Wishing you all a Wonderful Christmas and New Year!

What an amazing year it has been, two more guests won Sport Diver's Photo of the Month, one made it to the final of the BSAC Amateur Travel Photographer of the Year Award, one on the cover of Scottish Diver, one in UWP, another in Diver and London Diver and two overseas competition places too! Phew ...... Well done all of you!

Unfortunately, I have had to pull out of Greenwich Market due to my old injuries being aggravated by the cold which left me unable to walk, so please forgive me. Just drop me an email at maria@oceanvisions.co.uk

Don't forget to check out the new Online Shop and sign up before the end of the year to receive your discount.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year and look forward to seeing you all in 2010.

Happy Christmas Snapping :)

Come and Visit Greenwich Market every Sunday

Even though it was raining, it was great being back at The Artists Quarter at Greenwich Market on Sunday. Despite the weather, the aisles were packed in the morning and it was great meeting so many kids and bigger kids who loved Sharks and the Ocean. I'll be there this Thursday, 3rd and then on every Friday and Sunday up until Christmas. Come and see how your own images will look beautiful on crystal. Hope to see some of you there.

Daniel Norwood wins BSOUP Best Beginner 2009

I nearly passed out last night when my one day course guest Daniel Norwood won the British Society of Underwater Photographer's Prestigious Best Beginner of 2009 with this amazing portfolio. He shot the pictures using a Fuji F50 and an Inon Fisheye Lens as well as a Sea & Sea YS 110 Strobe. The pictures were mainly taken in Bali apart from the ribbon eel which was taken in Sipidan and the whale shark was taken in Western Australia. A whale sized well done Dan, looking forward to seeing more of your photos ...... Don't forget to come along to BSOUP on the third Wednesday of every month at the Imperial College at the Natural History Museum in London, they have amazing monthly talks and it is great to see everyone and get inspired. Look forward to seeing you there .....

Visions in the Sea Underwater Photography Festival

The annual Visions in the Sea Event proved to be an absolute class event for anyone wanting to learn about underwater photography at all levels. Inspiring talks were given by Martin Edge, Charlie Hood and my great mentor Cathy Church from the Cayman Islands with Orca Divers and Ocean Optics being fantastic hosts. The Shark Trust were there and it was fabulous to see Ali and John and to have a chance of a catch-up! A huge whale-sized well done to the winners of the Underwater Photography Competition there, especially to CJ Moran who scooped the Young Underwater Photography Prize. His picture here is absolutely incredible and a real inspiration to show that anyone of any age can take cracking pictures with a compact camera!

Daniel Norwood wins Sport Diver Photo of the Month!

Course Guest Number Three, Dan, emailed me at the weekend to say that he has won this month's "Photo of the Month" with Sport Diver. His photos are absolutely mind-blowing and I was so proud! He took this photo with a Fuji F50 and a Sea and Sea YS 110 Strobe. Just shows you what a punch these little pocket rockets can do!

Miss Piggy Goes for a Dip!

Today was a lovely day spent with a complete beginner who wasn't even a diver who wanted to learn how to take photos of babies underwater. Unfortunately, as I didn't have a baby to hand, the only option was my Piggy Hot Water Bottle! So out came the lavender in the middle and in went a lead weight! It worked a treat and made for some excellent photos .....

Sea Shepherd Event - 31st October - HMS Belfast

What a fabulous event! Paul Watson gave an inspiring talk on what we need to continue to do to be able to save our oceans and the work of Sea Shepherd this winter. The event was absolutely packed and met some amazing people and really inspired me to get back to the sea next year and continue to do what I love .... watch this space!

Talk for the Rotary Club in Bromley, Kent

I was kindly asked by my local Rotary Club to give a talk to them on my work. I decided not to bore them with f stops and bus stops, but instead to give a talk on my experiences and encounters with each animal, including grizzly bears in Alaska. They are an amazing bunch and was so chuffed to be able to spend some time with them. A kind donation was made to The Scuba Trust which was brilliant to be able to give to Gill.

Dive Show Birmingham

What a fantastic show! It is always great to be able to catch-up and hear how well course guests are doing, but it was also very humbling to see so many people queuing up for my talks on both days and even stand outside in the hallways trying to hear what I was saying .... For any of you reading this who were there, THANK YOU! It was great to see so many friends in the industry, The Underwater Channel were filming there, Mark and Gayle Addison who always inspire so many people with their shark adventures in their home of South Africa, Sea Shepherd, British Society of Underwater Photographers, The Shark Trust, Biteback, The Scuba Trust and so the list goes on ..... A special thank you to the London Diving Chamber who without their constant help and support, none of this quite simply would not have been possible. Check out my Ocean Visions Page on Facebook for more pictures ....

