?

[Vigfus]

Greetings,

I realize this is a WIDE topic, but I'd figure I'd try to keep it in one thread rather than multiple ones so please bare with me and the three "sections" where I need your expertise.

Background: My friend and I are experienced divers and like to take UW photos. We have macrolenses and like to see the small stuff (think Anilao or Tulamben in Asia). This would be our first trip to the Carribean for photography (did Belize a looong time ago), but as we realized in Anilao we need a break from diving non-stop to keep the "WOW!"-feeling on every dive. Totally we're aiming at three weeks with different things with a spending limit that's not set in stone of roughly 150$/100 Euro per day overall.

Week 1 - Macro
A great place for the small stuff like shrimps, nudibranch etc.

Week 2 - Non-diving activities
Not the best forum, but if there are those among you who have done non-diving activities like trekking, surfing or the like - especially in Central America please leave suggestions.

Week 3 - Corals/Bigger fish
Basically wide angle photography.

Requirement a)
A realistic way (route wise) of travelling between the destinations. To give some idea a route like Bonaire - Costa Rica - Cozumel would be plausible.

Requirement b)
Not entering hurricane areas during hurricane season. Would feel like a waste of time despite getting wet.

Requirement c)
Get good visibility for week 1 and 3 somewhere during October - November

We can swap places on week 1 and 3, but we're not keen on sunbathing which is why we thought about trekking in Costa Rica (did Tikal, Guatemala when I did Belize and loved it) or some other place to get something else than diving in as well.

If I've missed important things or you have any questions feel free to point them out/ask them.

Best Regards,
Vigfus

 

[herman]

Here is an idea for you to consider. Not in the Caribbean but for your wide angle/big animals you might want to consider the North Carolina coast. Ship wrecks and large sand tiger sharks up close and personal. While hurricanes are possible, october is IMO the best month to dive the NC coast.

 

[Vigfus]

Thanks for the suggestion Herman! Since both of us are old croupiers and Atlanta's not that far away I'll keep it in mind for the next trip to the US.

Best Regards,
Vigfus

 

[Vigfus]

Ehhh, my friend took me by the ear and told me there's a big difference between Atlanta and Atlantic City - sorry, my bad.

Back on topic - Anyone that have more suggestion about places to go?

Best Regards,
Vigfus

 

[diversteve]

What about Roatan? The south side of Roatan is all about macro. Shallow, sunlit - one of the Cocoview faithful (RoatanMan, RobinNT) can (and has) explained it here in the Bay Islands forum far better than I can. There's also a shark dive nearby that's worth doing.

It's also 4 hours from RTB to San Jose, CR on TACA. I think Cozumel from Central America requires an overnite thru Houston. Also a lot of Coz diving is deep fast drift diving so not especially good for macro photography.

You might consider going the other way either to Grand Cayman or Turks/Caicos. SJO to either GCM or Provo (Turks/Caicos) is 6+ hrs. Both have excellent big stuff - sharks, rays, turtles, tarpon, big grouper etc. Both are also pretty pricey.

We did a liveaboard last May in T/C, the coral/larger fish life off French Cay (possible from Provo) was among the best I've seen in the last 5 years. Water clarity was almost stunning. West Caicos is closer and almost as good. Besides Rays, Turtles and big Grouper, I spent several dives filming the micro-eco system around one of many large coral heads in 40'. One of the other divers did some Nat. Geo. quality macro work. Even though this was a LOB report, you can get a good idea of what to expect here: Saudio's Trip Reports

And Cayman's north wall is where I've dove in tunnels made of coral. Stingray City is the best dive you can do in 15' and we saw a lot of Eagle Rays and Tarpon also. Also cleaner shrimp at one of the shallower sites. So there's macro there also. The only sharks we saw were deep down the wall but we didn't go to the best sites for them - one called Hammerhead Hole seems likely. The vis on a good day has to exceed 200', it's just off a deep trench so everything gets washed clean by the currents regularly.

Still Bonaire would be among the best for Macro. If you go, dive the Salt Pier. It looks like you can get to SJO in about 10 hrs - less if you want to fly through Bogota at night. It seems like most of the BON-SJO routings either go thru MIA or Curacao.

You might consider Curacao instead, it's basically the same diving, same macro, just 10x the population so more nightlife, casinos, etc. It's also a little grungier downtown, there's a deepwater port and oil refinery just north of the city. But out west is good, clear water diving. Easier shore entries also, esp. with camera gear - Bonaire has many entries over ironshore - either onshore or just in the surf line. The reef is slightly farther out on Curacao so many entries are off nice sand beaches with a 5-10min. swim to the drop.

