Talbazar Under Water

Black n White or Color ?

2007-04-12T12:13:00.000+08:00

That's a question I've been asking myself quite a lot for photography. I particularly use to like portraits in B&W, then I discovered scenery in B&W and all the light-games you can do with only 2 colors.

When I picked up underwater photography (in a very amateur way I must confess), color was obvious.
But, seeing some posts on ClulbSnap and thinking about it in some more details, the question came down underwater as well.

Is there a "correct" answer to this?
I actually don't think so, it's all a mater of taste and preference after all, isn't it?

So what do you think?

For some batfish, color or B&W

And for a Whale Shark?

That might just be a question of taste...

Acasta Rock

2007-04-12T11:36:00.001+08:00

It was a Good Friday. I guess that sums up pretty well April 6th weekend on White Manta.
Everything started with a couple of friends on MW for 3 days live aboard. Taking advantage of Good Friday long weekend to try to encounter some nice marine life.

The magic part is: we did encounter nice marine life

From Porcelain crab:

To scorpionfish:

Or even a colorful lionfish:

Without forgetting a nice Wart slug

But that was nothing.
After our second dive of the weekend, we were puzzled by the smiling faces of our fellows divers from other groups. It didn't take long for them to yell at us: "Did you see the whale sharks?".
That's the moment we started crying: "No! Are you kidding us?"
And we were crying even harder after the response: "No! We saw two of them: one about 5m and a baby one about 3m..."
Then, we really started to think we were the most unlucky divers on earth (even if we were diving in a nice blue 28 degrees water).

And then, just few minutes after that, people starting to yell from the sun deck: "Whale Shark! Whale Shark!".
If you ask yourself what to do in such a situation, I would answer a single thing: "Take your mask, your snorkel, your fins and just go!!!"
So I did.

I, on purpose, didn't take my camera at that point of time; I really wanted to enjoy the moment.
I was lucky (or fast) enough to be the first one in the water, pretty quickly I was there, this giant fish was about 3 meters from me swimming from my left hand side to towards the right. Wow! Amazing!
But then, she turned to me and started to swim straight at me. That was not amazing, that was scary!
Just time to get of her way and I saw her so close I couldn't believe it.
After 15 minutes, playing with her, trying to see her from all angles; I started to think I had enough: "too much pleasure kill the pleasure", isn't it?

I came back to the boat saying "bye bye" to our beloved whale shark swimming away.

But then, she appeared again, and at that point of time, it was just out of the question not to take my camera with me, so here you are:

Yes, that was a Good Friday... Nothing much to say, don't you think?

Pipe Fish

2006-11-15T18:38:00.000+08:00

Shot in Dayang, August 13th or 14th

Red Grouper

2006-11-15T18:36:00.000+08:00

Shot in Dayang, August 13th or 14th

Dayang - August 12th and 13th

2006-11-07T15:38:00.000+08:00

Here are few of the first pictures I've taken in Dayang in August.
All of those are taken with an Olympus mju700 with internal flash only.

Hope some more will come... After my next dive trip or after some more post processing of existing pictures.

1. Christmas Tree Worm

2. Clam. Strange an intense color, isn't it. I swear it does not come from PP

3. Turtle

4. Cuttlefish. Maybe the best shot of the series

5. Nudibranch. Yet to be fully identified