Diving Borneo

Diving with a GoPro: A Fish’s World Through a Fish-Eye Lens

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The biggest adrenaline rush I’ve had came when riding the dive boat out to Sipadan in Borneo. Schools of hammerhead in all their species lay beneath. Whirling tornadoes of barracuda were down there. Leviathan herself dwells beneath the Celebes Sea! Everything I’d read beforehand about diving at this particular spot led me to believe that apex predators swarmed the deep and that only the constant presence of ubiquitous food kept them from ingesting every piece of human flesh that foolishly donned rubber and mask to spy upon them. And we got to capture it all by diving with a GoPro.

There were sharks, yes. Schools of hammer? Not so much. Maybe it was the wrong season but we missed out on that bit of excitement. This little sucker was about four feet long and would have had a hard time mauling The Cat, much less a diver.

We did see some large schools of fish (barracuda, too!) that were about the most peaceful thing you can see underwater. Imagine huge flocks of sparrows immersed in a jar of clear moonshine honey.

These are barracuda that didn’t want to get close. We’d swim at them but the shimmering wall would effortlessly edge away.

The obligatory hold-out shot. This place wouldn’t be the same without em’.

You might have noticed a bit of blurriness and distortion to these images. That’s because these are all from the cutest little camera you ever did see called GoPro, which is waterproof and made for high-adrenaline sports like surfing and snowboarding. We still haven’t figured out the proper settings to capture crisp images underwater. But they sure make fun shots above!

I think the wife was trying to correct for chromatic aberration here. I mean the vignetting. Either way those freckles are just too cute to leave out.

COMMENTS
  • October 6, 2010

    Beautiful photos- looks like a blast!
    Reminds me to get my disposible underwater camera developed…

  • October 6, 2010

    Awesome photos. I love the underwater headshot with the ball of light shining through. Very cool.

  • October 6, 2010

    I think the photos are amazing!!!!! Love the hat K.

  • October 6, 2010
    caroline

    I would just like to say, my fiance and I are huge fans of this camera. We tested it out on his parents’ boat this summer but he accidentally deleted the video. So he did this one instead. http://www.vimeo.com/12098571
    Love the wide angle.
    We haven’t taken it under water yet, but we can’t wait until our next vacation to try it.

  • October 6, 2010

    I love the fish eye! Even the blurry underwater shots. It makes me feel more like being underwater, somehow.

  • October 6, 2010

    Very interesting underwater shots. But I like the last one of you the Best.

  • October 7, 2010

    Aww, newlyweds 🙂

  • October 8, 2010

    Amazing pics! Fish eye lenses always produce cool results. The diving pics look awesome, though I don’t think I would be brave enough do that–I would be so afraid that the sharks or barracudas would nibble me!

  • October 11, 2010

    Holy hell. I think barracudas would be thrilling enough, but you’re complaining that there weren’t any hammerheads around with which to frolic? You, sir, are a bit not right in the head. You do, however, take a mean fishy picture.

  • October 20, 2010

    Nice. Greetings from the Speedy DNS.

  • January 3, 2015

    Nice Photo. The fishing in Malaysia is a huge attraction for many tourists. Malaysia is one of the best tourist destinations in Southeast Asia. I love the underwater camera.

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