Nick looking at the sardines while the sardines moved away from the bubbles to create an ‘eye’.

A school of yellowtails dwarfed by millions of sardines along the coast of Moalboal as Garry, our guide, looks on.

A juvenile frogfish. We picked up the wrapper next to it and used it as a background. The idea came about when I took a picture of a Pedaflap and it had a wrapper right beside it. I thought it would be a nice message. The frogfish was untouched.

If you dive, you will be able to relate to this (especially if you do a fair bit of muck diving) and probably identify the orange juvenile frogfish. This scene is more common than we think. Awhile ago, I was reading up on the Pacific garbage patch and I think if we see what is underneath the surface, the patch is closer than we think.

This week had been pretty awesome with great dives, great company and life pretty much unplugged. But like all awesome holidays, it comes with some unexpected and ‘memorable’ experiences as well. Got seasick once, puked like mad. Housing flooded twice (thankfully I surfaced before things got really bad and found out the culprit was a faulty dome port). Jellyfish stings (oh, those things are really beautiful… and as with beautiful things, keep a distance). Camera shutter kind of died, so I had to wait about 10-15 seconds between shots for the error message to clear. It’s a real pain but I learned to slow down and pick my shot instead of spraying. On some dives, at depths below 15m, some of the buttons on the camera refused to work for some reason. So it was like shooting manual on film because the playback button and focus button didn’t work. Despite all these, it was still an awesome trip.

For more images of the trip, you can follow me (feldberyl) on instragram.

Here’s a little something from the trip. When I peered into that dark overhang, this was the scene that greeted me. It’s a little spooky because I have no idea what was lurking within that dark tight space. I later found out that there are a number of huge ass snappers residing in there and a super big free swimming moray eel at the back of the overhang. I seem to have this habit of staying in a single spot for ages these days. The lesser I try to look around, the more I see. I am already looking forward for another trip.

When I first saw it underwater, I thought it look like a cathedral. I have another not so colorful print on my wall. Someone told me it looks like the earth breaking up or something.

The beach outside Exotic Resort where we stayed. Dive resorts line the beach along the island. Exotic is one of the more established ones in the area. The food at the restaurant was simply spectacular. We spent most of our non-diving hours sitting at the restaurant pigging out and wifi-ing:D

Catching waves at the beach. You can also find souvenir peddlers along the beach. They sell some pretty nice woodwork. I got my wooden Manta and Thresher shark there. Pricing wise, it’s considered expensive there, but you probably won’t get it at that price in Singapore provided you can even find it.

Loading up for the next dive. Resort staff loading equipments up the smaller boats which will ferry them to the bigger dive boats.

Every morning, we gather around 5am in the morning for the dawn dive to wait for the Thresher Sharks at Monad Shoal. Whether or not the shark shows up, we still get to see the beautiful sunrise. During the 20 min ride to Monad Shoal, we just stone or have coffee onboard.

Taking the giant leap off the boat. Amos giving a positive demonstration:D

Kelvin checking out the strange looking jellyfish. While we were there, the seas were filled with tiny jellyfishes or their dismembered parts. It’s not uncommon to get stung, but nothing too serious.

A lone batfish patroling Monad Shoal.

A lone Thresher shark appeared on the first dive of our second trip. Unfortunately, that was our only Thresher sighting that trip.

A flatworm during the night dives.

Whip coral shrimp.

It’s the same one, just a silhouette. It’s interesting that part of the body seem to glow in green.

Bubble coral shrimp. That’s one of my favorite subjects.

Sometimes the mornings can get rather cold. On this day, the waves were pretty bad and we had a bit of difficulty getting up the boat using that narrow plank, especially with the heavy camera. Good thing the guides are always there to assist. The guide for my first trip was Paul and the second one was Wilmar.

Getting your morning facewash at the bow of the boat.

At some sites, the current can be extremely strong. We took a trip to Dona wreck and were swept left right center by the current. I left my camera onboard after the first dive. It’s just not worth fighting the current with the camera. Tien Beng holding the rope during the surface interval. The bubbles were going sideways here.

While descending, I spotted this jellyfish and decided to take “a few” pictures of it, forgetting that the current was pretty strong. Within seconds, I lost the party but descended anyway. Got to 30m and did not see a single soul and the surrounding didn’t match the ones mentioned during the dive brief. I was thinking “where the hell is the plateau? what coral garden?! all I’m seeing is SAND!” So I ascended and found the boat more than 100m away.

So here’s the boat on it’s way to pick me up. Sorry guys, my bad.

The ‘feeder’ boats ferrying stuff to the bigger dive boats during low tide.

An approaching storm.

Swimming around this school of tiny fish while trying to get a decent shot. It’s fun to see how the flash lights up the water from beneath.

While waiting for the Thresher shark, I stayed relatively motionless and this lionfish was so attracted by it’s reflection off the dome port of my camera. It literally stuck it’s face on the port and looked left and right. Just like how you do in front of the mirror.

Probably the first time it saw it’s own reflection.

