Pom Pom Island Dive Boat Ready for Departure (Above); Light Filtering Through Structure, Mataking House Reef (Right)
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PomMalaysia’s Pom Island — Diving the Celebes Sea Text and photos by Larry Cohen and Olga Torrey 70 X-RAY MAG : 63 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO LARRY COHEN travel Pom Pom OLGA TORREY Pom Pom Island dive boat ready for departure (above); Light filtering through structure, Mataking House Reef (right). PREVIOUS PAGE: Hypselodoris bullockii 2 nudibranch Borneo is the third largest island in the world. It is the home to three countries— Indonesia to the south, Brunei and Malaysia in the north. The Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak are located on the island. Our journey to Pom Pom Island took us to the Tawau air- port in the state of Sabah. This was a two hour and LARRY COHEN 40 minute flight. We then Prior to the journey, my part- Beach Resort. This would be the many exhibitors including dive had to take a van another ner, Olga Torrey, and I were perfect trip to see how my new operators, gear manufactures, hour to the port city of invited to do presentations camera system would perform. shops and training organizations. Semporna. This is the start- at the Asia Dive Conference It was the nineth year Ness Velu During the conference there were ing point for all dive resorts (ADCON) in Kuala Lumpur and her staff have been run- many speakers including Michael Malaysia and dive at Pom ning the Malaysia International Aw from Ocean Geographic in Malaysia. OLGA TORREY Pom Island with the Celebes Dive Expo (MIDE). The expo has Magazine. Non-divers could Clown fish on night dive in front of Celebes Beach Resort 71 X-RAY MAG : 63 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO travel Pom Pom OLGA TORREY OLGA TORREY OLGA TORREY pher with Scubazoo Panasonic 7-14mm allowed a wide Christian Loader, view without the distinctive curve of editor-in-chief of a fisheye lens. The King’s Palace is Action Asia Magazine behind a gate, but from the hill, one Steve White, techni- could get a clear view. The Palace LARRY COHEN cal dive instructor with was in the distance, but by using the Blue Label Diving Ben 40-150mm lens, it was possible to get TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: Petronas Twin Reymenants, ITDA an image without cropping. Towers; Fountain on Dataran Regional Director Just like most major cities, the resi- Merdeka (Independence William Ong and dents are the true soul of the city Square); Guard at the King’s underwater photogra- and need to be documented. Most Palace; Kuala Lumpur is a major pher Ab Lee. people are extremely friendly and cosmopolitan city; View from OLGA TORREY Kuala Lumpur is a are more than happy to be photo- the Petronas Twin Towers with LARRY COHEN Panasonic 8mm Fisheye lens (top try scuba in the pool with a PADI major cosmopolitan city that is worth graphed. Sometimes the problem far right); The Olympus 40-150mm instructor. This is the first year Ness exploring with many photo opportu- was to get a natural candid look. choice for these images. The lenses lens was used to photograph added the Asia Dive Conference nities. From Chinatown, the Petronas When faced with a camera many are wide enough for environmental a dance performance at the (ADCON) were experts gave pre- Twin Towers to the King’s Palace, the people would look directly in the portraits and street photography. National Museum (inset far right); sentations on photography and architecture is varied and interest- camera, smile and make gestures. The 40-150mm was useful when pho- Mother and child watch dance technical diving. Olga and I were ing. Working close, the 8mm fisheye The 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO and tographing scenes in the distance performance (right) honored to be among the present- could be used to create an interest- Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 ED such as the dance performance at ers that also included photogra- ing prospective with distortion. The M.Zuiko EZ were usually the lenses of the National Museum. OLGA TORREY 72 X-RAY MAG : 63 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO travel Pom Pom LARRY COHEN OLGA TORREY LARRY COHEN LEFT TO RIGHT: Chromodoris willani nudibranch; Pom Pom Island places to hang wetsuits and BCs. Olga Torrey with cuttlefish, Mantabuan Island; Pom Pom Island is small, with two There were also wash bins dedi- Lionfish at Cleaning Station, leaf scorpionfish during resorts on the