Recent News
This page contains some of my recent news, older items are in the news archive linked at the bottom of this page. Note that this is not a photographic blog, if you are interested in seeing some of my images as I take them, the best way is on Facebook.
September 2010 - Cover: Scuba Diving Magazine
I am pleased to say that one of my less well known seadragon photos is on the cover of the September issue of Scuba Diving Magazine (USA), it is always nice to see my pictures used on the cover of overseas magazines. I think that the image looks great on the cover, probably because it is a fairy plane image as a stand alone, so the cover lines really help complete the composition. The photo was taken on my 2007 trip to South Australia with Shannon Conway and I am very grateful to Carey Harmer for his help in guiding us to the dragon's lair. I must also thank the art director Monica Alberta for putting the cover together and really making the image work. Anyway, the dragon looks fabulous on the cover, it is well worth picking up a copy to see it!
September 2010 - UW Photo Kit Reviews
I have been reviewing underwater photography gear for a number of years now. It is something I enjoy. I think I bring interesting perspectives to the reviews because I am a very technical shooter, plus I am diving so regularly in very different conditions. I don't usually post news items about the articles I write each month, although I do keep a list online for my own records, but I thought it might be useful to post some links to some of the kit reviews I have written. For example: Light & Motion's SOLA600 focus light, mini-domes, Leak Insure, Nauticam's D700 housing, Subal's D700 housing, Subal's D3 housing. These links are all to reviews on Wetpixel, there are also quite a few of my review style articles reproduced on amustard.com and many more in the pages of Peter Rowlands' Underwater Photography Magazine uwpmag.com etc.
September 2010 - Back from Maldives
MY Monsoon liveaboard and the whole group was very grateful to dive guide Chris Trickey and all on board for making our trip so successful. We saw mantas on every dive and 100s during our week, but still left a little disappointed not to see a really big feeding event happen in Hanifaru. Everyone told us our timing was spot on, but a swell picked up during our week that turned off the lagoon. Hanifaru lagoon acts quite like a massive plankton net, aggregating large amounts of zooplankton when the tides push water through it. Creating ideal feeding conditions for the mantas. But the tidal streams need be exactly right. We still saw some impressive manta aggregations (10-20 individuals, still the most I have ever seen together), but not the 50-100+ that are possible at this site. I am also really grateful to Guy Stevens and the other scientists from Save Our Seas for taking time out to come over and say hi and tell the group more about their research. Photos coming at some point...
August 2010 - Scottish Nature Photography Fair
On the weekend of the 4th and 5th September I am presenting at the 20th Scottish Nature Photography Fair. I am really proud to be part of this event this year, that has such a illustrious history in wildlife photography. My talk aims to encourages wildlife photographers to think about the opportunities underwater photography offers for their portfolios. You may feel that you have photographed all your local wildlife and long for more exotic subjects, but have you considered the creatures that live in the wet bits? My talk will discuss the similarities and differences with terrestrial wildlife photography and will discuss the options for those keen to dip their toe into underwater photography without burning their fingers! The other speakers include some of my favourites: Niall Benvie, Ian Cameron, Fergus Gill and Danny Green and the cost is just £25 or £21 with concessions, which is incredible value compared with similar events. You can download the booking form here and see the full program here.
August 2010 - Edge and Mustard Workshop
I wanted to give this another plug as it is a bit buried further down the page! On saturday 6th November 2010, Martin Edge and I will be presenting a special day long event in London On Underwater Photography. We are the only speakers allowing us to precisely craft the content for the day, to create talks that neatly dovetail into each other and have time to discuss important points in detail and answer your questions. Basically do what we can to improve your photos. We plan to present both singly and in a unique two-man show, bouncing ideas of each other and not always agreeing! You can read more about the event in this PDF. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of hosts Cameras Underwater this event costs just £20 and therefore we expect it to be popular, in fact we have sold more than half the places as I post this. I know that it is 6 months away, but please book early to avoid disappointment, capacity is limited. And once you have got your ticket, please tell your friends/dive buddies about the event. We want an audience of people who are really enthusiastic about their underwater photography. BUY TICKET NOW.
August 2010 - British Seahorses
Every time I think I have finished with 2020VISION shoots for a while, another idea jumps out at me. Seahorses are one of my favourite creatures and definitely one I want to cover for 2020VISION. I think the public are always surprised to hear we have them in the UK and I have already been working photographing some captive breeding efforts. Anyway, with summer in full swing, I had the chance to pop out and photograph some wild ones in the UK. I wanted to get a habitat shot, showing the seahorse as part of its environment and was pleased to be able to shoot this pretty female spiny seahorse in the seagrass (the picture looks great big)! I have photographed an almost identical individual in the captive breeding program, so it will be great to show both side by side. Seahorses are protected species in the UK and you need a licence to photograph them. The licences used to be granted by Natural England, but that responsibility has recently been taken over by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). I covered what this licensing situation means for British underwater photographers in my PhotoPro Column in DIVE Magazine last year, you can read that article here. I hope to have a small gallery of these images up soon.
August 2010 - Back from Netherlands Workshop
I am back from the Netherlands after a highly enjoyable photo workshop on the liveaboard Panda. The workshop was organised by Marine Expedition Services, with support from Duiken Magazine and Subal underwater housings. The aim of the workshop was to focus on low visibility underwater photography, working through the solutions for producing stunning images in these conditions from both a technical and artistic perspective. It was an intense weekend: lecture, dive, eat, lecture, dive, eat, lecture, nightdive, drink, sleep, repeat. But one that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. The diving in Grevelingenmeer was fascinating: the species are the same as in the UK, but the diving experience is totally different. The visibility was not great, but the density of marine life was incredible, particularly the number of lobsters, 100s on each dive. The Dutch deserve a lot of credit for enforcing their marine protection to effectively. You can watch a short video of the workshop here (best at 720). Being in Holland also gave me the chance to do a number of interviews with diving and photography magazines and websites. You can see a gallery of my images from the trip here.
August 2010 - Spider Crab Aggregation
Sometimes I travel to the other side of the world to photograph the wonders of the natural world. Other days I wake up in my own bed and just head to the English coast. Which has been happening more and more, since I signed up as part of the 2020VISION project. The target this time was a massive spider crab aggregation, which can have as many as 50,000 individuals. It was also a nice chance to meet up with some of my ex-colleagues from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, who started studying this aggregation almost 15 years ago. They estimated that the aggregation was probably about 10,000 crabs this year, but still a very impressive sight, the whole seabed seemingly a moving mass of pincers and legs. Due to intensive travel and other work commitments I just do not have time to process these images for my website at the moment. I hope to have a gallery up from this trip during the first part of September. You can see more here.
July 2010 - Back from Florida and Bahamas
During the second half of July I travelled to Florida and then on to the Bahamas to lead the Wetpixel Sharks and Dolphins Exhibition with Jim Abernethy Scuba Adventures. I have run this trip several times and it is always excellent. This year tropical storm Bonnie messed up our diving conditions a little, but it was still seven days of either a shark or a dolphin in front of my lens. It was hugely productive. It was a great trip and you can read an informal diary from the trip on Wetpixel, here. Due to intensive travel and other work commitments I just do not have time to process these images for my website at the moment. I hope to have the three galleries from this trip online during the first part of September. You can see more here.
