RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

January 17, 2010
Off Mamigili Island
South Ari Atoll, Maldives
N 03 27 988 E 072 49 075

Twelve divers from the M/V Manthiri drifted along the reef drop-off a few hundreds yards offshore and about fifty feet down. Our dive guide, Moosa Hassan, led the way constantly craning his neck for giant shadows moving overhead. I wasn’t paying much attention. If Moosa saw a whale shark, which he very much expected, he would pound on his tank with his critter prod and the Manthiri’s boat-load of underwater photographers would be on it like fleas on a mangy dog. That’s okay with me. Michele and I have seen whale sharks many times before and could afford to be last in line. Marcus Koch has dreamed of seeing a whale shark for twenty years. His dream came true yesterday. But it was only a twenty-foot shark and I told him it didn’t count; it was not legal size; not a keeper. He seemed truly disappointed by my comments though I was sure he knew I was joking. But today he began a new phase in life pursuing a dream of seeing a large whale shark. He has been pursuing his new dream now for 24 hours.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

As the group drifted along the wall, each diver hoping the strange shadows conjured by one’s imagination would evolve into giant elasmobranches, I drifted along deeper looking for streamlined shapes resting at the base of the reef. I was looking for Zebra Sharks. Jerry Allen, one of my regular dive buddies from San Diego, stumbled across one yesterday and captured several nice still images. Chip Scarlett and I were green with envy. Chip, who will soon publish his first book on sharks (Loving Sharks), has never seen a Zebra Shark. I’d seen one only once before and did not have a movie camera with me at the time. Certainly I would look up if Moosa began pounding away, but I really wanted to get lucky with the Zebra Shark Jerry had seen yesterday. Chip would certainly love to include an image of one in his book. Last night Chip showed us the photography that will appear in Loving Sharks. Stan Waterman used to say in jest, “Every time I see underwater images so beautifully done a little piece of me dies inside.” Well, after looking at Chip’s shark photography, I thought I had lost a leg.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

I heard a light tapping on a SCUBA tank and turned to see our second dive guide, Hassan Haleem pointing down. A Zebra Shark! I had drifted right over it. Obviously, Hassan’s eyes are much better than mine. I started dropping down and at the same time signaled to Jerry who was following along hoping for a Zebra Shark encore. I heard a rapid pounding on a tank in the distance. Moosa must have found a whale shark. Good, I thought. That will leave the Zebra to just Jerry and me. I drifted closer to the shark moving very slowly, breathing shallowly. I saw the image developing in the large viewfinder of my Gates Deep RED camera system. Blue and black cleaner wrasse were moving over the shark. My lens was at 170 degrees and soon I had the shark nearly full- frame. After a long take, I zoomed to 100 degrees and got a closer shot. Then I pushed away from the shark and let Jerry move in. The RED camera continued to record 4K motion picture images as Jerry shot stills. Finally, the shark spooked and moved away. I was thrilled.

Back on the dhoni (Manthiri’s 54-foot dive tender) everyone was talking about whale sharks. I took perverse pleasure in telling Chip about the Zebra Shark. He deserved it after making me want to delete all my lemon and tiger sharks images from my still photography files.

January 20, 2010
Rainbow Reef
North Male Atoll
N 04 18 825 E 073 34 680

It’s hard to beat the soft corals in Fiji or Indonesia. But you haven’t seen everything until you’ve seen the soft corals in the Maldives. The colors are not just spectacular, they are different from anything I have seen before. Wonderful yellows, reds, and oranges garnish these reefs. But there are also spectacular lavenders and blues.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

This morning’s dive began in a now familiar way. We all dropped off the dhoni well up-stream of the pinnacle. Then we plummeted like stones to 100 feet and then drifted into the up-current wall of the reef. Conditions on the compression side of the pinnacle were surprisingly calm, and with the current running strong the soft corals were in full bloom. The combination of colors took my breath away. Unbelievable pastels. The soft coral splendor was enhanced by swarms of Anthias hovering above in the current. Michele and Steve Ladd were behind me shooting stills. Chip was a bit further back framing his wife, Susan, against the amazing colors. (When I saw the colors Chip captured with his Nikon, I felt like gnawing off another leg).

