Piccie of mine on the Torygraph web site

[Fezant Pluckah]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries...

I win errrr.... nothing

[vtecstu]

Great pic. Very jealous - really like the idea of a safari but never done it and won't be doing it in the foreseeable future! How close were you? Assume there was a fair degree of zoom / cropping needed...?

[Fezant Pluckah]

Actually, the Torygraph did a bit of cropping.

This is the original:


I was about 10-15ft away. Nikon 200-400mm lens with a 1.4 convertor on it at max stretch!

[Dogsey]

Nice work Jim!

[M-J-B]

Nice picture Jim

Off topic....I've been on several diving holidays and I live about 5 minutes from you - are you connected to TB just up the road from you at Smithbrooke Kilns?

[Fezant Pluckah]

I'm not M-J-B, but I do arrange a lot of their long haul stuff for them.

Whereabouts are you?

[M-J-B]

Fezant Pluckah said:

I'm not M-J-B, but I do arrange a lot of their long haul stuff for them.

Whereabouts are you?

Business based in West Chilt (formerly in W-Green), I live on the outskirts of Ashington in the middle of nowhere.

I've used TB on several occasions, Eygpt, Maldives etc and found them OK, but not helpful when it goes wrong! To be fair, I haven't dived for a couple of years as I have small children.

[Fezant Pluckah]

Just down the road indeed!

I sometimes put Red Sea stuff their way, and I've done a few of their trips in Egypt, but only liveaboard. Things have run pretty smoothly for me, luckily! They've got a reasonable reputation, especially for the Red Sea, but no one there is very clued up on long haul stuff!

[M-J-B]

Fezant Pluckah said:

Just down the road indeed!

I sometimes put Red Sea stuff their way, and I've done a few of their trips in Egypt, but only liveaboard. Things have run pretty smoothly for me, luckily! They've got a reasonable reputation, especially for the Red Sea, but no one there is very clued up on long haul stuff!

I have been on a few liveaboards with TB in the Red Sea, a couple with Peter Collins (who has had a mixed reception on every trip!). It was the long haul where it all went very wrong. I went to have a chat once home and got bugger all sympathy from them, so I voted with my wallet.

[Fezant Pluckah]

I arrange all Peter's long haul stuff (mainly to Truk Lagoon!) I think he has his groupies, and when a newbie comes in it can be quite difficult for them to fit in. But he's a nice enough chap although his theories on some of the Red Sea wrecks are not 100% accurate!

[M-J-B]

Fezant Pluckah said:

I arrange all Peter's long haul stuff (mainly to Truk Lagoon!) I think he has his groupies, and when a newbie comes in it can be quite difficult for them to fit in. But he's a nice enough chap although his theories on some of the Red Sea wrecks are not 100% accurate!

I got on well with him, some more experienced divers in the group weren't happy being 'lectured' to!

That said, he did lose me in the engine room of one of the wrecks for a minute or two on my 17th dive....

That was a scary moment I can tell you, and he got a lot of stick from my more experienced mates who thought he was a bit mental taking me into a situation like that as a newbie. I don't do engine rooms now and feel happier out of wrecks rather than in them!

[Fezant Pluckah]

You and me both! Happy to go into a wreck if I can see the other end or can swim out the top. Not interested in rummaging any deeper. Anyway, it's nigh on impossible with a camera rig the size of mine!