July 2010 - Announcing Cayman workshops 2010
UPDATE: Week 1 has 4 spaces, Week 2 is FULL. My Cayman photo workshops, Digital Madness, are now open for bookings. In January 2011 I am running two, weeklong workshops at Ocean Frontiers, East End, Grand Cayman. This workshop is themed on lighting, titled Understanding, capturing and controlling both strobe and available light underwater and is limited to 12 photographers. We will dive on Grand Cayman s dramatic walls, the East End's atmospheric caverns, fishy shallow reefs and at Stingray City. There will be the traditional dawn stingray shoot to photograph the unique stingray schooling behaviour in the perfect light for both colour and black and white images. We will also aim for encounters with Cayman's larger creatures such as turtles, tarpon and reef sharks. Plus there will be the new Kittiwake wreck. You can read an unofficial report on this workshop, from one of last year's group, here. This trip is now open for reservations, which are taken directly by Ocean Frontiers. The is more information at the bottom of this page here, please contact me with any questions, but please contact Ocean Frontiers for reservations (telling me can't hold you place) they have the official attendance list. Hope to see you in Cayman.
July 2010 - Portfolio BBC Wildlife Magazine
I am pleased to have my coral reef photography featured in BBC Wildlife magazine. I have not contributed to the magazine for a few years and I am very happy with how the portfolio is laid out and printed. They chose the images and the layout, although I steered them towards some of my better known classic images, and I had to write the captions to fit. It is a diverse selection, which certainly includes many of my favourites from coral reefs. The magazine is an ideal platform to enthuse people about the wonders of the underwater world and to ensure that while it might be out of sight, it should not be out of mind, when it comes to conservation. The photos in the feature come from Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cayman Islands and Bahamas. Some are from my book Reefs Revealed and some are more recent. Check out the magazine which has loads of great underwater content this month. You can see a gallery of the images here.
July 2010 - Back from Lundy
The day after returning from Egypt I headed over to Lundy Island, off the north Devon coast, for a change in climate and a big change in underwater experience. The aim of the three day trip was to photograph grey seals and other wildlife found on Lundy Island. Eleonora didn't dive when we went last year, but this year, armed with a drysuit it was her first chance to get in with the seals and we had great encounters pretty much all day on all three days. The two of us were joined by my friends Peter Rowlands and Dan Bolt. Seals are so different above and below the surface, if you have never dived with them, you must. On land they are pretty grumpy and can be dangerous to approach closely. Underwater they are like large puppy dogs and just want to play, tugging on your fins and gently mouthing your camera. And play we did, while taking the odd photo. Staying on Lundy is a highly valued part of the experience, so close to home, but truly a world away. Many thanks to Clive Pearson of Clovelly Charters and all at Lundy Island for such a great stay. I am planning on organising a return trip in 2011, drop me an email if interested. You can see a gallery of my images here.
July 2010 - Interview SOES News
Although it is more than 5 years since I worked at the University of Southampton, I am still proud to keep an association with my friends and ex-colleagues at the National Oceanography Centre. There are many of my underwater photographs on display throughout the centre. I also like to help out with their alumni activities and do things for them when I can. I recently did an interview for the University magazine The Voice, which has actually been reworked for the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences newsletter too. You can read that version of the interview here.
June 2010 - Snappers with Blue Eye FX
The first week of my Red Sea trip was spent with Debbie Metcalfe and her team at Blue Eye FX making a film about trying to be the first people to see the bohar snappers spawning at Ras Mohammed. The spawning aggregations of boyar snappers are very impressive, with 1000s of fish, which can grow to 80cm long and live up to 50 years (see the picture). It was great fun and very educational experience, although I wasn't particularly keen having my every move followed by three cameras. Particularly slumping in and out of the rib in my trunks! When the film is finished, I will be sure to write all about it. And yes, we managed to record the snappers spawning, but didn't get to see the whole school involved in a massive spawn this time. On a negative note, I was disappointed to see the number of fishing boats targeting the schools within the marine park each night. That said, the spawning schools at Ras Mohammed really are a wonder of natural world and perhaps what is best is that they are so accessible to 1000s of divers each year. Hopefully with a bit more information on their spawning season the authorities could target their enforcement of the marine park rules to this sensitive season. Anyway, it was a fabulous week and thanks to Debbie, Adam, Barry, GeGe, Rafal, Ahmed and all the crew for a great experience.
June 2010 - Back from the Red Sea Workshop
The second week of my trip to Egypt was to run my Red Sea photography workshop. The event was highly productive, with a great group on board who came armed with lots of innovative ideas to try. My workshops are about learning from each other, not just from me. The trip follows a fairly standard Sharm-northern itinerary, although we do less dive sites and spend more times on them, repeating the best locations to work on images and dives sites at the right time for the light or species we want. We did 22 dives on only 7 dive sites, a strategy which makes a big difference to the photographic productivity. You can see a gallery of the groups images here (supposed to be 2 each, but some couldn't decide). Thanks to all the group for buying into the spirit of my workshops, which I know is different to many others. I am also very grateful to our guides, the Captain and crew of Whirlwind and Tornado Marine Fleet and Scuba Travel for their help in making this such a successful trip. Finally, the trip was a chance for Peter Rowlands (mainly) and I to test a new Magic filters product and for Peter to shoot some video to demonstrate the suitability of Magic filters for DSLR video. Magic filters they are the only underwater filters that can fit on fisheye lenses. Thanks to Alex Tattersall of Nauticam UK and Edward Lai Mr Nauticam for making that possible. You will be able to see a gallery of my images here soon.
June 2010 - COVER: Global Ecology & Biogeography
Bit of a different cover this, being on the front of the Journal Global Ecology and Biogeography and one I was not paid for! I have been in touch with Dr Ben Holt of the University Of East Anglia since the early days of his PhD. Us hamlet fans need to stick together! And throughout I have been fascinated by his research on the evolution of this group (and very happy to donate my images where they can help raise the profile of hamlets). I am pleased to say his latest paper has been published in GEB and has generated quite a lot of media attention too, such as here in UK and Irish newspapers. It had previously been believed that the different species of hamlets evolved because of geographical separation. For example, it was thought that falling sea levels in the past could have divided the original species. Then, when levels increased, the differently evolved species were thrown back together. The new study suggests that hamlet colour varieties could have evolved regardless of any physical separation. The paper has now been physically published and I am pleased that my images have helped it get cover page billing on the Journal.
June 2010 - Back from Basking Sharks
I am back from a few days of basking shark photography in Cornwall, UK. They are one of the few truly a-list marine creatures that are best seen in the UK and I am pleased to have finally got some very pleasing images of them. One of the main aims was to shoot a split level of a shark against the Cornish coastline. I was also amazed to see a basking shark breach, leaping completely clear of the water. No photos, but Peter Rowlands did record some very amusing audio of all the expletives uttered when it happened. I am very grateful to the expertise of Charles Hood, and benefitted greatly from his many years experience with the basking sharks. He is also a hugely talented underwater photographer, so he knows exactly how to help you get the best photographic encounter, look no further. I also really enjoyed sharing the charter with Hawaii based underwater wildlife photographer Doug Perrine, which gave the trip an international flavour. I also learned plenty from his approach, honed with so many years at the top of underwater photography. I am very pleased with the images (there are a lot) and I am sure that some will be seen widely in the 2020VISION project. It is likely to be my last photography for that project until the end of the year as I am mainly working overseas after this trip. I also hope to photograph basking sharks up in Scotland in 2011 for the same project. You can see pictures from Cornwall here.
