Lembeh pics

[cozcharlie]

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.

There wasn’t any in water help during the workshop that I can recall. There were around 16 participants spread across 3 boats so that gets a little tricky. I think the fall workshop may normally have even more divers. The workshop is set up for 2 photographers per DM. Also in water communication can kind of be a mess so I think people would prefer to discuss things out of the water. Furthermore Alex was taking his own camera on each dive so logistically helping you with your camera underwater would have been complicated . I kind of assume these workshops are how he generates many of the images he shoots during the year (I think he kind of gets an underwater feel for the participants early in the workshop but then most of his time underwater in later days is just his own images —topside is all about the course obviously). Alex is also continually adjusting where the boats go based on what dives have been the most productive photographically (for example: if a blue ring octopus has been found on one site he will try to rotate the other groups through there while it still in the area )

To be clear, photo review certainly wasn’t the only place you could get advice . There was discussion on board boats during surface intervals , at meals , in the camera room ….. This was a group of photographers that likes to discuss photography. As I said, many of the other participants were extremely experienced photographers who had gone to many of Alex’s workshops before —most basic questions you could probably ask to the person to your left or your right without even looking for Alex.

 

[Dan]

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.

Good to hear that! I’ll be in Crystal Blue, Anilao on 7 June for a week.

I’m on the way to Tubbataha now for a week (1-7 June) on Infiniti liveaboard. Having an 8-hour layover in Taipei lounge. Nice launge (a night & day comparison to United lounge).

 

[tyrenlds]

Awesome!