[Paul_Ward]

Recently got back from the Red Sea - Marsa Alam in Egypt after a fantastic diving holiday. No thoughts of anything else, just eat, sleep, dive, eat, sleep, dive etc. Did 2 or 3 dives a day, it was nice to just plug into something and not have to think or plan anything.

The camera is a pretty basic digital in an housing , but I'm already planning an upgrade.

The dive boat on the way out to dive sites in the morning - another dive boat through the window.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/boat-4.jpg

This was the turn-around point of one dive, a limitation of the camera is the flash and so most images are very blue - underwater, your brain makes a lot of colour compensations. Theis pinnacle of coral was surrounded by bright orange fish called Anthias, which you can make out, but no the colours.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/divers-12.jpg

My youngest son, Niall (14) on our first dive together after he'd passed his PADI open water diver course on this holiday. I was really proud of him, thought he might be floundering about and up and down like a yo-yo, but he's really together and controlled in the water.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/Niall-1.jpg

One of my new favourite animals, saw a few of these on the trip and they are just so cool, this ones going for a breath at the surface.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/turtle-6.jpg

Good looking guy who posed obligingly.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/turtle-8.jpg

Some experienced divers with us who had dived the Red Sea for about 20 years said this was the biggest (and therefore oldest) turtle they had ever seen, about 5-6 feet long from nose to end of shell. He was totally unfazed with the divers around and kept on chmping at the sea grass.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/turtle-13.jpg

This is just a youngster asleep on the bottom! The two fish are called Remoras, they attach to all sorts of large sea creatures and hitch a ride, normally they attach to the underside as the suckers are on the top of their heads, so these are upside down. Sometimes you'd see them swimming free if they'd lost their turtle - signs that something big was somewhere to be seen. nearby. One guy with us dived in t-shirt (no wetsuit) told a tale about how he didn't ued to have a t-shirt until on one dive another guy he was with without a t-shirt got badly bitten on the nipple by a Remora (all the other divers heard him yell under water!)- it probably thought it was some kind of parasite, cleaning them off is a job they fulfill for whatever they hitch a ride with.

http://www.angliangardener.co.uk/z/turtle-20.jpg

[loxly]

Those are AWESOME!!!!! Have you tried doing some color correction in Paint Shop pro of Photoshop? I love PSP and it's One Step Photo Fix macro, it cleans up lots of color shift issues.

Now I want to learn to dive.... wow.

[Michael Nunez]

WOW! Great pics.

[Rhia7]

Awesome pics :thumbup2:

That must have been an experience of a lifetime!

[Rexanne]

Very cool pics Paul. Thanks for sharing! I love turtles - they're really amazing animals.

I so want to dive one of these days! It's got to be just great to experience what's living in the ocean.

[Jorge - JRami]

Those are great pics, even blue looks good.

Is that what the size of the turtle we have now in our small tank will look like few years from now? Gotta, start learning how to dive :yellowlau

[Eric Ewe]

those are amazing pics.

I know that there are casing for that but don't u need some extra flash or something? what camera was it?

I need to finish up my scuba cert. Got all the paperwork done but no open sea dive :( (was broke when I was in college and can't afford the open dive)

[Carolyn - ShareASale]

Those are so cool, and those sucker fish thing are neat. I love how you can see them hanging in the shot you have of the turtle going up for air. Lovely symbiosis.

[Paul_Ward]

I know that there are casing for that but don't u need some extra flash or something? what camera was it?

I need to finish up my scuba cert. Got all the paperwork done but no open sea dive :( (was broke when I was in college and can't afford the open dive)

Those pictures were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5600 and housing - no extra flash other than the built-in - though all those pics are with available light. I got the camera as a trial to see if it was worth me making greater investment - underwater photography can get expensive!

I already have a Fuji f810 - which I reckon is as close to a digital Leica rangefinder as you can get - so the next step is to get a housing and external flash, the flash will probably cost about twice what the housing and camera were.

Get your dive cert when you can afford it Eric. I learned to dive 20 years ago. Did it intensively for two years and then virtually nothing until two years ago when I remembered how much I love it - and now I can afford to go exotic places to do it too!

Thanks for your kind comments everyone - yes it is just as fantastic as it seems. I always think there are two aspects to diving - the just being underwater bit, moving around in 3-dimensions weightlessly - as close to flying in a serene manner that you get. Then there's the "what there is to see" aspect - which is a case of "you thought this was good? - well hey it just got THIS much better!"

[MINDsprinter]

Quite amazing pictures! Maybe I should take up diving. My uncle used to dive a lot and I remember his amazing underwater pictures from childhood. What an amazing world down there...

[jonlevine]

Those pictures are AWESOME Paul! I've always thought about getting into underwater photography seeing that I live in Fort Lauderdale, but have never taken the plunge (pun intended). Seeing these might push me over the edge.

Well done!

[MichaelColey]

For anyone interested in filtering the colors to adjust for the bue/green color in underwater photos, here's a cool Photoshop tutorial I found:

http://www.dagostino.ca/underwatertips.htm

I'm going to be taking some underwater photos soon.

[Delko]

Very nice photos! :violin: