Eco Divers News

Meet Eco Divers at three dive shows in March & April

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:00:10 +0600

Eco Divers is exhibiting at three upcoming shows where we'll do our best to answer every one of your questions:

12 - 14 March:
DEEP Indonesia in Jakarta.
Manado City Booth - 31A.

26 - 28 March:
Beneath the Sea, Secaucus, New Jersey.
Booth #202.
Meet our US Representatives, Allan & Barbara Jones (pic right).

09 - 11 April:
Asia Dive Expo (ADEX), Singapore.
Booth #IN05.

See you there! Or for more information on the shows and how to get there, just email info@eco-divers.com

Manado's first Annual Fish & Critter Hunt, with Ned & Anna DeLoach, this October

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:41:39 +0600

If you love marine life, then there is no better place to spend the week of October 16-23, 2010, than at Kima Bajo with Ned and Anna DeLoach, co-authors and photographers of the best field guides in the business: Reef Fish Identification - Tropical Pacific and, just off the press this coming September, the long-awaited Reef Creature Identification - Tropical Pacific.

The special week will include fact-filled workshops ranging from basic invertebrate and fish identification skills to marine life behaviour made simple, photo and video tips for capturing those perfect fishy portraits, plus plenty of time underwater.

Guests will participate in daily and week-long critter hunts for the most exotic animals inhabiting famous Bunaken Marine Park.

Nothing will enhance your underwater adventures more than knowing the names and nature of the fabulous fishes and critters that surround you on every dive. And there are no better informed or more impassioned experts than Ned and Anna. We guarantee that after spending an energizing week of fun and learning with a group of like-minded friends, diving will never be the same.

The date for your diary is 16 - 23 October. Be sure to book today to get your place!
info@eco-divers.com

Dive with famous underwater photographer Jason Heller at Kima Bajo, 17-24 May

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:02:59 +0600

We're delighted to welcome Jason Heller, founder of the popular underwater photo portal www.divephotoguide.com, to Kima Bajo Resort & Spa. Between 17 & 24 May, Jason will be 'In Residence' with Eco Divers, meaning he'll be available - TO YOU - to give you invaluable tips and advice on how to get that great underwater image you've been hoping for.

Jason is known for his great energy, enthusiasm and experience in the field of taking unique photos that everyone will remember. He doesn't do average! Want to have fun diving with and learning from one of the best? Then book today and let Jason Heller become a part of your dive addiction that you'll remember forever. Jason will be the first Guest Lecturer to be In Residence with us since the opening of The Digital Centre full service photo centre.

Hope to see you there!

Opening soon! The ONLY Digital Photo Centre in North Sulawesi

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:27:58 +0600

The Digital Centre North Sulawesi

Opening in April 2010, the Digital Photo & Video Centre will be the only dedicated centre in North Sulawesi for all things photography and videography.

Based at Kima Bajo Resort & Spa, the Centre has been built by photographers for photographers and will be fully equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software, providing an enormous range of photo, video, editing & printing services:

Digital SLR camera and housing rentals
Compact digital camera and housing rentals
Ports, lens and strobes rentals
HD video camera and housing rentals
Photo downloading / editing / printing
Video capture / editing / disc burning
Tailored photo and video courses
Compact digital camera underwater photo courses
Digital SLR camera underwater photo courses
Buoyancy workshops
Underwater video courses
Photo and video workshops
Guest seminars
Photo competitions / Shoot-outs
Sales of photo and video equipment* with after-sales support
Sales of accessories and memory cards
Souvenir and wedding video service
e-postcards

* By pre-order only

Find out more today. Email info@eco-divers.com

Guest lecturer, Jason Heller, May 2010

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:09:24 +0600

Be sure to book your space at Kima Bajo as we prepare to host the first guest lecturer in our new digital centre. Jason is the founder of www.divephotoguide.com and a highly respected commercial and wildlife photographer based in New York City. His work is regularly used for advertising and published in scuba, travel and mainstream publications worldwide.

This is your chance to learn from someone who is the master of their skill and really good at putting that across. More information to follow in January so be ready to mark up your diary.

The Digital Centre North Sulawesi

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:47:40 +0600

Photographers! Opening in April 2010, the Digital Photo & Video Centre will be the only dedicated centre in North Sulawesi for all things photography and videography.

This comfortable facility, based at Kima Bajo Resort & Spa, is built by photographers for photographers and will be fully equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software, providing an enormous range of photo, video, editing & printing services:

Digital SLR camera and housing rentals
Compact digital camera and housing rentals
Ports, lens and strobes rentals
HD video camera and housing rentals
Photo downloading / editing / printing
Video capture / editing / disc burning
Tailored photo and video courses
Compact digital camera underwater photo courses
Digital SLR camera underwater photo courses
Buoyancy workshops
Underwater video courses
Photo and video workshops
Guest seminars
Photo competitions / Shoot-outs
Sales of photo and video equipment* with after-sales support
Sales of accessories and memory cards
Souvenir and wedding video service
e-postcards

* By pre-order only

Photo corner - Beating low visibility

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:08:15 +0600

By Mathieu Meur

Underwater conditions are not always ideal for underwater photography. This doesn't mean that you should leave your camera behind when faced with the prospects of low visibility. Some techniques can prove very efficient in such conditions.

Know the area - Being familiar with the dive site helps you understand which subjects to look out for and where to look for them.

Go slow and open your eyes - Make sure to dive at a deliberately slow pace so as not to miss any opportunities. Also, there's less chance that you'll scare your subjects this way.

