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.