Last Update : Sunday 5 August, 2001 1:23 AM

	‘TUMBLING DRAGON’
	Photo - Camera - Lens - Film - Flash - Model -	Thon Thamrongnawasawat F90x with housing 105mm f11 Velvia SB-105 TTL Rhinopias (Dragonfish)

          Normally, all nature photographers have their own ideal objects. Some want to take a photograph of กระทิง for once in their lives. Some dream of Rufous-neck Hornsbill. But if they were underwater photographers, what would the object be?

          I know a lot of professional underwater photographers like khun Apinun and khun Vinij who work with Tourism Organization of Thailand, or, khun Nat of Nature Explorer. I am acquainted with the latter. We used to go diving together for many trips. Khun Nat has also been kind enough to let us use some of his photographs in Talay Thai.com, which we had presented in several occasions.

          I talked to khun Nat long ago about our ideal objects. What interested him most was a kind of fish called Rhinopias (Dragonfish), in the same family as Lionfish and Stonefish, but has a weirder look. There was a photograph shot from the Burmese Sea. We dreamed that one day the fish would be found in the Thai Sea as well. No one had taken a photograph of this fish in the Thai Sea then.

          After that chatting, we continued with our own business, yet each kept on tracking the other’s work. Until one day I saw khun Nat presented the photograph of long-fin Rhinopias taken from PP Island. That fish was the same as what had been taken in Burma, but of black colour not pink. Khun Nat has gone back to visit him several times, collecting the photographs from all viewpoints, like yawning fish.

          I was green with envy because I did not have a chance to meet Rhinopias like khun Nat. Until one day I went diving at หก Island, in the Similan Islands, I tried to swim away from the crowd because there was only rocks around, without soft coral or gorgonian at all. At the depth of only 10 meters, I found a fish walking, repeat ‘walking’ not swimming.

          Merely seeing him I knew that he was Rhinopias. But when I looked closely, he was not the same Rhinopias whose photograph had been taken. I did not know what he was. I had never seen one before. So, I tried to take his photographs. At that time I tried to use housing in the water. With long lens of 105 mm instead of 50 mm which I normally use, taking photograph was terribly difficult.

          While I was trying to take his photograph, he did not swim away…but ‘tumble’.

          He turned his nose upward, looking left and right, raising his head up high before thrusting his head down, tumbling. I named him ‘tumbling dragon’.

          Until I returned to Bangkok, and looked up in the book of fish, that I found out he was the rare fish – very difficult to find. There had been no spotting report in Thailand, although there was one from Mauricius Island. Lately, he could be found elsewhere like New Guinea. This one was certainly the first report in Thailand. According to my knowledge, no one could ever taken his photograph again. I went back but could not find him either.

          The tumbling dragon has become a photograph of my mind. This photo reminds me of the day I saw him tumbling along at 10 meters under the sea, at the top of Sixth Island.

          This is the Talay Photo I dreamed of.

 

Copyright © 1999-2001 TalayThai.com All right reserved.