Going under in Egypt.

Posted @ October 12, 2008 1:45 AM by Jax Related Categories: Fishing,Coldfusion,Photo,Misc

Me and my girlfriend decided we could do with a few weeks of sunshine. The summer here in the Netherlands sucked with lots of rain and low temperatures. Egypt in September however still had blue skies and temperatures close to 40 degrees celsius ( 104 Fahrenheit).   I wanted to learn how to scuba dive and snorkeling opportunities were supposed to be great as well. And they sure were !

Look! It is the terrible diving dutchman!

Read on and see more underwater images.


The wildlife in the Red Sea is truly amazing! Our hotel was situated on the very border of Ras Mohammed, a national park which mainly takes place under water. Everything from hammerhead sharks to dolphins and sea turtles can be found in the park. While I was there and because I always wanted to, I took a few days to learn how to dive,  with a crazy bunch of pirates.  I did two dives in Ras Mohammed which were great but unfortunately did not see any sharks or turtles.

As said, our hotel was located right on the reef and life on this reef was incredible! Everyday I saw something I hadn´t seen before. Rays, huge napoleonfish, octopus, muray eels, they were all there.  I bought myself a DicaPac that enabled me to use a Canon Ixus camera underwater.

Most fish are quite friendly. Most...
Red Sea anemone fish. Very closely related to Nemo:-)
Threadfin butterfly fish. A very common sight in the Red Sea.

Looking back it wasn´t a sound plan. I mean, learning how to scuba dive and do underwater photography?? What was I thinking? Now I'm stuck with a new passion and it's not a cheap one.
I took over 900 shots, edited the best ones (which is a *lot* of work but is worthwhile, see next two images) and I am quite happy with the results.

View of the reef. As it came out of the camera
View of the reef. After developing in Photoshop and Lightroom

Be sure to also check out a small set of my underwater images on my flickr account, including photos of  the more dangerous creatures of the sea, most images there also have additional info.


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  1. Matt Weaver's Gravatar Matt Weaver 10/14/08 2:26 AM
    Wow, that editing came out amazing, I'm impressed! I've taken a few pictures with (cheap) underwater cameras, and always had them come out like your picture to the left. I didn't realize it was possible to process it into looking like the one on the right, I thought all the reds were washed out for good due to the nature of being underwater.
  2. jax's Gravatar jax 10/14/08 11:17 AM
    Thanks Matt!

    It depends on at what depth the image was taken mostly. I found that below 4 meters (12 feet) there usually is not enough red light any more. At those depth you *need* to have a powerful flash in order to get good colors.
  3. Tjarko's Gravatar Tjarko 10/14/08 12:36 PM
    Looks great, I was just wondering which wale you captured on the above picture?? ;-)
  4. jax's Gravatar jax 10/14/08 1:08 PM
    What a shame... thus ends an almost lifelong friendship with Tjarko in the blink of an eye..
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