About the site

As well as the great wrecks lying out in the ship’s graveyard, diving from Melbourne also features a great set of piers. These shallow and easy shore dives showcase a wide variety of marine critters. Flinders Pier on the east side of the Mornington Peninsula is known for its weedy seadragon population, and scorpion fish, pot bellied seahorses and thousands of nudibranchs can be found between sponge-encrusted pylons all around Port Phillip Bay. While a favourite of macro photographers, the piers aren’t my usual weekend diving destination.

Rye Pier lies on the south east side of the Bay, a bit over an hour’s drive from Melbourne. It has a max depth of 5m or so, and as with all of the pier dives, their protected locations make for good dives when the prevailing southerly winds are creating waves and weather outside the Bay. Rye Pier is known for sightings of pot bellied seahorses and sting rays, easy access and a convenient fish and chip shop across the road.

About the dive

The other thing that Rye Pier is known for is the annual spider crab gathering. Every year in approximately autumn, these long-legged and beady eyed crabs come together in thousands. It’s still not clear to me if they’re mating, moulting or migrating, but it’s obviously something that can only be done with all their crabby friends. This year is both the first year I’ve been in town when the procession was on, and one of the largest gatherings seen in recent times. As such I  eagerly followed early reports from divers on Thursday and Friday before finally heading down there last Sunday.

After a morning dive out on one of the J class submarines, we brought the boat back in and tied up to Rye Pier. The clear, shallow water revealed a moving carpet of crabs that could be seen from the boat. Getting closer provided more perspective on numbers….there were thousands of them! Swimming along under the pier revealed the usual inhabitants were having a bad day, with cranky seahorses being harassed by the much larger crabs. Out on the sand the crabs were stacked up four or five high on top of each other, whereas under the pier they gained higher vantage points by climbing the pylons. Crabs outlined against red sponges against blue water besides the pylons were particularly photogenic.

About the photo

While there’s nothing technically exciting about the image up above, it’s my favourite shot for showing the sheer numbers of this phenomenon. The crabs in the foreground are only one layer thick, and looking into the distance you can see where they begin to stand on top of each other. I took this shot from a few different heights and angles. With the masses of spindly legs, lower angles made it hard to spot where one crab began and another ended. A higher angle looking straight down on the scene seemed to imply that the numbers could be a trick of the camera. But with this view, crabs as far as the eye can see become a reality.

The second shot here uses an off camera strobe to subtly increase the light behind the pylon. I love the way the crabs are piled up against the bottom, where a few have seemingly escaped the crush by climbing. And adding a diver for scale and sense (thanks Jono!) gives great context.

About the site

As you can see from the photo above and the one below, both of these shots were taken within close vicinity of Lissenung Island. Lissenung is located between the Bismark Sea and South Pacific Ocean, in Papua New Guinea. I was there in April for a week of diving after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011.

About the dive

The photo up top was taken towards the end of the week. After two morning boat dives out on the deep walls that drop into the Bismarck Sea, I spent a cruisy afternoon diving on the house reef. With poor visibility out deeper, the shallow reef flats had clearer water. I was also tempted into the sea by the very still afternoon with glassy flat seas.

After spending half an hour photographing fish reflected in the mirror-like surface above, I surfaced and floated in towards the shore. Finding a small bare sandy patch (and after checking carefully for hidden life) I had a spot to kneel to take this shot.

About the photo

Half and half photos can be more accessible to the non-diving section of the population. They give context to the underwater world and show the wider environment. They also require a few tricks. Left to its own devices, the 14mm lens on my camera will generally choose the closest focus point. With half of the dome port out of the water, it can focus on the water line across the dome, leaving everything else in the picture fuzzy.

I’ve previously talked about half and half photos in a cave environment. With the waterline in complete darkness the camera is forced to choose another focus point. There are no breezes or waves to ruffle the water’s surface, solving a second dilemma. In the temperate seas of Victoria glassy still surfaces are rare, and I intended to take advantage of the ones in PNG.

The point I had ended up at was serendipitously at a perfect distance from the beach to frame the whole island. I began by setting my focus on the underwater coral landscape, and increasing the f stop to increase the depth of focus as much as possible. That done, I dipped the dome port underwater and raised it to create a thin film of water on the top half of the dome. Once the film begins to break up you get droplets, so a dip between each shot is essential.

