Underwater Videography - Underwater Indonesia by Eric Cheng

Underwater Indonesia: Alor and Komodo, November 2011 from Eric Cheng on Vimeo.

Diving Alor and Flores

Diving in Alor and Flores (Indonesia) underwater footage from Undersea Productions on Vimeo.

Whalesharks in Cenderawasih Bay

Once upon a time in Cenderawasih bay from Nu Parnupong on Vimeo.

Pilot whales in Raja Ampat

Raja Ampat, the center of the coral triangle, the area with highest marine biodiversity on earth, is an exceptional place for underwater photographers and underwater videographers. But sometimes, given by the unpredictability of nature some of the biggest marine wildlife spectacles can best be captured from the air.

Watch that exceptional movie of a large school of pilot whales taken - probably by the owner of the Pindito livaboard, Edi Frommenwile!

The Ring of Fire - Nu Parnupong

"The ring of fire" - the chain of islands towards the south east of Indonesia leading from Maumere on the island of Flores towards Alor and further across the Banda Sea connecting to the central Moluccan Islands around Ambon is one of the richest marine habitats on earth.

The chains of islands are mostly of volcanic origin. Hence, the name "the ring of fire".

Photographer Nu Parnupong shares a beautiful video from a trip following those islands across the Banda Sea.



More images can be found on flickr:

From Flores to Alor - Underwater documentary

Watch the three part documentary by Michael Bode of an exceptional trip by boat from Flores to Alor. the trip took place in 2008. A journey along the south-eastern islands of Indonesia. A very remote region with unexpected richness of underwater reefscape.


From Flores to Alor Part 1 - Whale hunters of Lamalera from Michael Bode on Vimeo.


From Flores to Alor Part 2 - Diving Anemone City from Michael Bode on Vimeo.


From Flores to Alor Part 3 - Traditional Alor from Michael Bode on Vimeo.

Impressions of Indonesia

A short film by Alex Beuerle. Documenting the beauty of Indonesia's underwater reefscape and country.


Impressions of Indonesia from Alex B. on Vimeo.

People of West-Papua - People Photography

From my scuba diving trips to West-Papua in Indonesia I have a collection of portrait images of local people. - Visit my gallery at link.
These images have been shot when visiting villages along the West-Papua coast line on a boat trip to the very remote Triton Bay in 2009.

Unfortunately we never visited the mountain regions of the West-Papua main land.




Most of these people did not see any tourists for several years and hence were very curious to know how this works with all the cameras we were carrying along.

A special experience was the curiosity especially of the kids when starting to communicate.
Immediately we were invited to meet the chief of the village, to visit the local school - which apparently was missing a teacher at the time, or the medical center - which was missing a doctor.



Interesting was also to see the mixture of people living in these remote villages.
Some of them were clearly of Papuan origin while others seemed to be immigrants from either the Maluku Islands, Java, or Sulawesi.

Along the coast the immigration and influence from eastern Indonesia is clearly visible while original Papuas preserving their tribal traditions live more in the mountain regions.

Searching for "West-Papua" in the "people" category of 500px.com yields some very impressive portraits.

The Dani by Evi Arbay (500px)

Dani warrior by Mikael Thorvaldsson (500px.com)

Papua Kids #2 by Massimo Rembrante (500px.com)

My underwater photography year 2015

I started the year 2015 in Bangka and Manado, North-Sulawesi, Indonesia on a three weeks trip with Murex Dive Resorts. Bangka is a little quiet island at the northern tip of North-Sulawesi. Located between the most famous and crowded scuba diving destinations Lembeh Strait in the east and Bunaken marine park in the west the are around Bangka island offers some hidden treasures of marine wildlife.

Bangka island

I rarely was diving in areas where on one dive you could experience highest variety of coral, offering scenic wide angle photography opportunities, in combination with a high density of macro wildlife such as several species of pigmy seahorses, ghost pipe fish, and countless species of nudibranch.
The Murex Bangka resort is built in a little bay at a calm white sandy beach surrounded by jungle. The perfect place to indulge into a relaxed island lifestyle.
The last week of our stay we spent at Murex Manado which is a resort to the south-west of the city of Manado. It is a beautiful place built into a overwhelming tropical garden. From there boat trips to Bunaken offering best in class wall dives but also to some of the most famous muck diving places in the area are possible.


