Best Liveaboard Destinations For Underwater Photography

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This is the fifty-first in a series that introduces and describes the various dive services and sites for worldwide liveaboard dive safaris. This one focuses on the best liveaboard destinations for underwater photography. For other “Best” reviews of liveaboards and destinations, go to “Best Liveaboards & Destinations Lists” on the top menu.

Have you ever been diving on any of the locations described below? If so, I’d love to know about your experience. What liveaboard did you use? How was the diving? Were the services and accommodations good? Please post your response in the comments section at the bottom and we’ll all learn something we can use.

Underwater photography allows you to create a record of the great marine life you encounter and develop a means of artistic expression that can grow over your lifetime. Perhaps the best opportunity for a concentrated experience whether you are just starting out or have already become a true aficionado is on a liveaboard dive safari. With several dives a day to practice and other divers and instructors to share your results with, you have a chance to learn a lot and take your photography to a new level.

Below are brief reviews of some of the best locations in the world for a range of photo opportunities whether it be macro or wide-angle. The bucket-list scuba diving locations all have liveaboard yachts that are well outfitted and staffed for photography of the most intriguing targets available in the marine world.

Perhaps you would like to enhance your skills with a structured course. The PADI Digital Underwater Photographer course is one option you can look into. Check with the liveaboard operator for the option of instruction.

Best Liveaboard Destinations For Photography

Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Sea of Cortez, Mexico
Maldives
Red Sea
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Seychelles
Komodo, Indonesia
Visayas, Philippines
Jardines de la Reina, Cuba
Fiji

Raja Ampat, Indonesia

Raja Ampat offers a full palette of attractions for the photographer. It has perhaps the world’s top biodiversity with pristine coral reefs, loads of reef tropicals, macro critters, megafauna, and even some wrecks.

The variety of undersea terrain includes black and white sand bottoms, grass beds, mangrove forests, coral gardens, steep walls, and rocky slopes. There is a habitat that is perfect for macro critters like ghost pipefish, ribbon eels, harlequin shrimps, banded sea kraits, pygmy seahorses, blue-ringed octopus, rhinopias scorpionfish, lobsters, and nudibranchs, as well as 1,500 species of fish in all.

Occasionally strong currents also bring pelagics like dogtooth tuna, giant trevallies, mackerel, whale sharks, mantas, and the possibility of whales, orcas, and pods of dolphins to go with the other megafauna that frequent the reefs including bumphead parrotfish, Maori wrasses, reef sharks, wobbegongs, turtles, and the occasional dugong.

The P-47D Thunderbolt and other World War II-era wrecks round out the picture of the range of great photo opportunities.

A very large number of liveaboards travel to Raja Ampat often combining with nearby areas in Cenderawasih Bay or the Banda Sea for a cornucopia of sites to enjoy over a number of liveaboard safaris.

Dive Season: year-round
Skill Level: beginner to advanced
Water Temperature: 79-86°F (26-30°C)
Visibility: 30-100 feet (9-30 meters)
Highlights: biodiversity, beautiful seascapes, macro life, megafauna, wrecks

For reviews of the Rajah Ampat and adjoining region liveaboards and diving, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Raja Ampat liveaboards

Sea of Cortez, Mexico

The Sea of Cortez has diverse marine life with a variety of megafauna highlighted by pelagic gamefish, manta rays, sea lions, dolphins, and a variety of sharks including, silky, hammerhead, and whale sharks. The corals themselves are not especially rich but there is an intriguing undersea topography and formations that nurture a variety of macro targets like crabs, lobsters, nudibranchs, seahorses, and frogfish.

The two liveaboards to the Sea of Cortez focus on the Midriff Islands from July through October with a few itineraries that travel all the way to the southern end taking in La Paz, Cabo Pulmo, and sites near San Jose del Cabo which are noted for big animals. Whale sharks are sighted year-round, frequently the surface, and not uncommonly at relatively shallow depths. Friendly young sea lions can be found around a number of rocky islands frolicking among the divers and making enthusiastic photo targets.