I’ve talked before about taking journalistic shots on working dives. I think surface shots like these two are great for setting the scene and telling the story of the trip. When the above water landscape is as picturesque as the underwater environment, grabbing a few shots that include dry land is not hard at all.

About the site

As I talked about two weeks ago, Unnamed Cave is located down on the Roe Plains. Freshly discovered last October by Paul Hosie of CEGWA, a number of trips have now seen over 2kms of line laid into virgin passage. Over Easter this year I was lucky enough to join a group heading out there.

About the dive

While I was determined to take both photos and video footage in the newly discovered tunnels, I was also quite keen to find a little bit of new tunnel of my own and add to the rapidly developing map. After an orientation dive in the cave to get my bearings, Ken and I planned a stage dive to take some video. Unfortunately our plans were foiled by rock movement in the entrance restriction. With the zero vis created by the first day of diving not showing any signs of clearing out, it was very hard to tell where the entrance was.

With that in mind, we instead moved the diving to Olwolgin Cave while Unnamed Cave settled out. While I was disappointed not to be in the new stuff, I was pretty happy with the pictures of the spectacular hanging roots reflected in the surface of the area known as Babylon Lake.

48 hours later, it was time to get back into it. For my planned exploration dive I left the camera on the surface for the second time this year, instead manouvring my stage through the series of silty restrictions. After a quick stop to arrange my gear for swimming rather than squeezing, I headed along the main line. I was aiming for the intersection where the A and B lines diverge, approximately 400m into the cave. On the orientation dive I had reached this in about 30 minutes, but without the camera I expected to get there much faster.

I didn’t expect to get there as fast as I did, and I ended up admiring the scenery down A line a little further (nice tunnel!) before coming back to my intended destination. From there I tied in Ken’s massive reel of freshly knotted line and reeled out in the opposite direction from the B line. After travelling up a breakdown pile and down the other side, I found myself at the deepest level in the cave so far – 14m. Smaller and whiter than the main tunnel, with pointy scalloping poking down into the passage, the lower tunnel is very pretty.

Winding my way between the limestone shapes I moved left and right, trying to find a way back up to the main formation level at 10m. After passing an easy restriction and swimming through another length of tunnel, I tied off at the bottom of another breakdown pile. Exhaling and heading up, excitement building, I found myself in a huge space, blackness heading off in each direction. One more tie-off and I reeled out into space….and ran straight into the main line. That was more than enough excitement and surprise for one dive, and I turned and surveyed my way home.

About the photo

As others have said before me, exploration dives don’t lend themselves to photography, especially not when it’s the photographer who’s trying to explore. With a reel and a survey slate, I didn’t have enough hands for self-portraits of my own heroics. This photo was taken on the following day, with Ken reeling out from the main line and doing a very good line in looking heroic. Some of the other photos from our final dive also came out beautifully – stay tuned for more!

About the site

Lissenung Island is a tiny sandy island in New Ireland, PNG. Located between the Bismarck Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, the waters here see incredible biodiversity. With coastal mangroves nurturing juvenile fish and corals walls down off the continental shelf all within a stone’s throw of each other, the marine life thrives.

I visited Lissenung Island Resort in April 2012 for my prize trip after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. Over 6 diving days there were clouds of fish, huge barracuda, dolphins surfing the bow wave on glassy seas and some great photographic dives on WWII plane wrecks. As the boat winds between sandy tropical islands over 30 degrees water, paradise is close.

About the dive

Part of the joy of diving in tropical PNG is the sheer abundance of life. The coral reefs are swarming with fish and other critters, although not all are eager to make your acquaintance. By moving slowly and calmly it’s possible to get close enough to some species and individuals to get great shots. Other animals won’t have a bar of it and flee at the first sign of bubbles.

These two shots were taken on the house reef surrounding the island. After delayed and cancelled planes I finally arrived in tropical paradise slightly later than planned. Instead of heading straight out on the morning dives I opted for a nap and a chance to set up the camera with a clear head. In the humid afternoon sunshine, a dip on the house reef was a great way to check everything was working properly.