Island. Celebes cated to certain gear. One was night dive, and the pier at Celebes Beach Resort LARRY COHEN Beach Resort is three and half for cameras, another for regula- years old at this writing. The cli- tors and another for wetsuits. At small huts all along its length. traveling from Island to island, lucky and got little rain. The hour ental were mostly from Mainland the time of our visit, air was the Each hut was the office for a dif- they have now settled in the we spent on this dock, there was China, Europe and Malaysia. only gas available. Getting heavy ferent resort. The Celebes Beach area. According to the January a downpour. The OM-D E-M1 Being from the United States, we gear onto the island was not Resort’s office was a nice space 2007 Monthly Statistical Bulletin, and OM-D E-M5 are weather were in the minority. The 16 rooms easy. The staff at Celebes Beach to relax out of the heat and have Department of Statistics Malaysia, sealed. But not all Olympus and were in eight different buildings. Resort had been waiting patiently some water while the final paper they are the second-largest eth- Panasonic lenses are. So it is The rooms were modest but clean for their new nitrox system to be work was taken care of. nic group in the Malaysian state important to keep your rig dry and comfortable. The air-condi- delivered. The nitrox system was To the right and left of this dock of Sabah, making up 13.4 percent when using a non-weather sealed tioning was strong and there was installed just after our visit. LARRY COHEN were many shacks on stilts. The of the total population. lens. Luckily the dock with all the plenty of room to store extra gear. We had already met our dive Leaving this interesting urban residents of these structures are Using the 40-150mm lens, we dive resorts offices was covered. The main pavilion housed the guides for the week—Sherwin center we went to the outskirts the Bajau people also known as were able to zoom into these So was the small boat we board- dinning area and dive center Shim, Jackson John and resort of Borneo to go diving. Our van Sea Gypsies. Once nomads who people’s lives. June is the rainy ed for the 45-minute ride to Pom office. The gear area had plenty manager, Nurul Yazid—at ADCON pulled up to a long dock with spent their entire lives on boats season in Malaysia. We were very Pom Island in the Celebes Sea. of bins for gear storage and and on the plane to Tawau. 73 X-RAY MAG : 63 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO travel Pom Pom LARRY COHEN LARRY COHEN directly to my lens port. Then I would have been able to pro- duce an image with a 50 per- cent increase in magnification. Of course, actually getting it in LARRY COHEN the frame is another matter. The waters around Pom Pom Moving on, I was able to pho- LARRY COHEN Island are known for macro life. tograph many small creatures Nurul, Jackson and Sherwin are banged on their tanks to get nothing of interest in the frame. that I could see. Tiny clown- skilled at spotting the tiniest of our attention. Using their point- Later, when looking at the fish would dart in and out of creatures. Exhausted from our ers they pointed in excitement. images on the computer, an anemone for protection. travels we still decided to do a I saw nothing. Not wanting to everyone said you got the Anemones are poisonous to 6PM dive on our first day at the insult our guides, I blindly point- pygmy seahorse; I still did not most marine life, but they have resort. The site directly in front ed my camera in the direction see it. A life size 1:1 image of a symbiotic relationship with the of the resort is known as the of their pointers. Figuring there a creature that is smaller than clown fish. Cleaning Station. I set up my was something really small, I your thumbnail was still too Whenever you have on a housing with the 60mm macro manually set the camera to the small. After doing some crop- macro lens, you see interest- and Olga had the Olympus closest focusing distance. ping, I finally saw that I got my ing large subjects. A large sea 12-50mm lens with macro but- This would give me a life-size first image of this tiny creature. turtle and a blue spotted sting- ton on her Olympus OM-D image on my camera sen- Not a very good image but to ray allowed us to get extremely LARRY COHEN E-M5. sor. This is known as shooting a my surprise it was in the frame. close. With the 60mm macro, TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: Huge barrel sponge at Sherwin and Jackson started 1:1 magnification ratio.