Our latest Live-Board cruise from Sumbawa Island to Flores, via the Komodo National Park was a great buzz.
We managed to dive on some sites that are often inaccessible due to currents. One of these was GPS Point offshore from Batanta Island, this is a world-class dive with sharks, schooling fish by the hundred, lobsters and clear water. The white tip reef sharks were checking us out really close!

Then there was Makassar Reef with Manta Rays being cleaned right beside us.
One big black manta swam directly over each of us in turn, almost touching our heads with its wing tips
(see video below).

Not forgetting the fish action at Crystal Rock, one of the liveliest dives imaginable; there were snappers, surgeonfish, sweetlips, sharks, soldierfish and scorpionfish and these were just the ones beginning with 'S' !!

We have added some new products to our Reef Images Underwater Photo Accessories over the last month.

• Strobe Protectors for Inon strobes made from 5mm Neoprene (for protection and added bouyancy).
• BluSnoot Fiber Optic Snoots to suit Inon Z240, Z220 & D180 strobes (great for special effects macro photography).
• Swing Away Macro Wet Lens Mount for Olympus PEN camera's (easy to swing in a wet macro lens to add additional magnification).

                    More details on these pages:

• Reef Images - U/W Photo Accessories
  
• Fiber Optic Snoots
  

We did a late afternoon dive near Seraya Secrets a few days ago. It was pouring with rain (but still 31 degrees out of the water) but viz was still good enough for hunting tiny critters. We dived with our friend and local nudibranch expert Ajiex Dharma, who quickly found some specimens we have never seen. I'm sure he has a microscope in his BCD pocket !!
Among our finds were many tiny nudibranchs, as well as a Pacific Thecacera nudibranch laying eggs and a boxer crab also laden with eggs.
Many of our local dive sites also have the bright pink eggs of Spanish Dancer nudibranchs on top of rocks. So it seems everything is breeding here in Tulamben.

Today we were reminded of the fragility of life for Balinese people living in the remote villages of north-east Bali.

At daybreak we joined a small family procession to our village high temple (Pura Puseh). Towering above us, Mount Agung glowed brighter than normal at sunrise, as today the Gods would descend and take the spirits of our young friend's wife and his unborn baby boy.

In the west we often take hospital care, doctors, nurses and specialists for granted. We expect the best care available for our wives, babies, children and ourselves, because it is accessible and we can (mostly) afford it.

Wayan was 20 years old when she married and later that year fell pregnant, her husband cared for her as well as any husband would. But when the birth day arrived, she was wisked away to the nearest hospital facility an hour away by car. During her labour she was struck with an asthma attack and stopped breathing. Sadly she passed away and subsequently their unborn baby boy also died still in his mother's womb.

Few people who come to dive here in north east Bali are aware that this area, (the furthest point from Denpasar in either direction) has the highest infant mortality rate in South-East Asia.

More mothers die in north Bali during child birth or pregnancy than in Libya, Iraq or Botswana!
The hospitals are few and far between, and the medical equipment they have is limited and mostly outdated. Getting trained medical staff is difficult, as few want to work in remote areas.

Today we witnessed Wayan and her baby son's spirits ascend to heaven. As the family placed offerings on the altars and the priest finished praying. Clouds soon began forming around the holy mountain's peak. Within half an hour the mountain was concealed by clouds and remained out of view for the rest of the day.

Please spare a thought when you are in these parts, perhaps bargaining for a cheaper dive guide, transport driver or room at your locally run dive resort. These people mostly do it tough, and all of them know how to make every rupiah count. One day....we hope, they may have the luxury of a hospital with modern equipment and well trained medical staff.

Om Swastiastu Wayan dan anda Bayi
(Peace Be With You Wayan & your Baby)

Dawn found this beautiful juvenile Pinnate Batfish at the Drop-Off in Tulamben yesterday. It was approximately the size you are seeing here.... around 60mm long.
This was a very photo friendly fish and the first of this size we have seen around Tulamben.
The Drop-Off seems to have lots of juveniles and many fish welcoming us back to Tulamben this year.
Check out the Video below also. Both the video and Photo were taken with the same camera, an Olympus E-PL2 in an Olympus PT-EP03 housing with an Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 macro lens.
One our new LED Focus Lights was used to light the video. While a single Z220 Inon strobe lit the photo.

If you have suffered for years not being able to see Thumbnails of your RAW files in Windows Explorer, well here is the answer.
The guys at Microsoft have finally woken-up and have released a free Codec that can be easily installed on any of the later versions of Windows (Vista, 7 and 8), so when you open a folder of photos, you no longer see a page full of pansies like the screen shot on the right >

Once you have installed the Codec, you will see a page of Thumbnails like this screen shot >
Hooray for Microsoft....  good things come to those who wait!
Here's the Microsoft Download Link
I wonder if Apple have full camera support for Thumbnails in Finder yet?

We dived the north coast of Sumbawa and discovered two sites with lots more critters, and mostly in quite shallow water. My computer hadn't been below 14 meters at the end of day two! A short run out to Sangeang Island, a magnificent active volcanic island that towers from the sea.  We dropped onto a shallow black sand slope dotted with beautiful bommies, each loaded with nudibranchs, anemone fish, sea whips with commensal shrimps and gobies. Everyone liked this place so much we came back for an afternoon dive.
We stayed around Sangeang for two days, exploring more sites and finding pygmy seahorses, some pretty exotic nudibranchs and one of our guests (Amanda Blanksby) discovered a very nice Halimeda ghost pipefish in a white colour, quite a rare find - thanks Amanda!

Yesterday we stumbled across a pair of Ornate Ghost Pipefish. The (larger) male was obviously carrying a batch of eggs, as its stomach cavity was large and swollen (left).
We watched as every now and again it opened its abdomen cavity to oxygenate the brood of eggs (below left). I managed to snap a few pics with the cavity open, revealing the eggs and even the eyes of the egg's occupants (below right)!