Aussie Diving - 16 to 31 October 09

[Gudge]

I had an RDO today and for the first time in a long time the weather and dive conditions were almost perfect. We had two dives in Lighthouse Bay and although the visibility could have been better I was shooting macro with my 60 macro lens and didn't care. I spent most of the dives practising fish portraits:

 

[roby jeff]

extrordinay pics gudge..love your macro

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Wow great shots as usual.. our conditions have been awful so I have nothing to contribute

 

[Gudge]

We managed to get out again for another two dives in Lighthouse Bay and even the fish were surprised me managed to dive two days in a row:

The cardinalfish were well into breeding season and I saw three different species brooding eggs in their mouth. Only the Tiger Cardinalfish would open its gob and let me get a photo:

I kept the 60 macro on from yesterday's dives as I was too lazy to change it. Here's a few more of my favourites from the two dives:

 

[Sas]

Hey gudge, love the shrimp pic

I got out for three dives yesterday. The first time I've been up to doing three dives in a while locally but the water is warming up (now 13C). Got in 4hrs+ in the end, and we had so-so conditions. Viz was good at 10m+ on all three dives, but first dive had strong surge, second dive had current and the third was just right

Here are some photos (there's heaps today as I had one of my best days photographing in a while ):
Weedy sea dragon

Teeeeny puffer

Busted!

Keeled Octopus - this guy did not like his photo being taken and inked us. Never been inked before by an octo!

Cuttlefish pretending to be sea weed. Probably my favourite shot so far that I've taken of a cuttle

Seahorse

Two seahorses

 

[roby jeff]

I love that weedy sea dragon sas..top shot.
here's a turtle pic for my fellow turtle lovers..took it diving on the yongala wreck which is really more like a superb reef dive with a huge variety of superb sea life, also loved the freindly sea snakes there.

 

[Sas]

Hey great pic roby! How was the yongala?? Have you dived there before? Wouldn't mind checking that out one day.

 

[roby jeff]

You would love the yongala, dive it in good weather as its quite exposed. lots of current at mid tide but the infatable charter dive boat that runs out a aye was there when we were and i think divers dived about 2 dives an hour either side of slack water. Lots of every conceivable GBR marine species and all very tame as its dived by 4 - 5000 divers per year.
The dive boat is probably fairly strict with its divers due to several acidents occuring over the past 15 years, top of wreck is 14 me ,bottom is 29 me. Vis for us on a totaly perfect day was 18-20me at the top and 8-10 at the bottom. Our dives done in our own time were about 45 mins each... I hope to dive it alot more next year.
i'm just heading out to sea for a couple of weeks so i will miss the scuba forum and flicker while i'm gone.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Great shots Gudge.. my favourite is the little Shrimp

Sas nice shots... lot the way you set up the one with the shaft of the torch.. how did you do it.. is that the Sony you used? What settings?

Roby... the Yongala is one of the three dives I have wanted to do every since I first started diving!

 

[Sas]

You would love the yongala, dive it in good weather as its quite exposed. lots of current at mid tide but the infatable charter dive boat that runs out a aye was there when we were and i think divers dived about 2 dives an hour either side of slack water. Lots of every conceivable GBR marine species and all very tame as its dived by 4 - 5000 divers per year.
The dive boat is probably fairly strict with its divers due to several acidents occuring over the past 15 years, top of wreck is 14 me ,bottom is 29 me. Vis for us on a totaly perfect day was 18-20me at the top and 8-10 at the bottom. Our dives done in our own time were about 45 mins each... I hope to dive it alot more next year.
i'm just heading out to sea for a couple of weeks so i will miss the scuba forum and flicker while i'm gone.

Ok cool! What do you mean by fairly strict with the divers? Anyway, enjoy your trip to sea

Great shots Gudge.. my favourite is the little Shrimp

Sas nice shots... lot the way you set up the one with the shaft of the torch.. how did you do it.. is that the Sony you used? What settings?

Roby... the Yongala is one of the three dives I have wanted to do every since I first started diving!

Auto with forced flash It was just a fluke shot I think, the rest came out blurry It was getting quite dark by this stage!