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Similan 2010

2011-01-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

Life changed with so many things in betwee, don't get to update the blog too often anymore and needless to mention diving ! Luckily, I was able to pull a short trip to Similan Thailand before the year end. It was really short, only dove 2 days 4 dives. It was a lot of effort for just 2 days 4 dives ! Nevetheless still enjoy every bit of it.

Day one, went with SeeBees, a big catamaran, 2 hours to Ko Tachai, 2nd dive on the way back, dove Koh Bon. Had to say both sites aren't too impressive, lots of broken coral, soft coral head scatter here and there. All the expected fishes are there but the quantity wasn't that thick.

Day 2, went with KRC, speed boat 1.5 hrs to the big boat on Similan #5/6. Dove Anita reef, live was much better here with more quantity of fishes, coral was still not very impressive. Slow boat drift to #3, where we did another dive at Shark fin reef. I was diving a alone w/ the guide who is an American, it was quite nice to be able to go 1-1. I move very slowly and didn't cover much of either site but that's ok :-) Shark Fin reef had a bit of current and I could hardly take any decent shots but the dive was fun.

I had a great time and enjoy the much needed warm water fix, 82F water :-) Indonesia would offer plenty more sea life, may be 2011 I'll get lucky again ...

Weekend with the manatee in Crystal River, FL

2010-09-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Took an advanatge of a business trip to DC, flew to Tampa on the week end and drove to Crystal River. Spent 2 mornings w/ the manatee. This is not the right time to visit, winter months is. We were luck to play with a few up close on Day 1. They came to greet and play with us and won't leave. Day 2 was a disater, no manatee spotted until we were done in the 3 sister springs and than the guide decided to head to the poor viz green water King's Bay. That's when we had the chance to play with "Mickey", a playful calf. Day 1 was many times better .... These animals are awsome to feel. Don't miss them if you are going to FL.

Beautiful sunrise on King's Bay Crystal River

First manatee encounter ...

Closer encounter ...

And an under over shot inside 3 Sister Spring, the water is spectaular from the constant flushing of the spring. 100 ft viz !

See more, click the Flickr link on the right and visit my album.

Walking freely since mid July 2010

2010-07-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

@ Stanford Shopping Center

Start walking in June 2010

2010-07-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

Jr. start walking about

爬沙發

2010-07-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Catch up on a few months of Jr's progress, here is a lovely 爬沙發 scene

2010-05-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks later during Mother's day ....

Here we are ... couple weeks after 1 years young birthday

2010-04-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

2010-03-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

CADiver Jr.開始爬爬. I really didn't want to turn this into my diary of my son's development progress but then what's the chance of diving and travelling as much as I once able to. Oh well, life is like river, it keep flowing and never know what's next or ended up.

Back in Dec, Jr was hardly able to support himself upright and the real mobility development didn't happen until this month (March 2010). 3 week ago, we begun to see him move a little bit and last week, he was dragging one foot and move forward by pulling himself froward with his arm strength. Good enough to move around :-) This weekend he climbed up 2 stair steps !

2 weeks ago !

Yesterday !!

恭喜發財 - Year of the Tiger

2010-02-15T15:51:00.000-08:00

Little guy still under 20lbs, not quite able to crawl but started to go in circle. A little bit of standing now & then. But his 詠春 is natural ! :-)

2009-12-28T11:34:00.001-08:00

Trying to crawl really hard this weekend !

2009-12-27T11:37:00.000-08:00

CADiver Jr. enjoyed his first flight on a 777-300. First oversea trip SFO>TPE>HKG

2009-11-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

CADiver Jr is developing his real personality now ....

CADiver_Jr roll over

2009-09-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

It's just a couple of days shy from his 6 months anniversary.

2009-09-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

.... & yet I have to add more float to keep it even lighter :-)

I am back

2009-08-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

New rig arrival, Nexus Digital Master D90. Bought the NDMD90T2MLF-M6 version, 2 opticals 2 electronic sync. 2 Inon Z240F. and a whole bunch of new ports and float arms. The Inon mega float is going to be one fun float to play with.

Will be checking this out tomorrow @ Breakwater ... Do not flood please :-)

四個月大 !

2009-08-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

The most significant development is the begining of holding his head, so we started to have him roll over on his tummy and we was able to hold his head up for 5 seconds. I think by the end of this month, he will do it on his own ! Also going to start him with rice cereal and drink water.

三個月大

2009-07-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

He is 3 months now & luckily I manage to pick up 2 dives in between, one at the Breakwater & one on the Beach Hopper II ... :-)

New Born

2009-04-19T16:56:00.001-07:00

Our new born came to live on April 1st ! It's two and half week old now. Alex was born in the middle of the night which is April 1st., he came out in shock because of 3 weeks early (37 weeks) weighted 6.1lbs and 19.5 inches long. Now that he is 2.5 weeks young, everything had settling better, develope his own schedule, etc. He is 6.6lb now and wakes up every 2.5 hours. Let's review again after full month.
Ground zero

First day home, 3 days after birth

A fast Nemo !

2009-03-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

I am never a heavy photo post processing guy but I had some times today, so mess around with PhotoShop CS3. Experiment a little bit on layer, mask and some filtering. Here I ended up with a fast nemo ! PhotoShop is huge, a lot to learn and figure out but fun!

Man killed by Komodo dragon !

