Category Archives: diving

Searching for Oliver the froggie…

Posted on March 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

Today Chris and I decided to have a late afternoon dive on Swisscare house reef. Sarah precisely explained us where to look for Oliver the newly discovered freckled frog fish. We both headed to the coral block when we saw two mating reef octopi sitting on top of it. Apparently Chris got too close because one of the two left his beloved one and headed straight out to Chris’ strobe, wrapping all its arms around it and his arm! The other octopus left behind changed colour and really seemed pissed off! It followed its unfaithful lover and eventually took him back to the coral block and pursued what they had started…
We were both laughing and continued then the search for Oliver… suddenly I saw Chris waving at me! Did he find the froggie? No…he was shooting something tiny in a hole…when I came closer I couldn’t believe what I saw! A couple of Harlequin Shrimps sat there and showed off their beautiful claws in every possible pose!

Harlequin shrimp


The harlequin shrimp (Hymenocera Elegans) is found throughout the Indo-Pacific, including the Red Sea. They mostly occur in couples and feed on sea stars. It’s not easy to spot them and for most underwater photographers count in the famous Top Ten or Holy Grail List.
So you can imagine our surprise!
….Ah yes, did I mention that we never found Oliver :) ….maybe next time….

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, Travels, underwater

Tagged , , , ,

About diving and watching…

Posted on February 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Most of you must think now while reading the title : well there’s nothing new! We know that you love diving and watching the underwater world! True! I do! But sometimes it’s good to be reminded…
We arrived last Thursday here in Nuweiba, Egypt to have 2 weeks of diving with Sarah and Daniel at African Divers. I left home with a big cold which didn’t seem to surrender. Having my 2 ears and the sinuses completely blocked I stayed on the beach the first 2 days reading and rising my score in “Angry Birds”…
Yesterday I was already sunburnt and decided to give it a try with my “Mickey Mouse Mask” also known as “ProEar mask”.
All dives around Nuweiba are shore dives so the entry is smooth and you can easily control your depth.
The dive spot was ” Sinkers”. A buoy dropped by the Israelis long ago, but with the chain being too short of about 15m. So the top of the buoy supposed to be out of water hovers at -9m in the blue. It’s all beautifully grown with soft corals and fishes around.

Sinkers

Sinkers


I’ve dived this spot a couple of times already but was never really happy with my out coming shots.
Yesterday I left my camera home as I was not sure at all to be able to get deeper than 2 m.
At my surprise I ended up at Sinkers at -26m and slowly followed the 2 big chains. I took my time, watched all the way up and spent lots of time at the buoy itself. The diver’s bubbles fill it up from below which creates a wonderful mirror effect. On top you’ll find numerous anthias and a huge barracuda cruising around.
At that moment I realised that I never really took the time to watch this buoy calmly before. I saw things and details I’ve missed out before!
I can’t wait to get back there with my camera in hands now…

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, My Point of View

Tagged , , , ,

Komodo : drifting away

Posted on November 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Diving in Komodo can’t really be explained. You have to witness it by yourself. Feeling the strength of the current in your face!

Trying to keep hold to  your camera  :)

Diving through a bowl of fish soup!

It is simply breathtaking, in every sense of the word!

The best is to give away some pictures all straight from the camera to give you an idea :

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, Travels

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Maumere News

Posted on November 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

I am sitting here in a small room with no fan and nor A/C to write these few lines.  This is one major point which kept me from keeping you all updated during this first week. No WIFI  here, so you have to plug in your Computer in the reception area. An as you can imagine it is not the fastest connection. Welcome to Maumere, Flores :)

Let’s talk diving

We leave every morning at 7am or 8 am with a small fisherman boat to the different spots. Maumere is a wide angle paradise. We see reef sharks on almost every dive, turtles and a eagle ray passed by lately too! There is some macro stuff around but it is difficult to find it when your eyes focus on large gorgonian fans, sponges in different colours and other huge coral!

There are still places you can see the damage of the 1992 earthquake underwater but the reef has well devellopped since.

As you can imagine we are the only divers around. This is great!!!

Tomorrow will be our last diving day here with the people from SEA WORLD CLUB. We will go wreck diving.

Well the only moment I put on the macro lens is on the night dives. There is a much dive site here on the housereef. Lots of sand and rubbish and then millions of crabs and other sand critters.

I put some photos together straight from the camera without processing to give you an idea of Maumere underwater

Enjoy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, Travels, underwater

Tagged , , ,

Festival de L’Image Sous-Marine Marseille 2010

Posted on November 3, 2010 | Leave a comment
The Luxie delegation :)

The Luxie delegation :)

We spent a great time in Marseille during the last week. The Festival de l’Image Sous-Marine is not only a photo contest as a lot of people think. It features lots of films (short and long) all around the underwater world. The screening of these films starts on Wednesday and goes through to Saturday. Sunday is the last day of the festival when all winning films and photos are showcased.

Concerning the films, I had 3 favourites in the lot I’ve watched :

In the Dragon’s Lair is a incredible documentary on giant Nile crocodiles in the clear waters of the Okavango Delta.

The Great White sharks of Guadalupe is one of 5 documentaries of Adventure Ocean Quest. A series produced by the German ZDF. This film won Gold this year in Marseille. It’s just wonderful to see these 3 freedivers in the water with the Great Whites.

Under The Pole makes you freeze right on your chair! Diving under the ice of the North Pole  carrying all the stuff over the shelf! Wow, what an adventure!

My Mr.Hungry and Chris’ lionfish placed both 23th in the colour category

Mr. Hungry

Mr. Hungry

lion mirror

lion mirror

Here are our B/W images  which placed 18th

Sunbeams

Sunbeams

Dragon

Dragon

The winners :

The B&W’s

Concerning the photo competition, Lots of people have contacted me to get the complete list of results. Here they are :

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, Exhibitions, PhotoCompetitons, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , ,

Splash calendar 2011

Posted on October 8, 2010 | 1 Comment

Last year we started to print a calendar for the dive shop.It was handed out to lots of customers. It was a big A3 sized wall calendar with dark background. We got lots of positive feedback so it was an easy decision to go for a 2011 edition. Last year I focused on macro photography, so I decided to change and chose wide-angle pictures, all featuring one or more divers.

I placed the order for printing 30 minutes ago.

Here is the very first preview. I hope you enjoy. Don’t hesitate to leave suggestions and comments.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in calendar, diving, my slideshows, underwater

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Wallpaper September

Posted on August 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Here are 2 choices for your September wallpaper. May it be a close-up of a clownfish or a beautiful coral fan which hosts a tiny transparent fish.

Enjoy!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, underwater, Wallpapers

Nuweiba Photo Workshop goes to an end..

Posted on August 20, 2010 | 2 Comments

This week here in Nuweiba passed really fast. We had 6 amazing days of diving with 15 to 17 dives. Water temperatures were at a comfortable 27-29C which allowed some of us to dive in shorts and T-Shirts or for me with a 0,5mm skin suit.

The group came up with some great shots as well in macro as in wide-angle. One of the advantages of Nuweiba is that you don’t have to share a dive site with other divers.

Ras Mamlach south of Nuweiba has beautiful soft corals and great drop-offs

→ 2 Comments

Posted in diving, Travels, underwater

Tagged , , , , ,

Nuweiba PhotoWorkShop

Posted on August 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

The whole group arrived safely in Nuweiba at the Swisscare Hotel on Saturday morning. We didn’t lose much time and were in the water with Sarah and Daniel at 12 o’clock …some even earlier :)

A nice and quiet dive next to the pipeline to get used to the camera gear again and for others getting used to saltwater in general.

Yesterday we had to great dives at Maga’ana with lovely swim-throughs on the first dive. Wide angle heaven!

The second dive was more into macro.

Today we went to Sinkers. This is actually a buoy which was installed 25 years ago in 35 m of water with a chain of only 25m…hmmm

well it ended up becoming a great dive site :)

In general there are lovely angler fishes around…Frances, Papa Frances or Geraldine (commonly known as Pink ass), lots of mating octopi, huge ugly stonefish and lots more.

We’ll keep you updated

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, Travels, underwater

Wallpaper July

Posted on July 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

Here comes the new wallpaper for July. This little hawkfish just settled down for a couple of seconds on this green featherstar  when I passed by during one of my dives around Anilao last year. I tried different lightening techniques. This is the one I love best.

Hope you enjoy!

CClick on the image to download the wallpaper size

→ Leave a comment

Posted in diving, Travels, underwater, Wallpapers

Tagged , , , , , , ,