May 2010 - Cuttlefish Reproduction Portfolio
I have been trying to get photographs of cuttlefish mating behaviour in the UK for many years now and finally I have cracked it. The challenge is not just catching this seasonal behaviour, but since it tends to occur at the same time as the spring plankton bloom, it is seeing it in reasonable conditions for photography. Many people don't realise that there are cuttlefish in the UK, so it is great subject to surprise and impress the public with the wonders of British Seas. I really see the 2020VISION project as my chance to help connect the British public with our waters, where wildlife is often overlooked compared with the more obvious stories on land. The photo on the left shows me photographing the cuttlefish (photo by Dan Bolt). I am very excited by this set of images, which cover a range of behaviours associated with mating. The images were taken for 2020VISION and there is more information about them here
May 2010 - Edge & Mustard On Underwater Photography
On Saturday 6th November 2010, Martin Edge and I will be presenting a special day long event in London On Underwater Photography. We are the only speakers allowing us to precisely craft the content for the day, to create talks that neatly dovetail into each other and have time to discuss important points in detail and answer your questions. Basically do what we can to improve your photos. We plan to present both singly and in a unique two-man show, bouncing ideas of each other and not always agreeing! You can read more about the event in this PDF. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of hosts Cameras Underwater this event costs just £20 and therefore we expect it to be popular, in fact we have sold more than half the places as I post this. I know that it is 6 months away, but please book early to avoid disappointment, capacity is limited. And once you have got your ticket, please tell your friends/dive buddies about the event. We want an audience of people who are really enthusiastic about their underwater photography. BUY TICKET NOW.
May 2010 - Domestic Waters
Domestic Waters, AKA what I do on Thursdays! If you are reading this website then you have probably gathered that I photograph fish for a living. Fish are an amazing group of animals. There are more species of fish than all the other vertebrates put together, they live from the highest mountains (5200m in Tibet) to the deepest ocean floor and I have travelled all over the world photographing various species, from the 12m whale shark to the 0.001m pygmy seahorse. But recently in occurred to me that there are many types of fish I have not photographed, and these are the ones that, perhaps, have the strongest link with humans. The fish that live with us in our homes (in aquariums and ponds). These are the fish that people know individually and indeed any aquarium owner will tell you that their fish can tell them from other humans. Some species of fish have been domesticated for more than 1000 years and many have been bred into ornamental varieties that do not even exist in the wild. So Domestic Waters was born, to celebrate the fish in our lives. For me, this is a purely artistic project, the example image (above, left) is not that typical of the collection, this is not an ID project. I have chosen a white background, studio look, predominantly to accentuate that they are not in the wild. To date I have shot several thousand images, but have not had a chance to get the Domestic Waters website up and running. The images will be kept on that website to avoid confusion with the photos I take underwater, in the wild. Check back soon.
May 2010 - Cover: Scuba Diving Magazine
I am very pleased to see that my photograph of a seal with an orange face is on the cover of this month's Scuba Diving Magazine. It is a rare event to get on the cover of a non-UK diving magazine with a photo taken in British waters. This young grey seal has a bright orange nose from foraging for food on the many rusting wrecks around the Farne Islands in Northumberland. Although, after a running joke on last year's trip to Canada, there has been a suggestion from Todd Mintz that it has been eating Cheetos. Thanks to Adam Hanlon for organising this day trip to the Farnes and to Capt. Paul of Farne Island Divers for such a productive day.
May 2010 - 2020VISION Macro Photography
Unusually I am not travelling much until June, so it has given me a chance to get stuck into some British diving and to build up some coverage of the UK's underwater macro life along the south coast. Much of this material is destined for the 2020VISION project. It has been a great spring for nudibranchs and I have also worked with a range of fabulous subjects such as sticklebacks, pipefish, cowries, crabs, and the scorpionfish, see here. Predominantly I have shot with single strobe, fitted with a snoot (to restrict the coverage of the beam). Snoots are popular for creating spotlight effects, like the scorpionfish here, but they are perhaps more powerful when used subtly to create very precise lighting, and almost no backscatter despite very low visibility. Thanks to various buddies too may to list. You can see a gallery of these images here.
May 2010 - Magic Filters in Alert Diver
If you are interested in underwater photography I strongly recommend downloading the current Spring 2010 issue of DAN's Alter Diver (North American Edition), which has an excellent article called Pushing The Envelope on new techniques in underwater photography by Berkley White, Eric Cheng and me. Berkley covers super macro, Eric covers Inon's fisheye relay lens and I discuss shooting available light with filters. In fact the whole magazine is well worth a read and I must congratulate Stephen Frink and Keith Philips on producing such a quality magazine. I also have a mini-article on off camera strobes as the final frame at the back of the mag. There is a page turning online version of the magazine available free here.
April 2010 - 2020VISION Kicks Off
2020VISION is not supposed to start until the autumn, but the team got together for a meeting in Edinburgh, which left all of us very enthused. Peter Cairns gave a fabulous presentation about the event at the IUCN UK meeting getting the message out that this project is not about photography: it is all about communication, it is about getting people like Steve the plumber to understand the value of Britain's wild places. As photographers we will be trying our best to produce images that promote this message. There are a great bunch of people involved and the project is still looking for partners, so if you work in a company or organisation that would like to get involved, please contact me, or any of the 2020V team. We'd love to talk to you. To find out more about the project you can download this PDF.
April 2010 - Cover: DIVE Magazine
I am please to say that my photograph of a diver and cuttlefish is on the cover of this month's DIVE magazine. It is my first diving magazine cover with a British underwater photo. The picture was taken at Babbacombe in Devon, last spring, and was unplanned. I had gone there to photograph cuttlefish mating, but a thick soup of phytoplankton below 5m made photography impossible. So we stayed in the shallows and luckily found this lone cuttlefish and thanks to Dan Bolt's posing I was able to produce a whole series of images like this. Anyway, getting this image on the cover was a bit of a cheat as there can't be a better way to make the case for your image than writing an article on how to shoot a covershot, listing all the virtues displayed by your image! Actually the article points out plenty of points that this image doesn't demonstrate, and Simon, the editor, always made it clear that it wouldn't necessarily make the cover if there was a better shot this month. Anyway, I think it is a good column this month, so check it out in the latest DIVE!
April 2010 - 3 Awards at Asferico 2010
I am pleased to announce that I picked up three awards in the Underwater Category of the Asferico 2010 international nature photography competition based in Italy. I am particularly pleased as two of the images were taken in Europe and one of them was taken in the UK. Not exotic travel required. Also it is rare that the UK's murky waters produce images that can compete at this level. The volcano in Iceland stopped me being able to attend the award ceremony and photo festival. When I look at the galleries of the other winning images it is certain very gratifying to be part of such a fabulous collection. All the winning and commended entries will be reproduced in a book of the competition, which I can't wait to see. You can see the online gallery of winners here.
April 2010 - New project 2020VISION
I am very proud to be part of a team, which includes 20 of Britain's top nature and landscape photographers, for the forthcoming 2020VISION nature and conservation photographic project. 2020VISION is a multimedia project broadcasting the connection between human wellbeing: physical, economic and spiritual, and healthy ecosystems. It is a vision of a wilder Britain where it is recognised that healthy ecosystems are actually good for us too. 2020VISION will inspire, inform and motivate. It's message is simple: if we want to take care of ourselves and our families, we must first take care of the eco-system services provided by the wild places that we take for granted and abuse at our peril. 2020VISION launches this month, you will hear a lot more about it from now on. The list of photographers reads like a who's who of British nature photography promising that 2020V. Join up on Facebook to follow the project.
