Saturday morning we made the arduous twenty minute journey out to Planet Rock  in Astrolabe Bay.  I shouldn’t moan about the travel time. Most of our dives are within ten minutes of my house.

On the Southwest corner at about 23 metres is a large Bulb Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor).   I say that with some confidence, but this one is highly unusual. Have a look: (the diver is Tracey)

I have only seen this bright red fluorescent pigmentation in a Bulb Anemone in one other location. That was out at Crown Island.  To say that it is spectacular would be a gross understatement. I’ve been watching this anemone for nearly fifteen years. It’s hard to believe that it has remained healthy for so long.

It’s also hard to believe that I have not fiddled with the colours in these shots. I always strive to reproduce colours that are as I saw them. I prefer the natural look as opposed to the garish oversaturated colours that are seen in many underwater shots. In this case, however, I actually had to tone down the red a bit, since it looked completely fake. Here’s another shot showing a couple of Spinecheek Anemonefish (Premnas biaculeatus):

There are many beautiful little reef scenes at Planet Rock. Here’s a typical fish playground:I botched the job of smoothing out all the little specks floating in the water. If you look carefully (click to enlarge), you will see a faint discolouration around the fish. I should do it over again, but it’s Sunday, and Tracey is leaving us, so I need to go up to Blueblood for the party. Speaking of Tracey, here she is playing with a little Porcelain Crab in an anemone:This shot of a Papuan Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis papuensis)  is not very good. I bumped my camera housing into a piece of coral and got a few drops of water inside. This is the primary horror of underwater photographers. Fortunately, it was only a small amount and none got onto the camera. However, the little window on the front of the housing was fogging up, so the shot is not very clear. I include it only because this is the only shot that I have of a juvenile of this species. Technically it’s not a juvenile, but it is not full grown either. Its beard is only beginning to grow:I’ve yakked enough now. I’ll show you some pretty skies that we saw on the way back:We made a circle around the end of the island chain and came back from the North. This is looking East at the North end of Kranket Island. You can see the Cumulonimbus clouds building up over the Finesterre Mountains  in the afternoon heat.

This shot is looking back towards Kar Kar Island:

Come to Madang someday. We’ll show you all of this.

Related posts:

1. First Underwater Images from the Canon G-10 Reviewing the performance of the Canon G10 camera in its WP-DC28 factory housing on a dive at the Eel Garden near Madang, Papua New Guinea....
2. Another Perfect Saturday – The Canon G10 Comes Through A perfect party at the perfect place and a camera that can't take a bad picture. What more can a guy ask for? More fun on Faded Glory...
3. What Colour IS IT? I love the colours that I see underwater. It is a different world. But it is not all bright garishness down there. Like all underwater photographers, I strive to capture colours that mesmerise the viewer while conveying an approximation of what I saw with my eyes. While I want to...
4. The Blueblood Mob Bids Farewell To Tracey A small mob of dedicated enthusiasts showed up at Blueblood on Sunday to bid farewell to Tracey Lee. Though she is notoriously camera-shy, I managed to get this “Fine Wine” shot of her:The label reads “Winery of the Year.”  Here is Tracey Lee and Carol Dover at Planet Rock:Another day,...
5. Still Hungry? Have Some More Fish Are you still hungry? Have some more fish. I'm still getting caught up on posts and I have about forty new fish shots to show you. Not all today, though....
6. Chasing the Fish – Two Lucky Shots Rich Jones emailed to me a photo that he took at Planet Rock. I don’t often get a chance to see myself underwater. I’m madly chasing a school of barracuda with my camera stuck out in front snapping away. Here it is:   I was thinking about that day and...
7. The Papuan Scorpionfish – Junior and Senior More wholesome underwater goodness from the sweet new Canon G11. What a gas! Everybody should have one....

Tags: astrolabe bay, Bulb Anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor, papuan scorpionfish, planet rock, scorpaenopsis papuensis

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 11:37 and is filed under Under the Sea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.