Travel Diary: Quick stopover in Amed

I headed back to Alor recently and had a couple days on the way back in Bali. So I popped up to Amed to see some friends and a couple of dives just to nerd out on the little critters. Between me being a bit new at this whole underwater photography thing and the general nature of shooting underwater, the keeper rate is usually a bit lower than what I shoot on land. That being said, back to back dives on Batuniti up in Tulamben delivered in spades. I didn’t think I’d have enough to fill a blog post, but between the Mt. Agung sunsets and all the little aliens coming out to say hello under the surface, I couldn’t help but show what I found.

Keep on the look out for the Alor post as I shot quite a bit more and the cull is taking longer. It’s always the longest and trickiest part of the whole process for me. I fall in love with a series of images and realise that not all of them can make the cut. But you know, maybe I’ll post the series and you can let me know what you think in the next post which images stay and which ones get escorted back to the hard drive to keep the others company.

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Travel Diary: Amed, Indonesia

Right off the heels of my Hanoi trip for work and what has seemed like a whirlwind since the Tet break, I headed back to Amed on the northern coast of Bali for a bit of a disconnect and some diving. If you’re in the area, check out Dream Divers Bali, they’re tops. I haven’t yet taken up underwater photography - diving, for me at least, is about completely not thinking about anything but whats in front of me. I’m afraid if I take a camera underwater, it’s going to start turning into work. With the thousands of dollars that I’d likely spend on strobes, housings, ports, etc etc, I think there would be a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I need to recoup those costs. And I really don’t want diving to turn into work. It’s my zen place…. but maybe I should just let go of the idea that I need to get a return on investment….I’m not there quite yet, so no underwater photography shenanigans.

Anyway, between dives, I had my new toy, the Fuji x100v. I wandered through the small paths and streets around the dive shop snapping away like a tourist. I think I’m confident in now saying I’m happy never taking anything other than a fixed lens camera on my personal travel trips if it’s as capable as the little Fuji is. I didn’t miss my usual kit at all. The smaller camera allows me to have it on me all the time and it’s just so fun to shoot with. Normally, I’d never take the camera out in the airport, but I had some nice light and my camera was actually in my pocket, so grabbing it and taking a few shots was a breeze. Not to mention the in-camera multiple exposure feature which has me a bit excited. That said, I have zero clue what I’m doing in that whole regard, so down the rabbit hole of trying to figure it out I go. Scroll down to the last image to see the first little experiment in that whole kettle of fish. These are just some of the images from the short few days I had in one of my favourite places. For more of these types of images, head on over to IG and give it a follow!