Mona & Chris' Travel Photography » underwater

Perfect moment : winning a gold medal in UWP contest

Mona and Chris — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:33:43 +0000

well today I will tell you about a perfect moment which is happening now as I try to write

I take part in the UWP contest for a couple of years but only did so more seriously since last year. Last December, 3 of my images went into the finals, one in the freshwater, one in the wide angle with diver and one in the Macro nudibranch category.

These were great news. And finally today we got the results! And guess what?

I am winning the Gold medal in the Macro Nudibranch category with my image “Golden”

Gold Medal in Macro Nudibranch category

To my great surprise my freshwater shot placed as Runner Up as well

Runner Up in Freshwater category

When I’m in the water and taking photos I don’t think about competitions and medals. I enjoy that moment which enables me to get a close look into a world which is unknown for a lot of humans. I can’t believe that your photos are getting better if you have the ambition of competition in your mind. So I will go on taking pictures just because I love being in that wet world, below the surface, face to face to a wonderfully different world!

I’m happy to see so many familiar names in the winners’ list. Congratulations to all of you! I hope that you have your own personal “perfect moment” as well today!

You can find all the winners here : Underwater Photo medal winners

Filed under: perfect moments, PhotoCompetitons, underwater

Indonésie(Flores) – de Maumere à Komodo

Mona and Chris — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:54:06 +0000

Next Friday will be held a multi media show @ Prabbeli in Wiltz. I’ll have the pleasure to present our photos from last year’s trip to Flores. You will discover colourful reefs and amazing country sides through the island of Flores and of course the famous Komodo dragons.

Come and spend some time with us in the cosy setting of the Prabbeli, a drink in your hand!

Beginning : 8 pm

Vendredi 20 janvier, j’aurai le plaisir de présenter nos photos du voyage à travers l’île de Flores. Vous allez découvrir des récifs coralliens colorés ainsi que des paysages enchantés et bien entendu les fameux dragons de Komodo!

Venez passer un moment agréable avec nous dans le cadre détendu du Prabbeli, une boisson à porté de main!

Début : 20h00

Infos

Filed under: Exhibitions, my slideshows, Travels, underwater

7th place in unterwasser magazine

Mona and Chris — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:54:48 +0000

Je viens de voir que je suis placée 7ieme ce mois-ci dans le magazine unterwasser. Le thème était PORTRAIT.
I just noticed that I placed 7th in this month’s issue of Unterwasser magazine. The theme was PORTRAITS

voici la top 10
see the top 10 here

http://www.unterwasser.de/aktuell/Newsdetail/ab497bda-8cdb-414e-9801-78510be9e90c/

Happy me

Filed under: PhotoCompetitons, underwater

My selection…

Mona and Chris — Tue, 31 May 2011 08:27:35 +0000

Voila tout est fini! il est temps que je vous dévoile ma sélection de ce Championnat. Pas facile de se mettre dans le bain quand on n’a pas eu le temps de faire quelques plongees de reperage…mais bon. C’était une très belle expérience!
Well all is over now and it’s finally time to show you my selection for this championship. it wasn’t easy as we didn’t have much training before, but it was a great experience.

Click to view slideshow.
Filed under: PhotoCompetitons, underwater

Diving is way too cool!!!

Mona and Chris — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:13:28 +0000

Here’s the proof!
Sarah from African Divers and I show you how cool diving can be here in Nuweiba.

Mona

Sarah

…what’s really cool on the dive site Myserique is this huge brain coral called Brian’s brain. It is called so for more than 20 years now. Usually these corals collapse under their weight but this one has resisted so far.
it is more than 7 m high.
Here a fish eye view from the top of it

Brian's brain

Filed under: diving, Travels, underwater

Sunny shots from another day in Nuweiba

Mona and Chris — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:18:32 +0000

Today I send you some sunny shots.
Enjoy!

Filed under: diving, Travels, underwater

Strong winds and peaceful dives

Mona and Chris — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:56:05 +0000

Strong Northern winds raised this morning.
We went for two dives to Coral Garden and pipeline. Luckily there were no ~~winds~~ currents underwater.
The huge block on Coral garden used to have lots of glass fish. There are all gone by now but got replaced by colourful anthias.

Anthias with lion fish

As usual lots of lion fish hang around nearly every where

Lionfish

Pipeline is a very cool place. It was a former desalination factory which is now one of the stunning ” wrecks” of Nuweiba. Large tubes go into the water. They are all overgrown with soft corals and lots of fish can be found here.

Pipeline

Filed under: diving, underwater

Searching for Oliver the froggie…

Mona and Chris — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:24:20 +0000

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….

Filed under: diving, Travels, underwater

Komodo : back to diving

Mona and Chris — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 13:40:20 +0000

We had a first day diving today around Sebolan Kecil in Labuan Bajo.

As this site hasn’t too much current I took the opportunity to play with my 105mm macro lens again

Tomorrow will be a Tokina Wide angle day again!

Pink

Filed under: Travels, underwater

Maumere News

Mona and Chris — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 09:38:43 +0000

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!

Click to view slideshow.
Filed under: diving, Travels, underwater