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Dorset man, Dave Meates took five of the shots in his portfolio
in the Swanage area and the sixth off Cornwall. But he has
dived in many parts of the world, including Australia, New
Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Mexico and Malta.
Dave,
who is 40, started diving in 1984 and is a PADI rescue diver.
He took up underwater photography four years later, in 1988,
and now has two underwater outfits.
Equipment
He
has a Nikonos V with l5mm Sea & Sea lens plus extension
tubes. At the same time, he has a housed camera - a Canon
F1 in an Aquatica housing with lenses ranging from a 15 mm
full-frame fish-eye and l7mm optic to 50 and 100mm macro lenses.
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compass jellyfish taken off Cornwall. A Black & White
copy of one of Dave's six winning portfolio slides
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With
them he uses a selection of strobes - an Oceanic 2003 for
its colour balance and power, two Ikelite Ai's partly because
of the attraction of their built-in modelling lights and a
brace of Ikelite NIS flashguns for macro work.
Preference
Said
Dave:' I like to know what is happening. That's why I prefer
manual cameras.
'The Canon is reliable. The housing has flooded twice yet
I have still been able to continue using the camera after
I have dried it out. The Canon just seems to keep going.
I
bought the F1 because I wanted the facility of the action
finder. Previously I had a Canon T70 in a Subal housing but
1 got fed-up with the camera's small viewfinder. All my equipment
is manual, but once you get used to that getting the settings
right can be pretty easy.
I
like to know what I am doing. If you use a fully automatic
system in effect all you do is press the shutter release.'
Favourites
His
favourite subjects are cuttlefish and nudibranches. His favourite
British dive sites are in the Swanage area - 'some, great
shots have come out of the Pier'.
Dave
also favours Tioman Island, off Malaysia. 'I like to go to
places I know and there is enough there to keep you going
for a couple of months, especially as I can dive from the
shore. Wreck diving no longer holds the appeal it once did
for him.
Results
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