Talay Photo

Last Update : Sunday 5 August, 2001 1:26 AM

	GIANT GORGONIAN
	ภาพ - กล้อง - เลนส์ - ฟิล์ม - แฟลช - นายแบบ -	Thon Thamrongnawasawat Nikonos RS 13mm Fuji Velvia ISO 50 SB-104 “Yo” and gorgonian

          At the depth of 25 meter the coral reef dropped to a wall of 90 degrees, around the area Padina appeared gradually replacing Bunch of Staghorn coral from the depth of 10 meters onward. It would not be far wrong to call this point a cemetery. But why had I dived here and why was my heart pounding…thud…thud?

          I saw him now. His large shadow looked like a large rock not so clear amidst dark blue sea, about 10 meters beyond the edge of coral reef down below.

          I flipped nearer and deeper until I arrived at the depth of 40 meters. Finally, I arrived at “The largest gorgonian in the Thai Sea”. No where, whether it was 8 miles pinnacle, Jabang, Hin Daeng, Raja Island, Similan, Tachai, or crossing to the Gulf of Thailand side such as Tao Island, Chumporn pinnacle etc., no where that there ever was a gorgonian this size, at least according to my eyes.

          Not only me, but also several divers who claimed they had seen plenty of giant gorgonian, after I had taken them down to witness this gorgonian came up and said the same word, “Awed”.

          I had met him since 1987 when Khun Taksin took me down to see him for the first time. From that day to this, 14 years has passed, every time I went to Surin Island I always went back to see him because he is the symbol of Thailand’s last fort. Any day that this gorgonian passed away, should it was done by human hand, that would be the saddest day in my life.

          That was another dive in my almost twenty dives at the place. But it was not the same as others because I had a special objective. Not only to see, but I came to take his photograph to show it to the Thais.

          It was a clear sky, bright sunshine day. Clearer than the sky was ‘water’. It was so clear that I had never seen before at Surin Island. Normally, there was thin sediment floated in the sea there, especially in the deep. I changed plan abruptly. In the afternoon, instead of surveying the previous spot, I asked “Yo” – one of the Sea Papa team who specialized in soft coral and gorgonian – to come with me.

          From the beach in front of the National Park, ten minutes by boat, we arrived at the outer edge of coral reef of Laem Maeyai. Having tied the boat with the buoy, Yo and I went down the water, diving along the sharp dropped edge to this gorgonian. Arriving at the target, I smiled triumphantly, the seawater was so clear at the level I had never seen before.

          Every time I came down to see the giant, I always found dull colour seawater, suitable for taking a wide-angle photograph from the distance of 1 to 2 meters, but not the distance of 5 to 6 meters. The distance had to be that long because this gorgonian was too large for the lens to capture the whole photograph. This time I decided to use 13 mm fish eye view to gain a wider viewing angle. Distance of 4 meters was enough. There was little current then, easy for balancing in the water. We had no tripod under the sea. Every thing depended on skill and practice.

          I took 1-2 photographs to use as comparison in the future, before sending hand signal to Yo. He swam to the gorgonian side while I clicked the shutter neatly. Flashlight was on, followed by quick blinking of red signal light, indicating that light was not enough. I tried to adjust the aperture wider from f8 to f5.6 and took another shot. Any way the light was still not enough.

          What could we do when the light was not enough? Above our head, we had a mass of water 40 meters deep blocking us from the sun. That was all the light we had, under the water. I shook my head before calling Yo to go up because dive computers on our wrists showing that we were almost next to Decomp.

          Having the film processed upon return…I could smile. Although the photographs did not come out perfect, they were acceptable. We added red colour to the photos to help gorgonian looked more natural. I spent especially long time with this photograph before presenting it to you.

          This narration of Talay Photo is a little long, since I have been waiting 14 years to obtain the photograph of this gorgonian. Hundreds of photographs taken there, only this one was acceptable. But I thought it was worth it.

          This photograph was the one I chose to decorate my computer screen at home. Regardless of the time of day, when I see this photograph, I would remember the memory at 40 meters deep, at Surin Island, several hundreds kilometers from my home.

          There the largest gorgonian in Thailand still exists. So, I and my children, you and your children and every Thai could be proud that Thailand has good things to offer.

          This gorgonian is not only the largest in the Thai sea, but also the largest and most beautiful that I have seen in all my twenty years of 3,000 dives in 12 countries around the world.