Finally got my own scanner, so at long last I've got around to putting together the semi-respectable output from last summer's expedition with my new (2nd hand) Sea & Sea MX10 camera and strobe.

Regrettably the non-respectable prints were probably in the majority but, maybe this year.....

This trip out of Sharm took in sites from the Rosalie Moller wreck and Abu Nuhas reef in the west to the Straits of Tiran in the east, together with many of the regulars in between, including the Thistlegorm and Ras Mohammed.

2005

Red Sea
7th to 14th July on M.Y Sea Flower
14th July to 21st July at Marsa Shagra Dive Village

This trip was originally booked as a 2 week expedition to St. Johns and the Deep South on the Coral Queen. Unfortunately on the morning of the 5th the Coral Queen reversed into a reef and sank, resulting in the change of itinerary listed above.

Finally opted to join the 21st century and invested in a digital camera - a Nikon Coolpix S1 (5.1 megapixels) along with the matching Nikon WP-CP5 housing. Sadly, 8 days into the trip the camera decided to attempt a forward 1½ somersault from an equipment shelf onto a concrete floor; whilst the dive got a score of 6.5, the end result was no further photos on the trip.

A computer crash at home (hasn't been a good year as regards luck) resulted in the loss of the processed images, but I intend to re-do these shortly from the backed-up raw images.

Watch this space.........

2006

Red Sea
10th to 24th August on M.Y Emperor Fraser

This year I successfully made it on to a 2 week expedition to St. Johns and the Deep South on a trip which included the Coral Queen's long-time dive guide Ahmed Fadel. The 2 week trip was able to venture further south than regular liveaboards, reaching sites previously visited only by the Coral Queen, making Ahmed's knowledge invaluable.

Last year's (ex-)camera was replaced with a Nikon Coolpix S3 (6 megapixels) which uses the same WP-CP5 housing.

Click here to view the photos. These have still to be annotated, which I'll get round to "shortly".

Select from the 5 photo sets on the left (labelled ok-01 to ok-05); clicking on each main image advances to the next, or select from the thumbnails at the top.

Several QuickTime movie sequences have still to be added also.

2007

Red Sea
29th Aug. to 5th Sept on M.Y Blue Seas
5th to 12th Sept. at Marsa Shagra Dive Village

Returned to the "two centre" format this year, with a week on the Blue Planet fleet's liveaboard MY Blue Seas (embarking/disembarking at Port Ghalib), followed by a week's land-based diving at Marsa Shagra Eco-Village, south of Marsa Alam airport.

Click here to view the photos.

Select from the 2 photo sets on the left (labelled "Week 1.." and "Week 2.."); clicking on each main image advances to the next, or select from the thumbnails at the top.

I hope to include some video clips in the near future.

2008

Red Sea
27th Aug. to 4th Sept at Marsa Shagra Dive Village
4th to 10th Sept. on M.Y Blue Pearl visiting St. John's

2009

Red Sea
3rd to 10th Sept at Umbi Dive Resort, Sharks Bay, Sharm El Sheik
10th to 17th Sept. on MY Snefro Spirit

Returned to the northern Red Sea for first time since 2001.

Spent first week at the Umbi Dive Resort, Sharks Bay (north o f Naama Bay), diving the Straits of Tiran and Ras Mohammed.

The second week was on the MY Snefro Spirit, on their "Sinai Classic - northern route", although including the Thistlegorm and Abu Nuhas.

Click here to view the photos.

Select from the 2 photo sets on the left (labelled "Week 1.." and "Week 2.."); clicking on each main image advances to th e next, or select from the thumbnails at the top.

Click here to view some video clips from this trip.

2011

Red Sea
10th to 17th Aug MY Blue Seas to The Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone
17th to 24th Aug. on MY Blue Seas to St. Johns

Back-to-back liveaboard trips on the MY Blue Seas, with the first week visiting The Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone reefs, and the second week spent in St. Johns and finishing at Elphinstone.

Both Elphinstone visits featured extended encounters with Oceanic White Tip sharks (see video below).

Click here to view photo slideshows from each week.

Videos

Oceanic_Whitetip-2011 from tonester on Vimeo.

2012

Maldives
7th to 19th Oct on MY Sea Spirit

New camera - new destination.

12 day "Manta and Whale Shark Special" safari on the MY Sea Spirit.

Invested in a Canon Powershot SX220HS camera with Canon WP-DC42 underwater housing to enable high def video.

Click here to view the photos.

Select from the 2 photo sets on the left (labelled "Week 1.." and "Week 2.."); clicking on each main image advances to th e next.

Videos to follow

2013 - July

Maldives
7th to 16th July on MY Sea Queen

10 day "Manta and Whale Shark Special" safari on the MY Sea Queen.

Same camera and housing, but with the addition of an Epoque EL-1000L Video light and a H20-Tools red filter.

Click here to view the photos.

Select from the 2 photo sets on the left (labelled "PhotoSet-1" and "PhotoSet-2"); clicking on each main image advances to the next, or select from the thumbnails at the top.

Videos

First attempt at a complete trip video.

Maldives-2013 from tonester on Vimeo.

2013 - November

Maldives
17th to 28th November on MY Sea Spirit

12 day "Manta Research Trip" safari on the MY Sea Spirit.

In addition to the regular safari diving, this trip included instruction from Dr. Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler on manta ray ecology and identification, and several dives dedicated to observing and recording mantas when feeding. These dives were quite an experience, best recorded on video.

Also got to snorkel with a very friendly whale shark for 45 minutes.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Videos to follow (particularly the manta rays)

2014

Maldives
12th to 24th October on MY Sea Spirit

12 day "Equatorial Far South" safari on the MY Sea Spirit.

This year, went with a new camera setup of a Canon Powershot S110 camera with a Recsea WHC-S110 housing. Principal aim with the new gear was to enable shooting in RAW format, which wasn't available on the SX220HS.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Videos to follow