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BONAIRE Date: (2) Author: Mark Walker BONAIRE REVISITED: A personal view of Martin Edge's Photoquest Course, November 1999
I was particularly looking forward to going back to Bonaire on Martin's course to give me a chance to improve on my shots from May 98 and also to pick Martin's brain once again. So it was with great excitement that we arrived bright and early one morning at Captains Don's Habitat, our home for the next 11 days. As usual Hilary and Co. at Divequest did a wonderful job, ensuring our travel, accommodation, and other booking details were all sorted for us. I believe this was no easy task on this occasion, thanks to last minute airline alterations by KLM. The photo course was due to start officially 3 days later, so I was pleased to have time to settle in and have a chance to get some early tips and hints from Martin. Captain Don's was a great venue to run the photo course. A well run and friendly outfit with ideal facilities. Personally I feel I learn most by having the majority of my films developed while I'm still on holiday. This gives me maximum feed back as to how well I'm doing. It was a real bonus to have Ernst and Jack at the photo shop on site providing us with fast, unlimited, first class E6 processing. We also had access to a well equipped slide presentation room with viewing tables and quality slide projection facilities. This was used most evenings to show and discuss slides taken the day before. There were 13 of us, on the course along with 5 non-photographers plus Martin and his able assistant Ken Sullivan. It was so nice for me to finally meet Ken after so many phone calls, and his technical knowledge was in much demand throughout the week. With our party all together we soon got into a daily routine which could broadly be described as follows: 0715 Shore Dive 0815 Breakfast 1115 Boat Dive 1345 Lunch (quick bite) 1430 Boat Dive 1715 Shore Dive 1915 Slide Show & Discussion 2015 Dinner 2300 Deep Sleep Obviously some of the morning shore dives were optional depending on how many glasses of wine one consumed the night before. The boat dives involved a four minute bus ride to the quay side and a 10-25 minute boat trip to the dive site. We had the luxury of a spacious dive boat all to ourselves with plenty of room for all our photo kit. We had the freedom to choose our dive site, a crucial point as repeat site diving is one of Martins big tips for good underwater photography. Our average dive time for the holiday was over 70 minutes and I enjoyed every minute. The shore diving was a bit harder than it would normally be due to recent wave damage from a nearby hurricane. Large parts of the exposed North West coast of the island were badly damaged. In particular the boat jetty and kit storage area at Captain Don's were destroyed. This meant we had to access the shore diving a two minute walk from the normal entry point. It was also challenging getting into the water from the shore as the coral beach was difficult to walk on. Having said that, I was very impressed by the way Captain Don's quickly organized themselves to continue to provide three boat dives a day from a nearby harbour, with very little inconvenience to us. As you would expect, the diving was totally geared around the group's photographic needs. It was no surprise to me that we returned several times to Martin's mecca for underwater photography, 'Town Pier'. It proved just as popular and rewarding this year as it did last year.We discovered some other great sites including "Joanna's Sunshi" and "Nearest Point" on Kleine Bonaire.They were particularly good for testing our wide angle techniques due to the many interesting purple and orange sponges. In my 9 diving days on Bonaire I made 30 dives, but dived only 9 different sites so the emphasis was very much on repeat diving to optimize the photographic potential. The only blight on the holiday was the weather which for the last week was unusually cloudy and wet. It dampened our inspiration for some of the wide angle shots but this helped to concentrate our minds on the many excellent macro opportunities including such rarities as seahorses and frogfish. One of the highlights of the course is a prestigious photo competi tion, which was won this year by my friend and room mate Bob Kemp. His brilliant turtle shot triumphed in a keenly fought contest of a very high standard. It's always a pleasure for me to meet and make friends with so many like-minded people and it's amazing how having an unusual hobby can bring people together. We spent most evenings dining together on one big table swapping thoughts and ideas about the joys and frustrations of underwater photography. Personally I find Martin's 'hands on' approach to teaching very rewarding and effective. His friendly relaxed manner creates the right atmosphere for people to feel comfortable and welcome. This plays a significant part in the overall success of his photo courses and expeditions. I'll be back for more! Current Holidays to BONAIRE: 2005 |