Robert’s Ramblings

This beautiful nudibranch, Chromodoris elisabethina, or possibly , Chromodoris annae, was one of several different species we found at Pixie Pinnacle during our Minke trip.

The distinctive broken black stripe down the back is usually associated with … elisabethina. See my previous entry for Chromodoris annae which clearly has no black markings. Please let me know your thoughts on the identification.

Pixie Pinnacle is an amazing site near Ribbon Reef #10. The pinnacle itself presents an amazing array of life and will often be the most attractive part of the dive. It is worthwhile though exploring the scree and rubble at the pinnacle’s first base where we found a diverse world of small critters including Nudibranchs and Mantis Shrimps.

This little guy was down in the scree and rubble at 20m and reminded me of PNG “Muck Diving”.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/90s at f/4.8 ISO200 Inon UCL165AD Macro Lens and D2000 Strobe

We have just returned from an absolutely wonderful trip to the Ribbon Reefs on the Great Barrier Reef. Three days of diving with Minke whales, reef fish, pelagics, sea turtles and even the odd diver have left us longing for the warm seas again now that we are back in Adelaide.

This one particular Minke swam straight towards me on several occasions, each time coming a little closer before bearing away. It was a magical experience, and at times I felt I almost wasted it being behind a camera!

Minke whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, visit the Ribbon Reefs every year during June and early July on their yearly migration. They are beautiful, inquisitive animals and actually seek out encounters with snorkellers and divers alike.

We dived from Mike Ball’s Spoilsport and were impressed with their Minke education program as well as their adherence to a strict protocol used for Minke encounters.

For more information about Minke whales please visit http://www.minkewhaleproject.org/

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/90s at f/4.0 ISO200 Lens UWL100-28AD

I can’t believe it has been nearly a month since my last post! This last weekend we were in Edithburgh again with a group of nine Open Water students. Even with 11 degrees, wetsuits and less than 2m visibility, they were a fantastic and enthusiastic group. Well done!

Despite the teaching, the cold and poor visibility, we still managed a few “fun” dives and captured some lovely images. The photo for this post is a very awesomely cute Southern Dumpling Squid, Euprymna tasmanicas.

The amazing thing about the Southern Dumpling squid is that it produces light from an organ in its gill cavity. This organ contains bacteria that glow in the dark, and the dumpling squid uses this light to hide its silhouette from below by exactly matching the light from above. Very impressive camouflage technology!

On Sunday afternoon, my old mate David Bryant from Seapics http://www.seapics.com.au/ joined us for a dusk dive after having driven non-stop from Melbourne that morning.

David and some of his friends have come over to dive with the Whyalla cuttlefish, so it was a great chance to catch up and dive together again after some 12 or more years.

Until the next post, take care out there, keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/45s at f/8 ISO200 Lens UCL165AD Macro, Inon D2000 Strobe

Night dives under Edithburgh jetty mean seahorses. Lots and lots of them! Almost all of them will be the Short-Head Seahorse, Hippocampus breviceps. No matter how patient I was, this little one would not look at me, so this is the best of a batch where turning away means ‘you can’t see me’.

Two wonderful days of diving here have left me with quite a collection of new photos, so stay tuned for more.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/90s at f/4.8 ISO100 Lens UWL100-28AD, Inon D2000 Strobe

This little guy from tonight’s night dive was a real treat to play with. I believe it is Rhynchocinetes australis but it could also be Rhynchocinetes kuiteri, so please drop me a note if you know for sure. For other underwater adventurers, calling it a shrimp will do nicely. 🙂

The water is getting colder, but that simply means fewer people in the water and less silt in front of the lens. As much as I love taking people diving, there is nothing like having a little bit of space when wielding a camera.

