few pics from Dumaguette, the Philippines

[ssra30]

Just came back from an excellent trip. Still has a whole bunch of pictures to sort through but here are a few
blue ring octopus

frogfish at the house reef

very cooperative whip coral gobies

 

[Jester]

Awesome photos.........thanks for sharing!

 

[Dee]

Beautimous! Eagerly awaiting the rest of them....

 

[Gilligan]

Great pics.

 

[marpacifica]

Great job! Can't wait to see the ones from Apo Island. What other dive spots did you hit?

 

[ssra30]

Here are a few more
Forgot to mention, I used Oly C5050, Ikelite housing, Ikelite DS125 strobe. I also used Inon wide angle lens UWL-100 with domeport and Inon UCL-165 macro lens. I did some experiments with stacked macro lens and I will post the pics later once I find them again!

porcelein crab

mimic octopus

ghost pipefish

 

[ssra30]

marpacifica once bubbled...
Great job! Can't wait to see the ones from Apo Island. What other dive spots did you hit?

marpacifica, we had 6.5 days of diving. We went to Apo Island one day but actually did not enjoy it quite as muchy. Visibility was great and there were some big fish but for some reason we found the island actually quite boring. I think it is beautiful but since all the dives there are drift dive, it is rather difficult to stop and look for a particular subject. Apo Island kind of remind me of Komodo Marine Park in Indonesia but Komodo reef was much more extensive and prestine (abide significantly colder water-well for me anyhow). So we spent the rest of the time diving around El Dorado and Atlantis House reef, Masaplod and Duine. Every time we went back, we kept finding new critters to take pictures off and our diveguide out did himself in finding us the blue ring octopus and mimic octopus! This also gave my friends a chance to shoot the same site with various lens that they brought (they shoot SLR). I kept harassing them about being able to shoot a big cuttlefish and a tiny nudibranch on the same dive
A typhoon also went by the Philippines while we were there so for a couple of days, the ocean was a bit rough so we chose to stay close to the resort and not had to travel too far.
The diveguide kept suggesting we tried other places but we kept going back to the same place over and over again. Probably not ideal schedule for non photographer but for us, it was a treat.

 

[marpacifica]

ssra,

Amazing that you found a mimic octopus. We looked for one when we were there but weren't as lucky as you and your group. Sorry to hear that Apo was disappointing. When I dove it the current wasn't very strong so I got to hover in lots of neat places, to the chagrin of the rest of the group and the DI. The typhoon that passed through the Philippines passed south of Saipan by a few hundred miles, but we're getting the big waves here now (flipped my kayak 3x yesterday just in the lagoon and my friends had to be rescued by the harbor police). I can imagine how rough it was there. Seems like you made the best out of the situation and found some nice critters in the local reefs. My wife and I are going back there in March so we'll say hi to all your underwater friends. Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos.

 

[Seadiver5]

Nice very nice

Kevin

 

[cmdasia]

For anyone consdiering Dumaguette you can find some more pics from the same trip at:

http://www.damnam.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=198