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LAXShoutwest Gate 5, November 18, 2008Here I am, almost home. Our flight out of Tawau was delayed for 4 hours, but all we had to do was get to Kuala Lumpur and crash for the night, and catch a morning flight out. So, Tawau to Kota Kinabalu, go through security and immigration and change planes. Then on to Kuala Lumpur, have a little late dinner in the hotel at the airport, and crash. Don't order the "Big American Beef Burger" at the Pan-Pacific if you're picky. Please. 8-) So we got up, wandered around the (huge) Luala Lumpur airport to go through immigration and try to rid ourselves of the last of our ringgits (no luck - but there is a Starbucks). LOTs of shopping in this airport. If you want jewelry, chocolates, or expensive watches. And cigars... Finally, we get to the gate. As they start loading the plane, the gateman looks at my, sees my leg, and waves me into the pre-board group. Nt one to look a gift horse int he mouth, off I went. And look! An exit row seat! No-one in front of me! I can stretch out, maybe work a little without having the person in front of me lean back and whack my laptop... But, you know it's too good to be true. A crew member tells me that it is against the rules for me to sit in the exit row. Me? I say? Why? Is there a rule against one-legged men with beards sitting in an exit row? All I can get is "it is against the rules". They make me switch places with a tiny asian woman about 15 years my senior. That's far safer. Really. I'm pissed, and insulted. Very unhapy with Malasia Airlines. No longer on my recommended list, really. So, crammed in the aisle seat (did I mention that the exit row seat was a window seat?), I get whacked by the beverage cart, and the 5 kids travelling in the next seats, and all sorts of fun until we get to Taiwan, 4 1/2 hours later. In Taiwan, we all have to get off the plane, and go through security, and get back on the plane. Same plane.I try my exit row seat again, figuring a crew change, right? Well, turns out that they were "informed" about me, and made me move again. I am still not happy, 12 hours later. It's a long bloody flight. I didn't get much sleep on the flight. Now I have a short hop up to Sacramento, and then I'm hope. Hopefully I can make it through 9 or so tonight. Gotta get back on California time! Almost home... Andy | ||||||
Tawau Airport, TawauDeparture Lounge, November 18, 2008Nothing like waiting for an airplane after an afternoon of sweating. My seatmate is going to be so thrilled. But then, we've all been here, so the plane better have good ventilation! It's done. Another year in the can, finito, done, over with. Our journey started with checkout (HOW high was my bar tab?), tipping the resort staff and the divemasters, and a "light lunch". Then, many many goodbyes, hugs, "see you next year"'s with the staff. They are SUCH nice people! And 40 minutes by boat to Semporna, with a couple of stops along the way to dislodge crud that got tangled up in the boat props. Then we hopped into a more-or-less air-conditioned bus for the hour and a half ride to the airport in Tawau. The usual check-in stuff, praying that I managed to allocate the weight between my two checked bags (30.1 kilos each!), and now we wait. Michael Yap was at the airport to see us off - he's just the nicest kid. Met him last yeat - he now works at the main office. I'm hoping that somewhere along the way I'll have some wi-fi, else this won't get posted until I get home. Now we have to get to KL (Kuala Lumpur) by tonight, we crash at the airport hotel, then catch the flight to Taiwan, then the BIG flight to LAX. Crap. Just found out our flght is delayed. Gonna have to pay the airport game. More later. And I have pictures to post! Sooner! Andy 
One of the nicer squatter huts... 
The sea gypsies have a little store... there are lots of these on the island, all selling the same junk. 
A proud haberdasher! 
The shy one 
The not-so-shy ones! 
Another pretty gypsy girl has a smile for the camera 
Mugging.... 
I don't think she's so sure about this 
Waking from a nap to find a strange cameraman outside 
Many of the gypsies live on their boats. 
A friendly game of marbles 
Carin Kiphart, of Global Dive Expeditions, gets a lesson 
Deliverymen... 
This is the karaoke bar we were at the other night. It's a little quieter today! 
Much of the village is also on stilts. We didn't quite trust the walkways enough to go check it out... 
A pretty village girl 
A wary baby looks out of the house.. 
The sea gypsies live directly on the beach behind the Water Village 
And build and maintain their boats.. 
More of the squatter camp. 
Carin and Mauricio | ||||||
Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoThe Dive Centre, November 16, 2008 (late night)Hey all - ok, so it's really late in the day, but it's the same day. Below are images from the last couple of days. It's winding down fast - tomorrow is my last chance to dive, then I'll spend the afternoon in the village, and the final night blowout. Sigh. Part of me is ready to go home. The rest of me wants to stay here for a few more months.... Joe got ahold of some Filipino rum... that was the drink of choice tonight! Tomorrow the long journey home starts. Andy 
Speed Racer... 
