In August 2006 I flew to Bali as part of a Divequest underwater photography group led by Alex Mustard. Alex's group consisted of Paul Morgan, Richard and Alison Riley, Andrew Jones, Irene Crooks, Urs Hess, Derek Holwill, Graziella Jones, Pedro Vieyra and myself!

Our first location in Bali was at The Mimpi Menjangan Resort which lies along a mangrove-lined bay in the north-west corner of Bali. I enjoyed three dives at Mimpi, the first two being at Mimpi Lagoon, home to the elusive Mandarin Fish. My buddies, Paul Morgan and Pedro Vieyra and I together with dive guide Yair Bakal began the first dive at twilight. The Mandarin Fish proved to be difficult subjects to photograph. I needed a couple of seconds after spotting a Mandarin Fish to get both of my flashgun lights and my focussing light on the subject so that my 105mm lens auto-focus could lock on them. But they were skittish and hid immediately a torch was placed on them. Near the end of the dive a few Mandarin Fish began to mate. These were very brief encounters which really only gave one photographer an opportunity for a photograph and I patiently waited for my turn. My one opportunity duly came but I could not get my Nikon D200 to focus in time and the chance was missed.

Two days later Pedro and I repeated this twilight dive. Pedro suggested that we should use a 60mm lens rather than a 105mm lens as the 60mm lens would focus more quickly albeit the small subject was otherwise better suited to a 105mm lens. In addition I abandoned any real intention of photographing the Mandarins mating to ensure that instead I at least obtained some photographs of individual Mandarins.

My final dive at Mimpi was an early morning private dive at Mimpi Point. As the meeting time at the Dive Centre was 5.50 am it was perhaps not surprising that no other members of the Divequest group joined me! Mimpi Point is located to one side of the Mimpi Bay channel and has a drop-off with soft corals and gorgonians. My dive guide, Putu Kertiyasa and I dropped off Eka Darma, our dive boat, into shallow but clear water and then slowly made our way along the drop-off. The visibility varied considerably from 10 to 20 metres. Fish highlights were Nudibranch, Batfish, Scorpionfish, Shrimp and a Moray Eel.