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Olympus TG6  Underwater - First dives - First Impressions - First Photos

24/10/2019

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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.
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Komodo - Magnificent Manta's and Mind Blowing Macro

24/1/2019

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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.
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Reef Manta in South Komodo
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Lionfish at Crystal Rock
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Ceratosoma magnificum - found in Horsehoe Bay. Certainly a Magnificent Nudibranch!
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Mantis Shrimp eyes, at Torpedo Alley in Horseshoe Bay.
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Breakfast time at Cannibal Rock. A Roboastra nudi eats a Nemrotha Nudibranch. Gone in 60 sconds!
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Three baby white tips sharks keep each other company under a ledge in south Komodo.

KOMODO PHOTO CRUISE - a short video

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Our group of friends from the November 2018 trip
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Maumere to Alor - our latest photo cruise

6/11/2018

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In October we headed to Maumere on the north coast of Flores in eastern Indonesia where we started our cruise heading to Alor Island, 160 nautical miles east.
A bundle of exciting dives along the north coast of Flores, Solor, Adonara and Lembata with sharks galore  and excellent underwater visibility. Then down through the Alor Strait with dives around Ternate, Buaya, Pantar and Alor Islands. Then a return trip along the southern coastlines of the same islands exploring along the way.

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Approaching the active volcano on Lembata Island
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The beautiful reef below the volcano on Lembata Island
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.
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Icey Treats after singing for us (two of our crew thought they deserved one too!)
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The teachers reference books
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This man was sitting on his verandah, we had a quick chat. He didn't know how old he was, but thought he was over 80!
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The school yard at Beangabang,
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Ladies selling Ikat woven blankets came out in their boat to see us in Alor
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Our happy group: Left to right: Marg Flierman, Gary Want, Anne Harris, Brent Macaulay, Dawn Mullins, Jeff Mullins, Maryann Evetts, Daryl Rapley, Michelle Mann, Michelle Bez, Gail Rapley.
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The Last Dive

11/10/2018

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 We just returned from a trip to Alor this week and were greeted by some bad news that hit us hard, our friend and well known deep diving specialist Ben Walzinger had not surfaced after a dive in Pemuteran, Bali. A search was conducted and no trace of Ben has been found in the days since.
Ben was not a just any diver, he spent his whole life and focus on educating divers and in particular instructing deep diving on multiple gases. Ben was an expert in the true sense of the word. In typical German style he knew every technical details of deep diving and taught it in a most professional way, making many friends along the way.
We met Ben when he moved to Tulamben from Thailand, and we hit it off straight away. Mostly because our conversations were always about the ocean and diving. Ben knew Dawn & I as the "youngsters" mainly because he was two or three years older than us, and together we spent many evenings talking into the late hours. His sense of humour kept us laughing and we jibed each other constantly. He liked to be called Uncle Ben or Big Ben but we knew him as Deep Ben.

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I took this photo for Ben's website a few years ago in Amed.
Ben often dived deep and alone. We would see him if we did a late dive at the Drop-Off in Tulamben, he might be in the shallows doing a long deco stop after a deep dive or entering with multiple tanks at the same time as us. I have often watched as he drifted ever deeper, beyond the depths attainable by us with a normal single tanks of air or nitrox and I was intrigued by what lay beyond our self-set depth limits. We always stopped to chat and catch-up on each others latest sightings of some interesting critter or new dive site.
One day at Seraya Secrets dive site, we had just finished diving and Ben was nearby preparing to dive with his student. He approached us quietly so his student didn't hear. He wanted to borrow my jet fins and boots, as he had left his behind at his office and didn't want to embarass himself by having to drive back to Tulamben to get them! He took the fins & boots and went diving, we then made up a humorous brief dive checklist for him on a piece of cardboard and placed it under the windscreen wiper of his dive van.
Every Time we crossed paths at dive sites after this, we would remind Ben " Don't forget your fins and boots". He told me a couple of years later that he still kept the checklist as a reminder, as he had never before forgotten them!
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Into The Deep
(a photo shoot for Ben's website 2014)

Ben constantly reminded me that when I wanted to dive deep, he would take me (one day when Dawn wasn't looking). I always thought that I would one day go beyond normal scuba depths and when I did, it would be with only one person and that was Uncle Ben. He was the person I knew I could trust to take me safely into the deep.
Well Ben, that day never came. I can now imagine you at 85 meters (the planned depth of your last dive) looking out across the very reef you had described to us over dinner not so long ago. A reef that until recently only you had seen at such depths. A pristine deep reef that lay untouched with no signs of human interference.
On this dive something went wrong, it was Uncle Ben's dive number 7,702. With tanks slung under each arm and two on his back, Ben descended. But the boat man waiting on the surface waited for four hours and Ben never ascended. It is highly possible we will never know what went wrong.  I do know that Ben was doing what he always loved - diving deep.
I often find myself looking into the deep, gazing down over the edge of a deep drop-off. Imagining what is down there just out of my reach. From now on, when I gaze over the edge it will remind me of you Ben, because I know you are down there somewhere. You had told us your home was in the sea and now you are home.

RIP - Ben Walzinger  1956-2018
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Another WWII Shipwreck

24/8/2017

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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.
We did two dives using larger tanks than normal (not recommended for bad backs due to the long walk) with 30% nitrox to allow us ample time to check out the cargo holds contents and forward guns. The short video below shows some of our finds.
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Troops escpape the sinking ship just after her captain drove her ashore
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!
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Video from our trip to Raja Ampat in May 2017 (for our friends not on Facebook)

24/7/2017

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Discoveries in Tulamben

24/7/2017

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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.
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Hairy Frogfish - Tulamben, Bali
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1800 Lumen Video/Focus Light - Good things come in small packages!

5/4/2017

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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.
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INON Micro Fish Eye Lens

20/3/2017

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Using the INON UFL-M150 ZM80 Micro Fish Eye Lens with Olympus PEN & OMD camera's underwater

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Insect Eye Lens with 67mm Adapter
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Nudibranch with Sunburst
 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.
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Sea Whip Shrimp - Sunburst
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Zebra Lionfish with Reef - Sunburst
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Underwater Camera Housing Maintenance

20/10/2016

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How to Care For Your Underwater Camera Housing for Dummies.
That should be the title of our next book. But we don't have time to publish it, so here it is for free and with photos so you understand what to do. Check out our latest page on our website:
Underwater Camera Housing Maintenance
Lubricating Buttons Underwater Camera Housing
Cleaning O rings Underwater Camera
Underwater Camera Silicon O Rings
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    Jeff & Dawn Mullins run this Blog to give an insight into our underwater discoveries in Indonesia and any news about what we are currently doing .

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