Not sure whether I like this one, or the one from the other day. Mainly a difference on the kind of sunlight available.... 
Turtle Power! 
A blue-spotted stingray snuffling in the dirt for a meal. 
An interesting a snake eel. Wouldn't come up too far. 
Out for a stroll with mom.... 
The mail cardinal fish takes the fertilized eggs in his mouth. Periodically, he opens up, and flushes water through the eggs. That's when you snap....I spent over 4 hours in the water with these guys. Impressive? Not really. They live in the top two feet of water under the dock... 
A baby batfish (4 inches tall). Playing in his reflections. Hopefully, it's calm enough for the shot. Tricky! 
A nice filefish crused through. 
More fun with reflections 
Again? 
How about this one? 
Ah, got this guy out in the blue. That's what I was going for. |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoThe Dive Centre, November 16, 2008Well... things have been busy here. We had the final show of the trip last night, which meant I spent all day dealing with judging, and setting up the shows for the winners, etc. The contest rules were kinda funky - you could't win more than one category. That meant some wrangling in the judging chambers, but no actual blood was drawn. 8-) All this business means that I haven't had much time for pictures. I squeezed in some dives over the last couple of days, but haven't done my culling. I have decided to re-validate my copy of Photo Mechanic. I am using Lightroom for most stuff, but the importing and quick analysis of PM is better, I think. I can import, categorize, etc with Photo Mechanic, delete the crap, and then import into Lightroom from disk. I used to use Photo Mechanic a lot, when I switched to Lightroom I got away from it. Mauricio uses PM -> Photoshop, works for him. I think switching to PM for downloading cards is the way to go. More research is necessary! I'll have more pictures later today. I just spent over an hour and a half chasing cardinal fish. They live right around 18 inches deep... weird dive. My head kept boucing off the underside of the dock! More soon, Andy |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoThe Bar, November 13, 2008I spent the day working on slideshows, images and movies for various presentations and the critique for tonight - so I missed out on four dives altogether. I am sad. But hey - I'm here for a reason. Diving is just a bonus. Last night was busy, we didn't have a movie night. The night before it was "The Bank Job". Tonight it's "War". But tomorrow I dive. My ears are more or less normal at thos point, another night, and I should be good to go. Going to Sipadan in the morning, hopefuly to nail that turtle shot. And who knows what else? Sipidan is a magical place. A dive guide from the SMART resort told me she saw a manta two days ago.... And in the afternon, we are angling for one more dive of "The Four Amigos" - Mauricio, Carin, Farshid and I. Since Farshid is leaving soomer, we want to get in one last dive together. Of course, we are still all drinking in the bar every niht, bue there s something different about diving. It's strange - we will proably not see one another in the wanter - once we drop in, we'll split up, but that is SOP for the underwater photographer. But first, on to Sipadan! Bartender! another round over here! Andy |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoThe War Room, November 12, 2008I can't hear! Dammit. I have acquired some sort of ear problem. Knocked me out of diving today, I hope it gets better quick, I would hate to miss the last few days of diving. Yech. But, today started out pretty well. I had a couple of excellent dives out at Sipadan. The first one had some great batfish (also called spadefish) and jack action, with a good baraccuda encounter at the end (sorry, I know I said no more baraccuda.... but they are soooooo cool!). After our usual surface interval on the beach, it was around the corner to a new site - and turtle madness. I saw at least forty turtles on that dive. My only real goal was to get a turtle silohuette shot. I got close... almost. I guess I need to come back for some more. When my ears aren't fucked up... So, here are my images for today. Enjoy! And remember, all my images are available for sale! 
Taking a dive... 
Batfish in the sun rays... 
This one is pretty close. Diver videoing a school of jacks. 
The lead baraccuda. 
The boat startled them - this is what I was waiting for! 
This has some problems, but I like it anyway... 
More batfish. I just love the color combination. 
