DIVE Archives | TRAVELS WITH TAM

The Great Adventure that is Muck Diving!

April 16, 2017 By Tam Warner 24 Comments

raja ampat, adventure, our planet, diving — **A beautiful False Clownfish in anemone.**

So, you ask, what is muck diving? Well, it is diving in muck. Muck is defined as rubbish or garbage. In diving, it means diving in a place that is dirty, and sometimes polluted with plastic and bottles. On the sixth day in Raja Ampat we headed to Batanta, an island which is one of the “4 Kings” (Raja Ampat means 4 Kings), and explored a muck dive site called Black Beauty. It had dirty old sand, trash, and it was silty. Gross, right? No! On a muck dive you find amazing wildlife! So we spent all of day 6 muck diving, and seeing animals that are normally rare to see, but on a muck dive they were plentiful. I think this photo essay will prove it was well worth it, and I hope you enjoy these animals as much as I did!

It Was A Fantastic Journey to Tomolol Cave

April 9, 2017 By Tam Warner 18 Comments

My trip to Indonesia, like most of my other trips, was solo travel. The great thing about traveling solo on dive trips is you meet all kinds of new friends! After diving the Watch Towers, we went on an expedition to Tomolol Cave, a sacred site. A Muslim shrine is located at the entrance. Tomolol Cave has a river with fantastic limestone and rock formations. Most people use a life jacket or ring to float through the caves, much of it in the dark. Many people had lights, of course, so we could see the inner walls of the cave. From the boat to the caves on small boats, there is a pearl farm on the way. Boats must stop and pick up local guards to go to Tomolol Cave. One cannot take anything out of the cave, and the guards make sure no one dives the pearl farm for pearls!

misool, raja ampat, tomolol cave — The Pearl Farm worker’s residences.

The cave itself is like a cathedral to stone, water, and nature. Carnivorous Pitcher Plants hang on its outer walls. Misool is jungly along the rivers leading to the cave, and there are even cliff burial sites! It is bizarre to see human remains on the side of the cliffs. The presence of the guards guarantees they are not disturbed. Floating through the monoliths was a surreal experience, and one I tried to soak into my very skin. I never want to forget the beauty of Raja Ampat.

Beautiful Diving in Raja Ampat on Day 5!

April 6, 2017 By Tam Warner 14 Comments

raja ampat, scuba, diving, misool, watch tower — Shoal of snappers on Watch Towers

Misool Island continued to be good to us, and there was beautiful diving on day 5. It was a short dive day, so the dive had to be good! We went to Watch Towers, and enjoyed a great variety of fish and coral! And I saw my first Woebeggone Shark, so exciting! Enjoy!

Diving is sometimes similar to a Dr Seuss book.

Diving Day 4 in Fabulous Raja Ampat!

April 2, 2017 By Tam Warner 10 Comments

On diving day 4 in Raja Ampat I had become somewhat comfortable with my camera and housing, and I decided to try my hand at macro-photography (closeup photography). I know photographers who take absolutely amazing macro images and I have always wanted to do it myself. I know these do not come close to their expertise but I was fairly happy with the result.

macro, photography, raja ampat, scuba, diving — Small Damselfish

arenui, raja ampat — Gorgeous close up of corals in Raja Ampat.

macro, photography, photo blog, raja ampat, scuba, diving — Another incredible day!

After a couple of dives with my macro lens I switched back to my wide angle. A wide angle lens allows a diver to get very close to their subject and still have the whole subject and background in the image. So, these fish are closer than they appear! In dive photography, you must get close to the subject in order to have enough light to photograph it. The density of the water means that you have to be 2 to 5 feet from the object or your photo will be all blue, without other colors. Photographers who do scene photography have huge strobes in order to light the area they are shooting. My strobes are not large enough to do that, but maybe someday! There are often scenes I pause to gape at, and wish I could show it to people so they could see the beauty of the underwater realm.

The meaty Tritan Triggerfish. This aggressive fish scares me more than sharks do! — A huge waterspout in the distance.

Dive Days 2 and 3 in Raja Ampat on board The Arenui!

March 30, 2017 By Tam Warner 3 Comments

Dive days 2 and 3 on The Arenui were spent fighting with my new camera and housing! I had difficulty with color on day 2, which was irritating because we saw an incredible shoal of Humphead Parrotfish and I really wanted the photos to be colorful. Day 3 was a little better in the color department! The dive sites were awesome!

raja ampat, diving, scuba, the arenui — Incredible gorgonian and fish shoal

raja ampat, scuba, diving, arenui — A tiny nudibranch!

arenui, raja ampat, diving, scuba — Tritan Triggerfish are large and can be quite aggressive.

The First Dive Day in Raja Ampat on The Arenui!

March 27, 2017 By Tam Warner 6 Comments

misool, diving, scuba, raja ampat, indonesia, the arenui — A Spadefish in bright orange coral, isn’t the color amazing?

The first dive day in Raja Ampat on The Arenui! Exciting! The currents were strong as you can see on the video, but it was wonderful. There were 15 divers on the boat and we were split into four dive groups, and each group had a guide. Most divers dive with a guide though there are some places in the world (Australia for example) where divers can go off with a buddy. My personal preference is to have a guide nearby, but that depends on the location and site as well. There are some places where I stay pretty close to the dive guide.

The first day of diving in Raja Ampat found us at Misool Island, and the dive sites Yuliet, Shadow Reef, Boo Windows and Boo Ridge. Before each dive the divers receive a dive briefing from one of the dive guides. The briefing consists of a map of the dive site, a discussion on typical currents, entries and exit points, and what animals are typically seen there. I have been on boats where a briefing is not given, in Key Largo I was given a map of the dive site to look over before jumping in.

I took GoPro video on this first day. Why? Because I have a new and fabulous camera, the Olympus OMD EM5 Mark ii, a mirrorless camera with DSLR quality photo ability, and I had to learn how to use it underwater. My new housing, a Nauticam, also took quite a bit of getting used to. For the most part, the first day was spent relaxing, getting used to diving again (I had not been since July 2016), and taking in the environment. On one dive, I took my new camera, but forgot to take the lens cap off! I thought the dive guide would drown he was laughing so hard! Ah, well, I can be somewhat forgetful at times, but by the end I had it down. Overall, I was happy with the photos I took, but they were certainly better by the end of the trip. I have to say I am just thrilled with my new camera and it’s capabilities!

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