Hello, everyone. I’m back from the remote Eastern Fields of Papua New Guinea. We only had 6 days out there because two strong tropical storms moved into the area, but the diving was good (until we moved back to the coast).

My 4-week cough turned into a 6-week cough, so I only did 3-4 dives in the Eastern Fields. It was extremely frustrating, but I enjoyed being out on the ocean with a great group of people. Here’s the video slideshow I made for the group:

Music selection by kozyndan. End credits by me and Dan.

Tony Wu (my co-trip leader) has posted a fantastic write-up of the trip, and a Wetpixel thread is tracking more pictures and experiences.

As always, you can see the expeditions we run over at Wetpixel: http://wetpixel.com/expeditions

Underwater footage from a 26-day Wetpixel underwater photography expedition to Alor and Komodo, Indonesia. Footage taken by me, with Canon EOS 7D, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye zoom lens and Canon 100mm macro lens. Macro footage was lit with dual Light & Motion SOLA 1200 video lights. Additional footage captured with GoPro HERO cameras in modified Eye of Mine underwater 3D housings.

Good bye, Hong Kong! See you next time. Thanks to everyone who made time to see me while I was here, including the AsiaD folks; Rae Chang, Adam Tow, and his family; Winnie Cheng; Ryanne Lai; Timothy Redel; Edward and Jacqueline Lai of Nauticam; Aey Komson, Mean Mora and Jan; Tammy Loh.

I’m off to Indonesia tomorrow for the Wetpixel Ultimate Indonesia Expedition 2011. I’ll have sporadic access to email while I’m away, and almost no image-sharing ability (except for posts to my journal via Flickr). See you when I’m back!

Timelapse video taken with Canon 7D and Tokina 10-17 fisheye zoom lens from 29th floor of the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong in Wanchai. 1 frame taken every 8 seconds from 16:05 to 18:48.

In July, I went to French Polynesia with Fabrice Charleux of Plongeur.com to capture stills and video of the incredible schools of gray reef sharks that call its remote atolls home. At that time, I posted only a few still frames from the trip—not because I didn’t want to share, but because I had something larger planned. When I returned home, I called up Mary Lynn Price of DiveFilm and asked her if she would be interested in collaborating in a podcast episode. Luckily, Mary Lynn was excited about the project, and together, we have finally finished and published a new DiveFilm HD episode on the sharks of French Polynesia. To see the video, please download it from iTunes. DiveFilm is currently the only ocean-related podcast featured by Apple, and the only way to make sure it stays there is to have folks download and view it through iTunes!

Links to podcast: DiveFilm HD on iTunes. The episode is called “Shark Diving French Polynesia!”

Special thanks to Fabrice Charleux (gracious host and organizer; translator; subtitling), Mary Lynn Price (editor; podcast goddess), Don Kehoe (grumpy photo assistant), Dave Patchen (supporting friend), Adam Tow (interview camera assistance) and Rae Chang (interview assistance). This would not have been possible without all of you!

Footage taken with Canon 7D, Canon S95, and GoPro Hero camera in Eye of Mine flat-port housing.

I flew to New York for a Friday meeting and ended up getting stuck here for a few days during Hurricane Irene, which prompted the first MTA shutdown from bad weather in history. While in New York, I have been generously hosted by Heidi—thank you, Heidi!

Luckily, the hurricane turned out to be rather mild, and we slept through the high winds and heavy rain, waking up to a calm day outside. The only signs of the hurricane were a bunch of downed trees and the folks whom had come out to photograph them. I put a few pictures up over at Flickr.

Here is a 3D video of a whale shark feeding at the surface during a huge whale shark aggregation in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. I shot it on August 15, 2011, using a GoPro 3D HERO System and an Eye of Mine 3D flat lens housing (a flat-lens solution is required for a GoPro to focus properly underwater).

The video is best viewed at 720p in some sort of 3D mode.

If you own a 3D display at home, you can download a higher-quality side-by-side version for local display (~99MB; link is good for 500 downloads; if it fails, please let me know). The downloadable video is still highly-compressed and doesn’t quite convey the same 3D coolness that original version does, but it is still effective!

I just got this note from Chase Card Services:

Designed from its inception to provide unparalleled travel benefits, your United® Mileage Plus® Club Visa® Card has now been further enhanced.

As of February 15, 2011, you will no longer be charged foreign transaction fees.1 That means that you’ll now save 3% on all international purchases made using your United Mileage Plus Club Visa Card.

