Some photos from our Komodo trip in October 2019, taken with an Olympus TG6 camera with internal flash and no accessory macro wet lens and NO CROPPING. The results in macro are amazing! Also some natural light wide angle of manta's using an AOI wide angle wet lens, a nice set-up and easily handled underwater.

Our November 2018 photo cruise to Komodo was one of our best yet. The macro life in Horseshoe Bay was outstanding with nice visibility, along with two fantastic dives at Manta Alley in south Komodo where we were literally surrounded by manta's. Some photos and a video from the trip are below. Talk to us if you would like to join a trip with the same itinerary in early October 2019.

Some great new dives sites around these remote islands. For us the highlight was a visit to Beangabang Bay on the south east coast of Pantar Island. This beautiful bay lies between two headlands and has a natural hot spring on the beach, plus a tiny village perched on a hill.
This remote village has very friendly people, we were greeted on arrival by an outrigger canoe full of happy kids. We later went into the village as we had bought along some school supplies and footballs. We were mobbed by the kids when the footballs were distributed at the church, then the children took us to see their school and meet their teacher.
The visit bought home to us the reality of living in these remote islands. Grubby clothes, school books that were literally falling apart, a school that consisted of three rooms with a few old desks, a dirt playground and a flag pole: no computers, no fans, no lunch room, but these kids enthusiastically sang us their national anthem and a song about the sea and its bounty. Not a dry eye among us as they finished singing, and only just in time for the visiting ice cream man on his motorbike to give them all icey treats on us.

August saw us slip away to Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the South Pacific to celebrate a significant milestone, we've been married for 40 years! But don't worry, we are due for parole sometime soon :-)
High on our list of things to do was dive on the WWII wreck of the SS President Coolidge in Vanuatu, a 200 meter long luxury cruise liner converted to an armed troop carrier for the second world war. The ship was carrying 5000 US troops and lots of military vehicles & machinery when it hit two mines set by allied forces in the entrance channel to Luganville on the island of Espiritu Santo. The captain drove the ship onto the shore to save her, but she sank stern first and now lays with starboard side up in depths of 21 to 70 meters.

NOTE: We dived with Absolute Adventures Santo (thanks for your organisation Tom, and also Steve for guiding us through the dark interior of the ship). This was the only dive company we could find that had positive answers to our requests and had various mixes of  nitrox available (as well as rebreathers and mulitple tanks), Our dive guide had twin tanks and a slung spare nitrox tank should anyone need additional air. Plus we had four hour intervals between dives. Now we understand why so many people have been bent over the years diving on this wreck, as other dive companies we contacted promoted doing two dives in a morning on standard air.... No thanks!

Always on the look out for intersting marine life, the last couple of weeks have featured some rareties for us here in Tulamben. First a massive school of Barracuda, then a giant frogfish and for only a short appearance was a Hairy Frogfish.

Our latest LED Focus & Video Light, with a power packed - incredibly bright 18oo lumens, super wide and smooth beam plus extreme burn time. This light is bright enough for most underwater video shooting as well as a still photography focus light when used on low power. The light has three power levels (1800 lumen, 900 lumen and 450 lumen), as well as a built-in battery power indicator and low battery warning. It comes standard with a smart charger, rechargable lithium battery, a ball type mount, a YS style mount and a wrist lanyard. We have tested the actual burn time at a stunning 8 hours at 450 lumens! Our introductory price on this light is USD$ 135 + post to your location.

 The INON UFL-M150 ZM80 Insect Eye Lens was released back in 2011, but didn't initially attract my attention. It was advertised as a lens for use with a limited range of compact cameras that I didn't own. Then I noticed during 2016 that Inon Japan had listed some of the Olympus PEN & OMD models as compatible camera's. http://www.inon.jp/products/lens/uflm150zm80/top.html
This INON Insect Eye Lens is listed as a speciality lens that offers "150 degree ultra wide fish eye, a compact fisheye lens to shoot through eyes of small marine life, so-called "insect-eye lens" imaging..... hmm I wonder what all that means?
Well the INON Insect Eye Lens certainly is a speciality lens. It is not just a standard fish eye lens, it has to be used in very close quarters to your subject. Almost touching it! This is because the lens cannot focus further than around 30cms from the camera, but can focus all the way down to the glass on the front mini-dome. The INON Insect Eye Lens fits into an adapter that itself screws into any 67mm lens adapter. The smaller thread on the lens body is screwed in or out until the INON  Insect Eye Lens is touching the front port of the camera housing on Olympus housings (it has a soft rubber ring to stop any damage to the port) Then the second smaller ring surrounding the lens is turned to lock the position of the lens. The distance between the port and the Insect Eye Lens can be adjusted underwater to achieve the best results without cropping of the image in the corners. The camera lens is set to the longest telephoto end (42mm or 50mm dependent on which lens I am using - see below). Check this list if you are thinking of buying this lens, as your camera/housing may not be compatible: http://www.inon.jp/pdf-dl/_userdata/SystemTable-EN.pdf
The INON Insect Eye Lens gives a whole new perspective to the underwater world. Nudibranchs can fill the frame and still show the surrounding reef. A shrimp on a sea whip along with the surrounding fish and blue water. The Insect Eye Lens even works on macro video subjects (the main reson I purchased this lens).
To use the lens for still photos, I use either of the Olympus standard kit zoom lenses (The Olympus 12-50mm  or 14-42mm lens), set to a relatively high aperture (F8-F16, to gain the most depth of field), shutter speed to around 1/60th to 1/100th second (to get the most back ground natural lighting) and then select an ISO that gives me a correct background exposure (this can be between ISO 400 to 1000 depending on the subject and amount of daylight), then bring my strobes directly alongside the lens and adjust strobe power to achieve the lighting on the foreground subject (normally I use MAD Flip Snoot to get the light just on the foreground subject and not light the surrounding water - to reduce any backscatter). Some sample photo results are posted here to give you an idea of the potential of this lens. It isn't for every day underwater photography, but it is the only lens style that allows macro subjects to be photographed among their surroundings.