Getting into diving

I learnt to dive in December 1998 in the Maldives, qualifying as a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. Over the next couple of years I managed one holiday a year that involved diving until the end of December 2001, when I went on a liveaboard in the Northern Red Sea. At the start of that trip I had just over forty logged dives. When the trip ended a couple of days into 2002, I had sixty logged dives and knew that most of my holidays over the next few years would involve diving.

Since then I have averaged around fifty dives a year, a rate that is increasing over the past couple of years, and all except two in warm waters!

Destinations I have visited include many trips to the Northern and Southern Red Sea, Sudan, Djibouti, Thailand, Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi, Bonaire, Curacao, St Lucia, Gozo and a second visit to the Maldives.

Taking a camera with me

Having always travelled on land with a camera (SLR and/or compact) and returned from each trip with hundreds of photos, I guess I always knew that I would eventually take a camera underwater. In 2003, and with over a hundred dives under my (weight) belt, I finally went for it.

Digital was only just becoming available and affordable at this time, so I initially thought that I would buy a housing for an old film SLR. Fortunately, rather than just buying off the internet, I went to Ocean Optics, who gently convinced me that the digital revolution was under way and that the best entry point to underwater photography would be a digital compact camera.

I took their advice and bought an Olympus 5050z with a PT-015 housing. This was an excellent recommendation as over the next couple of years I was able to expand the system with an external flash, a wide angle lens, the even wider dome port, and a close-up lens attachment (follow the link from the about page for full details).

The photos in the gallery taken in Lembeh and Djibouti were shot with this set up: the former mostly (but not all) using the close-up attachment, and the latter using the wide angle and dome port.

Having flooded one system in Bonaire in 2005, I had already toyed with the idea of moving on to a dSLR. At that time I decided not to and found another 5050Z on ebay. However, after joining Mark Webster on a photographic workshop in Lembeh in March 2007 I was finally convinced that it was time to move on to dSLR.

After much time and many cups of coffee with Steve and Mark at Ocean Optics, I finally decided to go for a Nikon D200 with a Subal housing and Inon strobes (follow the link from the about page for full details of my current system).

I was surprised at how different dSLR is to use underwater. My first trip with it was very frustrating and somewhat disappointing, as the photos I took didn’t make the leap forward that I was expecting and hoping for.

I was also excited as I could definitely see its potential.

So I did two things: firstly I went on a shore-based trip expressly to practice with the camera, choosing a destination that allows unguided shore diving so that we could take our time and cover as much or as little of the reef as we chose to. The galleries from Marsa Nakari in October 2007 are from this trip.

Secondly, I booked some one2one tuition with Martin Edge in order to accelerate my journey up the learning curve, both technically and creatively. You can read more about the day I spent with Martin by following the link from the about page.

I should add that even despite the initial frustration, I have not for one minute regretted buying the dSLR system. If you are currently thinking about doing the same, I recommend that you just go for it.