I took up diving in 1994 through a local dive shop in Guildford who were giving NVQ PADI courses. At the time it seemed a good idea as I was going to Mauritius and then onto Australia & NZ. Initially I was petrified of diving but sheer persistence paid off. I have had an ‘accident’ or two but have come through those and now thoroughly enjoy diving.
I started of with a Motor Marine II and gradually added accessories such as strobes & lenses and managed to take average pictures. I would say that one perhaps two pictures per roll would have been good.
In October I met up with Jane Morgan on a Red Sea trip and then soon after ‘invested’ in Nikon F100 with Sea & Sea housing and slowly built up the system with a veritable selection of accessories. Pictures improved with SLR but I still had a long way to go in improving the quality and the contents of the images I took.
Digital invaded and I initially started with Fuji Finepix 700 and finally in late 2005 I went for Nikon D70, Sea & Sea Housing, INON strobes. Photography took on a new meaning; my images began to improve and since then have become more engrossed in this ‘hobby’.
People like Jane, JP Len Deeley and many others both at BSoUP and Photosub have helped and encouraged me to take better pictures. I am grateful to Len in helping me improve my art of taking images and all the images for The Beginners Portfolio were taken on the dive trips with him. I am hoping to continue to improve my images and one day I would be an honour to help someone achieve their goal.
This is my first very successful run with digital photography and by no means the last.
All the images were taken in Lembeh Straits, Gangga Resort, North Sulawesi in April of this year EXCEPT for the Eagle Rays (bottom centre) which was at Cocos in October 2005.
The equipment used is Nikon D70 SLR in a Sea & Sea Housing, INON Z220 Strobes, Nikon lenses |