This is sooooooo close... can I stay another week? Happy Trails!, Andy |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoMy Room, November 10, 2008Greetings! Another shitty day in paradise, as Mom always says. The rooster went off at 4:30am today, luckily I was sound asleep and didn't hear him. No rooster throttling necessary. I made my cup of coffee with my Aeropress (very cool) - the coffee here tends towards the incredibly thick and meaty. I generally have to cut it by at least a third with hot water, and even then... I think my old roommate would have a hard time with it. So this year I brought my own - a little Peet's Major Dickenson's Blend. Yum, yum! So now I'm rarin' to go. I am set to got o Siamil this morning, depeding on the equipment situation (I am here first to make sure everyone else can go, so they want me to come back!) Siamil is a new island destination for this resort. It's a 40 minute boat ride over, so they go for two dives, with a surface interval break on the beach. Supposedly you can see the monkeys jumping through the trees... Gotta take my long lens if I get to go and try some photos on the surface! All macro destination - you won't have to sit through more turtles and baraccuda. Just nudibranchs (drink, Carol!). Last night was rather mellow. Only a couple of housing issues, and helping a participant transfer files between his memory card and a storage device. Lesson: Digital photography pretty much requires that you have your laptop with you. A pain in the ass with the weight restrictions that the airlines are tightening up, but life is much better. But once all that was settled down, it was time for a drink (or two), and one of the participants brought dome DVD's - we watched "Shoot 'Em Up". Hysterical movie - very funny over-the-top gunfghts. And I love Clive Owen. Good stuff, man... Shout out to Farshid for the movies! Even though he didn't like it much. Not quite classy enough 8-) Love 'n kisses, Andy 
Still working on this shot. But I like the clouds of bannerfish against the blue... 
Ok, a turtle shot I'm almost completely happy with. Turtle, well expsed, check. sun rays, check. composition, check. Now to get rid of that pesky diver on the right side! 
We encountered a herd of these bumphead parrotfish. They are about four feet long, and you can see the terrible overbite. They let me get pretty close on this dive - I was about 2 feet away for this shot. 
Ok, ok. Stil trying for the perfect baraccuda shot! This is kind of good. Maybe a little darker on the blue next time. 
Ths turtle is looking rather regal. They rest in the caves along the wall, at least until some pesky diver comes along and pops the flash in his face too many times. Damned paparazzi! 
Emperor of all he surveys. I don't see many scorpionfish on the walls, but obviously they are there... |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoThe Bar, November 8, 2008Welcome to the first day of Photo Week 2008! Everyone is here, and we have already had camera issues. They are being worked out by the crack staff of Joe and... well, me. Whew. Tomorrow, our merry little crew is heading for Sipadan. Joe suggested that it is best to take my shot - later in the week, a Sipdan trip may be contra-indicated. So off I go. I didn't manage to get anything on this blog yesterday, mainly cause it was a long day, and at the end of it, we sent off those of "Mauricio's Commandos" that were going home (two are staying for Photo Week - and me, of course). The sendoff somehow required the emptying of a number of bottles of wine. Not sure how that happened, but I saw the evidence with my own eyes. Don't know where it all went, though. And that's my story - you can't make me say any different. Later, Andy 
An emperor shrimp, who lives on a chocolate chip starfish 
On that same star, a little goby hides out. 
I went back to try a better shot of the velvet pipefish... how'd I do? 
Over to the right, a robust ghost pipefish hangs out. 
A baby red-toothed parrot fish 
Baby lionfish - my strobe made an interesting pattern in his eye 
A snake eel just sticks his head up out of the sand, and waits patiently.... 
A juvenile bi-color parrotfish. 
A tiny shrimp living in a anenome 
A small squadron of fire gobys 
Long nosed filefish 
A very hungry nudibranch. 
A different kin of shrimp living in an anenome. 
Whip corals can be home to multiple gobie... 
Yet another anenome living shrimp! 
The hat all the cool turtles will be wearing this year 
Nembrotha something or other... I forget. 8-). |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoWorkshop Room, November 6, 2008What a day we had! One of the workshop participants flooded her camera (luckily, this is related to Photo Week, which is related to Optiquatics, so we'll have extra equipment for her). And me? I have one flooded strobe, and two more that are acting wonky - I'm hoping that an overnight charge session fixes that. Oh - and my primary dive computer flaked out on me. Luckily I have a backup! But we had three lovely dives at Sipadan Island - the first two at Barracuda Point, and the last at Hanging Gardens. Since this is a photo class, Mauricio pointed out that geting familiar with a place helps focus (!) on our photography. Shooting the same scene lets us learn better how to handle that situation... I chased down some more sharks, and re-found a Napolean Wrasse, No barracuda taoday - they like it in the hight current, and it was pretty quiet today. The whole dive process was later than normal. The Malaysian government has established a permit system in an atempt to control the number of divers in the area. To that end, you have to have a permit to dive around Sipadan, and we didn't have sufficient permits in the morning. So the girls in the front office had to make some calls. We finally got in the water around 10. A nice hour-long dive, and then back to the Village for lunch, I actually edited some images, worked on gear and checked e-mail, skipping lunch. Then back to the island for two more dives. We took a break between dives and I went into the shallows t try some over and unders, then on to a new Sipadan dive site - Hanging Gardens. This is a gorgeous site - a big wall, with gorgeous corals in he shallows, and then it drops down sharply. Lots of caves in the wall, many of which become turtle resting places. And the trouble starts... my strobes wouldn't recycle. So I wound up doing the whole dive with ambient light, which made it an adventure. I got some batfish in the shallows, and stuck to silhouettes otherwise. The batteries are on charge right now, hopefuly that will help. But the dive, being late in the day, had some amazng light to play with, especially at the end . Mauricio and I are planning to go back out again for a 'sunset' dive next week. And so, here are some images from today. Enjoy!! Later, Andy 
Some bannerfish scooting along - just for Mom. 