The Thresher shark doing it’s rounds while Andrew took the videos.

A headshot of the Thresher shark.

Sometimes they get rather close.

The tail is just amazingly beautiful.

The pregnant (?) nurse shark at Gato Island. That’s quite an incredible dive site. You also get to swim through a mini cave which was kind of fun.

Squid protecting it’s eggs nearby.

Frogfish looking devilish here. This was at the Exotic Resort’s house reef. which is pretty darn amazing for a house reef.

Juvenile Lionfish.

And finally, the mantas decide to make an appearance. These are huge, probably in the range of 5m.

Wave. This one’s good for facebook covers:D

Outriggers outside Wilmar’s house. He invited us for dinner and also to watch some cockfighting as there were some festival going on.

The last night on the island.

Outrigger.

The spotlights from the resort lighting up the outrigger.

Finally, on the second trip I managed to blow perfect bubble rings. All thanks to Paul, who was very patient despite me pestering him every now and then to teach me.

I spent a considerable amount of time under the hot afternoon sun getting the image of the wave I wanted during our surface intervals. During then, I found a dead bamboo shark and got ‘hit’ by a juvenile mantis shrimp.

Our last night at Exotic Resort.

A lone outrigger on the beach.

The first is a Honorable Mention for an underwater photo for the 2012 International Photography Awards. Many thanks to William Chua who have been telling me that I should submit my underwater images for the competition. It took more than afew reminders and encouragement from him for me to eventually do it. Thanks dude!! I know I’m a slackball like that. Will try to do better the next time round!

The shot was taken in Tulamben, Bali during one of my dive trips. I spent 4 days in Tulamben and mostly dived with my macro lens at the wreck. On the last day, I decided I would go with a wide angle lens to capture the jacks. I planned a dawn dive with the divemaster and told her to leave me with the jacks at 5 meters while she brought my friend down further to check out Pygmy seahorse. I spent a good 1 hour with the jacks and they put up a beautiful performance with the rising sun  that left me mesmerized. When I surfaced, I told myself, that was the most amazing dive I’ve ever had and the photos were a bonus. I have a 5 foot print of this on canvas hanging in my living room now. It’s a reminder of the beautiful things that exists in the ocean.

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2012 International Photography Awards Announces Winners of the Competition

Buan Sen Tan was awarded in the International Photography Awards Competition. International Photography Awards (IPA) has announced the winners of 2012’s competition.

Buan Sen Tan was Awarded: Honorable Mention in Nature – Underwater category for the winning entry “Schooling Jacks.”

ABOUT Winner:

ABOUT IPA:
The 2012 International Photography Awards received nearly 18,000 submissions from 104 countries across the globe. IPA is a sister-effort of the Lucie Foundation, where the top three winners are announced at the annual Lucie Awards gala ceremony. The Foundation’s mission is to honor master photographers, to discover new and emerging talent and to promote the appreciation of photography. Since 2003, IPA has had the privilege and opportunity to acknowledge and recognize contemporary photographer’s accomplishments in this specialized and highly visible competition. Visit www.photoawards.com

Contact:
Buan Sen Tan:
wansheng@feldberyl.com
http://www.feldberyl.com

IPA Contact

Jade Tran
Competition Director
International Photography Awards
jtran@iawardsinc.com

Honorable Mention in Nature – Underwater category for the winning entry “Schooling Jacks.”

And for the sake of it… the “winner’s seal” as they call it.

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This is my first submission for ISPWP contest. It’s a portal for wedding photographers and I’m glad to have a placing for the first time. Lucky 13th.

Oh… and if you wonder why the difference in name. Well, I belong the confused generation where they switched hanyu pinyin name to dialect names. I still face that identity crisis now.

Manta rays at Manta Alley. Komodo.

A post lasik dive trip. Why not? I went through my calendar and found a 2 week break that fit nicely into my schedule, so I had them blocked and sent a couple of emails to my contact at Twofish Divers. This will be my fourth time there and my second this year. I’m a little like a whale on migration, always going back to the same area year after year.

Just over less than a year, so much has changed here. I was greeted by many new faces, who would after this trip, become familiar faces that I hope to see again soon. Their way of life intrigued me. It seems like the digital revolution hasn’t really hit them yet. Life revolves around family, the sea and music. Almost every night, they will be singing and playing their homemade instruments. Merry making till the last guests turn in at about 9pm. After which some of them will stay back to have a game of chess or watch english dubbed chinese kungfu movies. I didn’t seem to notice all these ongoings in my previous trips. I knew enjoying the experience is going to be of higher priority over photography this time.

I am happy I learned something new this trip. A change in approach and mentality.

Overall, it was a great trip. A trip that offered me more questions than answers. I am already looking forward to the next trip.

Click the image above to view slideshow

Learned a great deal during this trip, in terms of handling of the camera among other things, things that I can apply to my job. It was a fruitful trip and I will be back again. Many thanks to the friendly staff from Twofish divers, good to see you guys again:D Here are some pictures from the trip.

Click to view slideshow