About the photo

About half way through the dive a gentle current started, bringing in fresh cool water over the reef flat. The small school of large batfish were circling in behind me, curious but not too close. Just as I was about to turn for home and go with the flow, I noticed this little rock octopus halfway in and halfway out of a rocky crevice. I dropped in behind another bommie to stay out of the current and slowed my breathing. After considering the situation, and flashing his colours at me, the octopus emerged fully from his hole. Having gained a better vantage spot on top of this rock, he stretched up to full extension to get a better look at me.

I took a series of 5 pictures of him, and each time the strobes went off he would flinch and quickly duck down. When nothing further eventuated he would stretch up again, all the time eyeballing me with his head moving from side to side. All through this encounter his skin colours would flash stroboscopically from red to white in spots and stripes. As well as the colour, rock octopus can change the texture of their skin.

I gently moved in closer until I was lined up for this shot, with the tropical blue surface in the background. After a quick glance at his reflection in the dome port, the octopus decided enough was enough and slid back down into his crevice. It was a great start to the trip.

About the site

Olwolgin Cave is located on the Roe Plains, south of the escarpment that curves across above the Great Australian Bight. Unlike the Nullarbor Caves above the escarpment, where the water table averages 100m below the desert, on the Roe Plains the water table is only 10m under your feet. This makes for much easier access. On the other hand, there aren’t the spectacular dolines that punctuate the Nullarbor and act as great big signposts of cave formation.

Olwolgin Cave is shallow, up to 14m deep, has small, twisting passages in multilevel formation and a greenish tint to the water. From my dives here in 2010 I’d admired the massive hanging root formations. As I mentioned, I didn’t get a chance to do a dedicated photo dive to the hanging roots, but only snapped some opportunistic shots on the way through. This trip, that was about to change…

About the dive

While the 2012 expedition was focussed on pushing new passages and exploring Unnamed Cave, after we had completed a number of dives it became apparent that the restriction had moved. Whereas previously it had been relatively easy to navigate by following the rope in zero vis, it now required a 90 degree turn in two dimensions to pass through. After a little bit of gardening, we decided to leave it to settle out as required, and went for a dive in Olwolgin Cave instead.

This was a dual purpose exercise, with the first half of the dive being dedicated to video and the second half stills. The shallow depths involved gave us a two hour dive time on a set of twins and no deco to complete. After videoing the roots and the passage beyond I switched to stills. These shots were captured on our way home.

About the photo

This area of Olwolgin is known as Babylon Lake for its hanging gardens. The area above is enclosed by the cave but above the water table. Unfortunately it’s not a breathable air mix, with decomposing organic matter creating a nasty concoction. As the air chamber is completely enclosed there are no surface breezes above and the surface is glassy still. From underneath the still surface creates beautiful reflections. Photography here is about floating rather than swimming, trying not to disturb the water towards the roots or create too many ripples on the surface.

The area behind the roots contains a lower roof and the entrance to the passage we had just returned from. You can see the lights of my dive buddies, Ken and Grant, through the root mat formations. At the top of the picture, the very slight rippling of the surface has duplicated the pinpoints of light three times. In the second photo Ken has appeared around the side, trying to work out if I’m finishing taking shots yet. While the first shot is my favourite, the diver in the second provides scale and context for the whole strange scene.

My posting schedule of a weekly article hasn’t quite been able to keep up with the 50 photo dives I’ve done so far this year, and there are some great shots lined up that I look forward to sharing with you over the coming months. If you’re looking for an easy way to keep up with the site, you can subscribe to the email list to receive these articles in your inbox. Alternatively, you can use RSS to subscribe and get the articles in your preferred RSS Reader. New photos and articles will continue to go up on Monday morning, Australian time.

Here’s to another year of underwater fun – dive safe!

About the site

Unnamed Cave lies under the Roe Plain in the West Australian desert. Unlike the caves on the Nullarbor Plain above the escarpment in the same area, the Roe Plains caves have the distinct characteristics you can see in the photo above – tinted green water, long shallow tunnels with tempting leads off each side and extreme scalloping of the limestone walls.

Unnamed Cave was discovered last October by Paul Hosie of CEGWA, and the initial few days of exploration were carried out by Brian Kakuk, Ken Smith, Richard Harris and Grant Pearce. Paul did the first push through a particularly nasty restriction and after 90m or so, the cave opens up to the very large passage you can see above.

