Greetings, it’s me again with more boring dive photos! A couple of weeks since my last post and I have managed a whopping 7 dives including one to 50 metres.

First dive was a deepie to the wreck of the Birchgrove Park which is off Sydney’s Northern Beaches (couple of km off Avalon Beach to be precise). Unfortunately 10 souls perished when the collier sank in 1956, something I was conscience of as I visited what is effectively a grave.

From a photographic point of view, the bow of the wreck offers a nice image but at 50 metres there is limited light and the attached picture will be a silhouette if your monitor is dark. This was my first visit to the Birchgrove Park and I’m very keen to revisit but next time I will bring a tripod to do a timed exposure.

Last week I had a couple of day’s time in lieu leave and went on a mini road trip. The initial plan was to drive straight to Mullaway and dive Thursday and Friday in the Solitary Islands, followed by Saturday and Sunday at South West Rocks. The weather forecast was good one minute and bad the next so I ended up just heading to SWR for 3 days diving. The pro with that was that I got a relaxing night at home with Laura (she had to stay and work the Thursday and Friday) rather than a 6 hour drive after work on the Wednesday.

If you don’t know, the town of South West Rocks is the launching point for one of my favourite dive sites, Fish Rock. I stay with and dive with South West Rocks dive centre who have backpacker type accommodation over their shop. I like that type of setup particularly when travelling on my own as its sociable. On arrival I meet Paul Krattiger who is a rare species….an Underwater Photographer that shoots film .. “What’s that?” I hear you say! Over the following nights my room mate was Chris from the central coast (just north of Sydney) and we had a gang from Aquatic Explorers in Cronulla stay on the Friday and Saturday nights.

Pete Hitchins was telling me that they now own the units at the front of their block and are planning to add a couple of double rooms to the accommodation offering…a good plan me thinks! BTW, Di, Pete’s girlfriend, tells me that the over shop accommodation is getting new sofa’s soon but I don’t know if Pete knows that yet. Kevin is also busy with new toys and this coming weekend he should have their new boat ready. Its similar to their existing “Wolf” but over a meter longer, better shade and improved lay out and storage. The two boys are carrying on an operation started by their father and its good to see the business moving forward. It also says alot that every time I return the same staff are there and as enthusiastic as ever!

Anyway, enough waffle, what about the diving? Friday, a rocky ride out to Fish Rock (whats new) but greeted with excellent visibility particularly on the deep side. The previous night after talking to Paul, I had decided to add an extension to my 8 inch dome thereby bring the front of my EF-S 10-22 back a couple of cm’s from the front of the dome. The goal was to reduce blurring to the side especially in the f/3 to f/7 range. So I spent some time on both dives testing the setup or taking shots at 10mm. I’m glad to report much improved performance and I’ll be running with this config in future.

On Saturday viz was reasonable but not as good as Friday on the deep end, however with a raging current just off the rock, the shallow end was very clear and I managed a couple of shots of the resident Loggerhead…although the fecker tried to bite one of my strobes..payback I suppose for trying to blind him. That night I discovered that the restaurant South West Wok is a pretty good Thai restaurant. I had avoided it previously worried from external appearance but I will definitely be visiting again.

A southerly change occurred on Saturday night and we were unsure what it may bring for diving but on Sunday morning we had our smoothest ride out. As we approached Fish Rock I was getting excited. The classic Fish Rock photo is the Grey Nurse Shark in the shallow end of the cave. While I had seen GNS there many times, I’d never seen them actually in the cave and over the previous two days we had heaps of GNS on the deep side in the cooler water but none at the shallow end. I hoped the southerly may have moved some of that cooler water to the shallow end but Pete dashed my hopes when he stated it was very doubtful there would be any there, ah well such is life.

My hopes rose again when I descended and noticed fewer GNS than yesterday in the first gutter so maybe I still have a chance of some at the shallow end .. that said, off I went to the deep gutter. I took a few shots and then Pete arrived with other divers. Stuff this I say to myself, I’ll head through the cave before them, if there are GNS at the other end I don’t want these guys potentially moving them before I get shots.

Happy days as I rounded the corner to see GNS not just at the shallow end but just entering the cave!

Well good on the other divers, they were patient for me and exited without disturbing the sharks.

I must also say it was alot harder than expected to get the shots I got, I now have alot more respect for the other “In the cave” shots that I see!

Another Monday morning and back at the coalface but taking 5 mins to write this note and post a few pics from the past couple of weeks.

I’m trying to get in at least one deeper dive a month and last week returned to the Coolooli, a scuttled bucket dredge that ly’s off Sydney’s northern beaches.

At 45 to 48 metres there isn’t much light but I managed a couple of shots I’m happy with. I had to drop the ISO to 400 and shutter speed to 1/60th because with the Canon EF-S 10-22 at 10mm I really need to get the f stop up to minimise blur on the edges. It wasn’t easy to get a focus lock either and I generally had lock on a sharp edge of the structure.

I plan to go to the new Canon 50D (presently 40D) in the coming weeks so it will be interesting to see how that goes in the ISO 400 to 800 range. Initially reports on the 50D’s performance at the really high ISO’s aren’t great but it’s very rare I go there. Fortunately the 50D uses the same body as the 40D so I don’t need a new housing. I should add that my Aquatica housing is performing really well, I’m delighted i went with Aquatica and the Aquiaview viewfinder is my little baby! Check out some of Aquatica’s new gear from DEMA. I also believe Aquatica going to come on board to support us with the OW-USS in 2009, great news!

I had a pleasant 80 minute dive at Clifton gardens in Sydney Harbour yesterday. Not so pleasant for my two buddies, Jayne and Richard, both of whom were in 5mm wetsuits. I’m not ready to get out of my dry suit for another couple weeks!

It was Blenny heaven in Clifton yesterday, Horned Blennies that is, they were everywhere and all appeared very frisky. As usual we also had several Seahorses and Jayne unfortunately came across one that was entangled in fishing line. We also had a large Bull Ray for company for most of the dive. he didn’t care about us at all and just kept cruising around the jetty.

I also found a little guy who had a heap of eggs in his/her mouth. Have yet to identify the species.

Well thats my 5 minutes break from work used up, better get back to it!