Bali -A photographers guide

Far from being a rather stale tropical idyll, Bali boasts every conceivable form of marine life in its surrounding waters. For the underwater photographer it offers walls, drifts, wrecks, reefs and muck dives. The subject diversity in these waters equals those found in other less accessible locations and where else can you peel off your wetsuit, flop onto a sun lounger and get a post dive massage for the same price as a beer at home.

Undoubtedly, during the past year, Bali has fallen victim to an image problem. However, take one look at a glossy coffee table book of underwater photos and nine times out of ten it will include several shots taken in Bali.

Little wonder then that top
underwater photographers have
continued to make their annual
pilgrimage here.

The best way to experience
Bali’s variety is via a land based round island safari visiting all the top locations.

To read this complete article, download

... Plan to dive it several times with wide angle early in the day and macro later. The stern of the vessel lies in a few metres of water while the bow, complete with bow gun, lies in about 30 metres. It is not uncommon to find the newly named Denise’s pygmy seahorse here so make a dive with super macro but watch your deco...

Serious photographers should plan at least two weeks for their round Bali safari. Pack plenty of Velvia but do not overlook the wide angle shots on offer here. It’s easy to go macro mad! If you thought Bali was plagued by package holiday makers and blemished with neon signs then you haven’t been diving at the right sites.

To read this complete article, download

White Shark Diving - South Africa

I’ll never forget the first shark I saw. 1985, 30meters down the drop off at Ras Mohamad a grey reef shark left a pack of about seven or eight sharks swimming out in the blue and cruised in to take a look at me. It passed about four feet from me. I was totally absorbed by the experience and have been fascinated by sharks ever since. Over the years since a good portion of my dive travel has been focused on seeing and photographing these amazing animals.

Of course the grand daddy of all sharks is the Great White and they had always been something I had wanted to see.

At the time I first started looking into these trips Southern Australia was really the only place where tourist divers could get to see Great White sharks. Peter Gimble had put Dangerous Reef on the White shark map in his 1971 film Blue Water White Death...

To read this complete article, download

Today in the small coastal town of Gansbaai, about two hours east of Capetown, quite a respectable tourist industry has grown up around the White Shark. The South African authorities have recognised the value of the local shark population to the economy of the area and became the first country in the world to formally protect the great white shark.

Consequently the shark population here is quite strong and the number of sightings by the tourist boats is going up every year... .

To read this complete article, download

Your field of view is in the cage can be quite restricted both from the cage itself and the limited visibility. I found I tended to stare off in the direction I last saw the shark swim but White sharks are incredibly stealthy and would often double back behind the cage so often your first view of the shark would be when you swung around to find its head is two feet from your face. Its hard to describe the adrenaline rush of seeing your first great white shark in its own element...

My surface kit was two camera bodies (Nikon F90’s) one with a 24mm and one 70-200mm zoom...

Underwater I used two housings, a housed 801 and F90. Lens choice was either a 20mm or a 16mm fisheye. I suppose ...

For metering I let the camera do it but I set the meter to centre weighted as I think Matrix doesn’t work well with a wide lens underwater. There is too much ...

To read this complete article, download