Since the discovery, the divers involved have made short trips out to the cave to push and explore the area. For this longer expedition over Easter, we were hoping to dive all the large, available tunnels and complete the obvious exploration. As I mentioned 3 weeks ago I was lucky enough to join the group, and while I was hoping to put some line in, my main objective was to capture both photos and videos of the new cave.

About the dive

Given the nature of the entrance  restriction, the first dive of the trip was a familiarisation dive to check out the cave. Out of the group, Chris Edwards and I hadn’t dived here before. We were sent in first to get a look at the entrance while the water was still clear, joined by Al Polini filming on a Contour camera. After our dive the entrance restriction turned to zero vis to the point where the light from your primary torch isn’t visible as you feel your way along the line. Before the trip I had some concerns about my ability to get the camera safely through the rocky maze. A slow and steady pace along the thick rope now laid through the squeezy stuff saw me out the other side without too much difficulty.

The main objective for this dive was to travel through the restriction and out again, in preparation for exploration dives the following day. I was keen to see how the camera would go, and reacquaint myself with taking photos in the Roe Plains halocline. Once through into the main passage we swam about 300m down the line to a small air pocket. This small area was fringed by hanging roots from the desert trees above, and a good destination for photography.

About the shot

The photo above was taken as we swam home. It’s relatively close to the entrance where the tunnel is taller than it is wide, and the walls are spectacular. For photography, my thoughts at this point were mostly around how large the cave is. The tannin in the water that provides the greenish tint also sucks light in, and throwing strobe lighting from one wall to the other to reveal the whole tunnel was causing me difficulties. Unlike the smaller passages in the other Roe Plains caves, the large spaces here really require multiple models with multiple strobes.

The second shot is the roots that were the destination for this dive. Much finer and more spiderwebby than those I’d previously seen in Olwolgin Cave, I took this shot by floating on the surface of the air pocket. With one hand on the roof above I was able to control my movement and protect these delicate formations, with Chris holding a strobe below to provide scale and context.

Given the difficulties of the area, I was pretty happy with the shots from this dive. You can check out a selection of my other shots now up in the gallery here. Next up was the real challenge, exploration photography. Stay tuned!

About the site

Over the Labour Day long weekend in March, I joined students and instructors for a dive of their rEvo rebreather course. After the initial training dives in Goulden’s Sinkhole, the rEvo courses had moved on to the much more photogenic Kilsby’s Sinkhole where these shots were taken. Following the successful morning dive for both student buddy pairs and their instructors, I jumped in with afternoon sunlight streaming down. By this time of year we’ve progressed from summer into autumn, and it takes longer for the beams of sunlight to hit the bottom of the sinkhole in the morning. The stairs cut through the high rock walls allows spectacular beams to hit the water later in the day and later through the year.

About the dive

For this dive we had Marc Crane running a course with two students, and Rubens Monaco running his first course as an instructor trainee. Also in the water to assess him as instructor trainee was Paul Raymaekers, designer and creator of the rEvo. Paul was kind enough to juggle two off camera strobes and spend some dive time as a lighting assistant to help me get some great shots of the training in progress.

With almost every diver on the course choosing an all black drysuit, lighting these ninja divers becomes very tricky. The large size of Kilsby’s means many shots are divers against a dark or black background, and black divers disappear into it. On the other hand, not having to time the bubbles coming out of my models and their impact on photo composition gave me more opportunities to frame each shot. This was especially true for images with multiple divers in the water.

About the photo

With seven rEvos in the water, I was hoping to grab some great marketing shots of both rEvos in the water, and rEvo training in action. As this was dive training, these photos show simulated failures under instruction, not actual failures in the wild. The first photo here is from the end of the dive, with the two students doing decompression on their open circuit bail out.

The loops can be seen floating above their heads, with their instructor watching on through filtered sunlight. I especially like the lines in the this shot, and the angle also gives a good view of the yellow rEvo covers. The rock walls and arch above the water can be seen through the surface, and the spacing gives nice separation between each diver.

The second shot here is a simple simulated failure from the instructor’s air gun. As well as being a shot of training in action, it shows the difficulties of lighting black suits underwater – it’s very hard to spot the arms and legs here!