2009-03-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

This morning something caught my eye in CNN news, it said Komodo dragons killed a man. That immediate awaken the memories about my visit from a couple of years ago. I recall seeing how komodo dragon were fed with raw chicken meat in the Komodo National Park, we were up close and personal, may be 10 feet away from a batch of 10. When the feeder toss out some raw chickens, these giant gecko move very quickly into position & swallow in a single bite. They ran very fast, forget about out run them! It's sad to read about these fasinating animals mauled a man to death but they are meat eater animal and fast and big and certainly dangerous !

流浮山炸生蠔

2009-03-01T00:40:00.000-08:00

Woo-hoo, I figure out how to make 流浮山炸生蠔的脆漿 finally! It was awesome, thin and crunchy. Fry with canola oil. Lovely !

Peace before the storm

2009-02-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

As much as I said I am going to pause my underwater activities. I went diving today :-) Well, it's 6+ weeks before CADiver Jr going to show up ... and it's a decent day before the Sunday storm. It was a bit windy but the water was quite flat, little bit surge, that's all. Good visz, 16 ft solid. The kick was I found the monkey face eel again by the wall and this time I really look hard at it for a while. Sadly I don't have a camera, this is the first time I dove without a camera in many years and I found myself 2 pounds positive. It was a bit of work to stay down at 16 ft !! Now I can truly say my Ikelite rig was HEAVY ! 2 pounds negative at least ! I also went check out the SeaTool housing for D300 at Backscatter, love that housing, hope the D90 version going to come out this year, otherwise ....

Nikon D90 Arrival

2009-02-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

Got it last week. What a nice little camera, much improved from the D80 and has just about everything I would ever use from a D300 in a compact body and spare $500. I love the 3D tracking AF and fantastic high ISO performance.

Simple picture are much easier to take with better result. Don't know if it's the higher pixel count or more advance algorithm or better sensor or whatever but the picture just seems better.

My cooking/food pictures use to be never shot at higher than ISO400 on the D80 but now I can comfortably shoot at 800, 1000 or even more and skip the tripod. This is ISO 1000, f3.5 1/40.

Can't wait to take the D90 under water but it won't happen anytime soon unfortunately !

裁員滚滚來!!

2009-02-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

This appears to be 2009 greeting/blessing carry forward from 2008 and it sunk further & deeper into the pit. I have no clue what's the cure. It also influence my decision to buy a Nikon D90 instead of the D300 ! Cheers ! Stay warm and dry and happy Friday the 13th, be safe, Jason was long gone !

Oops ! Out of diving commision for a couple months !

2009-02-07T21:12:00.001-08:00

My friend from Japan was visiting us the last couple of weeks and we basically were totally wasted every other night. Somehow one of those intoxicated evening, I bang my right elbow against one of the door jam in my house so hard that it caused a fracture. So my right arm is basically disabled. Although no cast needed but I can't lift any heavy object, a gallon water bottle is already too heavy. It's going to take a few months to heal and I just have to take it easy, so diving might not happen anytime soon ! But you never know, I might still check out Breakwater in a couple of weeks, I just can't believe Spanish Shawl were spotted in Breakwater !
Check this out.

Decision, Decision, Decision ...

2009-02-06T10:32:00.003-08:00

Since I almost sold everything, Nikon D80, Ikelite housing & ports and 1 DS-125 strobe, I am determine to start from scratch again. But here is the problem, D90 or D300 ?!! I am sticking to the DX format for a few more years. D90 is newer, D300 is older, both has the same sensor and mega pixel. D300 is better build but bigger & heavier. D90 is also heavier than D80 but it was the same body. Since one of my previous problem with the D80 was too heavy, I suppose going to D300 is not going to help ! I think I will ended up with a D90 and Nexus housing (SeaTool might not make the D90 even though it's on their website), will see ....

Australian Open 2009 Final

2009-02-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

I normally wouldn't document anything about sports but this one is a kick ! Federer for the first time lost to Nadal on hard court !! And he cry like a baby during the ceremony and couldn't make his speech. He wasn't this bad last year lost to Nadal in Winbeldon but this is something. My analysis are the following:
1, Matching Sampas's 14 grand slam was all over his mind during the final and he missed.
2, Lost to Nedal first time on hard court.
3, Lost 6-3 in the 5th set might be ashamed in his book !

When everything sink in during ceremony, emotion just pour out and he couldn't deal with all these lost. I am sure he will win big time again but I am happy to see Nadal kick his butt and make him feel sick, it's about time someone do that to him ! There will be a lot of great tennis between him 2 this year if they make it to the finals and that's great for the population, yeah !

Pit Stop @ Key Largo FL.

2009-01-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Before I completely forget that I dove in Key Largo, let me jog a few notes. This happen after the return from the Galapagos on 12/26/2008. I never dove Florida, so I decided to take a 3 days pit stop. Things are very expensive in FL, 3 days of Travel Lodge motel cost $110 a nite and 4 days of car rental cost $600. Diving wasn't too bad, I went with Ocean Divers, I choose to dive the Spiegel and the Molasses Reef.

