Bali Diving - Ballads of the catfish and the lionfish

I love the mesmerizing moves of the lionfish, I never tire of photographing
them ....
To me, they are the most elegant & graceful predators....
They always seem to be dancing a ballet and their fluid dances are like a poem....a love song....a ballad. Sighs blissfully.

And at Tulamben...the lionfish that are found in different colors...all of them are equally skilled ballerinas underwater....smile.

Being the predators they are...well the lionfish is never shy....they will pose, they will dance and they will continue to do whatever they want to do irregardless of how many cameras are shoved into their faces , confident that divers are not stupid enough to touch them because of their toxic spines.

Except , I did hear of one almost fatal accidental mishap of one unfortunate lionfish and one diver's long pointer device....I heard la! Hahahahaa

So with the mutual respect on both sides, filming the lionfish is almost always satisfying with good results for the photographers and videographers who showed patience ;D

Quite excitedly also for my first time , I saw a real tiny juvenile lionfish at Tulamben....it was perched on a coral reef and with its soft pectorals swaying in the drift of the currents, I initially mistook it for a nudibranch,,,....until I edited the video....mmmm it's quite cute lei :-)

The fine black volcanic sandy bottoms of Tulamben really enhances the contrasts of colors for photos and videos...

The frantic moves of the striped catfish juveniles in a school as tightly packed individuals moving in unision and between short spurts of dispersal, coming together, dispersal ....wow, captured on video...it is my personal opinion that the catfish juveniles look fantastic with their ballad , double wow!!!

As a conclusion to our videos of Bali diving, here I think it is appropriate that I jot down some personal house rules below, both to remind myself and tips for anyone new to diving at Tulamben :

1. NEVER ever change lenses underwater because Tulamben's fine grains of black volcanic sandy bottoms full of lava ash sediments which may be so nice for photography , alas which I found out too late however ,
can cause damages to the grooves on the lens holder as one takes out one lens and tightens another e.g during changing lens from wide angle mode to macro mode ) !!! eeeeyer, celaka nya!!!!

It is imperative to decide on what mode to shoot and stick to using same lens until the end of each dive .
For me, at Seraya Beach for example, I should just use the macro lens and
only consider the wide angle for the Liberty Wreck divesite!!! *****

2. Double clean, or better still triple clean and check all equipment after each dive at Tulemban i.e mask, fins, straps , velcro parts of dive suits & gloves ,
most especially the camera's underwater housing's openings and edges of the "o" rings (most important double emphasis ) .
Dont forget to check and rinse the regulator and octopus mouth pieces!!! If u forget ...then u will go like me, pssflk pstflk psstflk when u put yr mouth piece into your mouth!!!!! LOL~

SERIOUSLY the fine volcanic sands STICKS everywhere and anywhere u can think of !!! *&^%$#@!

3. Last but not least...take off all kinds of jewelry !
Most especially magnetic jewelry when underwater at Tulamben is a
NO NO NO
because the black fine grains of lava ash will actually stick on rings, bracelets, necklace and it can make tiny cuts all over upon contact with the skin !!! Yeeeesh.

Like they say, belum kena belum tahu...;-{

But these are all inconsequential inconveniences ...as I review our photos and videos taken at Tulamben....
I will go aaaaah, Tulamben's definitely worth an annual dive visit if not more trips per year...smile.
So dive buddies, we have a date with Major Mike Goh come September 2009?