Women Photographers Overrun Club Ocellaris: Philippines

Waterlogged Date: 3/9/97

Club Ocellaris is a beautiful, small dive club located on the shore of Balayan Bay, Batangas in the Anilao area about a 2 hour drive south of Manila. M/Y Nautika dropped the women photographers group off right in front of the Club on March 1, to continue our diving schedule without interruption. The club and dive staff went out of their way to accommodate our desires, scheduling meals and diving at our request. Boy Venus, owner of Club Ocellaris, provided E6 processing, a light table, loupe, slide projector and screen so that we could view our work and improve the results. Results were generally good, but a power outage during a critial phase of the processing fogged 5 rolls of film. On subsequent runs, Boy had a generator running as a preventative measure. Beatrize Rock, snacks and night dives became the mainstay of the 7 days at the club. With water temperatures in the high 70's and overcast skies most days, the girls layered neoprene, polartec, vests and hoods and kept right on diving. Jim Browning, however, made a surprize appearance and did not appear cold at all. The first favorite dive site was Kirby's Rock, a small pinnacle from about 80' to the surface just off Caban Island and a 30 minute ride from the Club. There, the photographers found subjects of eels, frogfish, leaf scorpionfish, mantis shrimp, many nudibranchs, scorpionfish and shrimp. Other sites, such as Aphols Rock, Pulang Buli and Coral Gardens, mostly sandy slopes with coral bommies and small drop offs were excellent locations for macro photography. An abundance, or rather an overabundance, of crinoids in every conceivable color and combination of colors led one diver to begin a photographic collection of crinoid combinations. Beatrize Rock is a flat topped pinnacle in the center of the channel that is subject to strong currents. After attempting the dive on several days, the group managed to find a time when currents were not quite so fierce and dived the site each day thereafter. The rock is covered with a rainbow of colors in tunicates, crinoids, soft corals, tubastrea corals and billions of orange and purple anthias. When the current picks up, the place is chaotic with anthias swarming around the giant barrel sponges and surfing the currents above the soft corals. We hope that the wide angle photos from the site will be fantastic. Crevasses in the rock and sheer walls host beautiful "posies", clusters of tunicates, hydroids and sponges while the corners exposed to the current are densely covered with tubastrea and crinoids. Every inch of the rock is covered with life. Currents push the divers around the rock. There is always a place to duck out of the current with the major effort of the dive being the ascent back to the boat. Each evening, although it was difficult to find the time between dinner and the essential night dive, one of the women presented a slide show of her work. Subjects ranged from Africa to Indonesia, the Caribbean, Maldives, Red Sea and our favorites from the current dives. The group quickly settled on one particular night dive as the all-around favorite dive. The site is a sandy slope with little structure, another of the "Twilight Zone" sites such as those at Ambon and Kungkungan Bay resort in Indonesia. Everyone found too many subjects for a 36 exposure roll. Ghost pipefish, dwarf scorpionfish in various colors, live shells, ugly snake eels, numerous crabs, a seahorse, foot long pipefish, pygmy cuttlefish, rare nudibranchs, panda (or saddleback) anemonefish... The girls came up babbling after each dive. Most came back to the the boat to change film or pick up a second camera and found it difficult to list all the creatures they found on the dive. Club Ocellaris is built of bamboo and nestles into the side of a hill behind a large shade tree. It is difficult to spot from the water and impossible to see from the road. The club is arranged nicely for divers and socializing. Four share rooms, each with 4 full size bunk beds (4 beds) and private shower/toilet are equipped with a desk and chair and large shelf unit for each diver. We used the veranda in front of the rooms for working on and storing camera gear and for socializing. Dining, bar, E6 and slide shows were on the next lower level. Meals are buffet style and all the food was excellent with plenty of fresh fruit at every meal. Down another set of stairs is the dive area with drying racks, shower, rinse tank, table and chairs. Boats, "bancas", are pulled up on the rocky beach and loaded by the dive staff. The long narrow wooden boats with outriggers are powered by automobile engines and are quite comfortable except for spray when the sea is choppy. The ladders on some of the boats could use an extra rung extending down into the water to make it easier for divers to climb aboard after a dive. We took bottles of fresh water to rinse cameras between dives. The group was quite interesting and had much in common although professions and locations varied considerably. New friendships formed on this trip will no doubt lead to more photographic expeditions among the participants in the future as well as return trips to the Philippines. Boy Venus and Club Ocellaris can be reached at oc@mozcom.com or contact seahorse@DiveDiscovery.com for travel information.

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