Giant Kelp Forests with Catalina Divers

So, stranded in LA, California, turned out to be a blessing in disguise to experience the wonderful kelp forests in this gorgeous island. It reminded me a little bit of living in the Keys with its quaint buildings. Eric from Catalina Divers and Wade proved to be excellent models and it surpassed all of my expectations by far. I'm now addicted to this part of the world, it was so great to catch up with friends there and realised how much I missed living in the States. I'm now really looking forward to exploring the Channel Islands and more of the world-class diving that California offers...... I'm in love with those Garibaldis :)

Catching Up With Friends in Mounu Island, Tonga

Sorry, sorry, sorry for all of the delays with me. I have spent the last couple of months working as hard as usual and spending time with very missed friends who I hadn't seen since before I came back to England 5 years ago. Firstly I went to see Allan and Lynn at their spectacular resort of Mounu Island in Vauva'u, Tonga, South Pacific to swim with my beloved humpback whales. Although the weather was more like winter in England, it was an amazing experience and shared it with some wonderful people. Allan and Lynn pioneered the first ever swim with the whale project down there and are deeply passionate about the conservation of these wonderful animals. If you are ever passing down that way, do go and visit them. They will give you far more than just a homely welcome and their dog is just the cutest ..... On a sad note an amazing underwater photographer, Tony Wu, found a humpback whale caught in a fishing net down there and sadly the whale died. Visit his website at www.tonywu.com to see more of this amazing work and photographs.

Basking in the Shark Sunshine in Cornwall

Anyone who knows me well enough knows very well of my humongous fear of my dry-suit in the UK, but when I heard that the Basking Sharks were in town, there was no time to hang around! A 7 hr trek to Penzance on Monday and little sleep was all worth it to meet Charles Hood from Dive Magazine and his Rib Logan. It was a wonderful sunny day and indescribable how awesome it was to be back on the sea. I felt like I was abroad, the beaches down there are divine. Two hours later, the first sighting was made of a large adult Basking Shark, and I was ready to pass out in shock. It came round and round Logan, circling again and again. I crept in the water and the temperature was a tropical 15 degrees, far warmer than Alaska! We saw about 8 that day with reports by fisherman saying that they had seen up to 40 that morning. I felt completely humbled and so fortunate to see these wonderful creatures so close. It is a memory that I will never forget and definitely one of the best underwater experiences ever. For more information visit www.charleshood.com or if you fancy a trip down there.

Canon Ixus and Fuji Finepix Underwater Photo Day

What a blast we all had! Sian, Michaela and Keith who visited me at the London Dive Show were really looking forward to the course and I was looking forward to showing them the new pool additions. And it worked! A fantastic time was had by all, their photos improved beyond belief and all were really confident in using the different buttons to get really creative underwater photographs. Michaela even attempted a split level shot of Keith's foot! The Fuji F100 has a nice white square to remind you how much of your frame you need to fill when calibrating the white balance which is a nice touch and the macro mode on the camera is great.

My First Holiday in Five Years to Indonesia

The great team of Eco-Divers kindly asked me to visit Indonesia after saying how much I needed a change from the Red Sea. My journey took me first to KBR, Kunkunghan Bay Resort as well as a newly managed resort of Kima Bajo near the Bunaken Marine Park. Both settings are the perfect places for anyone new in Underwater Photography to learn, with the setting matching a perfect 10 days of picture making and the world-renowned critters were on their best behaviour. Tim and Takako pictured here were wonderful hosts at KBR as well as Luca and Miho in Kima Bajo. See the gallery page on my website for photos taken from here. The sunsets were absolutely divine. I will be running an underwater photography trip there next year and am already really looking forward to getting back :)

Nikon Coolpix 5100 with Dean Hill

A few weeks ago I finally got a look at the new Nikon Coolpix in a Fantasea Housing complete with wide-angle lens. The nice thing about this set-up is the ability of it's full manual controls so that users can change both the aperture and the shutter speed independently of each other. Fantasea also make both close-up and wide-angle lenses to put on the front of the camera which is nice. The housing is quite robust but of course those clips are not at all nail-friendly for us girls! However, it is a nice piece of kit and produced some really nice, sharp results. This is a picture taken by Dean on the day of our resident Nemo to see what you think.