I get all this routing info from Matrix ITA. It has all the airlines and all the flights - many of the travel portals get their data from them. You can't book with them but they will give you accurate prices, flight info and even booking codes to provide to a reservation agent. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

hth,

 

[divejay]

I feel Grand Cayman would satisfy all your wants and needs for macro, wide angle and above water adventures. If you are interested I could give you a list of our customers that has the same passions that you do. To meet your budget there are condo's across the street from our ocean resort. Then you can shore dive your heart out for most all your underwater macro and wide angle. Then for real wide angle we have AM or PM boats that go to the deep wall sites where you see sharks, eagle rays, turtles, schools of jacks, tuna and more.

 

[Doc Harry]

I just returned from the Caymans. I was a bit disappointed from a photographer's perspective. I took out my macro lens but didn't really find a lot that motivated me to shoot. I thought that I would see more during the night, but it was at least as disappointing as during the day. Perhaps I am spoiled from diving in other areas.

However, I do believe that the Cayman Islands are "target rich" for the wide-angle lens.

The Cayman Islands are great for diving, but I would hesitate to say that it is a photographer's paradise.

Have you considered Cozumel? Granted the drift diving makes photography a challenge, but there is a lot to do besides diving (e.g., visit Mayan archeological sites) and it is cheap. The night diving is spectacular in Coz.

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

Hi Vigfus - I think I answered one of your queries in another forum. Great input from those above but as you are talking about a period of time in Oct/Nov, I might suggest that you spend a week on the Dolphin Dream to Tiger Beach Bahamas from West Palm Beach FL - diving with the Tigers and Lemon Sharks, then back to Miami and fly down to St Vincent to dive with Bill Tewes - one of the top critter destinations in the Caribbean. St Vincent is south of the Hurrican belt and lost to do on land. Alternatively swap one or other for Dominica for the remainder of your time. That should cover pretty well all your requirements and would be an awesome trip.

Although definitely no macro, that period is ideal for Cocos and Malpelo, so you could do a liveaboard trip for 10 days and then do land in Panama or Costa Rica. Here is a list of liveaboard options you might consider:

Oct 1-11 10 nights - Wind Dancer – 8 spaces
Oct 3-22 19 nights - Inula–Cocos 6 days+Malpelo 6 days from $4016 + $460 park fees Oct 8-18 10 nights - Okeanos 7 spaces
Oct 15-27 12 nights - Yemaya – Cocos from Panama – 3 spaces xxx
Oct 18-28 10 nights - Sea Hunter xxx 13 spaces
Oct 22-Nov 1 10 nights - Okeanos 4 spaces
Nov 5-14 10 nights - Okeanos 6 spaces
Nov 26-Dec 6 10 nights - Sea Hunter 6 spaces
Nov 26-Dec 6 10 nights - Wind Dancer – 7 spaces

Oct 9-17 8 nights - Sea Wolf – Malpelo from Buenaventura Colombia 8 spaces
Oct 25-Nov 8 14 nights - Inula – Malpelo 6 days + Panama 5 days from $3578+$530 pkfee
Nov 4-12 8 nights - Nemo – Malpelo from Colombia – 5 days Malpelo – 8 spaces $Nov 14-23 9 nights - Nemo – Malpelo from Colombia – 7 spaces @ $3400+$250 pkfees
Nov 21-Dec 2 11 nights - Inula – Malpelo 6 days + Panama 2 days from $2946 + $510 pkfee
Nov 25-Dec 5 11 nights -Yemaya – Malpelo from Panama spaces xxx 16 spaces


Dominick Macan
Dive Advice Travel
dom@diveadvice.com
DIVE ADVICE TRAVEL - Welcome to Dive Advice Travel
SKYPE: Dominick Macan

"In Partnership with Amazing Adventures Travel of Mill Valley, California"

 

[Vigfus]

Thanks for all your suggestions guys!

Best Regards,
Vigfus

 

[danvolker]

greetings,

I realize this is a WIDE topic, but I'd figure I'd try to keep it in one thread rather than multiple ones so please bare with me and the three "sections" where I need your expertise.

Background: My friend and I are experienced divers and like to take UW photos. We have macrolenses and like to see the small stuff (think Anilao or Tulamben in Asia). This would be our first trip to the Carribean for photography (did Belize a looong time ago), but as we realized in Anilao we need a break from diving non-stop to keep the "WOW!"-feeling on every dive. Totally we're aiming at three weeks with different things with a spending limit that's not set in stone of roughly 150$/100 Euro per day overall.


Week 1 - Macro
A great place for the small stuff like shrimps, nudibranch etc.

