Philippines Adventure!

KeithBoll · Post by **KeithBoll** » Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:11 pm

I recently retired and celebrated by spending a full month diving in the Philippines! I dove/visited four different areas in the Philippines: Anilao; Dumaguete, Moalboal and Malapascua. Each area had its own beauty and certainly stood on its own as a great dive destination.

All the people I met along the way were fantastic! I joined up with Bluewater Travel for a photo workshop at Crystal Blue Resort in Anilao. This was a great way to meet more divers and work on my photo chops. While there, we got to see and snap a lot of macro critters (of course). From a photography perspective - I practices using my Canon 100MM lens with a 10X Diopter to get more details macro pictures. I takes practice - but I am glad that I worked on that skill set. Also - at the end of the first week - my flash controller died - and I could not get a replacement! Fortunately, I had video lights with me - so I took the majority of my pictures (Wide Angle and Macro) with video lights - and no flashes. It was an interesting challenge - and didn't work out too badly.

One of the highlights for me was a night dive (with just me and the divemaster - everyone else was too tired to go!). I got to spend about 15 minutes with a Starry Night Octopus. This was my first time seeing this beautiful creature and the Divemaster said they had not encountered one for over a year.

Dumaguete was also full of macro critters - but different kinds (less nudibranchs) and many cuttlefish, ornate pipefish, seahorses and frogfish.
Moalboal had been hit hard by a hurricane earlier this year - and it was sad to see the damage - both above and below water. I was happy to support these local businesses and dive in their area. Some super high current dives on nearby islands were an absolute blast!
Malapascua was also a fantastic treat - and we had the privilege of sighting a LOT of thresher sharks at dawn, four mornings in a row!
Here are some of my favorite pictures. Hope you don't mind that I post a number of them - after all - I was there for a MONTH!