A Fantastic Night at BSOUP with Colin Doeg and Peter Scoones

A trip back to the days of when underwater photography first started was a real joy to watch by everyone who attended BSOUP last month in May. Colin Doeg and Peter Scoones the founders of the British Society of Underwater Photographers, as well as their friends, entertained and astonished everyone there with incredible tales of how they used to take their underwater images as well as their diving equipment. Phenomenal was a complete understatement and I left feeling extremely humbled by being able to learn of their incredible encounters to capture breathtaking images.

PADI Digital Photo Speciality Day in Leeds

And today was not only a special PADI Digi Photo Speciality Day but it was also Denny's surprise birthday! Little known to her, Frank had made an underwater birthday cake all set with candles which went down an absolute treat! I love being back in Yorkshire where I used to live and am looking forward to getting back up there in June .......

Biggest Pizza in My Life at Dahab!

I met a lovely group of Solo Travellers whilst staying at the Bedouin Moon recently and encountered the largest pizza that I had ever seen in my life! The diving in Dahab was brilliant and the photos that I got from the Canyon were spectacular as well as the chilled out atmosphere of the place in general. Highly recommended for anyone to go diving there and the Bedouin Moon was fantastic.

Finally, finally time to Blog Catch-Up!

Hey there everyone,

So sorry that I haven't had time to blog for such a long time, things have just been too chaotic and trying to take my first holiday in 5 years made me fall even more behind! Firstly, it was so great seeing everyone at the Dive Show and thanks to Ganesh and Richard Norbury for coming and taking a piccie of me there. I also scooped BSAC's Travel Photographer of the Year Award which was great. So many guests came up to tell me just how much my courses are helping them, which is really great news.

Fuji Makeover Day

So last week was a Fuji Day and Ken Pike came over to visit me with his brand new little Fuji. On looking through the scene modes I had a look and found an interesting one which promised to give me more natural tones and to take away my sun blemishes! This has to be far cheaper than creams and was astounded when Ken pushed the button to take a photo of my mugshot before and after and it worked! The disappointing factor of the Fuji F100 is that you can't add on a wide-angle lens, but the macro shots that you can obtain with it are unbelievable.

Blue Reef Aquarium in Hastings

An offer to clean a shark tank can't be refused, and off I went with the kind invitation of Patrick Shier of Exclusively Scuba to go and help down in Hastings. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day, and the staff were absolutely brilliant. There were four little reef sharks in there and it was great to see how well looked after they really are. A special thanks to the Team at Blue Reef, George, Emma and Patrick pictured here.

Another Funny Canon and Fuji Mix Day

Dave and Pete came back to complete their course last Tuesday evening, having finally got to grips with all the new controls that their new cameras had given them! Before getting in the water, needless to say, they needed to re-sign their forms. Only thing was that I had forgotten to change the printer settings and the forms came out 46 inches wide!!! It took us all 15 minutes to stop laughing before getting in the pool! :)

They both did a cracking job and finished with some brilliant shots .....

Shark Day for Sian!

Apologies for the delay in keeping up-to-date with the blog, life is way busy at the moment trying to be in three places at once. Sian came to see me last Sunday with her new camera, a Canon Ixus and little did I know that Sian has a fabulous passion for our sharky friends as well. Raising money for Biteback and Sea Shepherd in her spare time, I couldn't wait to introduce her to my plastic sharks underwater, and needless to say they were on their best behaviour and she loved them! She got on really well, and am looking forward to seeing how she gets on in her future trip to Sharm :)

Fuji Photo Course Day - F40 and F50!

And today was the day to put my Fuji Hat back on for Kevin and John's visit to my studio to help them with their underwater photography. Kevin was stuck in Auto Underwater Mode (but doing a very good job with some beautiful composition shots taken with his Inon Wide Angle Lens) and John was stuck in Manual White Balance mode, but again doing a sterling job with some wonderful shots there.

They were on a three hour fast-track course and whizzed through the explanations of the different settings before getting into a much warmer pool to try out their new skills! John had a fantastic time playing with the ray whilst Kevin took some cracking up, close and personal shots of Mr Lionfish and his long lashes! They both progressed really nicely and confident in their new skills that will be going UK diving very soon to try them all out. Well done!

Canon Photo Course Day - The New G10 Revealed!

