Today I’ll be doing what I came here for: diving! Another early rise and with the minivan from my hotel to…

…Chalong Pier, where nothing much has changed, though it does seem a little more organised than I remember

On the boat, good to be on the water again

Big Buddha high up on the mountain in the background

And we’ve made it to Racha Yai (or Racha Noi) where we’ll be making our first dive

So this is the first time I am using an underwater photo camera (previously it has always been a GoPro video camera) and the first time I’m using an external strobe, the Inon S-220

I will be going on a liveaboard to the Similan Islands in a few days so I want to have a few days of diving beforehand to learn about the best settings, there’s clearly still a lot to learn as so far the photos have rather dull/brown colours

Things like what flash power to use, where to aim it, max distance to work at, in combination with what ISO, aperture and shutter speed on the camera, it all has to be taken into account

Meanwhile the dive just continues, not much time for stopping

Some lobster (crayfish? what’s the difference?) waving it’s ‘tentacles’ (what’s the word?) at me

Some soft coral, difficult to get some colour in the photo, I don’t think the flash is doing much

Some hard coral

I never know the names of all the fishes, their descriptive name that is (like Pterophyllum), but their real names are Bob and Hank

Near the end of the first dive, surfacing at the boat

The boat

Second dive, I’ve made some changes to the settings, see what difference that makes. This is a sea cucumber, still not much effect from the flash light

That’s a little better, these are two Butterfly Fish

Ok, the flash is definitely working, it nicely lights up the foreground

Yeah, no idea what these are

A yellow fish

Some coral that looks like hands reaching out

A cute Puffer Fish (Tetraodontidae)

These cubes were tossed in the water years ago to encourage coral growth on them, not that much happening I’m afraid

A Starfish (or Sea Star)

Little fishes hiding between the coral

Another Puffer Fish

You can clearly see the light/colour falloff

Always fun, swimming through these cubes (and trying not to bump the tank into it)

There’s also this small wreck here

Also nice for a swim through

Visibility has been better, this acutally reminds me of a great television series I watched as a kid : “Duel in de Diepte”

Not much star about it but I think it’s still a Starfish

Hard coral, soft coral, a fish and even some colour

Some pink coral, at least I’m getting better at capturing the underwater colours