manta rays week #3
Manta ray and paparazzi gang, Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia
Nikon D300 + Nikkor 10.5mm + Pro One Dome Port + Sea&Sea YS-250 x 2 strobes
this image is 15% cropped from all sides, minor scatter cleanup in Photoshop
Location on Google Maps
Wikipedia reference
Manta rays are popular in Raja Ampat ! This is why they often chased by underwater paparazzi gangs like one pictured on this shot. Actually during group dive at manta cleaning station everybody required to stay on the sand floor and keep low profile - if many people will start to swim simultaneously around manta rays will leave. This is why I always prefer to dive in the very small group or just by myself with buddy - but it's not always possible - typical commercial dive these days happens in the group of 6 to 12 people.
Google+ is a lot of fun these days. First of all we have new colorful character - HDR-the-Shrimpy. He is world's best "HDR" photographer and also vivid "HDR" art collector. He is posting these days very sophisticated critique on the best "HDR" pieces appearing on the Google+. Follow him and you will never be lost in the world of "HDR" again !
Another cool toy is Google+ Ripples. These are graph charts showing post spreading process on G+. Take a look at this example of my diving gannets album spread. Or this famous now Ripple of announcement of Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu conversation in Google+ hangouts. Or these example from yesterday of the viral post started by my HK friend Tom Voute, which I belive now belongs to the top 5 biggest Ripples on G+.
Funniest thing - my name is on Lenta.ru's article on G+ new features ^_^ !
While G+ has some problems of more philosophical character technology behind network is superb. It integrates fantastically with Android, and it is inspiring me to start doing some programming in HTML 5 using G+ extension APIs - seems like Chrome is making development of interactive browser based apps very easy and fun. You must join G+ now if you did not do it yet ! ^_^