Strobe placement - Angle your strobe(s) inward, aiming slightly behind your subject for macro. Move them back behind the housing and aim slightly outward for wide angle. This minimises backscatter.

Strobe placement and lens selection - Select lenses that focus close to the port to reduce the amount of water between you and the subjects.

Get close - This is oft repeated under any conditions but is vital when shooting in low visibility: get close!

Use large aperture, slow shutter speeds and high ISO - If shooting in manual mode set a large aperture. This reduces the amount of strobe power required to light up your subject, which means less backscatter. Selecting a higher ISO also achieves the same result.

Make use of the vertical water column - Vertical visibility is better than sideways visibility. Shooting up will make the water appear clearer than it actually is as more light comes through.

Use Natural light and filters - Instead of using strobe(s), take natural light or filter shots instead. No backscatter guaranteed!

PhotoShop to the rescue - Should the worst happen, it is relatively easy to remove some obvious spots of backscatter in PhotoShop using the Healing Brush Tool. The Levels or Curves tools can also help balance foreground and background in case of problems due to poor conditions.

Contact info@eco-divers.com for more information on camera tips or better still, book your holiday today and start putting them into practice!

Eco Divers knows its octopuses

Mon, 18 May 2009 13:56:44 +0600

Eagle-eyed Hilary Elder spotted an error when Emperor Divers' Red Sea centre in Nuweiba thought they had spotted a mimic octopus. Great excitement abounded and the news went far and wide in their newsletter. Where it was picked up by Hilary who pointed out that she had taken an actual photo of a mimic octopus when diving with Eco Divers a couple of years ago.

And so the oracle of Lembeh marine life was consulted...Cary Yanny. Cary confirmed that the Nuweiba octopus was not a mimic but a 'starry night' variety.

Here's Hilary's photo of the mimic octopus...

And here's the photo from Nuweiba of the, now known to be, starry night octopus

Australasia Scuba Diver Shoot Out

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:32:12 +0600

Contestants

Great contestants, great judges and great diving were the three magic ingredients that made the Australasia Scuba Diver Shoot Out at Kungkungan Bay Resort a great success.

This was the third digital shoot out to be held at Kungkungan and the quality of the pictures this year was amazing. Special mention to our three category winners, Ronny Rengkung, David Henshaw and Indra Wonowidjojo. Also a big thank you to the amazing spotting ability of the dive guides at KBR.

Portfolio winner, David Henshaw

Portrait winner, Indra Wanawidjojo

Macro Behaviour winner, Ronny Rengkung

Critter of the month: Whale Shark (Rhincodon Typus)

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:38:00 +0600

Thank you to Katy Page for letting us use her photo from the dive

"Keep your wide angle in your bag, this is the Lembeh Strait!" We really can't remember how many times we have said that to our guests. However, on 3rd March we were forced to think again. On a dive to Angels Window a group diving with guide Robbie Manialup came across a whale shark. We fondly called it a pygmy whale shark as it was still young and only reached a length of 6 meters!

This is the biggest fish in the sea and there are only a few whale species that are larger. Thought to reach up to a possible 20 meters and 34 tonnes it seems difficult to believe that they feed on microscopic plankton rarely more than 3mm in size. The combination of its immense size and characteristic checkerboard pattern makes this creature almost unmistakable and completely unforgettable.

The whale shark belongs to the order Orectolobiformes, or carpet sharks, and comprises the only member of its family, Rhincodontidae. Most families of carpet sharks are small, benthic (sea-floor) species with a limited distribution through the tropical and temperate indo-pacific waters (e.g. wobbegongs and bamboo sharks). A few species such as the whale shark, Zebra shark and two out of the three species of nurse Shark are larger and more geographically widespread. (Info from the Shark Trust)

If you have a particular critter that you would like to learn more about, email steve.coverdale@eco-divers.com and we'll look into featuring it in a future article.

FREE tuition and advice from world-renowned Bill MacDonald

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:58:02 +0600

It's not often we get something for free these day, and so the Eco Team are extremely happy to tell you that Bill MacDonald will be at Kungkungan Bay Resort for the first 3 weeks of November 2008. This is your big chance to learn from one of the most experienced underwater videographers in the world. And Bill's advice is completely free of charge.

Bill is an established environmental film producer and CEO of Bill Macdonald Productions and stock footage archive and is the producer of the popular Synthetic Sea series that chronicles the unfortunate impact of marine debris on the world ocean ecosystem.

He has a B.S in Political Science from CSULB as well as some forty years of filming and video experience including a six-year period as a member of the Cousteau Society's Calypso diving and filming team. You can learn more about Bill and his work by checking out these links – and when you've done that you will then want to click here and book your diving holiday to make sure you get some of the best free advice this side of Christmas!

Links: www.macdonaldproductions.com and www.youtube.com/007bmac

Book today! info@eco-divers.com

Give your underwater photography the WOW factor with the Ferraris

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:10:32 +0600

World-famous underwater photographers and marine life authors, Andrea & Antonella Ferrari, are holding an informal hands-on photo workshop at the newly refurbished Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) from June 13 to July 2, 2008.

Learn first hand about their unique tips on identifying and photographing the marine life of the Lembeh Strait.

The workshop is really informal and will look at the creativity and actual underwater action of capturing shots as well as in-depth chats about the subject. Share experiences and make the most of improving your underwater photography with their priceless tips and suggestions.

The Ferraris will also sign copies of their new book, A Diver's Guide to the Art of Underwater Photography - the ideal tutorial for all those diving at KBR.