On your marks... get set... 
Rather ungainly and slow in the open water - you shoud see them when they get into the caves! 
Sir Finn and his best buddy, Remora Rick, take a cruise through the neighborhood. 
This Napolean Wrasse is about 4 1/2 feet long, and eats coral for a living. Keep your hands and legs away from his mouth.... 
Sir Finn and Rick take a rest 
A boat on the shore of the Palau Sipadan 
This shot was done in available light. Doesn't sound like much unless you know how god a color filter light is. 
Silhouettes are a good fallback when your strobes die. A diver marvels at a green turtle. 
Another diver marvelling at a turtle... 
Off into the sunset... |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoThe Bar, November 5, 2008Ok, then. I am officially tired as hell. We did three dives at Sipadan Island today, and I added a night dive to that. Man - one drink, and I'm off to bed. After this uploads, of course! Let me explain Sipadan Island a little. This resort, Sipdan Water Village, is actually on Mabul island. It USED to be on Sipadan Island, along with a few other resorts. In 2000, an incident and the increasing fragility of the Greeg Turtle population prompted the Malaysian government to kick al the resorts off of Sipadan Island, and put some controls in place to limit the number of people who dive at the island. Incident? Some pirates from the Philippines came over (check the globe - it's not very far) and kidnapped a bunch of tourists. I believe some were captives in the Philippines for as muh as a year... So far, though, no pirates. The big polis boat has been here a couple of times, though. So anyway, Sipadan is now about 25 minutes away by fast boat. We get there, sign in with the government representative on the island (and try not to stare at the military and their guns), then we're off for two dives. In between we come back on shore for a snack and a surface interval, thrn back in for another dive. Then we race back to he resort for lunch, and repeat the process, but for just one dive. Yes we have to sign in both times... But here at Sipadan Island is some amazing stuff - schools of jack and barracuda, bumphead parrotfish, lots of turtles, and white-tip reef sharks. Three great dives, all at Barracuda Point, where all the abover were seen... Very exciting to be immersed in a school of barracuda, all flying around. The night dive was far more mellow - just a couple of us went with a dive guide to find the Mandarin fish. Itty bitty fish, gorgeously colored, that do their mating dance at sunset. Just barely made it in time! But they are very cool. That's it for now. My one drink is almost done, and so am I. Be good! Later, Andy 
A school of batfish greeted us as we dropped in for the first dive 
A Napolean Wrasse goes after his dinner - munching on coral! 
Yeah, they're a little far away, but ain't they cute? 
(Cue Heart tune here) Barracuda!! I tried making them look fast. 
Important turtle - multiple remoras mean this is a VIT (Very Important Turtle) 
Mandarin fish in the mating dance. Male on the left. |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoDive Shack, November 2, 2008Hey there! Well, The workshop with Mauricio is in full swing. We're having lecture in the morning, three dives after that (with a little lunch thrown in), then we do some image selection and processing, and after dinner a critique and discussion of the images. After that, it's usually to the bar (for those still moving) for e-mail, Tiger Beer, and more image talk. And then set up some equipment for the next day, back up the images, and off to bed to rest up for the next day. Man it's fun. Tomorrow is election day - do your duty! Later, Andy 
A velvet ghost pipefish - rare, according to my dive guide 
A juvenile leaf wrasse - the "horn" on his head gets smaller as he grows 
Crocodile fish are kewl 
One of the wrecks at SMART Reef 
A ball of jacks - about 20 yeards wide! 