A night dive is always a great way to prove to all the ‘sensible’ onlookers that the world is full of people doing crazy things. So, who’d actually want to be an onlooker on a beautiful calm moonlit Edithburgh night? Yes I agree too, the world is full of people doing crazy things! 😉

Until the next post, take care out there, keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/60s at f/8 ISO100 Lens UWL100-28AD, Inon D2000 Strobe

Every once in a while someone very special comes along who reminds us how wonderful our world is and how dreams really do come true when you desire and believe. Little 13-year-old Rachael from California is someone who came into my world and did just that.

When she was 12, Rachael first met a Leafy Seadragon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A couple of months later they were gone and that day Rachael made a decision to learn to dive so she could see them for herself where they live here in Southern Australia. Rachael had already overcome quite a few obstacles in her life and she took on this new adventure with 100% conviction.

In January, Rachael certified as a Junior Open Water Diver. Last week, Jennifer and I took her for her long-awaited dive with the “Dragons”. It was a wonderful experience getting to meet Rachael and her mum Susie. The weather stayed calm and the visibility was not too bad at around 3-4m. In all Rachael saw between four and five Dragons on her epic dive – but nothing will ever top the look in Rachael’s eyes when that very first Leafy Seadragon came into view.

Until the next post, take care out there, keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) and remember that dreams REALLY DO come true …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/90s at f/2.8 ISO100 Lens UWL100-28AD, Inon D2000 Strobe and Natural Light

This week’s photo is relic from the archives, my very first photograph of a Leafy Seadragon, Phycodurus eques.

I was just starting out with digital underwater photography and keen to hone my skills using a 3.2 megapixel auto snapshot camera I paid $200 for. I used this little camera solidly for 18 months taking thousands of photographs. In that time I learned so much about that little camera and how to squeeze every last ounce of performance from it.

I still use this camera from time to time, especially when snorkelling. Well actually it’s not the same camera as the original one met an untimely demise off the coast of Kangaroo Island but that’s a story for another time!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath Olympus C350 1/100s at f/14 ISO400 Internal Flash

Ok, nothing to do with diving but something to make your life more enjoyable all the same.

Don’t you just detest the way this pesky little message keeps re-appearing every 10 minutes after you do a Microsoft Update! Has it every been the cause of accidentally trashing all your open work? Here’s how to change it to remind you once per day so you can keep working and keep your sanity.

Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations (if you need more detail than this you probably should not attempt it)

You can configure how often it will nag you, or completely disable it. Now for the bad news… This does not work for Windows XP Home Edition and you will need to restart your computer ( or restart the Automatic Update Service for the techies ) for the new setting to take effect.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep updating your computer ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Well it seems that unless you can eat it no one bothers to give anything a common name so Ceratosoma amoena will have to do.

This shot is a classic example of having the wrong gear and making the best of it. All set up for wide angle, I came across this wonderful little guy no more that 15mm long. Removing the wide lens did not help as I simply could not get close enough.

Ok, time to compromise. Super-macro mode on the C5060 shuts down the flash system but at least allows me to get close enough. So now I am close enough but it is 20m down with no source of light! Using my largest aperture and the slowest shutter speed I could manage resulted in this ‘not too bad’ shot. Just imagine what the colours must have really been like. Oh, well… next time 🙂

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/8s at f/3.5 ISO100 Lens Internal Super-Macro Natural Light

This Blue Devil, Paraplesiops meleagris seems quite at home here in the silty wreckage of the S.S. Clan Ranald. One of our most beautiful (if not one of our grumpiest looking) local inhabitants, the Blue Devil finds itself at home in caves, under deep ledges and of course in conveniently located shipwrecks.

It was one of those dives where the visibility was not really good enough for those classic panoramic wreck shots but I still wanted to capture the feel of the wreck. Photos inside nooks and crannies don’t usually work out that well but this time I got lucky. Placing my camera down into a hole and around the corner I took this shot completely blind. I believe ‘The Force’ was strong in me that dive! 😉

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that’s what you do! ) …Robert 🙂

Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/30s at f/8.0 ISO100 Lens UWL100-28AD Inon D2000 Strobe