Mostly The Best Of Lembeh. Mostly.

With the exception of the Flamboyant Cuttlefish, which I've included only because I needed a second 'landscape' picture, these are the best pictures I took in Lembeh this year. The Flamboyant picture is by far the best I've taken of that particular critter though so it kind of fits.

I particularly like the picture of the white Ocellated Tozeuma shrimp, which is easily my favorite shot from Lembeh this year. If you look closely you can see portions of two others (that I didn't notice until looking at the picture on my computer) in the background. I'm also very happy to finally have a picture of a Harlequin shrimp to post. Although I did see a pair in the Similans in 2009/2010 I was never happy with any of my pictures that year and have been regularly asking dive operators if they could find some since then.




Anyway, that's it for Lembeh, and quite possible for this trip. I start making my way back to the US shortly and, unless I get some particularly good pictures while diving in Florida, this is likely to be the last post this year.

Three Nudibranchs, Two Cephalopods, and a Crustacean

Diving in Lembeh continues to be good, pictures below, etc...




I only have a few more days diving here before I start making my way back home. I already have a few "best of Lembeh" shots picked out though (and a whole bunch more photos I haven't finished working on yet) so expect one more Lembeh post. And I have a week of diving in Florida before I go back to work so hopefully that will result in another post as well - after that expect the usual hiatus.

Lembeh Redux

So, diving in Lembeh is every bit as good as I'd remembered and I'm no longer really missing Komodo. It took all of 5 minutes into my first dive here before I saw a Hairy frogfish and also saw several Flamboyant cuttlefish, Tozeuma shrimp, a Blue-Ringed octopus and lots of other good stuff the same day. I've actually been meaning to get a post up for a few days but the internet hasn't been very cooperative so wasn't able before today.

I'm not posting pictures of any any of the critters I mentioned above yet but here are a few shots of other things. I'm particularly excited about the Hairy shrimp picture, especially considering it's about the size of a grain of rice. If you look closely you can see that it's carrying a bunch of eggs.

So Long Komodo

Yesterday was my last day of diving in Komodo and I leave shortly for Lembeh where I'll be spending the last 2 weeks of my trip. Although I'm really looking forward to returning to Lembeh I'm not quite ready to be leaving Komodo. The diving here has been fantastic this year - particularly on Castle Rock where every dive has been pretty much perfect. Unfortunately what makes Castle so great is all the action so photos don't do it justice.

Anyway, on to the pictures...




And in case you're not sick of Manta pictures yet, here's one more. This is the same World's Friendliest Manta™ shown in the close up above. As we started our ascent it moved off a bit and just happened to end up right next to a school of Bumphead parrotfish. So, while this isn't the best shot I had to include it for the novelty.

Komodo! Hooray!

As fantastic as Micronesia and the Philippines were, it's great to be back in Komodo. My first dive here on Friday was yet another amazing dive on Castle rock which was just as good as it's been every time this year. And of course since then there have been Mantis Shrimps and Mantas too.

The second picture here is pretty much the whole reason for the post. I can probably stop taking pictures of Batfish after this as it's unlikely I'll top this one (at least until I break down and start diving with a full DSLR rig). Anyway, the rest of the pictures here are pretty much filler but I wanted to get a post up tonight as tomorrow I'm off on the Ikan Biru so offline for 3-5 days.

One More from Puerto Galera

I'm back in Bali now and leaving for the airport to fly to Labuan Bajo shortly. The month I spent in Komodo earlier in the trip wasn't enough so I'm headed back for more.

In the meantime, here's the last batch of pictures from Puerto Galera.





Diving in Puerto Galera was great (as I may have mentioned a few times) and only scratches the surface of all the diving to be done in the Philippines. I'm not sure how I never made it there before but I'm certain I'll be heading back.

Nudi Boom Boom

Nothing much to say, other that I still love having a proper macro lens for my camera. Diving in Puerta Galera continues to be good although I'm not terribly sad about heading back to Indonesia in a few days.

Let The Nudibranch Pictures Resume

OK, so these pictures from around Puerto Galera aren't all of Nudibranchs, and I even snuck in a wide-angle shot. But expect mostly macro for a while. And expect it to get even worse at the end of September since I'll be finishing this trip with a return to Lembeh.

Yap Wrap

I've been slowly working my way through my remaining pictures from Yap and found a surprising number of worthwhile shots (I particularly like the one of the school of Blue-Fin Trevally). So here's one more Yap post that I didn't expect to be making.



Puerto Galera diving is still good. It's been nice giving my macro lens a workout after a month of wide angle photography in Micronesia. So expect Nudibranch pictures to commence shortly...