March 2010 - Wild Planet Book
On my return from Australia I was excited to see the new Wild Planet book waiting for me. This beautiful new book includes 80 specially selected photographs from Wildlife Photographer of the Year, with extended captions that explain where and how each image was taken. The images include previous winning entries and other highly commended photographs and they feature a wide range of natural subjects, from vivid scenes of animal behaviour to breathtaking landscapes, that show just how wonderful, dramatic and awe-inspiring wildlife on Earth is. The book is excellent value, costing just £15. You can order a copy here. The book ties in with the major new touring exhibition (see below) which also showcases these images. This outdoor exhibition will tour major cities in the UK, and is currently on Brighton seafront.
March 2010 - How To Win UW Photo Competitions
Each year I am asked to judge many underwater photography competitions. I don't say yes to them all, but I still end up doing a lot of judging (at least 10 national or international ones in 2009). And unlike many of the people I judge alongside, I still enter competitions (not the same ones, obviously), which I believe gives me an interesting perspective on the issue. So, for my PhotoPro column in the February edition ofDIVE Magazine I decided to write an article with my top 10 tips for success. The article of focused on the British Underwater Image Festival, but it relevant to all underwater photography competitions. The article is no online on the DIVE website and is well worth a read if competitions are you thing. You can see it here.
March 2010 - Back from Australia
In late February and on into March I travelled to Australia to photograph the rich and diverse marine life found in Australia's temperate waters - The Kingdom Of The Seadragon. I travelled with underwater photographer Shannon Conway and we also enjoyed meeting and benefitted hugely from the local knowledge of many Australia underwater photographers. This three week trip focused on three areas: 1. New South Wales, particularly Sydney area. 2. Victoria, specifically the Mornington Peninsular, SE of Melbourne. 3. Tasmania, specifically the Tasman peninsular on the east coast. It was a diverse and hugely productive trip, which is impossible to summarise in a few lines here. The photo (left) shows a draughtboard shark swimming through a forest of giant kelp in Tasmania. You can read more about each section of the trip on the gallery pages of this website.
March 2010 - Nauticam Review on Wetpixel
If you are interested in underwater photography, you would have had to have been living under a rock not to have heard of Nauticam. Nauticam is a new line of underwater housings with a winning combination of build quality, design innovation, ergonomics and price, which immediately mark them out as a major player in the housings market. I am grateful to Edward Lai at Nauticam, Alex Tattersall at Underwater Visions (Nauticam UK) and Peter Mooney at Scubapix (Nauticam Australia) for arranging for me to try their D700 housing on my trip to Australia and to put together the first detailed and critical review of what this new system is really like underwater. You can read the review on Wetpixel.com. The review concludes that across its range Nauticam has set a new standard for high quality and innovations at an affordable price. It has thrown down the gauntlet to other manufacturers to match it. This can only be good news for all underwater photographers, whether we become a Nauticam users or not.
March 2010 - Wild Planet Exhibition
I am excited to be one of the photographers involved in the new Wild Planet exhibition, which celebrates some of the most memorable images from the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year Competitions. And better still the exhibition is free and will be touring cities across the UK. It will be a wonderful showcase for both the natural world and wildlife photography, allowing it to reach a massive audience. Wildlife expert Chris Packham calls it The greatest photographic celebration of life ever assembled. Wild Planet opens on 12 March 2010 on Brighton seafront, travelling to other UK cities after September 2010. I'll reveal more about my contribution when the exhibition opens and also about the book that accompanies the tour.
February 2010 - Join us in Alaska
In June 2011, Eric Cheng and myself are leading a Wetpixel photographic exhibition to the virgin diving territory of Alaska. This 13 day diving expedition starts in Sitka and ends in Ketchikan. The trip offers some fantastic and unusual photographic subjects including underwater kelp forests, white plume anemone forests, Steller's sea lions, rockfish, anemones, crabs, shrimp, amphipods, ratfish, and much more. Reef walls are nearly 100% covered in bright orange, red and yellow invertebrates! And between the dives there is the chance to enjoy and photograph the fabulous Alaskan topside scenery. This trip is filling fast, so if you are interested in joining us in the fantastic destination, please have a look at the Wetpixel Travel section.
February 2010 - Diving Brighton Sealife Centre
In February I headed back to the , the world's oldest operating aquarium to dive with sharks, turtles and more. Brighton, on the south coast of England, has a famous history in underwater photography, but it is not a location where you expect to find a tropical shark dive! But I was excited to join my friends Rob and Jonny, who run the Brighton Shark Dive, and try and improve on the images I took on my last visit. It is a great fun dive, however it is quite a photographic challenge because the aquarium does not allow you to use flash or strobes for lighting. But having learned a lot on my last visit I was keen to return and was pleased with what I produced. It is also great fun diving with sharks, turtles and tropical marine fish on the south coast of England. The dive costs from £80, with £60 of this being donated to the TAMAR Project and Shark Trust charities. I hope to have a gallery of these images up soon here.
February 2010 - OWU/WP/DPG Photo Competition Winners
I am very excited to announce the winners of the 5th Annual Our World Underwater International Photographic Competition, hosted by Wetpixel and Dive Photo Guide. I have been a judge of this competition since it launched and it has become widely recognised as the showcase for the finest underwater photographs of any competition. This year was no acceptation, with Spain's David Barrio collecting the award of Best In Show, for the image shown here. But please look through all the winning and commending images as they are all fabulous. You can see the winners here. I judged the still images alongside Eric Cheng, David Doubilet, Ric Frazier and Berkley White. Also check out the interview I made with David Barrio in October, while I was in the Canary Islands, where you will see that this major award could not have gone to a nicer chap!
February 2010 - Back from the manatees
At the beginning of February I travelled to Florida for a week to lead a manatee trip for Divequest. This year has been a record cold winter in Florida, which meant that the springs were packed with more manatees than we could count each time we visited. In short it was a fantastic trip. We went out to the springs with Birds Underwater, who were excellent in every respect and I thoroughly recommend them if you are planning your own trip. However, I am planning on running this trip again in 2011, so if you are interested get in touch with me or Divequest. As well as photographing the manatees in Crystal River, we also photographed in Rainbow River, with its clear waters and lush vegetation. At both locations there is a wealth of photographic opportunity for shallow water wide angle photography, reflections, split levels and Snell's window images. But there is no doubt who the stars of the show are, the manatees. Manatees offer a really unique underwater encounter, they remember you and will come up and nudge you for another tummy rub. It makes diving with them thoroughly rewarding and completely addictive. A big thank you to Valerie Reid for the photo of me and a manatee (left). You can see a gallery of these images here.
February 2010 - The Underwater Photographer Published
I am excited to say that one of the most eagerly awaited publications in underwater photography is out this month. Martin Edge's encyclopaedic guide to imaging beneath the waves, The Underwater Photographer is published. Martin is widely regarded as the world's finest teacher of underwater photography and he has poured all his knowledge into this book. I can't wait to read it. I interviewed Martin recently for my A Conversation With series, where he talked about it, saying "We cover all the big topics, but it is also packed full of little tips and tricks that I do all the time, almost sub-consciously, that I have never written or seen anyone else mention. I actually carried a pen and piece of paper with me twenty-four-seven for the last year, and every time something came into my head about underwater photography I wrote it down. I am sure that everything I know, can think of and do is in this bloody book! And it is going to be a big book." There is also a short chapter in the book that I have written, on the subject of developing a photographic style or vision. It is a very different type of chapter, but hopefully people find it thought provoking and useful. I will update this entry when I get my copy of the book and pass on a few of my impressions.
