Henry's underwater photography and Egypt Adventures

In the beginning October I have decided to travel to Egypt. There were many things to try out before I go back to the Philippines in early December. I had to practise my underwater photography, because we want to visit also the remote islands where I probably have only a few days to take my pictures. So I want to be sure that I know my job. I will try to give you the best impressions of this beautiful paradise with all its contrasts and beautiful people. The underwater world of the Philippines is the most interesting which I have ever seen. You don't can compare it with Egypt, Maledives or the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I have been there and i tell you that the Philippines will make you addicted and this country could spellbind your attention for the lifetime how it has my own. I hope I will meet the great hammerheads around Kabilao and Moalboal in January. But back to my short trip to Egypt. We took off from a small airport in Leipzig on a Friday evening after work. I went directly from my work to the airport. Our feelings were mixed because of the winged assassins which had destroyed the WTC in New York. I was sitting at the airport and hold a newspaper in my hands where I could read that seven of the terrorists were born in Egypt and some of them have studied in Germany. I could not belief that Mohammed Atta was a civil engineer how I'm. For that cowardly act he will braise in hell. I have heard that he expected to came to the paradise for this deadful crime on God and the whole mankind. He also expected to get over 50 virgins. What for a stupid boy. Did nobody tell him that the girlie paradise are the Philippines ? If you ever look for a paradise, go to your travel agency and buy a ticket to Cebu or Manila and see what Atta will see never again. Now lets have a look on my underwater photography. We arrived at Hurgadah airport around midnight and get our entry permits after a little waiting. The two guys which moves us in a van from Hurgadah to Marsa Alam, around four hours through the desert, were still waiting us. It was quit interesting to listen to the arabic music they were playing at the whole trip. I loved this music very much and I'm sorry that thier weren't any shops where they sale this type of music. The hotel lies in the middle of nothing. The name of the hotel is Shams Alam There was the sand and the sea around, but nothing else. At first I felt how much I will miss my filipina girlfriend during this stay. Most of the time we had a strong wind and a very stormy sea. So I had to wait for better weather until the last day before we had to leave. Nearly all dive spots are located on a plat- form which make it impossible to dive deeper than15,20 or 25 meters. Therefore you don't will see any oceanic fishes or reef sharks except of some stingrays. There wasn't any ray of hope to reach the Elphiston Reef, because of all this mass clearance and the small boats. Often we saw that boats hang on towroes, because of some engine trouble. Achim was our dive guide. He did a good job, but sometimes he got on my nerves with some of his admonitions like: Don't take all this pictures an look at your divebody ? All the time I felt that he don't like that I'm a photographer. It seemed that he is that type of submissive bank employee which like to suppress every creativity of his colleague. It wasn't possible for him to find an other photographer to accompany me. Instead he provided me with smoking beginners and those people which have a big consumption of air. Most of the dive spots are average in quality, but at this last day we were at SHAAB SHARM, an amazing drop off. One group saw some hammerheads in the deeper water. Unfortunately the Egypt government had limited the maximum of dive deep. This is the reason why I don't want to visit this country again. The attraction of Egypt are the hammerheads and they are deep, much deeper than this fu*king 30 meters. Most of the divers, I have met don't like this nursery shool rules too. This first twenty pictures I took at this drop off. Unfortunately a protection pane of my 15 millimeter bursted in a deep of 32 meters (ups). I could see how the water drops inn. Anyway this was not a reason to stop the photography. In view of the strong current I had used the same settings on both cameras the whole dive. This was a film with ISO 100 and the blend number 11 and an exposure time of 1/60 second. After my return to Germany I had send this faulty lens to Rene Aumann, a repair shop for nikon. He had exchanged the bursted pane as a free service, because I had ordered this lens from him early this year. In general it was an interesting trip for a week, but if I would have more time as one week, I would travel to asia for diving. This one Reef "SHAAB SHARM" made this trip to an unforgetful experience, because of the vegetation and coral formations. All other reefs I have seen are not comparable to this breathtaking drop off. There was only one other reef on the plateau area from this high quality, even there is not any chance to see a hammerhead, but I have forget the name. I still remember that there was a strong current and many red soft corals.