My Portfolio

JP Trenque

I learnt to dive in France in 1980, when I was 9 years old. Our family holidays were usually spent on the South coast of France, near Banyuls, where I discovered the beauty of the Med. I picked-up my
first camera in the mid 90's, but was shooting video back then. Although I enjoyed moving images, I was certainly no Peter Scoones and could not put a nice story together. In 2002, my wife Jane started shooting underwater stills and a year later, I swapped the video camera for a D100. I enjoyed shooting digital stills immensely and learnt lots from other photographers at BSoUP meetings
and on various trips. In 2004, a great deal of luck in Ras Mohammed led to a 3rd place in Black & White prints at the Antibes World Underwater Images Festival. Another image taken during that trip won the BBC Photographer of the Year award in 2005.

I am also a keen UK diver and wouldn't miss events like the St Abbs Splash-in for anything. This summer was particularly prolific, possibly because of a combination of warmer than usual water and late plankton bloom. Thanks to Charles Hood, we had a memorable encounter with basking sharks, one of which I included in this year's BoB Portfolio.

1. D100 with 60mm lens. 1/60sec at f/32. Twin strobes .

This nudi was taken in Portland, on the last dive of the Photosub Splash-in early spring 2005. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and only Jane, Bob Soames and myself were mad enough to get back in the water. As a treat, the skipper took us to location I cannot disclose for legal reasons. It was nudi-city !

2. D200 with 20mm lens. 1/200 sec at f/6.3. Ambient light.

I love playing with seals. Last July, we were heading to Lundy Island with Jo Horrocks and Keith Lyall. The sea was a bit bumpy and Clive,
the skipper asked us to don our drysuits. As I put mine on, the neck seal ripped. After a not-so-successful attempt at repairing it with gaffer-tape, Keith lent me his suit, which enabled me to get a few harbour seal shots on the eastern side of the island. If you ask Jo nicely, she might show you some of her video footage of the seals that day.

3. D200 with 16mm lens. 1/60 sec at f/2.8. Ambient light while snorkelling.

After the BSoUP Splash-in, Jane & I together with Linda & Brian Pitkin, headed to Penzance to pay a visit to the recently emigrated Charles Hood. The weather was a bit breezy and damp and we didn't expect much as we launched Charlie's RIB. 10 minutes later, it was basking shark soup just outside Penzance. To put things into perspective, at some point, Brian suggested Jane jumped in the water as a basker was heading straight at us. Jane's reply was the quote of the day: "Nah, it's not worth it ! There's only one there !"

4. D200 with 16mm lens. 1/80 sec at f/8 and ISO 400. Twin strobes.

Another Lundy beauty, this compass jellyfish was shot on the wreck of the Roberts. The visibility could have been better that day, but considering it was blowing a howly out there, we were lucky to dive at all. After an interesting night camping at the top of the island, we were quite lucky find a break in the storm and head back to the main land on the Sunday. Our luck ran out in the evening, when France lost the world cup to Italy.

5. D100 with 60mm lens. 1/80 at f/5.6 and ISO 250. Twin strobes.

I love the south-west coast of Britain. Last summer, we organised a trip to Looe. Although the Saturday's main attractions were the James Eagan Layne and the Scylla, we spent the Sunday diving near Fowey. On the afternoon dive, a couple of John Dories made an appearance. They are surprisingly difficult to photograph when they don't want to cooperate !

6. D200 with 10.5mm lens. 160sec at f/8 on ISO 200. Twin strobes.

I could not finish without a picture from St Abbs. The day after the competition, our skipper Billy took us to a site near Eyemouth where Jane & I spent a long time in the shallows. I took quite a few shots of Jane playing in the kelp just under the surface and thought this picture of her looking up and towards the right of the image would complement the portfolio nicely.