During the off-season, the boats move outside the Sea of Cortez and journey to the south to the Socorro Islands. For those who would like to dive Baja at other times of the year, there are accommodations and diving services available in several regions along the coastline.

Current can be strong and surface conditions rough in some areas, so care needs to be taken not to exceed personal skill levels, but there are sites suitable for all levels.

Dive Season: year-round (liveaboards are available from July through November)
Skill Level: beginner to advanced
Water Temperature: 75-84°F (24-29°C)
Visibility: 30-100 feet (9-30 meters) with the plankton bloom in the winter moving it toward the bottom of the range, most of the year visibility is 50 feet (15 meters) or better.
Highlights: interesting seascapes, sea lions, manta rays, silky, hammerhead, and whale sharks

For reviews of Sea of Cortez liveaboards and diving, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Sea of Cortez Midriff Islands Liveaboards

Maldives

With great biodiversity and an array of fantastic megafauna, the 1,190 islands and coral atolls have excellent visibility and conditions suitable for all levels.

Strong currents through channels and over pinnacles make for challenging conditions but have the advantage of bringing loads of nutrients which attracts manta rays and whale sharks, as well as turtles, oceanic whitetip and hammerhead sharks, eagle rays, and pelagics that present great wide-angle targets. The macro critters are not the main feature but there are locations and conditions where you can find them in the nooks and crannies.

The 39 or more liveaboards cruising the Maldives have many itineraries covering the large area. Most are luxurious with excellent photography support and have large comfortable service boats called dhonis to escort divers to the sites. It is an excellent place for doing the advanced open water diver or drift diver specialty courses.

Dive Season: year-round (the best season for mantas is December through May)
Skill Level: beginner to advanced
Water Temperature: 80-86°F (26-30°C)
Visibility: 50-100 feet (15-30 meters)
Highlights: biodiversity, pelagics, hammerhead and whale sharks, manta and eagle rays, turtles

For reviews of Maldives liveaboards and diving, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Maldives Liveaboards

Red Sea

The Red Sea covers a huge geographic area offering a broad range of photo opportunities from seascapes with rich coral life and reef tropicals to shipwrecks to megafauna.

In the well-traveled northern section liveaboards departing from Sharm el Sheil first visit Ras Mohammad National Park with colorful reefs on an interesting terrain with drop-offs, caves, and caverns, and diverse reef tropicals and the occasional reef shark or hammerhead. To the west and south of there are numerous wrecks, some historical, including the world-class SS Thistlegorm.

Further south the Hurghada departures tend to focus on the sites around the Brothers Islands, Elphinstone, Daedalus, and St. John’s where there are stiffer currents and a greater likelihood of seeing a variety of sharks including oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, and occasional whale sharks.

The liveaboards that travel to the far south of the Red Sea find much less diving traffic and an even greater possibility of megafauna including mantas. In the farthest reaches near Djibouti, there are a number of locations where whale sharks are the feature.

Red Sea liveaboards are generally the lowest priced by far without scrimping much on facilities and services. More than 70 yachts cruise the area so you can browse a little and find the one set up best for your needs.

Dive Season: year-round
Skill Level: beginner to advanced (advanced open water recommended for wrecks, and deep sites with current)
Water Temperature: highs in summer of 82°F (28°C) and lows in winter of 70°F (21°C)
Visibility: 70-100 feet (21-30 meters), 200 feet (60 meters) is possible on some sites.
Highlights: wrecks, hammerhead, oceanic whitetip, whitetip reef, and whale sharks, mantas, low pricing

For reviews of the Red Sea liveaboards and locations, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Red Sea Liveaboards

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

With its iconic biodiversity, endemic species on land and underwater, and the biggest showcase for megafauna in the world, the Galapagos Islands are on the bucket-list of most divers, especially photographers.

There are some macro critters worth photographing but with the often present current and the huge volume of wide-angle targets, it is the big stuff that people come for. If the mantas, mobulas, stingrays, pelagics, gamefish, and many species of shark are not enough, there are still iguanas, penguins, cormorants, sea lions, fur seals, dolphins, and orcas to target.

