Category: Underwater photography

Like a king

Posted on by anke westerlaken in Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Indonesia, Octopus, Underwater photography

Despite the fact that I do a lot of diving, there are a number of diving moments that stay with me andĀ amung themĀ my first encounter with the blue ringed octopus. We are at a fantastic dive site appropriately named Mayhem in Raja Ampat Indonesia. Fitting because every time the currentĀ picks upĀ the dive site becomes a madhouse, the quantities as well as the different species are absolutely astonishing, even after 100 dives. The currentĀ sours around usĀ as soon as we roll into the water from the zodiac and from the first moment I try to hang as aerodynamically as possible. Nose down and into the current while holding my ass up, a trick I copied from sharks. And even though the current tries to blow me off the reef, I manage to stay in one place and I take the time to look around me quietly.Ā 

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Lets get acquainted before we shoot

Posted on by anke westerlaken in Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Marine life, Porcupines & puffers, Underwater photography

On board we unfortunately hear and see it with some regularity. Nice people who look at their own photos after a fantastic dive and are disappointed. A fish that is only half on it or how about just a tail and all that while they thought they had theĀ best shotĀ during the dive. We all tend to take a quick snapshot and then continueĀ divingjust a little too quickly.Ā Often being led by the feeling of notĀ wanting toĀ be a burden to others, but theĀ funny thingĀ is that others often don't have the idea that you are working on a photo for too long and eventually when you have a fantastic photo everyone wants a copy as a keepsake. And if you do want to shoot something quickly, that fish doesn'tĀ agreeĀ and shoots away into a hole or dives around the corner behind a coral block.Ā 

TheĀ jumpingĀ Sand Mystery

Posted on by anke westerlaken in Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Marine life, Underwater photography, Unknown, Video

Now I do quite a few dives as a guide and I sometimes see things that I'm not quite sure whether I really saw that or whether nitrogen was playing tricks there. And so I ask others if they've seen it too, hoping it wasn't a nitrogen hallucination. This was also the case at the beginning of my career as a guide, when I thought I saw the sand moving.