The next morning, got up at 6am, left Flordia city at 6:30am, it was still dark and got to the pier at 7am. They have 2 boats and a doezn people were getting ready. I found my boat, suit up my 7mm and took my camera on board. The ride out to the reef was not bad compare to Monterey, it was rough but again not that rough and took about 40 minutes. Captain brief divers there were 5 ft surf and rough sea, I took the words cautiously but again, it really wasn't that rough. It was just like an average day in Monterey but several people got sick. The captain spent another 20 mintues navigating around to find a spot that isn't waving that much and ended up at the French Reef. Detail about entry and exist and the use of the current line to get back on boat was described in detail. I did a 60 minutes dive at a depth of around 25 some feet. It has a good 4~5 ft side to side surge which again was average Monterey. The surface was rougher than below for sure, took a little effort to take off fins, hand camera over and climb the slamming ladder. Interestingly after I got back, I wasn't the last to come up. 8 minutes later, the onboard DM had to deploy the rescue line and jump in. Found the remaining divers several hundered yards drifted and had to help them back. After everyone got back onboard, captain decided to call the day and go back. I was certainly disappointed, it was rough but not that rough and the dive was so shallow that it was almost like snookling. With a shorten day, I decided to cruise down to Key West, a long 3+ hours drive just to check out the marker !

With so much driving from the previous nite, I woke up at 7am the next morning !! Knowing I will miss the morning dive, I drove to the pier and search for my options. Fortunately, the afternoon boat goes to the Duane and because the sea was still rough, local said Duane would be a better dive. The boat ride was about the same as previous day, we had to pull ourself through the surface line to the bow line and then decent through some currents and onto the top deck at 98ft. Once situated, it was quite peacful and the visz was great ! Water was about 73F, so my heavy 7mm suit fits me well ! I circle around the wheel house, top deck. A very nice deck with plenty of baracuda patroling the deck and then all sorts of reef fishes. 45~50 minutes later, got back on boat realized 1/2 of the people on board didn't dive due to roughness ! We then venture to Molassess reef, it was a 18~22 ft dive that I can clearly see the bottom of the boat whole time. I didn't go very far, just circling various part of the reef and try to take some fish faces and the reef. I did a 70 minutes dives after the captain bang on the boat enough time. All and all, my short 3 dives experience diving in Key Largo were decent, warm enough to call it tropical. They said summer months between memorial and labor day weekend would be the peak season and best time to dive the Keys. For me going east, I might as well go to Hawaii, nevertheless, it was the warmest dive I had for 2008. If I am going to Florida again, it will be the Crystal River manatee instead.

For my last dinner of the trip, I decided to find a place close to the hotel in Florida City instead at the Key and deal with the driving after. I found this restaurant Mutineer looks decent. I tell you yellow fin snapper and grouper had been my feeding my diet for the last few days and it was awsome. While I am still figuring out should I have grouper or yellow fin one last time, I saw aligator on the menu ! How can I pass that, last time I had aligator was over 15 years. It was preapare sautee with lemon capers, delicious and I still can't tell it from chicken :-)

Galapagos - Big Animal Paradise!

2009-01-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

Galapagos diving, wow! What a place to dive. Despite my detour from San Francisco to Chicago, then Miami before getting into Quito at late night, the first part of the travel wasn’t too bad. Did I just say it out loud it was a mess?! For ½ a day I was actually worried I am not going to make it to Quito on time for the next day transit. The US domestic airline industry is really beating up their customers, I seriously hope some days something going to make the airline change just like our newly elected president said, we need to change. The flight from Quito to San Cristobal was another adventure; we had to fly an hour and a half to the largest city in Ecuador – Guayaquil, from there we waited on the plane for an hour and not allow to use the bathroom (another airline regulation) until the next 2 ½ hour flight takes off.

Aggressor I, a decent sized dive yacht with all the expected amenities, stateroom are sufficiently roomy for two full size adult, drawer and overhead storage are sufficient. If you book early enough to get one of the top deck room, that would be an added bonus. For those rooms, you can open the window and hear the sea breeze and birds in the late nite and morning. After the orientation, we set up our gears and cameras. The camera table was not as good as some other yachts; nevertheless it served its purpose. Of the 14 divers, 2 with dSLR, 3 with HD video and a couple with point & shoot. Our check dives was at Isla Lobol in the island of San Cristobal. What a fantastic way to start the week, a shallow 22 ft depth into a mix of sand and rock bottom immediately welcomed by large amount of sea lions. They are the same California coast species but the similarity stop there, these sea lions were so friendly they swam side by side with divers at arm length and slow down to accommodate divers lack of maneuverability so they can exchange eye contact. Others demonstrated their best acrobatic skill and they rarely puff bubbles at our face. The dive had solid 40+ ft visibility and warm 74F degree, it’s my warmest water dive of this year!

Next morning, the boat arrived North Seymour Island, we had 2 dives in the morning at Mosquera. Mosquera is a little island between North Seymour and Balta, we sighted several giant sting ray, moral eel, turtles, white tip, black tip sharks accompany by all sorts of reef fish schooling. Water temperature was 73~74F also with very mild to no current. In the afternoon, we hike a trail in the North Seymour Island. There we had opportunities to shoot frigates, boobies, and pelican. Sea lion pups, land and marine iguana came close to check us out. As I wind down the first nite sat down on the top deck watching sunset sipping a glass wine, I began to realize how rich and diverse life is in Galapagos while in such remote location. The movie Jurastic Park kept poping out of my head.

