I've finally got shots from trip to Raja Empat islands over Dec-Jan up
on my website. Comments, criticisms, etc. very welcome. I'm
particularly interested in hearing how colors look to others. For image
work, I use an IBM Thinkpad T40, with an LCD screen. Paul Osmond says
my colors are all off, and he may be right.

The reefs and islands of Raja Empat are truly spectacular, and quite
pristine, though when all is said and done at the end of the day, I
think I still prefer Komodo for diving. Truly amazing corals, lots of
fishes. A lot more things that I wasn't able to ID than usual, but this
is supposed to be the ultimate location in terms of biodiversity, so
perhaps that's not surprising. Visibility was not so great, as
expected, but I mostly shot wide-angle anyway (and threw a lot away). I
also experimented with over-unders for the first time on this trip,
including some shots in mangroves, which was interesting and, I think,
rewarding.

The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster hit  half way through this trip.
Listening to daily shortwave broadcasts from BBC and the Australian
Broadcasting System, we were stunned as the casualty estimates steadily
mounted, but the full scale of the tragedy only became clear after we
returned to Bali and regained access to newspapers and other reports.
Hearing the awful news every day, one felt very small and
insignificant, on a big ocean that can sometimes seem cruel.

The site is: http://www.tabula-international.com/
Click on the Raja Empat thumbnail.

Meanwhile, I've been working more or less full-time for TNC since last
October - with a couple of breaks for diving - mostly involving their
program in Komodo National Park.  That's been very satisfying, and
interesting.

And I've also just finished the IANTD Deep Diver course with Avandy
Djunaidi, and am about to start the Advanced Nitrox course.  The course
dives we did earlier this week at Nusa Penida, my first with a twin set
and stage bottle, were a lot of fun.  I figured it was time to learn
how to do deeper dives, and decompression dives, the right way, and
everything I've learned so far suggests I was right.

So, if anyone is coming to Bali and wants to mess around with twin
sets, let me know.

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)



Tabula International Ltd.
Email:  <[log in to unmask]
Phone:  +62 361 282-743
Website:  www.tabula-international.com