It’s interesting how we give advice like it’s “so easy”. Many years back, a friend told me, “you made it sound like it’s so easy, wait till it happens to you.” I told him, “when it happens to me, I hope you will be the one who will remind me of what I said.” Sometimes, the mind is clearer when you are looking from the third party point of view.
Anyway, this relates to my dive experience in Bali. I remembered very clearly during my first dive in Perhentian (Malaysia), the dive guide said before the dive, “no gloves, no knives”. Being a newbie, I didn’t know what the fuss was about. Then I learned that is to prevent divers from picking up things, touching delicate corals and disturbing wildlife. During my dive trip in Manado last year, I was a little shocked when the dive guide pulled the shark’s tail so that it’d turn towards us for a picture. I took the picture, it was nice. But everytime I look at the picture, the only think I can remember was his actions. Not exactly memorable. This is just one of the many examples.
I don’t think I’ll be very happy if my tail got pulled
During my trip to Bali, I was assigned this young dive guide. He was ok in general, but I was a little unhappy with his lack of knowledge about the dive sites and marine life (if someone tells me a Titan triggerfish is a Frogfish, something is very wrong). I was there to take some underwater pictures, so I told him to let me know if he finds something interesting. During one of the dives, he found a Moray eel between the rocks and signaled to me. As I approach, the eel turned away and went into the rocks. So I waited for it to reappear. But he used a metal rod to dig into the rocks so that the eel came out of hiding. I wasn’t happy and signaled him to move on. How would you feel if someone ransack your house just to get a picture of you?
After the dive, I told him off. I told him that the reef is his livelihood, if he can’t protect it, once it’s dead, people will not come back anymore. I start to appreciate what the dive guide in Perhentian did. To a customer, they “might” want him to get the fish out for a better angle, but I feel he’ll earn more respect by saying “no”. And probably a more sustainable business model in the long run.
It was only during this trip that I felt stronger against this practice. And when I look at someone else doing it, I reflect. And that reflection, isn’t pretty. When I view a photograph, I’m not just looking at the picture, I’m looking at what is beyond the photograph, the experience and what the photographer is trying to express. If capturing the moment is going to cause discomfort, why do it?
I’ve always felt that the memories behind an image means alot more than the aesthetics.