After an over nite full speed North West heading, our trip reaches the main theme. It’s the first of the 2 most important islands for the Galapagos dive, the Wolf Island. The island is not very big, both end can be seen clearly. Sea birds patrol the island looking for left over and fish on shallow water. We did 4 dives there. Dive leader Walta went into great length on how to dive here, manage the current and where to look for pelagic. Most divers onboard were very experienced divers but Galapagos is a different type of diving and it’s important to listen carefully to the briefing. The first 2 dives were at the site Landslide. I am not sure how it gets the name, perhaps it’s from the jagged edge cliff formation of the island. As soon as we flip from the zodiac, we head straight down to a plateau of reef and rocks roughly around 77 ft. We must hold on or grab onto rocks to avoid drifting away. Couple divers even use reef hooks, I strongly discourage using reef hooks flying above the reef, more about this later. I on the other hand found some rocks formation in a way that I was actually able to sit down with rocks all around and above me; I hardly feel any current. The currents are there, bubbles were moving at a 60 degree angle. As we situated ourselves comfortably, we look above, below and into the blue. It wasn’t long when school of hammer head starting to cruise by. Groups after groups, above, below, everywhere were hammerhead. It was very much like sitting in the mezzanine watching an opera performed by a mix of hammerhead, eagle ray, tuna & jacks. The giant 6 ft hammerhead gracefully sway it’s tail through the blue was much like a ballerina spin across the stage in Swan Lake. I hold my breath, it was exhilarating. 20 minutes later, we swam into the blue cut through the hammerhead path but yet we could still see them above, around and below us casting a sexy silhouette over the sandy bottom. On the third dive, we move to the other side of the island and dove the Anchorage point, it was very much the same format, straight down to the bottom, find your row seven in the IMAX theater and just wait watch. There we had groups of eagle ray, follow by hammerhead, Galapagos and silky sharks shown up again and again. At the end of the day at Wolf, we were all exhausted, not from diving in the current but from busy keeping track on what we had seen. It was difficult to comprehend there were so many varieties of huge animals and at such large quantity, it was spectacular. In between, I notice lots of life on the reef also, all kind of reef fish and moray eel, several yellow colored puffer hang out between rocks. I have never seen such bright yellow color on puffer, it was striking.

The next morning, we show up at Darwin, we were greeted by birds while soaking up the scene of the Darwin Arch from a distance. It was a beautiful morning. We did 4 dives under the Darwin Arch, it was even more spectacular than Wolf, hammerhead, eagle ray, mobula ray, school of jacks, tuna, lobster, you name it and they are there. On one dive, I was separated with the group as we swam into the blue, as I hover during my safety stop, a large marlin head towards me, circle me my buddy a couple times before vanished into the blue. We compare notes on the zodiac as we transit back to the Aggressor, the group saw mabula ray while I saw a marlin, so we were even !

On the 5th day, we dove 2 more dives in Darwin before getting back to Wolf, there we did one more dive and concluded the Wolf & Darwin expedition. A long bumpy overnite 16 hours cruise took us back to the island of Santiago, many folks slept through the entire ride and skip meals. The ride was not for the weak stomach. Cousin rock is where we did 2 more dives the next morning, it was colder then Wolf and Darwin. Themalcline drop the water temperature to 64F briefly, the themalcline cloudy the water. I focus on macro on the fist dive, took the 105VR down, nudibranch, reef fish, and sea horse were sighted. On the next dive, we decided to play with sea lion again, there was an area like a cave, a family of sea lion just keeps coming up and down to this area to play with us. We went on another land tour in the afternoon, Baltolome island, this is an extinct volcanic island, there were basically no life other than a few crickets and dry vegetation. The solidified lava throw demonstrated how land was formed. On top of the island, we had the grandest bird eye view of several islands, it is beautiful. After the hike, we did a zodiac tour along the rocky coast line, there we saw penguins ! Not large numbers but they are so cute to photograph.

Time flew and we are on our last dive day, we dove the Gordon Rock in the Santa Cruz island. If we had to pick on bone, this would be the worst of all the dives. It was cold, 68F with several even colder thermalcline making the visibility down to 20, 30 feet only, almost Monterey like. While it was cold, we still encountered hammerhead. Follow after the dive, we went on land where we were greeted by sea lion, crabs, iguanas, and birds again. This island also has the hybrid iguana. The view on top of the island was breathtaking, on one side it looks like Big Sur California and on the other, it reminds me of Komodo. In the afternoon, we went to the island Santa Cruz, here we saw the giant turtle farm. Those things are huge. The rest of the town like many tropical village, there are gift shops and restaurants, the atmosphere was really laid back. We spent our Christmas dinner on the island, I wander into a street off the main road and found some street restaurants where we sat on Rubbermate chair in the middle of the street but you know what, the lobsters were out of this world ! For about $12, we got big 1 ½ pound lobster tail meat. It was grill with a special source and it was so delicious, we had to order for more.

The next morning, we pack our bags and head to airport. The journey had finally come to a conclusion. Over the course of the week, we had seen many things we had never seen before; we had played with many sea lifes we had never played with before. We were inspired by how some animals manage their survival. We didn’t see whale shark, we didn’t see red-lipped bat fish and we didn’t take any close up shot of hammerhead. But we all had an awesome time. A note on hammer head, they are extremely shy animal and any detection to unfamiliar movement and bright color will scare them off. Couple divers in the group use reef hook, they were waving in the current 5 feet off the reef, this is basically to tell the hammerhead stay away. Other time they were out in the bottom off the reef blowing bubbles, another signal for the hammerhead not to come close, it was a big disappointment. If you do get to dive Galapagos, trust the guide, hide yourself between rocks and relax your air consumption, hammerhead will come to you and let you take their muck shot.