January 2010 - Happy Birthday PhotoPro
PhotoPro is one year old this month, celebrated by a special double length column in the February edition of DIVE Magazine on the subject on succeeding in competitions. And strangely I feel as thought I have just started, I have so much planned for the coming year. I think that the first year has laid a good foundation for the future. We have covered a variety of in water techniques and discussed some of the innovative techniques I have been trying. I have also talked about post processing and introduced the opinions and advice of other photographers, such as Peter Scoones and Peter Rowlands. UK diving has also featured prominently, this was important to me because I know that previous Photo columns in British dive magazines had focussed overseas. Encouraged by the column, I have greatly enjoyed diving in the UK. My favourite column was the British Seahorse Photography edition, dealing with an unusual and important issue and being able to pass on advice and information direct from Natural England, the Seahorse Trust and seahorse researchers. You can read older columns, and much more, in the Writing section of this website.
January 2010 - Back from Cayman Photo Workshops
I am back from Digital Madness, my Cayman underwater photography workshops on the theme of understanding and controlling light underwater that I run from Ocean Frontiers at the East End of Grand Cayman. As in 2009 I ran two back to back and they really provided a great chance for all to produce some excellent images and improve on those underwater photography skills. This year we really worked on concentrating on the quality of light on subjects as well as the quantity, while shooting CFWA on the reefs, wide angle in the caverns, stingrays, sharks and macro too. I learned plenty, tried lots of new ideas and kit. I am pleased to report that my new remote strobe sensors worked very well and I am excited by the image possibilities. Both groups has a chance to use them too, with one of the model setups we worked in the caverns. Some of the other kit tests were equally exciting, but I am not ready to write about them yet! You can see a gallery of my photographs here. Anyway, I am planning to run the workshop again in 2011, if you are interested in coming please get in touch.
January 2010 - Sharks In Danger Exhibition, Spain
I was proud to be a part of the select exhibition and charity auction of shark photographs Sharks In Danger, organised by underwater photographer Jordi Chias, that took place at the Dive Travel Show in Madrid. Ten leading underwater photographers, including Manu Sanfelix, Felipe Barrio, Brian Skerry, Tom Peschak and Laurent Ballesta donated their shark photographs, which were displayed during the show and auctioned off in support of shark conservation NGO OCEANA. I contributed a copy of my well known image, Lone Shark, showing a single Caribbean reef shark swimming over sand. I was particularly pleased to be involved in an event like this with Spanish photographers, as Spain's fishing fleet is one of the largest in Europe and is heavily involved in shark fishing. You can see some photos of the event and a write up here.
December 2009 - Hanifaru Mega Manta trip
In August I have been asked to lead a very special photo trip. Earlier this year, National Geographic magazine ran a story about a new discovery: the world's most incredible manta dive. This trip aims to experience it. The trip costs £1995 pp, full board, London-London. The trip has been precisely scheduled to coincide with the peak of this aggregation, going at the same (lunar) time as Tom Peschak, who photographed the event for Nat Geo, visited the site in 2008 and 2009. The site reliably attracts large numbers of mantas, but our trip aims to experience the mega-aggregation where up to 200 manta rays are feeding simultaneously is the small lagoon. It is also common for multiple whale sharks to join the melee. Note that my manta photo here is from the Maldives, but not from Hanifaru. To get a idea of what to expect at Hanifaru check out this video of Tom talking about his shoot for Nat Geo. This trip is already open for bookings and will be advertised widely after the Christmas break, so if your are interested please get in touch soon. If you have been a good boy or girl in 2009, you know you deserve it!
December 2009 - Seasons Greetings
This is just a post to wish you all Seasons Greetings, a Merry Christmas and a happy 2010. The Christmas break is traditionally a time to reflect on the year and make plans for the next. 2009 has been an exciting year for me, armed with a new camera, the Nikon D700, I have travelled widely and photographed many subjects new to me. Here is a gallery of some of the images I have shot with the D700 in its first year of service. I am very excited about my current portfolio and only have a few more boxes to tick before I am ready to move forward with my next book project. Another big difference in 2009 was it was the first year where I clocked up a good number of British dives, and I was proud to win the Coast and Marine category in the British Wildlife Photography Awards, in my first serious year of British diving. On the writing side, I was also pleased to complete my first 12 instalments of my PhotoPro column for Dive Magazine, the first 5 articles in my A Conversation With series and wrote the Chapter on underwater photography for The Diving Almanac. With many plans already in place for 2010, it looks like being even more exciting. But more about that next year! Finally, I have some great photo trips and workshops lined up for 2010, hopefully you will be joining me on one of them. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
December 2009 - PhotoPro 1 Year Old
I am very proud that the first twelve instalments of my column PhotoPro have been published in DIVE Magazine. It is great to have got the first year under my belt. The magazine tells me that the feedback from readers has been very positive and I am happy that I have managed to cover such a diversity of topics. We have discussed everything from backscatter removal in Photoshop to what the protected status of British seahorses means for underwater photographers. I am also pleased that I have incorporated opinions other than my own into the column, with quotes and advice from the likes of Peter Scoones and Peter Rowlands as well as several others featuring. The column has also given British diving its fair share of coverage, with a quarter of the columns being focused on the UK. If you miss an issue, you can always catch up with the column here on my website. Hopefully PhotoPro will run for many more years.
December 2009 - Scuba Santas
I recently took part in one of the most unusual dives I have done for a while, the Scuba Santas World record dive, when on the 20th December in a chilly quarry in England, 153 of us dressed as Santa and dived at the same time. It really was a surreal experience, all these folks dressed up and bearded swimming about the place. The event was co-ordinated by the good guys and gals of Yorkshire Divers and has so far raised over £7000, and counting, for the RNLI. The link above has details for donations. Myself and Eleonora shot a load of pictures of the event and I will get a gallery of them up on line, when I have a chance. The timing wasn't the best with so much else going on in the run up to Christmas. I promise the images will be up as soon as possible! More in Dive Magazine.
December 2009 - Prints for Christmas
Christmas is often a busy time for dealing with orders for my fine art prints. If you are considering ordering a print this year please let us know as early as possible as orders often take a few days to turn around because myself or Gerry (my printer) are often busy with other projects. This is especially true for any non-standard orders, like the one shown in the image, which have to be out sourced for printing. I do not usually print many of my own photographs, so I actually get quite a buzz from seeing these orders, with my pictures reproduced really large or on unusual materials. For more info on fine art prints, click here.
December 2009 - Photo Workshops 2010
I am excited to announce two underwater photography workshops for the summer of 2010. First in June I am running my popular Red Sea Workshop, where we focus on wrecks, reefs and the schools of fish that gather at Ras Mohammed at that time of year. The trip is specifically timed to catch the schooling bohar snappers, which come there to spawn. Trip dates 27th June to 4th July 2010. £1125. All in London to London. The second event is the second Nordic photoworkshop in Gulen in Norway, photographing the rich macro life, spectacular scenery and historic shipwrecks found there. This is some of the most spectacular diving found anywhere, but note that it is cold water diving, although not that cold in September. Trip dates: 21st September to 26th September 2010, I don't have the actual price yet. Both trips are already filling, so if you are interested please contact me soon. I will post more information on my Workshops page, but please do not wait for that, before contacting me.
