Back to Redang after six years, and possibly some of the easiest shore diving in the world compiled with numerous macro subjects for me to photograph.
On my previous trip in 1998, I did several dives from the shore with two housings using the 60mm Micro on an F3 in a Tussy Housing and a 105mm Micro on an F801 in an Aquatica Housing. This year I had a new toy, a D70 in a Sea and Sea Housing, and planned to use the 18-70mm plus my 60mm Micro (effectively now a 90mm).
The switch from 35mm film to digital for my serious photography was made earlier this year when I bought a D100, and despite many efforts to secure a housing before my departure from Dubai to Malaysia via Singapore, I ended up biting the bullet and buying the D70 housing plus the D70.
Not only was this the maiden voyage of the housing but also for my new dive computer having decided to replace my Suunto Solution Alpha with the Suunto Vyper as I am planning to do some NITROX diving in the near future.
Additionally there was Yanni to look after and she would be wearing a new wetsuit and using fins just purchased in Singapore. Lots of things to concentrate on, so much for trying to keep it simple.
The dive site is about 25 meters from the resort across the sand next to a rocky outcrop (headland) that separates Redang Bay from the next beach. The next beach is not very sheltered so boats use Redang Bay as an anchorage, and the reef area is buoyed off, not that this prevents some boats from entering as we found out, and only two weeks previously a snorkeller had been killed when a tourist boat from Perhantian Island hit her.