A few final words on travelling. The airline industry had definitely abuse their customers to a new level. Forget about services, they basically don’t care anymore, you travel or not, it’s your problem. If you have to get on the plane, you have no choice, you had to take the beating. It doesn’t matter which airline, they all treat their customer worst then third class citizen. I had to pay $60 three times for my dive bag. Basically a moist 7mm wet suit, a moist BCD and fins weight more than 60 pounds ! Everything else I put it on my carry on and that’s probably over 50 pounds too. The one thing I take away from this travel experience is to check in 2 dive bags next time each wait less than 50 pounds and I would be ok. I think domestic dive trip is pretty much out of the question with the kind of airline baggage policy. Also last time I travel alcohol beverages was $4 and now it’s $6. Bloody hell !

View slide show here.

So here is something I learned a couple of weeks ago (it's now 2/22/09). Our last meal in Quito was in an authentic Ecuadorian restaurant call Mama Clorinda, we order one of the famous authentic dish. At the time, I thought it was a roast baby scukling pig, it was tender and delicious. But now I realize it ain't pig, it's a guinea pig ! Guinea pig is actually a big mouse (cavy)! Ouch but it was delicious !

Happy New Year 2009, 新年快樂! 恭喜發財!!

2009-01-01T18:12:00.000-08:00

2008-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

Big animal massacre !
A friend of mine sent me some pictures this morning showing huge amount of dolphins/whales killing in Denmark. Suddenly it strikes me why the media/world seldom talks about western civilization killing these giant animals while I often hear Japanese, Korea, & Chinese killing sharks for their fin, whales for their meat, etc etc. It publicity always focus on killing in Asia not Europe or America ...
So I posted thread on Wetpixel. You can see some of the disgussing footage here if you don't mind upsetting your stomach.

2008-12-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

Today was the best I ever dove BreakWater, totally calm with solid 30ft vis. Partly because it's truly calm and partly because it's Wed and there was no body diving. I went out on the usual spot and found this shrimp on a seapen, it's the size of 1/2 a toothpick. Then turn towards the wall and on my way back, I saw a monkey face eel in a hole, then turn around I saw big halibut. Just a spectacular day in Break Water !!

2008-12-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Just when I am getting really excited & ready to my annual dive, I got hit by the lovely economy. Got laid-off on 12/3, that sure sucks ! Life is alway like that, when you want to dive, the execue is no time, got to work. Now that I have no work, the excuse is I can't afford it. Well I am going to be in the Galapagos next week but I am sure I can't be as relax as I would like to be ...

I had never dove Monterey on a weekday, guess what I can now until I find my next employer. From last Friday

2008-11-30T02:38:00.001-08:00

I have been away from diving for a couple of months due to personal stupidity. But since Nov, I got wet again, if weather coporate, I will go every weekend until the Galapagos trip in mid December, yeah, it's exciting ! After Galapagos, I will do a couple more days of warmer water diving in Key Largo before going home to welcome the 2009.

A little something from last Saturday:

2008-08-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

Been busy watching the Olympic, totally abandon the blog, diving, etc :-)
Manage to go out last Sunday on the Sanctuary and snap a few macro and mid-range shots.

2008-06-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Couple of shots I like from a couple of weeks ago shooting with the 105VR and Woody.

Fantastic nudibranch images

2008-05-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

David Doubilet is one of the best underwater photogapher, I often visit his site, to learn, inspire and dream about places & things he had captured and hope 1 day, I may experience a fraction of that. Since look like this year the chance of going abord is getting slimer & slimer, I have to do some virtual traveling and there I come across this set of amazing nudibranch gallery, much like art work you see in the museum. It's just fantastic !

Tiger Shark

2008-04-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

Found this video from my X-colleque(EPNY) Eric Chen's flickr. Awesome, borrow it so I can remember.....

2008-04-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Just came across some nice pictures
http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?uan=4323

Nite in San Francisco

2008-03-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

We don't go to the city that often but I found YuJa Wang playing in Davis Hall just last week and I got a couple of really awsome seats F-109/110! So that's my Sunday outing ! Got out to the Embaracdero by 5:30pm, slurp down a doezn oysters and clams in the Ferry building which happen to be my first time there. Expensive but delicious. 王羽佳(YuJa) plays the Mendelson Piano Concerto No. 1 and it was spectacular. Saw her last year, this year added a little bit mature, great performance but no encore bonus however. But then to our suprise at the end of the evening, we had triple encores which I had never experieced before, all worth it ! Anne Sophie Mutter also playing next week ..... will see !

First try 105VR under water !

2008-03-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

It was a misty & miserable day yesterday, we charted our usual Beach Hopper with only 5 people onboard, 3 of them are students, open water, dry suit and rescue. It's my first attempt to shoot the 105VR. Mentally I was prepared nothing worth posting going to be the result of the day and it turns out exactly that :-) We done 3 dives, water wasn't really choppy but it was good 6 ft side to side surge every where. We did Red Hat, Monterey aquarium, and El Torito. Since we have 3 students, I try to make sure things are unnoticeable in order in 8~10 ft visibility. First dive, 18 min into the dive, we got separated and had to surface after 35 min with the dry suit student low on air (he has a leaky second stage). Second dive I decided to went alone as they venture into the sandy bottom. The 105VR and D80 was lighting fast. 99% of my shots were all fired with nothing in focus, I was using AF-C, & it let me fired. While it might be quite dark at 35 ft but my focus light was quite bright as well, however, it still looks dark thru the view finder. The only 1/2 decent shot I was able to capture were something I had to brace myself to a rock or bottom and made sure I kept still so I can keep the subject within the frame and let it focus. Boy, that's not an easy task. With minimum focus distance of about a foot, the 105VR is challenging to used in Monterey. As I began to prepare my ascent, a school of 8 to 10 sea lions went up and down and around me for about 20 seconds, that was quite rewarding for the day. I will keep shooting it until I get a decent nudibranch, as it stand, seems like a steep unhill curve.

