My dive life
I started diving in 1990 after a try dive with a Spanish friend of mine whilst I was living in Spain at the time. It was a memorable event to say the least! but it gave me the dive bug none the less. I returned to the UK not long after that and had my mind set on becoming a Commercial Diver!, thoughts of earning my living doing something I loved was a wonderful thought so I looked into the training involved to reach that goal.
I trained as a B.S.A.C Sport diver to begin with and I then started a H.S.E Commercial diving course in 1992. I trained as a Part 3 & 4 Commercial diver and began applying for work in the Commercial industry. I soon discovered that it was a lot harder than I imagined to get the work, you could not get the work without the experience and you could not get the experience without the work, catch 22!
I did manage to get some work though up in the Outer Hebrides . This was working out of North Uist for a local Commercial diver there. The job was on a local harbour there, drilling, blasting , and excavating the sea bed rock to allow the fishing boats to moor up at low tide without grounding which was an issue they had. This work lasted about 3 weeks and I thought I was then on my way to climbing the Commerical ladder. Unfortunately it was not to be...
Despite trying very hard I just could not get the work ,so I thought I would stick to the recreational side of diving! I worked my way through various PADI dive courses , Rescue diver, Divemaster, Assistant Instructor, Nitrox diver, TDI Advanced Nitrox diver, TDI Decompression procedures diver. I did not do the IDC Instructor course though, a regret of mine in hind sight, I wish I had taken that venture and tried to get work overseas instructing.
I have been diving ever since, I dive in the UK all year round mainly and I usually have an annual week or two on a specific dive holiday somewhere warm with good visibility. My UK diving is mainly the East and West coast of Scotland, and the South of England also. Overseas diving I have dived in the Komodo & Alor Islands in Indonesia, Sudan, Egypt, all over the Northern and Southern Red Sea , South Africa, Mozambique, Bahamas, Mexico, and Malta. My passions are wrecks and large pelagics.
I have had various cameras over the years. I started with an old 35mm one but I then decided on shooting video over stills and have had numerous video cameras with housings for the past several years,
however I am strictly amateur and self taught from watching You Tube tutorials mainly !
I bought a decent compact set up a couple of years ago and had some surprising results with it and this has now given me the urge to try to improve my images. I then bought an old DSLR with housing but have since changed my set up again. I currently use a Sony NEX 5 with Nauticam Housing and I have 2 Sea & Sea YS D2 strobes , I now plan on sticking with this for the time being!
It is only over the last few years that I have had any photos that I would really consider sharing so I have put together this website as a means of keeping my images easily accessible and if anyone is interested in having a look then feel free.