DVD Underwater Photography Made Easy for Compact Camera Users Update

So after DEMA it was time to head straight back to Mabul and Sipidan to grab the final shots needed to complete the DVD. It was the longest journey ever in over 10 years of my passion of travelling the world's oceans. I flew back to London, drove up to Bradford some 6 hours with a sleep stop on the way. 20 mins to pack, 20 more minutes to get presents for the staff at Borneo Divers and then time to drive to Manchester airport before taking a flight to KL via Dubai .... Phew ....

It was a crazy 3 days but the weather was definitely on my side and we had absolutely flat calm conditions for the time I was there. Absolutely amazing! More photos of this will be on their way soon, or don't forget to check out my Facebook page.

It was then time to head back to KK to put the finishing touches to the DVD with the Scubazoo Team before heading back with the Master Copy (which sadly broke) on the way back .... :( .... so I am just waiting now for a new one via DHL.

A very, very special thank you to Borneo Divers and all of the staff there for their help in the project since the start. The DVD should be ready at the end of the first week in December with plenty of time to pop it in your Christmas Stocking!

DEMA - Orlando, Florida

Then it was time to head off to DEMA with my booth. Phew was I nervous but it was really lovely to receive Clement Lee's message on Facebook when I arrived at Orlando airport that evening and really great to see Tourism Malaysia the following day. I moved into the Imaging Zone and it was great being able to help my friends over the pond master the art of their compact cameras too.

I bumped into lots of friends, course guests from my recent trip to Key Largo as well as attending an amazing Wetpixel/DivePhotoGuide party and seeing many friends from the UK dive industry.

New online courses were launched the overseas trips with Borneo Divers as well as courses at Dive Centres proved popular too.

I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Thanks to everyone who made me feel so welcome :)

Underwater Photography Course at Amphibian Sports - London

A day later crazily designing promotion material for DEMA it was time to take the plastic fish for their monthly outing to Amphibian Sports at Crystal Palace in London to help Sharon master the art of her compact camera. It was really great seeing Dee and the team there again and bumped into Paul from Ocean Divers too ...

Don't forget that I can run underwater photography courses at your own club, so if you are interested, just let me know.

Evening Talk at Portsmouth Adventure Club

This must have been the longest UK drive of my life - over 10 hours to get from Bradford to Portsmouth and no, I wasn't driving Thomas either ... Simba my beloved Golden Retriever was very poorly sick and had to keep stopping to look after him.

But we finally got there and it was amazing to see how many patient budding underwater photographers were waiting to hear my presentation. It was a fabulous night and we raised over £70 for Sea Shepherd.

If you would like me to come along and give a talk to your club to raise money for you favourite charity, just get in touch. All I need is a place to stay and I will be there.

A very special thank you to Graham for inviting me down there and to Claire and her parents for letting me and Simba stay that night.

Looking forward to seeing them all again next year for a diving adventure.

Dive Show NEC 2011

Phew, it has been an absolutely crazy few months and finally today is my first day to be able to update my blog. Since returning from Key Largo I headed straight to Borneo Divers in Mabul, Malaysia to start work turning my award winning book into a DVD.

Then it was straight from there to the Dive Show in Birmingham where I took Thomas my new photo bus for his first outing to the show itself. It was an incredible weekend, and a very special thanks are due to Naomi, Dave, Rachel, Andreea and Sally for helping out. It was packed, four packed seminars and so much interest in Thomas himself.

Thank you to everyone for coming to see me there, you made the weekend very, very special and one that I will never forget.

Weekend Photo Workshop in Key Largo, Florida - 16-18 September

I'm so excited at going back to Key Largo in Florida next month to join Christopher Parsons run his Nauticam Photography Weekend Workshop from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th September. Suitable for complete beginners with point and shoot cameras to those looking to develop their advanced skills using either housed compacts or SLR rigs, there will be something for absolutely everyone. Chris will be giving a series of lectures as well as talks on Lightroom and much, much more! I'll be there to help out from Thursday evening where we will meet for an informal briefing until Saturday afternoon, so if this is tickling your underwater tastebuds, then just get in touch with Chris at Nauticam USA. Check out the schedule on his website here



Have a great weekend and hope to see some of you there! It's gonna be a lot of fun :)

Lembeh Straits - Critter Paradise Underwater

Please forgive me for the quietness on my blog the past week, after such a crazy year or few, I finally realised that I needed a little rest. So off I headed to Lembeh Straits to continue playing with Canon Powershot's S95. I knew that I was well on the way to falling in love with this camera whilst in Nuweiba during my recent photo workshop, but how would it cope with the really small stuff here in Critter Paradise.

Well, I absolutely loved it even more and for the first time there was no need to use my INON Close-Up Lens. The camera focused quickly and sharply on all the subjects shown here and apart from a little cropping, none of the attached images have been photoshopped.

I used the camera's underwater mode to capture the photograph of the mimic octopus, I was lucky enough to see 4 of these in just two days there. Lembeh Straits really is an amazing place for any underwater photographer to go and sample macro heaven and get those photos ticked off the wish list!

I'll be continuing to play with my INON close-up lens as well as stacking them this coming week, so stay tuned for more news.

Have a lovely weekend :)