2008-02-24T21:41:00.001-08:00

After a couple of days of research, I was pretty sure I ran into a basking shark in Breakwater last time. It's was a rare treat nevertheless.

On president day weekend, I went down to Ventura for a couple of days diving on the Anacapa island. Weather has been up and down and the weekend looks promising and turns out to be quite nice. A long 4+ hrs drive to Santa Barabara, made my usual stop and dine at the Brothy Bros at the pier before finish the last 40 minutes drive to the Ventura harbor. We went with the Spectre Boat, this was a good sized boat but you know, I never really care the bunk bed treatment ...

With the hope of running into sea lions and better luck with shooting wide angle, I carefully set up the Tokina 10-17, made sure all lock up nicely and pray for the weather and clearity of the water. I did 7 dives for 2 days and it was excellent visibility on the first 3 dives and good for rest. Water was extremely calm, totally different than last year which was my first visit. I did wide angle for the first 3 dives and the rest with th 60mm. The most fun site for me was the underwater arch, it was packed with sea lions. I would be just fine hoovering behind the arch and just wait for them to zoom by.

Here is the album - Anacapa 2008 Febuary. Hope you like it !

2008-02-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

I ran into something huge, really huge for the first time in Breakwater after hunderds of dives in Breakwater. The condition of yesterday was bad, not extremely bad but there were good amount of side to side movement (especially in the middle above those rock patches at 15~20ft) and really low vis, bout 5 to 7 ft at most.

So, this happen on my way back from the Metridium field, I was looking for the pipe to go back shore heading straight South. It took me 30 kicks from the end of the pipe to the met field but I had about 40 kicks now and so I thought I might have off coursed because of the surge pulled me outward . All the sudden there was a big black wall in front of me and it moves, very slowly left to right! I stopped, if I didnt' stop I would have ran right into it. It's low vis, so I am probably just 5 ft away. I look at my computer, it was 42 ft and I was about 3 ft off the bottom. I saw some little thing grow on the body &amp. My mask was constantly fogged up yesterday, so I had to clear my mask. I look right, the furtherst I can see, I saw nothing, the big black body just faded into the murky water. Look left, same, so the immediate thought came to mind was WHALE. I must have ran into a whale, it moves very slowly, about 2 secs later I saw the tail went from my left to slowly faded into the right. I didn't have the camera ready, my strobes was off already. Yet I try to take a shot but it won't focus and it wont fire. Anyway, because of such low vis and I am all by myself, I didn't follow, not to mention I am only about 750 PSI left.

So I was very excited thinking about the encounter as I continue to paddle my way back to shore. As I walk up the stair back to my car, something strike suddenly, the tail ! What I saw earlier ... the tail was vertical and swing side to side !! Whale tail was horizontal and flip up and down. So what the hack did I just ran into - SHARK. This was a big huge shark. Remember I was about 5 ft away at most from touching it, look right, I didn't see the head, look left , I didn't see the tail until 2 sec passed. This thing must be 20~25+ ft ! It was a pretty feaky experience espeically in such low vis and alone. It's hard to believe a huge shark hang around in Breakwater and at such shallow water and close to the bottom. I have no way confirming what I saw yesterday but knowing mutual respect & kept distance might be the only reason how I could have came back in one piece and that I slept well last night.

Underwater Fashion Shots

2008-01-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

Really interesting stuffs ! I guess wet shots are not alway marine life ! :-)

Aaron Wong @ work,
Aaron Wong website,
Howard Schatz website,
Candice website,

大陸史上最牛潛水員

2008-01-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

2008/01/25 21:00 http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/080125/1/si23.html?
北京一名潛水教練獲得大陸媒體「史上最牛潛水員」稱號。
中新網報導：這位姓崔的潛水教練在北京潛水圈界算得上是名聲在外，慕名向他拜師學潛水的人絡繹不絕，甚至像「英雄」、「赤壁」這樣的大片，水下攝影的技術工作都得靠這位大師級潛水高手指導。最近崔教練接了一個幾十年專業潛水生涯都沒碰過的工作，那就是到化糞池裡救人。
原來上週日北京發生一起小客車墜入大化糞池的意外，警方害怕車裡有人，就找上這位崔教練，希望他下去大糞坑撈撈看。結果崔教練二話不說帶上裝備奔直奔出事的化糞池，一頭就跳下糞坑，幾次沉浮，把池子全摸遍了，直到確認沒人陷在坑內才收工爬出來。
岸邊看熱鬧的人雖然沒人敢接近這位渾身臭味的英雄，不過大家心裡都豎起大姆指，稱讚他真是一位肯幹、肯犧牲的專業潛水員。
這位「我不入糞坑誰入糞坑」，敢於探索「全新水域」的潛水大師，也因此獲得大陸媒體封上「史上最牛潛水員」的稱號。

2008 潛水季開始了!