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

I moved a bit further up the reef to avoid having the still camera strobes flash my video. Mike Boom was following for a while, but soon dropped away after seeing another honeycomb moray eel. He and I had made a pact to foreswear photographing any more of these eels because we already had more than we could ever use. But the animals are like anemone fish; often just too alluring to pass up. I’m made of stronger stuff than Mike, at least where the morays are concerned. My problem is Anthias. I just can’t get enough footage of reef compositions festooned with soft corals and swarms of Anthias.

I signaled to Hassan who had much earlier (and he insists not regretfully) volunteered to caddy my heavy tripod. I pointed three fingers down to a bare spot on the reef where I wouldn’t damage the corals and then passed him my camera. I unfolded the ancient tripod and placed the leg tips on the limestone. Once secure, Hassan passed me the camera and helped me mount it. I then framed up the image and twisted my Light & Motion LED lights around to light the scene as best as possible. Not easy with a lens that will cover 170 degrees. I pressed the buttons on the battery pods and the reef exploded with kaleidoscopic life. I let the camera roll and roll.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

With my Galileo computer showing 2 minutes of bottom time remaining, I pulled the camera off the tripod, nodded to Hassan who then began gathering it up, and then turned to see where Michele was. It was time to soar away.

Many of our Maldives dives followed a consistent pattern. We would begin our dive on the compression side of a reef, then move to the edge where we were swept away by the current. After soaring like birds over the reef for ten minutes or so, Moosa would guide us to the lee side of the reef where we often found very different though often equally interesting subjects.

As Michele and I drifted along Rainbow Reef I couldn’t help hearing Crosby, Stills, and Nash performing Marrakesh Express. MacGillivray Freeman Films had used the song to great effect during the IMAX film Coral Reef Adventure against images of our film crew drifting through the famed Rangiroa Pass. Surprisingly, the currents in the Maldives were often stronger than anything we encountered in Tahiti. Soaring over the reefs in the Maldives was sometimes like flying a hang glider in turbulence in the Owens Valley.

Michele and I swung around into the lee side of the reef. The current was still strong there, but we could get down behind coral heads and look for subjects. I found Moosa looking over Lynn Morton’s shoulder as she photographed some concealed critter in the reef rubble. Lynn didn’t move much with her still camera. A showerhead had fallen on her foot a few days before and had broken a toe. A professional ballerina for more than twenty years, Lynn was used to using tape to bind her toes together and enduring foot pain. Still, when she swam, she tended to go in circles. I moved closer and saw that she was taking photos of a mantis shrimp. This seemed to be one of her favorite subjects.

January 22, 2010
Rasdhoo Ridge
Rasdhoo Atoll
N 04 15 819 E 072 59 885

This morning finds us back at the Ridge. I love this site. On our last dive here I cowered beneath a small overhang as several dozen gray reef and silver-tip sharks swam by. Moosa said he saw a group of over 70 sharks. Michele, Hassan, and Marcus were hovering just above me as the sharks passed. Then there was a roar as a school of fusiliers fled some unseen predator. A moment later three large hammerheads soared overhead passing through the upper corner of my RED camera frame.

This morning, however, I passed on the sharks and swam up and over the reef to a sandy patch on the other side. This usually was where the dive ends, but it had become a highlight for me and I wanted to get there early, even if it meant missing out on the shark action. As I headed over the reef I looked back and could see Chip’s strobes going off like machine gun fire. Oh well, I had made up my mind.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

At sixty feet there was a small overhang where the reef met the sand and inside the alcove was one of the best cleaning stations I have ever seen. The place was swarming with cleaner shrimp and variety of cleaner wrasse. On earlier dives I had captured lovely shots of two giant moray eels beneath the overhang with literally clouds of cleaner shrimp hovering about them, crawling over their skin, and dancing into their dangerous mouths. But I had missed the money shot. A large Napoleon Wrasse also frequented the cleaning station. It would come over the reef, enter the station, and be immediately mobbed by the shrimp. On earlier dives I had either been too slow to focus or behind other divers with their still cameras. This time I would get it.