During surface intervals trips to various islands provide an opportunity to shoot the volcanic terrain and creatures like 100-year old giant tortoises.

The liveaboard yachts are well equipped and comfortable but tend to be expensive. Nonetheless, they often are full well before the departure date, so early booking is advised.

Dive Season: year-round
Skill Level: intermediate to advanced (minimum of advanced open water recommended)
Water Temperature: 71-77° F (22-25° C), lows in the dry season in June-December
Visibility: 33-70 feet (10-21 meters), it can be lower especially during the plankton blooms
Highlights: great variety of marine megafauna, intriguing shoreside wildlife, and landscapes

For reviews of the Galapagos Island liveaboards and scuba diving, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Galapagos Islands Liveaboards

Seychelles

The 115 warm tropical islands and atolls of Seychelles have pristine granite-based reefs with conditions suitable for all levels of diver. While the corals aren’t as rich as in Southeast Asia, there is diverse marine life that includes numerous macro critters and a variety of reef tropicals on an interesting topography of walls, pinnacles, and canyons.

Megafauna highlights include gamefish pelagics like swordfish and marlin, reef, bull, and hammerhead sharks, and manta and eagle rays. Whale sharks that come in numbers in October and November are often seen between the main island of Mahe and Silhouette Island. In addition, there are a number of well-preserved wrecks to explore.

Surface intervals often include shore excursions for a chance to sample local hospitality and the scenery.

Dive Season: year-round (the best season for whale sharks is October and November)
Skill Level: beginner to advanced
Water Temperature: 78-84°F (26-29°C)
Visibility: 65-100 feet (20-30 meters)
Highlights: macro life, manta and eagle rays, reef, silvertip, hammerhead, bull, and whale sharks, pelagics, wrecks, shore excursions

For reviews of Seychelles liveaboards and diving, check out this post:

Scuba Diving the Seychelles – Liveaboards

Check the Price & Details on Seychelles Liveaboards

Komodo, Indonesia

The Komodo National Park is set on an intriguing volcanic terrain with pristine diverse coral reefs. Photographers will find megafauna targets with heaps of fish, turtles, reef sharks, Napoleon wrasses, hawksbill turtles, eagle, mobula, and manta rays, dolphins, whales, Mola Mola, dogtooth tuna, and a wealth of macro critters in the nooks and crannies.

Strong currents that bring nutrients that wash over walls and pinnacles where mantas feed and have parasites cleaned can prove challenging making most of the sites suitable for experienced divers with at least the advanced open water certification.

The above water photo ops are equally fascinating with live volcanoes and the 275-pound (125-kilogram) Komodo dragon to capture.

Dozens of liveaboards are available with moderate to luxury levels of service and facilities from short 4-5 day itineraries up to 2 weeks or more.

Dive Season: year-round (the plankton bloom attracts more mantas in the dry season from March to October)
Skill Level: intermediate to advanced (minimum of advanced open water recommended)
Water Temperature: 81-86° F (27-30° C)
Visibility: 16-100 feet (5-30 meters), plankton blooms and rain influence it toward the bottom of the range
Highlights: mantas, rays, sharks, pelagics, macro, komodo dragons, volcanoes

For reviews of Komodo and nearby Alor and Flores Liveaboards, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Komodo Liveaboards

Visayas, Philippines

The Visayas cover a broad area with a number of liveaboard itineraries none of which can begin to cover the range of options. There are rich coral gardens on pristine reefs with walls, caves, caverns, and a variety of terrain with excellent muck and macro diving, as well as unparalleled opportunities to photograph thresher sharks. There are even a few wrecks.