2008-01-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

What a great way to kick off the 2008 dive season by dropping in @ the Monastery Beach. I was dry for almost 2 months and with the holiday seasons just past, all those gourmet consumed has to come back out one way or another. What a GREAT way to do that by carrying a steel tank, weight belt & a giant dSLR with 2 Ikelite strobes rig hike up that 1/4 miles loose gravel hump. By the time I reach the water, I was exhausted. Saturday was such a calm day I had never seen, Breakwater can be choppier then this and that made up a lot of ground for my wimpy limp. We dove to 110ft first dive, catch a glimpse of an harbor seal and wolf eel, didn’t get any picture though. Second dove was in the same area but a lot shallower. The second dive’s exit and the hike back to the car was really torture to the leg but made it without injury !

Sunday was a 2 dives day on the Beach Hopper II, we did Carmel Bay North and what a day & nite differences compare to Saturday. We drop down at this narrow ridge which I normally really like but on this day, it was about 20 ft side to side plusa 7 ft down drift, so we were all flying. Our less experience divers and student were holding on to kelp and rock which makes them draw a lot of air. Again, I couldn’t take any picture either, it’s does not stay. So I just enjoy the flying a little bit. Second dive we went back to the bay in front of the aquarium. Although it’s calm there, there are so many small floating objects made the overall visibility down to 15 ft or so. However I did get a few shots I like.

香港遊記

2008-01-06T23:11:00.000-08:00

As much I as I always love Hong Kong, it did changed quite a bit over the last few years post the 'open-up' policy by the mainland goverment. Today, we sees mainland visitors/tourists on every corners in this former British colony, hotels, luxury brand name boutiques, fancy restaurants etc. were all filled up with wealthy mainlander. It reminded us like the Japanese era from the late 70's to the 90's. Cantonese has always been the only & dominated dailect in the island but now just about everyone eager to speak Mandarin ! We have yet to see the Chinese reach that same level of popularity the Japanese once achieved. But I assure you, the next 3,5,7,9 years, we will see dramatic changes year after year. I don't kow but it's a taxi meter, it just kept increasing. Meanwhile, I had captured a few pictures from my trip to Hong Kong, hope you like it. It mostly express what I am interested of course, food and scenary I wanted to remember.

Now I got to figure out where to dive next ... :-)

2008-01-03T23:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year 2008 folks !

I wish all of you who visit my blog going to be healthy and happy this year ! Same to myself.

Finally got my Fukuoka trip pictures processed and uploaded to Flicker. Hope you like.

2007-12-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

What a lovely trip.
Before I load down the details (which I may never do), let me show u some o-e-shi Japanese cusine !

香港 + 九州 trip

2007-11-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, we will off to Hong Kong & Kyshu ! This is not a diving trip, this is pay-off time (family vacation) since I went on live aboard alone in August! I look forward to consume plenty of fugu & soak in on-sen until my skin begins to peel!

Lately nothing exciting in Monterey, it's change of seasons, water has been rough and on top, the oil spill from San Francisco is not helping. Althogugh the oil spill seems minimal, it's going to affect marina life up and down the coast for a while.

While not much diving going on, I further attempt to improve my cooking creativity.
Here are a few results

2007-10-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

It was between seasons & very bad visibiltiy yesterday in Monterey Breakwater, only better then last week because of no swell. I barely see my own feet. With only 5 ft visibility, I was hanging out by some rocks and look for critters. Wish the kelp not so distracting here. Beyond close up like this, there was no hope for any picture.

2007-10-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

What a nasty day in Monterey ! Weather has been rough early in the week, system came from the North, rain and now Santa Ana from the East. But it was beautiful from home this morning, so I decided to head Monterey after checking the water condition showing a 10 ft swell ! Boy should I have stay home ! It was 1 of the worst sea condition I had seen in BreakWater. It's definitely a 12 ft swell or more and it went in a big cicrle ! Upon decent to 9 ft, I saw only about 1.5 to 2 ft and I was pulling in circles, went further down to 25 ft, same situation. After 25 min drifting in circle and no chance of taking any shot, I decide to go back. As much as I want to dive, I did but wasn't much fun ! Well until next weekend ....

2007-10-02T15:46:00.001-07:00

Couple favorite from recent weekends in Monterey!

2007-10-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

I have finally group my nudibranch collection into a flickr set, come take a look, hope you like it !

Tulamben album completed

2007-09-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

Few of my favorites ...

Finally finished the Tulamben album !

Buy Nikon Capture NX !

2007-08-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

Capture Peter Schulz's write up about Nikon NX on Digital Diver

The DP Review consensus is that NX produces the highest quality images but is slower than some other programs.

I own NX and Adobe CS2 and Bible plus I have tried a lot of others. As far as I'm concerned, NX can't be beat re image quality.

Try this. Shoot in RAW and JPEG at the same time. Then open the RAW image in NX and save it as a JPEG. When I do this the JPEGs are identical. Point being, I think the NX conversion engine is based on the same thinking that went into the Nikon camera conversion engine. Stated another way, I think Nikon knows their camera better than any other software company and has the luxury of applying this knowledge in NX with only the need to work for their cameras.

As for work flow, I open in NX and make my basic adjustments in NX. Then I save as a TIFF and open in Adobe CS2 for a few final adjustments e.g. Shadows and Highlights and sharpening.

I'm Back !

