palau vs the philippines (photographers perspective)

[Scotttyd]

So I am contemplating a liveaboard to either of these places - from my research I see the biggest difference is that Palau is more about the big stuff and drift diving vs the Phillippines is more about macro life.

Like most people, I enjoy variety, but I really love the nice long shallow dives with lots of life to photo (think bonaire)

When I was in Cozumel, I definitely enjoyed the drift diving, but my photos definitely suffered - For those of you that have been to both places, is the Philippines better from this perspective? It sounds like some of the dives in Palau you use a reef hook and just watch - and I am sure the view is amazing, but that is not necessarily good from my perspective (my wide angle photo definitely needs some help)

 

[Centrals]

Palau is only couple of hrs from Manila.
The usual destination for liveaboard in Philippines is Tubbataha which is also about BIG animals.
If you want a nice long shallow dive then Anilao which is about 3hrs by road from Manila is THE place. Look it up on Philippines board.
And if you like primate then Tasier monkey in Bohol should interest you.
Some of the sites eg. Blue Corner in Palau are well known for current. No current no action.
Do both(Palau and Philippines) if time is not a factor.
Philippines is at least half the cost of Palau. The flight to Palau is a rip off given the distance.

 

[rob1967]

I agree with Centrals. Most of the diving in Philippines is land-based, no live-aboard required, and is all about the macro. If you like big animals only, you might be disappointed, but if you love macro-photography, you will love it. You don't need a live-aboard to get lots of time underwater in the Philippines; they will dive you and dive you until you start growing gills. Anilao in particular really caters to the underwater photographer, and dive times well over an hour are very common. Of course there are plenty of other places to go to in Philippines; you can find lots of info on the Philippines forum regarding them. But in no particular order, the top places for photographers in Philippines would include Anilao, Dumaguete, Malapascua, Puerto Galera, and maybe I would toss in Southern Leyte.

 

[Damselfish]

There is plenty of small stuff to be seen in Palau, but that tends not to be the focus, and of course is going to be challenging to see or photograph on some or many dives. Then again, if your wide angle isn't good, practice is the way to make it better...

The Philippines - what you see obviously depends where you go, but it also has it's share of drift diving. For instance, a lot of the diving we did from Dauin was drift diving, and much was "macro drift diving." (Using a metal spike to anchor yourself in the sand was popular and pretty much everyone had bought one by the second day. This way you can settle in someplace to look for stuff, take pics, then let go and drift someplace else, repeat.)

If you are only going to do one of those by liveaboard in the foreseeable future I'd do Palau liveaboard and Philippines land-based. Palau is a good place to do a liveaboard because of the distance to the sites. And you can get in much more diving/closer/cheaper from land in the Philippines than you could in Palau.

 

[seansrs36]

Palau is more big stuff. You can find big stuff in PH as well. There is Dumagete, Puerto Galera. Two different types of diving imo.