Lembeh pics

[Pressurehead]

I observed at Tulamben was an absolute shambles resembling what looked like a bunch of OW students with cameras on their first dive.

Rant over

 

[cozcharlie]

I do hear your point on a lot of photographers carrying more weight than they probably should. I have only been to a couple of courses but both organizers have encouraged the group to carry less weight if possible (they are obviously aware of the issue of photographers sometimes being bad divers ).

Personally I am basically neutral in 15 feet of water with 500 psi in the tank . My weight distribution leads to a slight head/camera down feet up profile that tends to minimize silting (especially given I use a frog kick ). I am sure I still kick silt sometimes but I do try to minimize it .

 

[Searcaigh]

Lembeh Resort used to "make" you watch a video on how to muck dive properly to minimise silting etc., I'm not sure if they still do that?

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

That is freaking awesome!

 

[rmorgan]

Lembeh Resort used to "make" you watch a video on how to muck dive properly to minimise silting etc., I'm not sure if they still do that?

They do, plus it’s on YouTube.

 

[Elkford]

Great photos. Thanks for sharing!

 

[cetacean]

Wow I feel like we have the same trip plan, first to Anilao, then to Lembeh! You're one month ahead of me at both haha. What's your next trip - could it be Komodo/Tulemban? (I'm there in July haha)

How was Lembeh Resort? I stayed at NAD this time, Bastianos in 2022, and while I had a good time at both there were small things at both that bothered me a bit. I plan on coming back for a week next year also (before or after the Halmahera liveaboard) and was thinking of trying Lembeh Resort... is it worth the price premium? How was the food especially? Do they do blackwater every night? I was only able to do blackwater 2x over a 5 night stay at NAD which was a bit of a bummer (they only need 2 ppl to go but no one else seems to want to go... they were nice enough to let me go once by myself without charging me double).

Great shots! (and yes I did go look at all 300+ photos haha) I really like the snooted coconut octopus and your bright pink pygmy squid. I saw the peacock flounder on blackwater too but mine the body was transparent vs solid white like yours - wonder if yours is a more mature one?And what are those bubbles on it?

What was the workshop like? Did you feel like it made a difference in your before and after photos? I was booked on Alex's wet pixel Lembeh workshop in 2023 but had to cancel because I was pregnant... was told by Adam I could reschedule but never got a refund or credit so that was $5k down the drain... but I do want to take a proper macro photo workshop at some point!

Also curious for your thoughts on Anilao vs Lembeh... for me the blackwater felt much better at Anilao but I have a small sample size of only 2 bw dives at Lembeh vs the 14 I did at Anilao. Lembeh also felt quite a bit quieter this time (at end of May) vs when I went in 2022 (in mid-July). Still saw a lot, but I went 5-10min without finding stuff on some dives this time, vs in Anilao my guide was lining up critters as fast as I could take photos. I felt like I saw just as much if not a bit more on the 60min dives in Anilao than the 80min dives in Lembeh.

My family and I are in transit on the way back from spending a week+ diving Lembeh with NAD.

We signed up for 4 nights of BW diving, however we only did 2 because it was "underwhelming" compared to Anilao. Lembeh is still great for critters, but now after two trips where we did BW dives in Lembeh, there is no doubt in our minds that (on average) Anilao has the better BW diving.

There are a number of reasons for this, however the primary one is something that Mike Bartick (at Crystal Blue Resort in Anilao mentions all the time) - if you can't get over deep water (at least hundreds of feet) then you are going to be very limited on the kinds of creatures that make their way up in the water column. It's very hard to get over deep enough water in Lembeh.

 

[cetacean]

Fantastic shots, thanks for sharing.

I often wonder how well workshops are during the practical sessions as I've been to Crystal Blue in Anilao when Mike Bartek has been running them although I was not a participant and was doing my own thing, not diving with the group.

On my recent Tulamben trip we came across a bunch of divers who were on a workshop run by a S. African photographer.

"How to turn 30m visibility into 5m visibility"

Both @outofofficebrb and I were shocked at the participants inability to dive properly, it was truly appalling, with very poor buoyancy and people kicking all the time.

Fortunately we were at the end of our dive, and managed to do our SI and get back in when they surfaced.

I'm not sure how people vet the participants for these workshops, diving skills is something that is impossible to know until you actually dive with a person, but I'm sure situations like this must happen a lot as more people can afford UW photography these days with lower end cameras and housings.

I'm not knocking workshops, but I would expect some pool sessions with buoyancy skills, use of muck sticks and dealing with current should be included, especially when muck diving.

IIRC when I dived at Lembeh Resort back in 2013/14/15 they had some strict protocols for muck diving, which were followed very well. However what I observed at Tulamben was an absolute shambles resembling what looked like a bunch of OW students with cameras on their first dive.

Rant over

Most guides in Lembeh watch their divers for this type of behavior carefully through the first few dives.