North Sulawesi 2014/2015 - Images by Andreas Mueller

MSV Amira

In May 2015 we made another scuba diving trip with MSV Amira in West-Papua, Indonesia. The itinerary of this trip was from Sorong on the West-Papua mainland to the archipelago of Misool and from there following the chain of islands in the east Banda sea towards Saumlaki on the island of Jamdena.
This trip offered scuba diving in very remote places. Given the bad weather conditions we had to spend more days than planned in the Misool area. However, this would bring us to dive spots such ass the sites around Pulau Jef Pele which are not usual destinations on Misool trips. Afterwards we were heading Pulau Koon south east of the island of Seram. And further to Pulau Bui, Pulau Kalbur, Pulau Nitu to reach our final destination the harbour in the bay of Saumlaki on Pulau Jamdena.


Amira: Cruise from Sorong to Saumlaki - Images by Andreas Mueller

SCKA Swimming tournament

I did not only do underwater wildlife photography this year. In November I was shooting the SCKA annual swimming tournament (refer to older post). For the first time I took my underwater equipment along and took some pictures below the surface.
Interesting are  the pictures of the swimming kids turning at the end of the lane either from the side or when approaching from the front.


Underwater images - Images by Andreas Mueller

This was all of my 2015 underwater photography work. I did two more cold water dives in Swiss lakes. One in the lake of Zug and one in the lake Lucerne. But both without a camera.

Mark Erdman on the marine biodiversity epicenter

A very interesting talk by Mark Erdman on the epicentre of marine biodiversity.



Mark Erdman @ ADEX 2014 from Wetpixel on Vimeo.

Raja Ampat and Lembeh Strait - 2013

Two slide shows from our last (November 2013) underwater photography trip to Raja Ampat, West-Papua (unfortunately we were not able to visit the Wayag islands for political reasons) and to Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi.

Raja-Ampat

Raja Ampat 2013 - Images by Andreas Mueller

Muck diving at Lembeh-Strait

Lembeh Strait 2013 - Images by Andreas Mueller

Raja Ampat 2012

Another spectacular underwater photography trip aboard the MSV Amira (www.amira-indonesia.com) goes to an end.
The ten day cruise started and ended at the harbour of Sorong in West-Papua, Indonesia.
In between we visited the most exciting dive spots around the Kri and Mansuar islands, in the area of Penemu, the muck diving area in the south of Batanta, and spots in the south east of Misool.


Marine Wildlife - Raja Ampat - Images by Andreas Mueller

Upcoming trip to Raja Ampat

Looking forward to another trip to Raja-Ampat, West-Papua, Indonesia.
Starting December 1st.


Soft Corals - Close Up - Images by Andreas Mueller

See my new book: The Heart Of The Coral Triangle

The present book is a photo report of a scuba diving exploration tour aboard the MV Raja Ampat Explorer in the Raja-Ampat and Triton Bay area in West-Papua, Indonesia. The tour took place in April 2009.

Starting point was the harbour of Sorong located at the north western tip in the indonesian part of the New Guinea main land.

The tour brought us to the most beautiful dive spots of Misool. From there via the Pisang Islands, Momon Waterfall and Kaimana to the Triton Bay area.

Triton Bay offers some of the most spectacular dive spots on earth by means of its marine biodiversity.

After exploring the islands around Triton Bay for a couple of days, we crossed the Ceram Sea again to reach Koon Island in the Banda Sea.

From Koon we transfered back to Misool and from there further north to Kri in the Raja Ampat area before ending our tour in the harbour of Sorong again.

The Heart Of The Coral Triangle by Andreas R. Müller | Make Your Own Book

Underwater Impressions - Maumere to Ambon

Marine Wildlife - Maumere to Ambon - Images by Andreas Mueller

Global Epicenter of Marine Biodiversity

Looking forward to our next scuba diving expedition to the parts of the global epicenter of marine biodiversity.

See some older impressions:

Marine Wildlife - South East Asia - Images by Andreas Mueller