Salaya Underwater Imaging Heaven

If you are looking for a place in an absolutely top (muck!) diving destination with the perfect underwater imaging infrastructure, look no further than Salaya Beach Houses in Dauin, on Negros Island in the Philippines.

Our Location

You can reach us via Dumaguete airport, a short domestic flight from Manila or Cebu. Alternatively, you can reach us by car and ferry from Cebu in a few hours. Dumaguete is a charming and safe Filipino university town, and Salaya in Dauin is a 25 minute drive south of Dumaguete.

Camera Room & Great Dive Boat

We have everything you need to help you shoot your best-ever underwater video or photography! In our spacious, air-conditioned camera room you will get your own lockable drawer and more than enough work-space to set up your camera and housing pre-dive. We have 110V and 220V power-outlets.

Our dive boat, the Laya, is one of the nicest, if not the most comfortable of the dive boats in Dauin. Built in the traditional Filipino bangka style with stabilizing outriggers, it offers plenty of space and even two on-board camera rinse tanks. You can dunk your valuable equipment in freshwater right after the dive.

After the dive, you can of course look at your shots or footage on your laptop screen in your comfy guest apartment, OR go to our yoga/seminar/chill-out room and connect your computer to our 65 inch (!) flat-screen TV for extra-detailed inspection of your day’s imaging successes.

Looking at #fish at #salayabeachhouses in #Dauin #philippines #itsmorefuninthephilippines #underwaterphotography

A post shared by Klaus Stiefel (@pacificklaus) on Mar 24, 2018 at 7:34pm PDT

If you have any questions regarding camera setup, handling, photo technique or critter approach, we are very happy to talk to you! Both dive shop manager Marc as well as marine biologist Klaus are seasoned underwater photographers with years of experience shooting underwater in Dauin. We also offer underwater photography courses, if you want to improve your imaging skills.

The Critters

The main reason to come and dive with us, though, are the absolutely amazing marine animals you can see in Dauin. Fishes and crustaceans which are rare everywhere else are relatively common occurrences in Dauin. For instance, look at this saw blade shrimp:

We also regularly see ghost pipefishes here, and several species of them. This is a rough snout ghost pipefish:

We also get living jewels like this Ambon scorpionfish, seen in only 4 meters of water a short boat ride south of Salaya:

Dauin is such a great spot for crustaceans of all sorts. This is a (as far as I know) still undescribed species of squat lobster:

This is just a short compilation of the marine life which is there to see in Dauin – you certainly won’t run out of things to film and photograph. In several years here I did not run out! And if you have had enough of the small “muck” critters for a day, we can easily take you to nearby Apo Island with its great coral reefs and many turtles.

In brief, we are a resort with top-notch underwater imaging infrastructure in a great muck-diving destination. Come dive & shoot & film with us! If you have any questions, please contact me at klaus@salayabeachhouses.com