In February 2007 together with our regular holiday companions Ann and Richard Preston, Eve and I spent two weeks aboard MV Atoll Explorer, our seventh trip aboard our favourite Maldives liveboard. Captain Fulhu and his crew and Mohamed Saeed and wife Jacky from the Eurodivers onboard dive centre greeted us upon arrival and we were all set for another great holiday.

However strictly from a photography perspective, the holiday got off to a bad start. Richard’s video camera housing immediately developed a slow leak and although we managed to abort our first dive at Laguna Beach before water could reach Richard’s video camera, we were not quick enough on our second dive at Velassaru Caves. Richard’s video camera was a write-off. Despite what I had hoped was a successful repair, problems with my Subal housing and INON strobes which had manifested on a recent dive trip to Sydney, Australia, persisted. That is I still had some corroded contacts which occasionally caused my Nikon D200 to “lock up” while taking photographs. Irritating as this was, at least my camera continued to work for the majority of the time whereas poor Richard had no camera at all. Using my Magic Filters rather than flash photography prevented my camera from locking up and I so used them much more I would otherwise done. The natural light underwater and visibility in the Maldives can be poor and as many of our dives were typically at around depths of around 15-20 metres, I had not expected the filters to be too successful but in some cases, for example on my “Reef Hooks Deployed” photographs the results were much better than I would have achieved with flash photography.

Our first week’s route was our old favourite to Rasdhoo and North Ari Atoll and at Rasdhoo I saw, for the first time, a Zebra Shark. As a juvenile a Zebra Shark’s body has dark and light vertical bars, hence the name Zebra Shark but as the shark matures the markings become more like a leopard. Frustratingly for me the camera locked up on this dive and I was unable to take any photographs. Predictably when we returned to the same site the next day, my Nikon D200 worked flawlessly and the Zebra Shark was nowhere to be seen! This route really is superb for diving and in my opinion, generally provides more reliable “underwater big fish sightings” than the South Ari Atoll route. Another memorable dive in the first week was the wreck of Reef Explorer at Rasdhoo Atoll. Saeed and I both took cameras with us, both set for macro photography. Saeed was busy photographing a Blenny when a Manta Ray glided up behind him and hovered over his shoulder. It seemed as though the Manta Ray was curious to see what Saeed, who was oblivious to its presence, was trying to photograph. What a wonderful photograph I could have taken if I had selected a wide angle lens for this dive. Eventually I shouted to Saeed to look over his shoulder. As soon as he made eye contact with the Manta Ray, it glided away. We also enjoyed some excellent dives with Grey Reef and Whitetip Reef Sharks, Napoleon Wrasses and Hawksbill Turtles at Maya Thila, Hafzaa Thila and Fish Head. At the risk of a telling off from my wife, I saw an excellent opportunity for some interesting photographs when her dive tank came loose as a Napoleon Wrasse passed her at Fish Head. Rather than help her as all good buddies should, I waited for Saeed to spot her problem (see my “Saeed to the rescue” photographs) who naturally wasted no time in going to her assistance. Who would happily chose me as their buddy!

Returning to Male to prepare for the second week’s trip, Saeed took me to Maagiri Caves and also for a night dive near Kurumba Pier, a dive which guarantees the sight of large Stingrays feeding by the pier at dusk.

Our second week’s route to the South Ari Atoll via the Guraidhoo region of South Mali Atoll took in sites such as Manta Reef, where surprisingly we did not see any Manta Rays and Maamigili (outside) where more predictably our seach for whale sharks was in vain. Having never seen a Zebra Shark until a week earlier, I was thrilled to briefly see one at Bulhaalohi Reef, my dive 1422. Saeed and I were both trying to photograph a Spanish Dancer. We had our cameras on macro settings with low flash when suddenly Abdullah shouted to let us know that a Zebra Shark was passing directly behind us. Even though I only had my 60mm lens I was determined to get some sort of photographic evidence and managed to take a photograph of the Leopard Shark as it moved away into the distance. And better still, on our final dive of the holiday at Maamigili (outside) Richard spotted another Zebra Shark. This time I managed to take two photographs of the shark before it quickly disappeared.

With the diving over for another holiday it was time to clean our dive kit in a Dettol bath. Why Richard and I decided to get in the bath as well I have no idea but it certainly made for some fun photographs! After that we all gathered on the Atoll Exporer dive deck for some “fun on the dive deck”, drinking through snorkels before being thrown off the back of MV Atoll Explorer!