I knelt next to the reef and looked into the cave. No one was home. But I resolved to stick it out. The last time I was here, I moved away too early and Mike Boom swam in behind me just as the wrasse entered the cleaning station. When I saw his footage, I lost another limb.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

I waited the entire dive. Eventually Mike and Lynn came over and started shooting a large mantis shrimp in a hole that was surrounded by tiny popcorn shrimp. I didn’t have the lens for that. Then Chip and Susan showed up. They hovered around for a while then moved off across the sand. I just knelt there next to the cleaning station. I hadn’t moved in over fifty minutes and was beginning to feel really quite foolish. My air was getting low, everyone else left except Michele and trusty Hassan. I was beginning to feel downright ridiculous when the wrasse finally swam over the reef and bullied his way into the cleaning station. I turned on my lights, moved in gently and let the RED camera rip as cleaner shrimp and colorful cleaner wrasse moved into the enormous mouth. Mike Boom appeared next to me and gently moved in with his camera. The Napoleon Wrasse performed beautifully.

I would love to come back here with my 16-85mm lens for some close-ups, but our trip is winding down and I won’t get the chance.

Banana Reef, Male
North Male Atoll
N 04 14 407 E 073 32 066

Our last dive was possibly our most exciting. We had returned to a beautiful soft coral encrusted structure called Banana Reef. As usual we descended from the dhoni and fell to about 80 feet. The wall came rushing at us surprisingly fast. But I was able to find a calm spot behind a large column of coral where Hassan and I set up the tripod and filmed, yet again, another spectacular soft coral with Anthias scene. Okay, it’s an addiction.

With our no-decompression time running out, Michele, Hassan, and I began our drift down the side of the reef. Soon we had accelerated beyond anything I’ve experienced at Rangiroa. I found myself humming Marrakesh Express to the voices of the Chipmunks! Hassan was in the lead and I noticed he had begun swimming aggressively away from the wall. I didn’t know what was happening, but I did likewise and signaled Michele to follow. Suddenly I saw a large overhanging reef section jutting out into the current and directly in our path. It was rushing at us at astonishing speed. But that was nothing to what happened when we went over the lip. It was like being thrown from a slingshot! I thought of the squirrel catapult I saw on a YouTube video. Going over that lip was like falling off a surfboard and going over the falls in a twelve-foot breaker! My exhaust bubbles flew around me like angry hornets then disappeared in the dark water below.I was worried about Michele, but it was all I could do to hold onto my big camera system as I was repeatedly turned ass-over-tea kettle.

A few moments later it was over. Michele’s experience was much like mine, but she came through just fine. As we approached the lee side of the reef, Hassan pointed out a hole that had three eels in it – two giant morays and a honeycomb. The remaining current made a hand-held shot impossible and setting up the tripod was very difficult. But once the camera was mounted, I managed to get a couple great shots composing all three eels.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall

After photographing the eels, we moved into the lee of the reef where we found Moosa and the rest of our group. Mike Boom looked like he was set up to video a rather dull reef scene. Later he pointed out that the lee side of the reef had been dusted with pure-white sand. Even the anemones were covered with it. The current had been so strong it had blown sand off the top of the reef and covered the lee side like a dusting of snow. When he showed me the footage I was stunned. White snow dusted Alps and Anthias. Damn, I hadn’t even noticed how unusual that had looked. I gnawed off another limb.

After the dive Hassan described the conditions as “extreme.” He said he had only been in stronger current when the tsunami hit in December 2004. He was diving at the time and in moments had been shoved straight down 100 feet then catapulted straight up to the surface. He lost track of all his divers, but miraculously no one was hurt. Our experience was not that dramatic, but it had been quite enough for me. I would love to do that dive again; to soar over that reef lip like a jet aircraft buzzing a mountaintop. But if I were to do it again, I’d certainly leave the big camera behind.

RED Grab Frame: Howard Hall