Workshop 2, Days 3 and 4

More busy and long days here at Lembeh Resort! Perhaps more importantly, the participants are capturing some amazing macro imagery.

Alex, photo-pro Fred, Critters@Lembeh Manager Gitti and I have been diving, photographing, editing and sharing images, ideas and techniques. The evening image review sessions are showing a really stunning body of work.

Lembeh is still very critter rich, with plentiful subjects of all types on the reefs and muck sites. In addition, Lembeh Resort’s guides are an invaluable resource, locating hard to find critters and assisting the participants by holding snoots and ensuring that the subjects are suitable for the focal lengths of the lenses being used.

Each morning, Alex has given a presentation. On Thursday, he provided some specific guidance on subjects and some ideas on how best to photograph them and today, he started outlining lighting techniques, including cross-strobes, inward lighting, and backlighting.

Each day, after Alex’s talks we all boarded the boats and headed out to go diving. Today our boat dived Critter Hunt and Jahir 1.

Our guides Abner and Sandro managed to find a large number of cool critters. Other species found and photographed included ornate ghost pipefish, hairy frogfish, coconut octopus, common seahorse, many nudibranch species, shrimps of all varieties and many other fascinating subjects.

After the 2 dives, we returned to Lembeh Resort for lunch and card/battery changes. Many people also opt to swap lenses at the point too. By varying focal lengths, a variety of images types is possible, making for a varied portfolio.

An afternoon dive followed, with our boat visiting a site called Are Bajo 3. This site has been very reliable, producing great subjects throughout both workshops so far. This afternoon, it provided a plethora of subjects for the workshop participants to practice on.

The boats have been going out every evening for a night dive too. The “night shift” on Lembeh’s sites is fascinating with a whole new bunch of critters emerging after dark.

After the night dive, a quick shower and then dinner!

Image reviews followed, which are incredibly helpful as they provide personalized technique pointers both for shooting and post-processing. All the images were stunning, and it is amazing to see how far the photographer’s skills have developed. Eating, drinking and (occasionally) sleeping underwater photography with a group of like-minded individuals really pays incredible dividends.

Stand by for another installment tomorrow.

1. Day 1.
2. Day 2.
3. Day 3.
4. Days 4, 5, 6.
5. Day 7.
6. Workshop 2-Day 1.
7. Workshop 2-Day 2.
8. Workshop 2-Day 3 and 4.