December 2009 - Cover: Photographer magazine
I am pleased to say that my photo is on the cover of a very special edition of Photographer Magazine, which is billed as the best underwater photographers in the world. And from what I have seen (online) it must be one of the strongest collections of underwater images ever published. There are contributions from Doug Perrine, Amos Nachoum, Paul Nicklen, Brandon Cole, Mark Conlin and many more. Doug Perrine's false killer whale image is amazing. When the magazine finally drops through my letterbox I'll update this news item with a bit more detail. From what I have seen so far, I really can't wait. After some fairly disappointing collections of underwater images in the major competitions this year, I think I have found where all the best pictures have been hiding.
December 2009 - Cover: Wildlife Watch
Wildlife Watch is a wildlife magazine for kids produced by the British Wildlife Trusts. This month one of my seals is on the cover and several more are inside illustrating an article by TV presented Tooni Mahto. Until the last couple of years I had never shot much in the UK, but one of the gratifying consequences of building up a British portfolio is being able to contribute to the conservation of British marine life. For those interested in learning more about the living seas of the British Isles should download this PDF, which is illustrated with photos from many of my friends. Wildlife Watch is actually a cracking little magazine and well worth a look for children of all ages.
November 2009 - Bite Back Calendar 2010
Bite-Back, the UK based shark and marine conservation organisation has just launched its 2010 calendar and I am happy to say that I was one of the 12 photographer's who donated an image and commentary for it. Bite-Back campaigns against over-fishing and has a fantastic track record in persuading retailers to stop selling threatened fish species. Congratulations to Graham, Suzanne and all the bite-back team on all their work on their campaigns. I can't find a full list of photographers but according to the website it includes Doug Perrine, Alex Mustard, David Doubilet, Brian Skerry, Amos Nachoum and Michael Aw, so some fairly decent snappers. I am not sure how much credit I can take for my contribution because it is title Turtle Self Portrait, as it looks as though the turtle is reaching around the camera and photographing himself.
November 2009 - A Conversation With
I am pleased to announce that I have embarked on a new series of articles that will be published on Wetpixel.com and in Underwater Photography Magazine, and once a few more instalments have been published I will reproduce them here on this website too. The aim of this series is to share conversations that I have with other underwater photographers on my travels. Most conversations will revolve around the techniques of underwater photography and I hope that the series provides a chance to present ideas on how to improve your photography in a different way. I know that these conversations continue to help me improve my shooting. The series kicks off with Todd Mintz and Rand McMeins, and was followed up with Martin Edge. Coming soon are the Spanish Fotosub photographers David Barrio, Carlos Villoch, Carlos Suarez and Arturo Boyra, followed by CMAS World Champion Espen Rekdal and then grand master Kurt Amsler. I am pleased with the way the series is progressing as all these should be out by the end of the year. And if you bump into me on my travels be warned, I now carry a dictaphone.
November 2009 - Back from El Hierro, Canary Islands
In the second half of October I travelled back to the Canary Islands to El Hierro the furthest out into the Atlantic. I was there to act as a judge for the long running Open Fotosub El Hierro. El Hierro is much less developed than other areas of the Canaries and the diving is distinct too. We dived on massive rock pinnacles and also on rocky areas along the coast. The gallery from my two Canaries trips is combined and I shot a wide range of subjects from maro critters like seahorses and eels as well as shooting wide angle of wrecks, rock formations and shallow water features. I also photographed a variety of groupers (including some being shadowed by trumpet fish, which hide next to the grouper to sneak up on small fish), the beautiful Canary parrotfish and also angel sharks. I enjoyed experimenting further with techniques such as shallow depth of field and backlighting. I also took quite a few black and white images and even photographed the tourist yellow submarine. You can see a gallery of these images here.
November 2009 - Visions in the Sea 09
I am rather proud of the fact that I am one of only a few people who have attended all the Visions In The Sea underwater photography conferences, hosted by Ocean Optics and in the case of the most recent event Orca Divers, that have taken place in the UK over the last decade or so. This year's event was the first held outside London and had a strong line up of speakers including Cathy Church, Martin Edge, Charlie Hood, Jukka Nurminen and Peter Scoones. My presentation was on Mastering Your Strobes. The event also included a Charity Dinner for the Shark Trust, which including the auction of prints (my leafy seadragon portrait raised £370), which raised £2000 for the Charity. A highly enjoyable event for all.
October 2009 - New Image Galleries
I am pleased to say that I have finally caught up with the image galleries on this website and I am back up to date. I have introduced a new gallery format because the previous embedded galleries were not always the most popular. Also I have updated my 100 image portfolio, which is a collection of some of my favourite images, which I hope gives a flavour of the range and style of my photographic work. Many of the galleries are password protected to help keep the images fresh for publication. People email me all the time to access these hidden galleries, please get in touch if you want to see them, just specify which you are interested in. If I am online I will send you directions by return. Hope you enjoy looking at my photographs.
October 2009 - Cover: Dykking Norway
I am pleased to announce that one of my pictures of the german Second World War wreck, the Frankenwald in Norway, is on the cover of this months Dykking Magazine. The wreck was recently voted the best wreck dive in Scandinavia by the readers of the magazine. I took the picture during the 2009 Nordic Underwater Photo Workshop, which I led at Gulen Dive Resort not far from Bergen. I was actually recovering from a bad back at the time of the event, so I only managed four dives, but was very pleased with the images that these produced, including this one. I cant wait to get back and get a lot more from this productive destination, the Nordic Photo Workshop 2010 is planned for September, but I might have to go before then. This image was taken with my D700 at ISO 800, which on that camera has fantastic image quality. The D700 is widely regarded as having the cleanest high ISO performance on the market at the moment. My D2X would not have been able to produce a useable image in these conditions.
October 2009 - Holland Workshop Aug 2010
HURRY, ALMOST FULL. In August next year I am running a short workshop in Zeeland in Holland. The event is aimed primarily at underwater photographers from Holland and Belgium, but the teaching will be in English and it is open to all. The diving is fairly similar to British waters, but I expect enough differences from the photos I have seen, to give it a unique feel. The area is well worth a visit from the UK. I am yet to dive there. We will be diving from the liveaboard Panda and the trip is being organised by Marine Expedition Services. The workshop will focus on lighting in both macro and shallow water wide angle photography. At the moment the information PDF is in dutch or flemish (I cannot tell) only, but I will add a link to the English PDF once it is done. I will also post a price once I have it. Workshop only has a couple of spaces left.
October 2009 - Back from Fotosub Gran Canaria
At the beginning of October I travelled to the Canary Islands to act as a judge for the 5th Fotosub Gran Canaria, Costa Mogan. I give this event the nickname of the Mogan Masters because it is an invitational event, where only the best underwater photographers from Europe are invited to compete. The standard of entries was very high and it was a pleasure and a challenge to judge. It was also a great occassion to talk underwater photography and made interview number three, with some of the spanish photographers, for my new series of articles A Conversation With, that are published on Wetpixel and in UWP Magazine. In the future I am sure that I will reproduce them on amustard.com too. While I was at the event I posted some live coverage from the event on the Wetpixel forums, the results are now there too. Congratulations to David Barrio. This was actually my first of two visits to the Canary Islands this October, at the end of the month I am traveling to El Hierro, more about that later. You can see a gallery of these images here.