This exciting new benefit is sure to make your international travel experience even more enjoyable. Best of all, you needn’t do anything to take advantage of it – the change will automatically take effect on February 15, 2011.

This is huge for international travelers—there are very few credit cards that do not charge foreign transaction fees. Good call, Chase; you’ve just ensured that I stick to your card for the foreseeable future!¹

If you travel out of the country a lot like I do, you need a Blackberry. Here’s why. (read more »)

A timelapse video of the intersection in front of the Kyoto Tower Hotel taken from a room at the Hotel Granvia Kyoto. Shot with Canon EOS 7D. Individual frames processed / exported in Lightroom and lens-blurred with alpha channel depth map in Photoshop. Timelapse video created in Quicktime 7 Pro. Shot and processed to emulate tilt-shift miniaturization videos.

I took this timelapse from my window at the Hotel Granvia Kyoto. There was an excellent elevated walkway above the train station as well, but I didn’t have time to shoot it.

Frames captured with Canon EOS 7D, processed/exported in Adobe Lightroom, and built into a video using Quicktime 7 Pro.

Pam and I are in Taiwan for our post-honeymoon wedding banquet. Happy new year, everyone!

The fireworks at Taipei 101 were short, but somewhat spectacular. I imagine that it would have been really impressive from close up, but my mother and I were unwilling to brave the insane crowds and stayed one MRT stop away.

It is still 30 minutes from the new year back in San Francisco. Weather reports claim that it might rain tonight. I hope the fireworks aren’t cancelled! (read more »)

Pam, me, and snow monkeys @ Jigokudani Yaen-Koen, Japan

Happy holidays! Pam and I spent 7 hours on Christmas eve in the snow hanging out with Japanese macaques — the so-called “snow monkeys.” It was awesome. Will post photos as soon as can. :)

I love food in Japan. The kaiseki at our hotel in Shibu Onsen was incredible. Even the rice was delicious — the best rice I’ve ever tasted: perfect mouth feel. We had some rice at a restaurant in Kyoto just now which paled in comparison, so the variation in quality is extreme. (read more »)

Beautiful Dendronephthya soft corals ring a window in a boulder

During the 30-day trip to Indonesia I’m currently writing from, I’ve focused on taking still images and video with my insect eye setup (wide-angle macro) and a 3D underwater housing. I didn’t even bring a traditional wide-angle dome port, which has made it a little frustrating to be diving in some of the healthiest reefs in the world. Luckily, Don Kehoe is here and lent me his wide-angle rig for 3 dives. I went down and banged out some colorful reef images — felt like I was at home again. :)

Riri and me at Misool Eco Resort

It is really rewarding to be accepted by a wild bird, even if the basis of trust is based on food.

A lightning storm under a sky full of stars. Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

The night sky is amazing here in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Aside from the occasional live-aboard dive vessel, the Misool Eco-Resort is the only source of light pollution for miles and miles, and the lights at the resort aren’t bright enough to really cause problems. Point a camera at the sky on any clear night, and you get magic.

Large fruit bat in central Torajaland, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Most of the Wetpixel group traveling to Toraja are more used to photographing wildlife than they are photographing landscapes and people. Bernie, our guide, took us to a place where hundreds of large fruit bats hung on towering clumps of bamboo. I’m not sure what kind of bats they were, but they were likely Indonesian short-nosed fruit bats (Cynopterus titthaecheilus). A few of them were flying around during the day, and I snapped these shots with a Canon 7D and 70-200mm/2.8L lens @ 200mm (crop). (read more »)

4 skulls deep in a burial cave in Londa, Toraja (Sulawesi, Indonesia)

As an interlude between diving Ambon and Raja Ampat, 9 of us are on a 4-day tour of Toraja, which is up in the mountains of central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Traditional burials of the deceased here are in “hanging” graves on cliff faces, but we also were taken to see burial caves in a village called Londa. Although much of the caves were filled with old skulls and bones, we saw a coffin that had placed there earlier this year.

Toraja has a rich culture around death, and we spent much of our two full days here attending the funeral of a local man. 6 buffalos and 2 pigs were slaughtered at the event, and the meat was distributed to family members who aggregated for the 3-day celebration. We were invited in to one of the temporary shelters erected for the event, and feel honored to have been treated like family.

A pair of warty frogfish (Antennarius maculatus). The female is heavily laden with eggs.

We saw nearly 20 different frogfish while we were in Ambon, including warty frogfish, painted frogfish, striated frogfish and more. This female warty is full of eggs. You can see the tiny little male sitting on top of her.