If there is an issue, you'll often see guides steer divers to areas unoccupied by others to avoid this kind of thing. By comparison, Tulamben is a free for all - for little concern for other divers, many times the animals, or the environment. You get what you pay for... Tulamben is a cheaper destination for a reason.

 

[jjmochi]

Responses to various questions.
1). Anilao is probably better for Blackwater (we basically whiffed twice at Lembeh but someone else had a nice dive right before I left ). Blackwater is always hit or miss , but consensus seemed to be Anilao was better.
2). Food at Lembeh resort was pretty good , not exceptional but definitely good. I never heard any complaints and I was eating at table of 16 I think. I don’t know much about other resorts so hard to say if it is worth extra money (and I don’t even know how much extra it is )
3). I think Lembeh also required 2 people for blackwater. They probably went out 1 out of every 3 or 4 nights while we were there. Our group was having better photo luck with twilight , night and mandarin fish dives so that was why we didn’t have much blackwater. I think Lembeh Resort can accommodate almost 40 guests so you can probably get another person to do Blackwater around half the time (more if you are getting good photos )
4. My guess is the blackwater flounder probably was maturing and becoming less translucent. I thought at first I had some weird overexposure but the same patch was solid in two different photos from two different angles
5. In terms of Lembeh versus Anilao for macro I would probably say Lembeh was slightly ahead even though it wasn’t peak season. Internet says that is July/Aug (but I have no idea , I thought someone said November was good (believe that is when Alex Lembeh workshop normally is)
6. The workshop was definitely a good thing. Alex is a nice guy and the other participants were friendly . Part of the experience is learning from Alex but you also learn a lot from the other participants. This workshop was packed with people who had been to many other Alex workshops (I think I was the only first timer ). I think the median participant had been to around 5-7 workshops , with some well north of 20. The only negatives are: 1) His workshops often fill up within minutes of being announced so it can be hard get into one and 2) Since Alex and most of the participants are advanced photographers they are also looking for creatively shot images that might impress other photographers and win contests as opposed to just a good photo of an interesting subject (that was more my goal ). I am not knocking their goal —if I had shot an interesting subject 30 times before I would certainly want to do something differently also (I was kind of there on certain subjects by the end of the trip—I had no desire to shoot a frogfish or seahorse in the same way I already had already shot 20 times I fooled around with different things but most didn’t quite work ). Please note that Alex’s curriculum starts on the basics so don’t worry about being left behind there, it is just in photo review some of the other photographers have a pretty high bar and may have different goals than a less experienced photographer like me. Everything was friendly and constructive though.
7). I don’t have any big trips planned until Raja/Triton Bay in January. I am at home in Cozumel now and diving tomorrow though .

Thanks of this!
Especially helpful to hear on the photo workshop. I see Alex is running it again in Nov next year, I may consider it. Was there much in the water help / 1-1 time with Alex? Or just trying to improve through photo review mostly? When I last dove with Bastianos (was just after covid reopening so I was their only guest) their resident photo pro came along on a few dives and helped me look at images and adjust shooting angles etc in the water, which was very helpful.
I feel you on shooting the same subject 20x, I feel like I'm getting there as well. Was playing with snooting most of this / last trip but getting bored of that as well (or rather I feel like my photos are coming out the same now). I tried slow exposure but didn't quite get it right.

 

[jjmochi]

Fantastic shots, thanks for sharing.

I often wonder how well workshops are during the practical sessions as I've been to Crystal Blue in Anilao when Mike Bartek has been running them although I was not a participant and was doing my own thing, not diving with the group.

On my recent Tulamben trip we came across a bunch of divers who were on a workshop run by a S. African photographer.

"How to turn 30m visibility into 5m visibility"

Both @outofofficebrb and I were shocked at the participants inability to dive properly, it was truly appalling, with very poor buoyancy and people kicking all the time.

Fortunately we were at the end of our dive, and managed to do our SI and get back in when they surfaced.

I'm not sure how people vet the participants for these workshops, diving skills is something that is impossible to know until you actually dive with a person, but I'm sure situations like this must happen a lot as more people can afford UW photography these days with lower end cameras and housings.

I'm not knocking workshops, but I would expect some pool sessions with buoyancy skills, use of muck sticks and dealing with current should be included, especially when muck diving.

IIRC when I dived at Lembeh Resort back in 2013/14/15 they had some strict protocols for muck diving, which were followed very well. However what I observed at Tulamben was an absolute shambles resembling what looked like a bunch of OW students with cameras on their first dive.

Rant over

I haven't been back to Tulemban since my OW certification in 2015 but that's surprising. I'm due to go back in July so I guess I'll see, Bali as a whole I agree attracts a lot of beginner divers but typically the photo workshop are different. I've done one in Similans and one with Mike in Anilao and both times I was by far the youngest / only one in my 30s, the average participant seems to be retired or almost retired and have thousands of dives over 10-20 years. People do kick up the occasional sand but I don't recall it ever being to a degree that bothered me in Lembeh & Anilao (but then again I was diving with a private guide both times).