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SeaImages · **Images from Philippines -** 07-09-2010, 09:23 PM

I just joined TPF today, recommended by a friend, and am fairly new to forums so hopefully this first posting works. My goal is to spend more time learning and improving. Attached are some images taken in the Philippines last September. The images are

1) Flamboyant cuttlefish
2) Ornate Ghost Pipefish
3) Mating Mandarinfish (they mate every day at dusk)
4) Lionfish
5) Reef scene from Verde Island

DigitalScape · 01:52 PM

Welcome to the forum, Lily. Very nice underwater series you posted. I am looking forward to more of your images.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's I made several trips to the Philippines - Bagiuo - enjoyed all the time I was there - never got to see the reefs.

Hanky · 07-10-2010, 02:26 PM

Beautiful! I was just in GenSan to meet my wife to be, would live there if possible.

SeaImages · 07-10-2010, 05:28 PM

The first three macro images were taken in Dumaguete. The last two images were from the Puerto Galera area - both very different types of diving. It was our first trip to the Philippines, and we loved the friendly people and the country. It is one place we would return to again. The diving was amazing, and the reefs were one of the most pristine and healthy we have seen anywhere.

thequintessentialman · 07-11-2010, 10:52 PM

WOW Lily, those are pretty nice shots.

SeaImages · 07-13-2010, 10:43 AM

Thank you John.

The mandarinfish were quite a challenge to capture as they are small and dart quickly around the reef looking for a mate, and if you blink, you will miss the mating ritual. Also, it is very low light conditions at dusk so focussing a macro while tracking them is tricky. Add surf to that, and it makes for a fun photo session. We went on one dusk dive at Dumaguete to find these critters, and I was lucky to catch them in action.

ukneeq · 07-14-2010, 08:40 AM

Great shots! I hope to make it to the Philippines sometime soon. My mom is from there so it would be nice to see where she came from.

brad · 07-14-2010, 09:32 AM

Love the Pacific waters in that part of the world... the country.. not so much. LOL Rather be a little farther north.

SeaImages · 07-15-2010, 11:22 AM

Hi Fedil,

I hope you do make it to the Philippines.

Hello Brad,

We had a good experience during our visit to the Philippines. The country has 7,000 islands (depending on the tide) and we visited two of the islands. Island life is much quieter than in the cities. Like all countries, there are good areas, and places to avoid.

We found Manila quite a dichotomy with armed guards posted at the local Starbucks and dare not drive there, though we have driven in many countries around the world. We traveled two hours to the coast where we caught a boat to our first island, Mindoro Island. We returned back to Manila and caught a flight to Dumaguete, about 390 miles south. We found the people on the islands very friendly and when our plane back to Manila was cancelled due to the storms (and major floods that followed that month), our fellow local passengers on that flight were very helpful in suggesting alternate travel arrangments.

brad · 07-15-2010, 01:04 PM

Glad you had a good experience, Lily... I always found the Philippines to be dirty and run down, with a matching economy. The people were always friendly, they wanted the American dollar... but that was the early to mid 80s... I hear its not as American friendly as it once was.

My farther north comment was that I'd rather be about 2 hours flight time north .. in Okinawa. I prefer the culture there.. and the waters of the East China Sea and the Pacific around the island are the clearest I've ever been in... I was not into underwater photography then... too bad. Of course, Okinawa has its share of anti-American sentiments these days, too... mostly due to the behavior of a few American idiots.

SeaImages · 07-15-2010, 01:32 PM

Hi Brad,

We had been looking at going to Okinawa. We wanted to photograph the famed underwater archeological site near there. I was in Yokohama for a week in May for work but we couldn't get our schedules co-ordinated to get down to Okinawa...hopefully another future trip...

brad · 07-15-2010, 11:15 PM

If memory serves, the better wildlife and coral is on the Pacific side (and northwest side) of the island... and the site you refer to is south and west.

SeaImages · 07-16-2010, 09:58 AM

Brad,

Thanks for the insight. I made a note of the locations in my logbook and will certainly research it before we go. Are you aware of any natural shipwrecks in the Okinawa area?

brad · 07-16-2010, 10:28 AM

Not that I remember... I was a snorkler there rather than full diving, so I spent most of my time in the tidal pools. Okinawa sits on a shallow coral shelf, so there is a dramatic difference between high and low tides in some areas of the island - making for some really dynamic and DEEP (40-50 feet sometimes) tidal pools.

tukaniray · 08-11-2010, 09:47 AM

Wow a spectacular set.

-Ray-

SeaImages · 08-11-2010, 02:23 PM

Thank you Ray, I hope to post more on soon. I'm just now working through the images from our July 4th trip to Cozumel. I was finally successful in capturing a decent close-up of their Pipe Seahorse which I have not seen anywhere else in the Caribbean area. I'll need to look up the actual name of this critter before posting.

Lily

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Images from Philippines