2007-08-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

Tulambem, Bali

While diving in Tulambem may not have the same level of luxury services parallel to the live aboard of the Peligian. The dive itself offer much more luxury then the dive in Komondo though ! You can dive with a local private guide at the site you like & at the time of your choice, that alone sets apart from diving anywhere else in the world ! This area is packed with a wide variaties of dive terrain from wrek to rock formation to coral reef to semi-muck providing homes for all kinds of critters. This is not the place for giantic fishes but rather a relatively calm area for pymy seahorse, boxer crab, squaw lobster and frog fish, it's really a world full of crabs here, real crabs ! No wonder folks keep going back here time after time, I spoked to a Japanese diver who is there for the 17th times and 4 times this year alone !! Guess I have a lot of catch up to do if I can only retire after hitting the lottery tomorrow !

Komondo

Komondo is beautiful, complex landscape, volcano & exotic animals all blended into a world of warm and cold water mixture hosting an unique environment for a wide ranges of sea life ! The result is an absolute spectaular diving experience !

2007-07-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

The time has come, it's my annual dive vacation.
Off to Komondo on the Peligian. On my way back, I will stay a few days at Tulabem.

With a new 60mm, hopefully I will get some decent shots.

2007-06-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

Took some nice metridium shots this past Saturday, visibility was really poor, about 8ft.

Summer Vacation

2007-06-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

Woo-hoo ! Finally got approval to escape from the real world for a couple of weeks ALL to MYSELF ! I am going all-in ! First it's a week on the Pelagian live aboard luxury yacht, then another 3 days of diving in Tauch Terminal Tulamben. It's going to be a happy August, hopefully I will be able to capture some decent shots.

Here are a couple macro nudibranch I took Sat in the 50F Monterey.

2007-06-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

A nice short write up of the Nikon 105VR vs Tamaron 90

6/3/2007

2007-06-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

Quite decent visibility and clam yesterday in Breakwater. Work on the Tamaron 90mm again, most of the better shots shot at f8~f16, 1/200, ISO100. Found hundereds & thousands of snail giving birth !

2007-05-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

I came across this thread about Depth-of-field & focus area on DigitalDive.net which seems interesting. Remind myself to really understand and try this stuffs!

2007-05-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

Back to Monterey Break Water for the 2nd time this year. Nice weather but a little bit of swell above normal. Visi was pretty bad, some spots were like 5 ft ! Should have gone earlier. Still frustrated w/ the new dslr setup. Guess will have to keep tryng & learning. If gas $ not that expensive, I would go again tomorrow.

2007-05-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

Just read this article from MSNBC, for the first time, I see some underwater life form which are not that glamorous. They are found in between 2,000 and 21,000 feet below, whew !

Polish plastic port

2007-05-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

For those poor diver like me using plastic port, I came across this thread in Wetpixel show us how to polish minor scratch. Pretty useful but scary !

Under Water Restaurant

2007-05-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Wow ! Check this out, the World's First All-glass Undersea Restaurant Opens, it's the Hilton Maldives. Don't miss the Dinner menu. Very exepensive but sounds good ! Hmm! May be I need
to plan a trip out to Maldives.

Diappointed - Long way to learn !

2007-05-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

2 hrs boat ride from Ventura to Anacapa, 15 ft visi and 54F water but at the island, it could fool you as somewhere warm ! Lot more life then Monterey BreakWater (San Carlos Beach). Several sea lions hung around, plenty of 4 footer Sheephead. Great time working with 3 open water students also. The disappointing thing was no good pictures ! Got to be honest, just switched from p&s Olympus 5050 to a Nikon D80, it's such a big different. Talk about task load ! Nothing came out focus even the DS-125's modeling light was on.
The cool thing w/ the DS-125's, we had three 40~50 minutes dives and I ran the modeling light on on all 3 dives and never recharge in between. On the 4th dive, the battery finally drained but that's like 2 hrs of usage before it retired. ... I need to learn this all over again !

Anacapa Weekend

2007-05-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Here we go, a beautiful Sat, temperature in the mid 60's and will go up to the 70's by tomorrow or when I get to Ventura. We are going with the Peace Dive Boat. Hope I will get some decent sheephead shots, etc. etc. 6 hrs drive, outta here now ...

Retro-posting old albums

2007-05-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

I have been using Sony Imagestation and Yahoo Photo for years. Guess I have to find time to start moving some of my favorite memory on to my Flickr .
Too much work ... :-(

Nothing accomplished !

2007-04-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

Thought of going out to Monterey but one thing lead to another, ended up sit on my butt the entire weekend. Well not exactly, planted 2 trees and some peneials but not exactly something I like forward doing.

I was reading Ken Rockwell's D80 manual over the weekend. It seems he recommend shooting in P mode and adjust the dial to "Program Shift" for variation instead of using A or S. So I am curious what other experts does out there especially in the under water photography areana. Do you use P, or A or S or totally manual ? And why ?
Hope the folks on Digital Diver will enlight me

Enjoy a lot of Jenny's photo set too !

It's only Monday, 5 more days to go before I head to Anacapa for the first time ! That's pretty exciting ...

April 2007

2007-04-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

4/26 Finally getting started with this.

Almost end of April, weather truning better. Been dry for weeks, partly because of all those works around the new house we move in since Feb. Looks like this weekend might be the weekend to go back to BreakWater Monterey and try out my Tamaron 90mm.
Now I am excited ...