And what a cracking little camera this new Powershot from the Canon Range it is! George Moss visited me today to ask for my help in getting to grips with the many functions that this camera has as the 300 plus page manual had overwhelmed him! Never one to refuse a challenge, all was mastered within 2 and a half hours and George was happily playing around with his settings, feeling very confident in how exactly this little camera was thinking.

Time to get in the pool and again this camera did not disappoint. The focusing was excellent for close-up photography, the screen was larger than it's predecessor, the G9, and made it really nice to see underwater when reviewing images, punchy colours, and a great all round camera. The only disappointment for me is that, like it's little brother the G9, it is impossible to fit a wide angle lens on the front of the camera's housing..... But of course for the thousands upon trillions of nudibranch lovers out there, of course is wide angle lens is not necessary for great underwater photographs of these little guys!

Fantastic camera, George loved it, and here is a photo of my stingray! The beautiful turtle shot was also taken by George with his old Sony Cybershot with a red filter, just shows that gorgeous shots can be achieved with these older point & shoots. It's a real cracker of a shot!

Happy Snapping Everyone :)

London Diving Chamber Lectures - Royal Geographical Society

Every year the London Diving Chamber holds a fantastic evening of talks at the Royal Geographical Society. This year they had 460 year's worth of diving combined with Alex Hildred, archaeologist on the Mary Rose and tales of Tim Ecott's adventures, the author of Neutral Buoyancy. This event is held in support of the Scuba Trust - a charity devoted to giving people with physical disabilities an equal opportunity to experience the pleasure and excitement of scuba diving and the underwater world.

Last Thursday the place was packed, keenly listening to the tales and adventures of two fantastic speakers and seeing some wonderful video and photographs. Jules Eden from EMed gave a fantastic introduction as always and it was great to see all of the London Diving Chamber Team there and The Scuba Trust. £775 was raised for a brilliant cause and thank you to everyone who came that evening. It was great seeing you all and hope that you all got home safely in the snow.

My First Success in an Underwater Photography Competition

And it was with my 2 year old Fuji Finepix compact camera with an Inon Fisheye Lens on Automatic Underwater Mode which won the Bronze Medal in the hugely popular competition run by Underwater Photography.com competing with over 12,500 entries to scoop the third place in the Natural Light Category. The photograph was taken in Nuweiba (shown below of the pier) on last year's Photo Workshop with Emperor Divers, which is where David Kittos' photograph was also taken.

The date has just been confirmed for my next Photo Workshop there to help all of you take award winning photographs which is 22nd June for 7 nights on an all-inclusive basis at the Coral Hilton Hotel, so if you fancy lots of fantastic photo opportunities for a week as well as a day's diving in Dahab at their famous sites, just let me know. Have a peek on the Gallery Page for an insight as to the photo opportunities that await you. The trip is run in association with Emperor Divers and the Travel Agent for whom to book with is the award winning Tony Backhurst Scuba Travel. Drop me an email for more information.

Sport Diver Magazine - February 2009

Yes, it arrived on my doorstep and it seemed really strange opening it and seeing my cookie jar with a stuffed leopard shark on top being featured in an article by Martin Bruce and Patrick Shier from Sport Diver Magazine. I really don't like reading about myself in articles, but it was lovely to see how well Patrick has been doing with his photography on his recent trips to the Red Sea. The evening courses have proved particularly popular since the article came out, and my brownies and famous lemon cake are proving even more popular! :)

Talk for the Metropolitan Police, New Scotland Yard, London

I was extremely touched (and very nervous) at being asked to give a talk where I used to work for the Metropolitan Police at their Headquarters in London on 7th January. There was a really great turnout and after a few hiccups with my new laptop, all ran very smoothly. It was absolutely superb to be back and made me miss my old job there :(

Many thanks to Ian, Chanon, Steve, Jane, Kim, Zoe & Ben for their help in making this event so special and a special thanks to David for the invitation to go diving with the Met down in Portland. Just need the weather to warm up first!!! :)

David Kittos is Another Winner!

So, huge apologies for not keep up-to-date with my blog, I came down with that horrid bug that was flying around and as much as us girls can be good multi-taskers, there has simply been too much going on. So here is a huge rundown of what has been going on over the past few weeks.

First I was extremely proud that David Kittos won January's Photo of the Month in Sport Diver magazine with this beautiful shot of a lionfish. He worked extremely hard throughout the week to improve his photography and even said that the Photo Workshop which I ran in September in Nuweiba, Egypt was the best one that he had been on! A very well-deserved winner and look forward to seeing how he gets on in the future.