You need to consider Palm Beach, Florida, as the DREAM Vacation site for divers with your interests.... I will elaborate
For week one, or anytime while you were here, you would have the Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park....frequently compared to the Lembah Straits of Indonesia, this is an area where you can go on just one dive, and see 20 nudibranchs, a dozen octopus, a frogfish, several sea horses, and a whole lot more!!! It is a shore dive, tidally dependant, so you have a maximum optimal dive time of just less than 3 hours each day....hour and a half before high tide, hour of high tide, and 30 minutes after high tide--though some people like it for quite a bit longer after--even an hour and a half...

Week 2 - Non-diving activities
Not the best forum, but if there are those among you who have done non-diving activities like trekking, surfing or the like - especially in Central America please leave suggestions.

Few Dive destinations in the entire world can compare to Palm Beach for OTHER THINGS TO DO when NOT diivng.

You have:

• World class restaurants and Dining
• Huge wildeness areas to explore ( hiking, kayaking,stand up paddle boarding) like the Loxahatchee River area ( Jonathon dickenson State Park), and the Everglades, and John d MacArthur State Park.
• Waterskiing Park with overhead cable pulling skiiers around a big lake-- Ski rixon..pretty cool if you enjoy water skiing
• Good surfing at Lake Worth Pier, on the Island of Palm Beach, and at the Pumphouse area of singer island
• Mountain biking is excellent either an hour north or an hour south.....on trails with 20 foot up and down verticals, lots of twists and heavily covered in forest canopy... google "Fort Pierce mountain bike trail" or amelia airhardt mountain bike trail or Oleta Mountain Bike trail.... Oleta is also an awesome place for hiking or kayaking.
• Road biking along A1A ( the road all along the beaches and coast) is enjoyed by the large cycling community of south florida. There are several big weekly rides, my preference is the Saturday morning Palm Beach ride, which begins near the Lake Worth bridge on A1A at about 7:25 am with around 50 to 70 riders, and heads south to the north end of the Island of Palm beach, then back to the final sprint to see who is fatest at the area just before the big bridge..Speeds average between 25 mph and 35 mph....this has many teams of Cat 3 and cat 2 riders, attacks, chases, lots of people getting dropped, and big bragging rights each week for the winners. Last week, Ralph Clemente and I broke away early, stayed away the whole ride, and crossed the finish line 35 seconds ahead of the hard chasing pack! bragging rights
• World class shopping --Atlantic Avenue Delray beach....Worth Avenue Palm Beach....many others!
• Things To Do in The Palm Beaches & Boca Raton-The Best Way to Experience Florida

Things To Do in The Palm Beaches & Boca Raton-The Best Way to Experience Florida

Week 3 - Corals/Bigger fish
Basically wide angle photography.

The corals and larger fish of Palm Beach are spectacular....

see

• South Florida Dive Journal > page2
• South Florida Dive Journal > page4
• just go through all the zone pages and see how amazing this area looks...watch some of the videos on the pages to see the huge reef structures

Requirement a)
A realistic way (route wise) of travelling between the destinations. To give some idea a route like Bonaire - Costa Rica - Cozumel would be plausible.

Requirement b)
Not entering hurricane areas during hurricane season. Would feel like a waste of time despite getting wet.

Requirement c)
Get good visibility for week 1 and 3 somewhere during October - November

We can swap places on week 1 and 3, but we're not keen on sunbathing which is why we thought about trekking in Costa Rica (did Tikal, Guatemala when I did Belize and loved it) or some other place to get something else than diving in as well.

If I've missed important things or you have any questions feel free to point them out/ask them.

Best Regards,
Vigfus

Summer is best due to perfect weather liklihood, but diving in Palm Beach remains awesome in the fall, and the water is still very warm, almost like bath water. October-november months "can have" a few days in a week where there are rain storms, but often this does not hurt the diving at all ( just the sunlight)--making macro the way to shoot....and, if you have a rough day on the ocean---there is always the WORLDCLASS DIVING OF the Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park!!! Weather will not create waves in the BHB area. Often you will have perfecty weather in these two months, with plenty of 80 to 100 foot visibilty days....

If you stay at one of our 3 major Dve Resorts ( the Hilton Singer island, the Delray Beach Marriott, or the Jupiter Beach Resort) you dont need a rental car, as there is a shuttle to get you to the dive boats and nearby area. With your budget in mind, the Hilton will probably be the best fit for you, and it is also closest to the BHB marine park.

If this direction appeals to you, let me know..there is a great deal more about the special new dive packages and big discounts for divers I can tell you about!