There's always one in very crowd 
Yellow grunts 
Butterfly fish - for Mom 
Two apex predators, just hanging out. |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoDive Shack, October 31, 2008Finally some images! 
Over the Pacific... 
Borneo appears! 
The mosque in Kota Kinabalu 
Kota Kinabalu 
Along Palau Bumbum 
More houses on the shore 
Borneo appears! 
Fisherman's house 
Wha's that there on the reef... 
A pygmy seahorse - about 3/4" long. Too shy by half 
This little blenny found a nice hole 
An itty-bitty nudi |
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Sipadan Water Village - Mabul Island, BorneoDive Shack, October 31, 2008Ok, so I made it here. No much has changed - a few more new boards, a few new people... But it's good to be back! It's drizzling slightly, but I'm oing out for my first dive in an hour or so. I'm moderately adjusted to the time change, managed to sleep until 5:30am today. I met a great photographer named Stephen Wong, and his wife Takako on the way in - they are staying here as well. You can see some of his work at http://www.stephenwong.com/. They live in Hong Kong, and are here with his childhood friends - who all live in California now. A good bunch of folks - we were sharing some whiskey last night. That never hurts. Anyway, off to get things ready. Time to get some pictures up on this blog! Later, Andy |
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Taiwan Taoyuan Airport - TaiwanCoffee Bar, October 30, 2008Travelling around in strange airports, looking for power and free internet... It's fun! Heh, heh... I spotted a PC behind a drink cooler, which meant power... snaked my cord around the box, and I'm cookin' baby. And hey! Free internet! I don't think this was available the last time I came through Taipei. Just a quick note, since nothing much has happened. I got off the plane, got immediately herded through a new security checkpoint (didn't I just do this?), and now I'm in the land of duty free. Don't think I need any Hermes bags or Mont Blanc Pens, though. Some coffee, that's another matter. Ahhh... Well, I have to wait for my next plane. And let this puppy charge up. Be good. Lost In Taiwan, Andy |
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Malaysian Airlines, Flight 095Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, October 30, 2008So... I forgot how long this first leg is. We've been in the air for over 12 hours, and we're still two hours out of Taipei. The plane was almost an hour late loading (something about the Quantas flight in front of ours having problems), but I managed to get on and seated before I fell asleep. I managed to get almost 10 hours, occasionally disrupted by discomfort or the blonde two year old sitting behind me who has an amazongly high-pitched squeal. It's a family of American blondes, looks like they might be headed "home" after a visit to Disneyland. But if you live in Taiwan, how different can Disneyland be? I sat on the plan from Sacramento next to a politician. We discussed several things (starting with an article by Daniel Weintraub in the Bee that morning on the latest plans/ideas about an open primary), and determined that he was the real-life analogue of Josh Lyeman (sp?), the character from "The West Wing". Interesting man. Couldn't tell me anything about his new project, but I gather that the Weintraub column is at least a little clue. 8-) Joe picked me up at LAX, and we loaded all the nooks and crannies of my luggage with spare strobes, housings and batteries. The airlines have gotten tighter on their over-limit charges - 50lbs iside the US, but 50-70lbs is a "cheap" overweight bag internationally. So we "topped me off", and paid a minor fee, and off I go, into the wild blue (black) yonder. There's no sign of light out the windows of the plane... but we're going to be landing at down (more or less) in Taipei. We're travelling at 525 miles per hour (according to that littel display on the back o the seat in front of me) - and the sun is catching up. It really is amazing sometimes that we're not al flung off the planet at the speed it's whirling around... But that's neither here nor there. Malaysian is a nice airline, as nice as anything can be when you're sitting in a seat for a 14-hour flight. Not sure when my next internet connection will be, but this will be ready. Now I just have to remember to send out the notice to everyone about how to find this log. Have a great day! And remember - if you don't vote, you can't bitch! So get out to the polls on Tuesday (I took care of it, becoming part of the huge number of Californians doing the "vote by mail" thing). Future posts will likely not be as wordy as this one - I mean, I'm stuck on a plane for the last 12 hours, and still have two to go! How do I get myself into these things? Andy |
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The Journey Begins...Sacramento, October 29, 2008On the road again - no pictures yet, I just got to the airport. Once again, off to Sipadan Water Village for another Photo Week - which is a great time. Ya'll oughta come down! But this year, I'm a little extra excited, because I'm spending the week before Photo Week attending a workshop with Mauricio Handler, a wonderful photographer I met on my first trip to SWV. This ought to be great! Oops - better get going to line up for my plane to LAX. More later! I'm Off! Andy |
 What a Grouper! |
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