Blue Reef Aquarium - Hastings

Time for a change of scenery and many thanks to my lovely friends Patrick Shier and his wife Debra for taking me down to Hastings and giving a couple of my guests the time of their lives diving in the aquarium. It was a really brilliant day and both David and Steve were over the moon with the encounters that they had. For those of you who think that Patrick's name sounds familiar, he is a regular contributor to Sport Diver Magazine, creating the original Above 18m column. His book is due out soon and for more info or to contact Patrick, visit www.exclusivelyscuba.co.uk

Talk for Diving Dreams in Guildford, Surry

I can't believe how many lovely clubs have invited me to give talks at their clubs and a few weeks ago at the beginning of March, it was time to head off to Sunny Guildford to give a talk at Gary's club, Diving Dreams. It was a really fabulous night with £120 raised for the Scuba Trust and Cherry won herself a Manta Ray Photo on Canvas. It was also her birthday, making the print even more special and deserved! Thanks again to Gary for inviting me and for more information visit his website at www.divingdreams.co.uk.

Talk for DAGSAC, BSAC Club in Dagenham

And so last week it was off to Dagenham to reunite with a couple of course guests, Rob and Richie and to meet their club members to give a talk on "Creating Magic Photos with Your Compact". It was brilliant to see everyone there and even the non-divers really enjoyed the talk. £100 was raised for the RNLI which was fantastic and left there feeling really happy :) and I was given flowers, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh ......

Talk at East Midlands Underwater Photography Group

Busy, busy, busy and it was time to escape London and head up to Stoney Cove where I was kindly invited by Robb Cuss of the East Midlands Underwater Photography Group. Sam and Mike were absolutely fab in taking me around some beautiful countryside, filled me up with a lovely dinner at Nemo's Bar, before nearly passing out at the turnout there for people to come and listen to the talk. A special thank you to all who came and sorry that I didn't have time to talk to anyone and had to rush off home. Thanks too to Sam and Mike for looking after me. It was really, really awesome and was touched to say that it was the best turnout that Rob had had this year - until I realised that it was still only January!!!

Smallest Person Ever on my Course!

What a busy, busy couple of weeks it has been! Since Alison and Mike graced their way back to sunny Scotland, I have met so many amazing guests during the past few weeks. Howard and Catherine came to spend a day with me to learn about their Canon Powershot and Canon Ixus with Inon Set-Up. They also brought along the smallest student that I have ever had on my course - in fact she is of course a memory stick :) They had a fantastic day as did John Brodie with his Fuji the following day pictured here with Lisa and struggled to get him out of the pool. He made this smashing portfolio and spent the next morning honing his photoshop techniques to make a cracking portfolio. We were all chuffed to bits with it and Lisa really extra chuffed with the retail therapy that she had in nearby Bluewater Shopping Centre whilst John was busy studying the course! Two more PADI Digital Underwater Photo Students passed with flying colours - hurrah!!!! :)

Well done Libby!

Libby came on my workshop to Nuweiba last year. She emailed me on Monday to say that she was placed as joint runner-up in Bristol's Underwater Photography Group with this wonderful picture of two ribbon eels. She shoots with a Canon Ixus and a Sea & Sea Strobe. Well done Libby!

Happy Snowy New Year! :)

Big snowy wishes to you all and here's wishing you a wonderful year ahead full of fishtastic diving and amazing photo opportunties. I never thought my garden would look so scenic or that Simba would enjoy eating the snow!

Despite the snowy start to the year, Alison and Mike from an even snowier Edinburgh still came down by plane for their course on Tuesday. We spent a wonderful day together until gone past 7 pm sharing conservation experiences and before they knew it, it was snowing again. I took them their diving equipment all dried out the following day ready for their flight back to Edinburgh and we all ended up trying to push the taxi out of the snow over a speed hump from the Sundridge Park Manor.

What an adventure! But there was more to come. Their flight ended up being de-iced on the runway itself when all the other flights from London City had been cancelled. Fortunately, they returned to Edinburgh last night safe and sound and exhilerated from a wonderful day. So enthusiastic, they've just emailed me to say that they are already playing with their cameras up in the snow!

I'm already excited about helping you all in 2010 so just get in touch to help you take beautiful underwater and overwater photographs :)