We manage 4 dives on Bora Bora, and 6 on Rangiroa, using Top Dive as our operator. Our experience with this company is quite good, and we recommend them to anyone diving in Tahiti. They have bases on Moorea, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Rangiroa. Check out topdive.com

They say the best way to learn something is by doing it, and after doing a lot of underwater photography on this trip, we learn one BIG thing: that it's hard! Constant motion of yourself and subjects, low light, decreased visibility, backscatter from illuminated particles in the water, and loss of color without proper filters, add to the challenge. Then there's hazards like wave surge, current of up to 10 knots in the passes, sharp coral, and animals that can easily mutilate and/or kill you if their macadamia nut-sized brain commands it. Even with all that nonsense though, it's really fun!

From left to right: puffer fish, barracuda, coral garden, unknown species, giant napoleon wrasse. The napoleon wrasse can reach sizes up to 6 feet in length. On Bora Bora, there's a wrasse which has been hand fed for years and has grown to about 5 feet. It's incredibly tame and likes to be pet like a big dog.

The first three photos to the right are of a 10 foot silvertip reefshark. This particular animal isn't shy at all, and makes quick passes within inches of us, far too close for comfort. A shark's rough skin can remove several layers of flesh during high speed contact. Despite their notorious reputation, sharks pose a statistically near non-existent threat to humans. As apex predators, they're instinctively cautious of anything they attempt to eat, and rightly so. Many items on their menu can cause injury during feeding, and unlike schooling fish, sharks can't rely on each other for protection if injured. Attacks are almost always determined to be mistaken identity, and even with the thousands of divers in the ocean every day, there has never been an attack in all of French Polynesia, ever. This is what we keep telling ourselves as the shark comes by for another pass...

Sea turtles graze the coral bed, endlessly searching for and eating food. What exactly this food is, we don't know. It almost looks like they're munching on small pieces of broken coral. Here's Nicole doing her best turtle impression, as her subject looks over his shoulder.