Malapascua is a great spot to catch threshers, hammerheads, and mantas along with intriguing caverns and several historic wrecks. Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte has mantas and whale sharks. Almost all the islands from Pescador to Little Apo, Balicasag, Panglao, and Cabilao have beautiful coral vistas and pristine biodiverse reefs with heaps of fish. If you are looking for true muck diving with a huge range of critters like ghost pipefish, numerous species of frogfish, pygmy seahorses, rhinopias, etc., the sandy sites along the shoreline of Dauin are the place for you.

The liveaboards mix and match with trips to these sites and more. Check carefully their itineraries to go to the areas that most suit your fancy.

Dive Season: year-round, best from November through June
Skill Level: beginner to advanced
Water Temperature: 77- 86° F (25-30° C), lows in December-January
Visibility: 50-100 feet (15-30 meters) dropping to 16-33 feet (5-10 meters) in some areas during plankton blooms in December and January
Highlights: macro, thresher sharks, pristine coral vistas

For reviews of Visayas Liveaboards and locations, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Visayas Liveaboards

Jardines de la Reina, Cuba

Situated 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southern coast of Cuba, the 3 available liveaboards take you to rich unspoiled shallow reefs that represent the epitome of Caribbean sites. Protected by a National Park with very limited traffic, the Jardines de la Reina (Gardens of the Queen) are part of a barrier reef with a mangrove nursery, slopes, walls, and caverns with rich marine life including lots of big residents like jewfish and groupers, massive schools of grunts and snappers, 7 species of shark, turtles, tarpon, stingrays, and even saltwater crocodiles.

In addition, there are the remains of Spanish Galleons to explore and sites with excellent visibility and little current that are great for beginner divers.

Of the 3 liveaboards, none are luxurious, but all are comfortable with more than adequate photography facilities and are the only access to this great diving. One, in fact, is a moored houseboat, so you are actually staying in a floating hotel.

Dive Season: year-round
Skill Level: beginner to intermediate
Water Temperature: 79-84° F (26-29° C)
Visibility: 50-130 feet (15-40 meters)
Highlights: sharks, big fish, pristine reefs

For reviews of Jardines de la Reina Liveaboards and Cuban dive sites, check out these posts:

Check the Price & Details on Jardines de la Reina Liveaboards

Fiji

Renowned for its abundance of soft corals (Jean Michel Cousteau called Fiji “the soft coral capital of the world”), there are pristine biodiverse reefs on a variety of subsea topography around the many islands with lots of reef tropicals, bumphead parrotfish, manta rays, and 8 species of shark.

Photographers can feast on wide-angle shots of beautiful seascapes and megafauna attractions like the shark species which include lemon, bull, tiger, and hammerhead sharks, not to mention the mantas mostly seen around the Kadavu Islands. There are several protected areas and liveaboard favorite sites around Bligh Water, and the Koro Sea where the macro critters are as intriguing as the larger marine life.

Unfortunately, there is only one true scuba diving liveaboard cruising Fiji at present, so early booking is advised. One can hope it is only a short hiatus for the others.

Dive Season: year-round (May through October for mantas)
Skill Level: beginner to advanced
Water Temperature: 82-86°F (28-30°C)
Visibility: 60-130 feet (15-40 meters)
Highlights: 8 species of shark, mantas, soft corals, macro

For a review of Fiji liveaboards, check out this post:

Best Scuba Diving Fiji

Check the Price & Details on Fiji liveaboards and diving

Underwater Photography

To take full advantage of the wonderful photography opportunities on the liveaboard diving described above, the PADI Digital Underwater Photography specialty course is recommended. For information and reviews of diving cameras, click here:

Best Underwater Cameras Compared and Reviewed

Liveaboard Comparisons

If you have interest in further comparisons and reviews of liveaboards, please check out these posts:

Last Minute Liveaboard Deals & Special Offers

For greatly reduced pricing on special offers for a broad range of liveaboards in 17 countries around the world, please check out this post:

Last Minute Liveaboard Deals & Special Offers

Scuba Diving Trip Insurance

A cushion for emergencies provides peace of mind when on vacation. I recommend this diving insurance as they have worldwide coverage and give scuba divers a quality insurance and medical assistance service.

Feedback and Comments

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