Bunaken Island - North Sulawesi, Indonesia

[ousnakebyte]

This is a long-overdue photo sharing, as this trip is from last March 2010, but seeing everyone's great photos finally inspired me to upload mine. I spent a week on Bunaken Island off the northwest tip of Sulawesi in the heart of the coral traingle. It's a trip I have wanted to do for about the past 7 years, and it finally happened. The diversity is so incredibly amazing - I've never seen 100% coral coverage like there was on these fringing reefs. Absolutely spectacular. Enjoy.

Oh, and I'm coral and other invert biased, so don't expect too many fish pics...

Cheers
Mike

Okay, here is a fish - hiding in an Invert!!

Okay, fine - here's a mega-vertebrate for you...

T. gigas... awesome...

Now THAT'S a table...

More to come soon...

 

[ousnakebyte]

Okay, a few more.

Probably my favorite photo of the trip - a squat lobster in a Crinoid. I'm simply a sucker for an invert living on/in another invert...

Superwoman Mary, on the wall...

It's satisfying to see this on the reef...

This was by far the biggest table I saw the whole week. I can't believe these things start out life as a larvae the size of a pinhead...

Ned on the reef...

A few Sarcophytons...

Cheers
Mike

 

[ousnakebyte]

Look at that coral coverage! There's hardly any space unoccupied!?!?!?

Everything grows on everything.

If you can't tell, I *heart* table corals...

Purple LTA!!!

Cleaning station, and it's oddly satisfying to see GSPs in the wild too...

Another tunicate. After a few dives, it was like, "meh... another tunicate..."

Nudi!

Finally, someone got a pic of me - Hangin'

And, this is about how I felt ALL WEEK!

Cheers
Mike

 

[Bnortz]

Mike, this is awesome!

 

[slapshot]

Incredible shots...thanks for sharing!

 

[snorvich]

Wonderful. North Sulawesi is incredible.

 

[ousnakebyte]

Thanks all for the compliments. Here are a few more - I took sooooooo many photos...

I call it, "Snowy."

Remember what I said about "hearting" table corals...

They have to be just overflowing with cuteness, even if they are "Nemo."

Iconic reef fish...

Nice green table

CLAM!!

You don't see me...

Glowing Favid...

"Fu Man Chu" Lionfish

Cheers
Mike

 

[ousnakebyte]

Nudis caught in the act - mating!

So pretty

All about the coral

Purty...

Trying to hide and lock in:

Don't touch me!

A. rainfordi goby

Oyster with some tubastrea epiphytes

Back to the mega-verts with a head shot:

Back to the tridacnids, which I think is a T. crocea, since they bury themselves down like this

 

[ousnakebyte]

Okay, this is the last of them that I have for now. I have so many more I need to sort and get uploaded.


The boats that took us to the reefs; check the calm water behind

More inverts!

Gotta love tunicates, especially with the sweet monti behind

Another nudi!

Wire coral goby, I think... on a wire coral

Remember what I said about being a sucker for an invert on an invert? Check it - TWO for the price of ONE! shrimp and cuke on the Heliofungia!

Cheers
Mike

 

[MrMarth]

Love the pictures Have you tried playing with the white balance for the open water shots at all?

 

[Sloeber]

:thumbsup:

 

[Patwa]

nice shots!...and yeah, about time you posted them...lol

as per MrMarth's comments, you should play around with the hue levels a bit to get the most out of some of your shots....lower the blue hue, and/or add more red back in.

loved the nudi shots though........and that clam might be a t. maxima...not crocea, imo


What camera are you using?? the red buttons on the case tell me maybe it's an Olympus? and it came with a strobe? or was that an add-on you picked up separately?

Zach

 

[Bnortz]

Nice camera!

 

[ousnakebyte]

Love the pictures Have you tried playing with the white balance for the open water shots at all?

This was actually my maiden voyage with this camera, so I was really just trying to learn it. Toward the end of the trip, I did do some playing around with the WB on the last dive. Up until then, I was so overwhelmed with sensory overload - really it was a dream come true for me, since I have been wanting to go there for almost seven years - that I could barely calm down and had to shoot everything I saw.

What camera are you using?? the red buttons on the case tell me maybe it's an Olympus? and it came with a strobe? or was that an add-on you picked up separately?

Zach

It's a Fujifilm F200. The strobe is indeed an add-on - a FantaSea strobe. I now have the Big Eye lens and the macro lens as well, but I didn't have those on this trip.

Thanks all for the comments. But seriously, I'll never claim that I'm a great photographer. So, please, any tips or pointers, I'm all ears - ESPECIALLY when improving those wide, full reef shots.

Cheers
Mike

 

[ousnakebyte]

Okay, I have uploaded more from this trip. Here ya go:

Volcano off in the distance. So many of these volcanoes were around these islands.

A look at the mangroves with the reef right below

One of the few big fish I saw all week...

I wish my full reef shots would turn out better. I guess this is where I need to toy with the white balance, right? Any pointers here? I'm all ears.

Nice tubastrea colony

More tunicates!!!

Cheers
Mike

 

[ousnakebyte]

I know, I know... more table corals...

Shrooms!!

Another look at that same squat lobster from before

Check out all those pyramids!!!

Cheers
Mike

 

[ousnakebyte]

Encrusting montis!!! To quote Stewie, "I WANT IT!"

More nudis, gettin' it on...

This is the same colony I commented on above. The sheer size of this thing was overwhelming. I still can't believe they start out life the size of a pinhead...

More reef shots. Next trip I'm going to work on getting these to turn out better.

Cool, huh?

Cheers
Mike

 

[ousnakebyte]

Our divemaster and guide, Emiko. She was great.

Took this photo of a coral barnacle for a friend

My favorite anemone; oh yeah, there's a fish there too...

Believe it or not... I have sooooooo many more... Still uploading...

Cheers
Mike

 

[stangd1909]

Great pics thanks for sharing, I really need to upgrade my under water camera.

 

[Patwa]

t seriously, I'll never claim that I'm a great photographer. So, please, any tips or pointers, I'm all ears - ESPECIALLY when improving those wide, full reef shots.

nice shots man....you've got a good eye for the nice angles

...even your above-water shots seem too blue (look at your mangrove and volcano shots, for example)....check the kelvin rating on the white balance...my guess is you have it set too low (ie. too blue).

That said, i use kelvin values to set my white balance and rarely the presets (auto, day, cloudy, tungsten, etc.) depending on the subject and environment i'm shooting in. Conversely, carry an expo disc with you...you can set the white balance fairly quickly that way.

RE: wide angle reef shots....best to take them in the shallower areas of the reef, as more red can penetrate at those depths, thereby giving you a more balanced colour palette. Otherwise, use a very powerful strobe to illuminate the area....but yeah, you'll always have blue areas in wide reef shots, albeit in the far-away areas of the composition.

Zach