mrubenstein01
Melissa's Garden Panorama
The dive site of Melissa's Garden near the Penemu area of the Fam Islands was perhaps the most impressive of all 35 dives we did in 12 days of diving around Raja Ampat. There are 3 small mushroom islands in the center and surrounding these islands as far as the eye can see were gardens of pristine hard coral in every color of green, yellow, blue, orange, and rust covering nearly 100% of the seafloor. In the rare areas where hard corals did not grow, red and orange soft corals or sea anemones squeezed themselves in. Hundreds of thousands of brightly colored fish filled the water column from the ones darting in and out of the hard coral branches on the sea floor to larger trevally and jacks and snapper schooling from seafloor to sea surface. Hard corals are not as colorful or ornate as soft corals which makes them more difficult to photograph so I had the idea to try to shoot a panorama to convey the vastness of the coral gardens. I loved the way it turned out and thought it did a much better job than a single frame showing the landscape to those unfamiliar with diving in it. I decided that I would shoot many more panoramas over the course of the trip after this one.
Melissa's Garden Panorama
The dive site of Melissa's Garden near the Penemu area of the Fam Islands was perhaps the most impressive of all 35 dives we did in 12 days of diving around Raja Ampat. There are 3 small mushroom islands in the center and surrounding these islands as far as the eye can see were gardens of pristine hard coral in every color of green, yellow, blue, orange, and rust covering nearly 100% of the seafloor. In the rare areas where hard corals did not grow, red and orange soft corals or sea anemones squeezed themselves in. Hundreds of thousands of brightly colored fish filled the water column from the ones darting in and out of the hard coral branches on the sea floor to larger trevally and jacks and snapper schooling from seafloor to sea surface. Hard corals are not as colorful or ornate as soft corals which makes them more difficult to photograph so I had the idea to try to shoot a panorama to convey the vastness of the coral gardens. I loved the way it turned out and thought it did a much better job than a single frame showing the landscape to those unfamiliar with diving in it. I decided that I would shoot many more panoramas over the course of the trip after this one.