September 2009 - British Wildlife Photography Awards
In am proud to announce that I was named the winner of the Coast and Marine category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards, a new nature photography competition aimed at showcasing the wildlife of Britain. My winning photograph was of a grey seal lounging in seaweeds was taken during my May trip to Lundy off the north Devon coast. The image was taken with my Nikon D700, Subal housing, Sigma 15mm FE, 2x Inon Z240 strobes. 1/160th @ f/13, ISO 800. The image will now form part of a touring exhibition around the UK, and will also include another of my images of a tompot blenny. The winners from this competition, including my seal, have been featured in many of the UK's newspapers, including the Times, Guardian, Mirror and Mail.
September 2009 - Back from France
In late September I travelled to the Etang de Thau in the south of France for a short recce trip to this European macro photography haven with my friend and BSoUP Chairman JP Trenque. The lagoon is shallow, the visibility is low and with no local dive companies, we borrowed cylinders from a local dive club and filled them at the local petrol station (with air). But once underwater we found ourselves in a macro haven with characterful blennies everywhere and seahorses galore. I will certainly go back during the spring to see the different array of creatures that inhabit the lagoon at that time of year. We are very grateful to Helene Caillaud and her friends for their help in getting us underwater and in the right places. The trip was part of my current European Diving Tour as I try and make more use of seas closer to home. This year will see me photograph is the following European countries: England, Scotland, Norway, Italy, Spain and France. And this was actually my second visit to French waters in 2009, having dived the Lavezzi Islands back in August. You can see a gallery of images here.
September 2009 - New Subal Website
Subal, purveyors of fine underwater camera housings and my brand of choice have launched a new website showcasing their products and the work of a few of the photographers who use them. I gave them four images taken with a range of different Subals, ND700, ND2, ND80 and D10, for my portfolio. A list of the great and good who use Subals include Brian Skerry, Cathy Church, Carlos Minguell Ba–os, Howard Hall, Martin Edge, Tom Peschak, Marty Snyderman, Peter Rowlands, Rui Guerra, Tibor Dombovari, Todd Essick, Udo Kefrig, and many others. Check out the new site, but put your credit card out of reach before you do. My current system is a Nikon D700 in a Subal ND700 housing, you can read more on my kit page. You can see the new Subal website here.
September 2009 - Thistlegorm in Scuba Diving Magazine
I am pleased to say that the September issue of Scuba Diving Magazine in the US has published a collection of my photos of the Red Sea wreck the Thistlegorm. Although my images are regularly published in North American diving magazines, this is the first time my images have been used to illustrate an entire article. I was particularly pleased that they chose to use several images that used ore creative techniques, for example a couple of the images that were lit with remote strobes, which is a technique I have been working on through this summer. One image was also my longest ever underwater exposure to be published, the shutter was open for 8 seconds. The 8 page article is called Full Penetration and was written by Travis Marshall.
September 2009 - Back from Vancouver Island, Canada
In early September I travelled to Canada to dive in Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. This was my second trip to the area, and since the first one I have been boring everyone about how amazing the diving was. Having hyped it up so much, I was expecting to be a bit disappointed on my return, but Browning Pass was even more amazing than I remembered it. Marine life plasters every surface with fascinating creatures everywhere and colourful scenery than seems more akin to a coral reef than Canadian waters. We were blessed with fantastic weather and I shot a great deal of wide angle during the week. I am travelled with underwater photographers Todd Mintz, Rand McMeins, Jamie Morphy and John Davies. Again we were on the liveaboard Mamro with Capt Dan Ferris although on quite a few evenings we stopped in at John DeBoecks Hideaway to see friends of mine from BUPG and Leamington BSAC. On the way to Port Hardy we also dived in the Comox area of Vancouver Island will Bill Coltart of Pacific Pro Dive. You can see a gallery of images from this trip here.
September 2009 - 50th Issue of UWP Magazine
Congratulations to Peter Rowlands and Underwater Photography Magazine, which has published the 50th issue of its bi-monthly, web-based magazine this month. This is a fantastic achievement for a niche market like underwater photography, especially when you consider that the magazine is free to download. The magazine has a huge following in the underwater photography world. I have been a supporter since the first issue and have written 57 articles to date for the magazine. In the current issue I review MarineLife Keyword List. The cover, this month, is a collection of some of the UWP Mag favourite covers from the past. I am pleased to say that there are seven of my previous covers on the cover. Anyway, congratulations, Peter. The underwater photography world would not be the same without UWP Mag.
September 2009 - Seals in Dive Magazine
I write my PhotoPro column each month for the UK's DIVE Magazine each month and do feature articles every couple of months or so. As a result I don't normally post news items about any of my articles in the diving media. There is a list of them here if you are interested. However I am suitably excited as my first article on UK diving has been published, reporting on diving with the grey seals of Lundy Island off the north Devon coast. Being originally from Devon, I am pleased that my first UK diving piece is from my home county (even if I live closer to Heathrow now). The images shows one of the spreads from the article, of a grey seal resting under a ledge. Check it out if you get the chance.
August 2009 - Back from Northern Tour
In late August I jumped in the VW and drove up to the north of England for a mini dive tour before the summer is over. I combined freshwater photography at the Capernwray inland dive site, shooting more trout and also experimenting with multiple strobe images on some of the underwater attractions, my favourite being the VW beetle. For one shot of the wreck of a small boat I used six strobes and I am very grateful to Adam Hanlon for his help in setting up these complex shots. I plan to feature this shoot in a forthcoming PhotoPro column and I am sure I will also show some in the various talks I have coming up. Next we headed to the very northeast of England, crossing Hadrians Wall and on to the Farne Islands to photograph seals, diving with Paul Walker of Farne Island Divers. I'd learned from my seal photography in Lundy that it is best to make a dedicated photo trip to make the most of these playful pinnipeds and again this strategy really paid off for us. The conditions were better than in Lundy and I was pleased that I filled out my seal portfolio, specifically targeting the gaps I thought I had after Lundy. Images from these shoots can be seen for Capernwray here and the Farnes here.
August 2009 - Back from Sardinia
During the second half of August I travelled to the beautiful island of Sardinia, west of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. The trip gave me a chance for a variety of underwater photography, including split levels and macro work with my home made ring-flash. I really enjoy photography in the Med, after all it was the birthplace of scuba diving, and the underwater world there is actually quite unlike almost anywhere else I can think of in the oceans, with clear waters, rich seagrass meadows and colourful encrusting life growing on the rocks. There are interesting wrecks too, and we dived on one of my favourites, the KT-12 in Orosei, with Franco from the Orosei Diving Center and Italian underwater photographers Mauro Cabiddu and Davide D'Angelo. I also headed up to the archipelago of La Madellena, diving with Vinny of Nautilus Diving Center and even dived one day with the fabulous groupers of Lavezzi Islands, which are actually part of France. Cool to go out diving for the day in another country. Finally we did a bit of diving in the area around Siniscola with Sergio of Astrea Diving Center and also rented tanks to explore on our own. The trip produced a diverse portfolio of images, which you can see here. Please note that my laptop died during this trip and I lost 3 days of email between 12-15th August, please send your message again if you have not received a reply.
August 2009 - Join me and manatees, Feb 2010
In early February 2010, I am running a group trip to photograph manatees and a few of the other fresh water critters found in Florida. Manatees are one of the great wildlife subjects and love to interact with you, making photography easy and incredibly rewarding. The aim of this short trip is to maximize our in water time with the manatees and specifically to photograph them in the best light of the day and to give us flexibility to change lenses, memory cards (is yours big enough). We will have our own boat, throughout, and will be working with the most respected operator in the area with decades of experience. We will stay at luxurious Plantation Resort and Spa. This is manatees in style. . The cost is just £696, not including flights. The manatee trip is just a few days after my workshop in Cayman (week 2) and it is easy to combine the two trips. Click here for more information, and please contact Divequest for bookings.
