Macro maculosa

Today I woke up at 2:30am.  I read for a while and then went back to sleep for a bit… but after waiting up again at 4pm I am back at the dining room table at 4:45am.

Only three dives today, but they were good!

I was excited to find this nudi because although it look like a boring one, it has dots around the margin.  I kept shooting and shooting but I realized later that I was focusing on the wrong end!  Underwater, I couldn’t tell that the rhinophores were actually light in color and were at the top end.  I thought the rhinophores were the two large black spots at its tail.  Oops!  Oh well, this one turned out fairly decent.

Nudi #14 - Phyllidiopsis phiphiensis

We saw tons of mantas at a cleaning station and I finally got the chance to hunker down on a really nice nudi and take lots of shots with my new camera.  I played with the F stops and lighting and let that slug crawl all around to try to get some interesting images.  It was really fun!

Nudi #15 - Hypselodoris maculosa

My new approach is to always get a few photos at F8 so that the entire nudibranch is in focus and will be able to help me identify the species.  Then I switch over to F2.8 to see if I can get a really small depth of field with a focus on the rhinophores and “the face” of the nudibranch to really capture their personality.

In fact, I’ve been contemplating making this my nine box of canvas squares in my bedroom instead of the textures/colors of coral.

After the dive, we had a long crossing so many of us watched a movie that JR brought… The Interview.  This is the one that was banned and then released over the internet.  I thought it was pretty funny actually. 

Dinner was a Maldivian buffet and the food reminded me a bit of Indian food.  It was good but not great.  They said that they made the food much milder than usual.  I was bummed because I love it really spicy!

They offered us flan for dessert.  Again.  It’s like the third time this week.  I hate flan.  It’s like someone hocked up a loogey and then threw it on a plate.  Enjoy!  Barf.

I asked if they still had some of the New Years Eve cake and they were able to dig up a small slice for me.  Not only that, they also made me a cappuccino.  On this boat they actually have a real barista machine where they can made espresso and other coffee drinks, but they charge extra for it.  They did mine for free and I was the very last cappuccino they had on the boat.  These guys really go out of their way to make the trip special.