August 2009 - More diving in the UK
With a few weeks in the UK between overseas trips, I have actually managed to squeeze in a handful of UK dives, mainly close to home on the Dorset coast. After a few weeks of typical English summer weather, rain, it has actually brightened up recently and I have been out enjoying good visibility and fine diving conditions. I have mostly been concentrating on shore diving, particularly at Swanage Pier, shooting the tompots (pictured), dragonets, scorpionfish etc. Although I did particularly enjoy accompanying Steve Trewhella on a dive to see some of Englands more elusive creatures. More on that in the future. I even managed to persuade Eleonora to come diving at the Pier and the two of us wore wetsuits, well Scubapro Nova Scotia semidries, and were lovely and warm for our 70 minute dive. You can see a galley of images from Dorset here.
August 2009 - Cover: Blue Magazine
I am pleased to say that I have an article and the cover photo for Blue, the magazine of the Egyptian diving industry, published by the Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS) in Sharm. The CDWS was founded by Egyptian Ministry of Tourism in 2007 with a goal to improve quality, safety and standard of services in the diving and watersports industry, as well as to preserve unique environment of the Red Sea. From what I see they are doing an excellent job and have made some significant improvements to the diving industry in the Red Sea. The magazine is a great place to find out what is hot in the Red Sea and any regular Red Sea visitor should have look. My article is a personal one about my experiences diving with the snappers at Ras Mohammed, down the years, and includes two images taken in the 1990s on film! You can read the magazine for free here.
August 2009 - Magic Filter Four Years Old
I am pleased to announce that not only are Magic Filters now 4 years old, but also the last six months have been some of the most exciting for a while because we have been working on some new products, some of which I was testing on my recent Red Sea trip. The first to appear is a new filter for the Canon 16-35mm Mk2 lens. This is a popular wide angle lens for Canon users, and unusually in the Canon range does not have a rear gel filter holder. So we have released a new filter size, the MC85, which is only available in the original Magic recipe. The big news in the last year for digital SLR cameras is the incorporation of high-definition video on just about every model that has been released. These are exciting times for the underwater shooter with the option of taking both stills and video on the same dive with the same system. Magic Filters work just as well in video mode and are the only underwater filters than will fit on popular wide angle lenses, such as fisheyes, making them ideal for making the most of this capability of the latest cameras. Check out this video shot by Backscatter with a Magic Filter.
August 2009 - Announcing Cayman Workshop Week 2, Jan 2010
The first week of my Grand Cayman workshop for January 2010 filled up very quickly, so I have agreed with Ocean Frontiers to run a second week from 23rd to 31st January 2010. The workshop is limited to 12 photographers and costs $2,175 USD (excluding flights) for 7 nights accommodation at the luxurious Compass Point Resort, workshop, 6 days of diving, social evenings, rental car and high speed Wi-Fi. The Cayman Workshop is focused on Lighting, going back to basic principles and looking at the nature of light sources underwater, and how we different types of light must be controlled and can be exploited in different ways to create stunning underwater images. Cayman provides both wide angle, big animal (sharks and rays) and macro photo opportunities, although much of the focus is on close focus wide angle (reef scenics) and available light photography (stingrays, including black and white). The Cayman workshop includes a pool session, where I can work with everyone 1:1 to demonstrate strobe positioning for wide angle photography. Email me for more information and contact lesley@oceanfrontiers.com for reservations. More.
July 2009 - Interview Outdoor Photography
The UK's Outdoor Photography Magazine has a seven page interview by Heather Gregory and gallery of my photographs in the current August 2009 issue. It was interesting to speak about underwater photography with a landscape and nature photography magazine because the last few years have seen more and more land photographers are bringing their and vision underwater, which is diversifying the type of photos we are seeing to quote myself from the article. I think it is also nice to remind ourselves, as underwater photographers, how lucky we are shooting wildlife that is so accepting of our presence and being free to move in three dimensions. The portfolio includes images taken with Nikon D700, D2X, D80 and D100 cameras.
July 2009 - Back from UK road trip
In early July, my VW and I set off on a road trip to take in some UK diving, starting on the south coast of England, before heading north and finishing at the Scubapro Diving day in Largs in Scotland. En route to Scotland I took in a couple of the UK's favourite spots for underwater photography, including the classic Swanage Pier diving with Tristan Jones, that played such a role in the development of underwater photography in the UK, and also the current beau of many UK snappers, Capernwray inland dive site diving with Adam Hanlon, which has arguably the most reliable underwater visibility in the country. Frustrating poor visibility in Scotland from a plankton bloom reduced my possibilities there, but I was greeted with excellent conditions in both Capernwray and Swanage Pier. You can see a gallery of images here.
July 2009 - Photo Pro, 6 months in
My new column in DIVE Magazine celebrated its half year birthday in the July issue of the magazine, with the sixth installment covering capturing sunbursts on digital. The aim of the column is to help readers improve their underwater pictures, while remaining readable by all. I hope it has avoided becoming a techfest, yet remains packed with useful information on what makes the difference between average and memorable photos. I also want the column to be reasonably wide ranging, sometimes dealing with a specific subject, technique or accessory, while on other occasions discussing wider issues relating to underwater photography. I am also keen to get other voices and opinions into the column, so far Peter Scoones has contributed. I know that the Magazine has received lots of positive feedback about the column, thank you, if you have a moment please drop them or me a line to let us know what you like and what you would like to see covered in the future. Two to three months after publication, DIVE Magazine reproduce the columns on their website and I will also reproduce them in the PhotoPro section of this website .
July 2009 - Back from Egypt
At the end of June I travelled to the Red Sea for two weeks on MV WhirlWind, sampling the classic liveaboard diving out of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. The first week of the trip was a week with friends from the British Society Of Underwater Photographers where I shot stock and also successfully tested a new product we are considering for Magic Filters. On the second week of the trip, I ran my Red Sea Underwater Photography workshop and was joined by 19 photographers from around the world. Both weeks were excellent and some stunners were produced. While in Sharm El Sheikh I also gave a presentation of my underwater photographs at the famous Camel Bar. You can see a gallery of topside images from the workshop here on Facebook and a gallery of my underwater images here.
June 2009 - Back from Norway
At the beginning of June I travelled to Norway to lead the Nordic Underwater Photo Event 2009, organised by Sea Safaris. My co-hosts for the event were Christian Skauge, Ingvar Eliasson and Lars Stenholt Kirkegaard. We were also joined by Jesper Kjoller, editor of DYK Magazine who gave a talk on shooting for publication. The event was based at the excellent Gulen Dive Resort, who ensured we had a great stay and even better diving on the local reefs and historic wrecks. A big thank you to all who came along and made this such a fun event. You can see some topside images from the workshop here, and a gallery of my underwater images here, although I did not dive that much as I was still recovering from hurting my back in the Bahamas.
June 2009 - Cover: DIVE Magazine
I am pleased to announce that one of my photographs from the Cayman Islands in featured on the cover of the June 2009 Issue of the UKs DIVE Magazine. The image showing a diver photographing a yellow tube sponge was taken with D2X + 12-24mm on the North Wall of Grand Cayman. I like to show divers doing things in my photographs, rather than just appearing as a silhouette in the background because I feel it helps the story of the image. The issue also has the fifth installment of my PhotoPro column, this month discussing the challenges of photography inside the holds of the iconic Thistlegorm wreck in the Red Sea.
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