I started photography underwater, then transitioned on to land - though the latter is definitely not my forte! :o(

 

This is me in November 2007 photographing a Oceanic White Tip Shark at 'The Brothers' in the Red Sea (image taken by and courtesy of James Staples):

 

 

This is me dry (image taken by and courtesy of Peter Puddiphatt:

www.peterpuddiphattphotography.co.uk and

www.peterpuddiphattweddingphotography.co.uk):

 

 

This is my (current) underwater rig:

 

 

This is where I've been - I should visit some bigger countries to make it look more impressive - many are little more than a pixel on this map! Can you spot them?:

 

create your own visited countries map

 

Favourites:

 

Locations:

 

Reefs:

Layang Layang & Sipadan, Malaysian Borneo (Sabah)

Dive Site: Roma, Wakatobi,, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Richelieu Rock, Thailand

 

Muck:

Lembeh Straits, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Purijati & Secret Bay, Bali, Indonesia

 

Night:

Bequia (muck), St Vincent, Caribbean

 

Wrecks (all Red Sea)

Carnatic, Kingston and the Thistlegorm

 

Wildlife

Fish

Rock-Mover Wrasse (and the juveniles in particular)

Goatfish (hardly rare, but they remind me of the 'Evil' Goat-Dance in Dragnet! :o)

Mandarinfish

 

Crustaceans

Pink Squat / Fairy Lobster

Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Coleman Shrimps

Harlequin Shrimps

Boxer Crabs (I've only seen one)

Box Crabs

 

Nudibranchs and Pleurobranchs

Chromodoris kuniei

Berthella martensi (I've only seen one)

Melibe viridis (ugly, and I've only seen one)

Really *want* to see Halgerda tesselata

 

Equipment

Nikon D300 and D200

Subal ND20 Underwater Housing for my D200, but modified to take my D300 instead.

Fantasea SB800 Underwater Housings

SB800 flashes

Flat-ports & extension rings for the 60mm, 105mm and

60mm with teleconverter.

FE8 8" dome-port.

 

Nikon 18-200mm orginal (now with broken VR) and the now updated one

Nikon 18-70(?)mm

Nikon 60mm AF-D macro

Nikon 105mm macro (the older 'Classic' one)

Nikon 70-180mm macro

Nikone 80-200mm f/2.8

Tokina 12-24mm

Tokina 10-17mm fish-eye

Nikon 50mm f/1.8

Nikon 35mm f/1.8

 

Kenko 300 Pro 2x Teleconverter

 

Favourite films... where *do* I start?

 

Here's a few for now (in no particular order):

 

2001 A Space Odyssey... where does one start?

Them!

The Thing From Another World (I also like the re-make, but this is more visceral)

Dance of the Vampires - Roman Polanski

Love and Death - Woody Allen

Omen

It Happened One Night - the 'domestic argument' scene in particular.

Gattaca

Some Like It Hot!

Monsters Inc. - awesome, but particularly love the retro opening titles.

Up!

Toy Story

Toy Story 2

Hard Boiled

Seven Samurai

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

For a Few Dollars More

The Sting

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Unforgiven

Madagascar 2 - I like to move it! move it! And King Julian for errr... king! :o)

Trading Places (lurve the opening with Marriage of Figaro)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Life of Brian

Time Bandits

The Italian Job (the 60's original)

Get Carter (the original)

Alien

Aliens

The Third Man

Shawshank Redemption

O Brother, Where art thou?

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey - Twister with Death - inspired!

Spiderman 1 & 2

Batman Begins

Robocop

Highlander

Transformers - amazing special effects - could have easily been 'cheap'

 

Favourite Movie Scenes (I don't necessarily think that the overall film was great):

 

The underwater march in Pirates of the Caribbean

1492: Conquest of Paradise - The silhouetted ships to Vangelis.

The Intelligence Men - Morecambe and Wise - Trying to remember the music to Swan Lake in the bar.

Knight's Tale - to Queen ' We WIll Rock You'!

 

Favourite comedians:

 

Emo Philips - I *am* an Emophiliac!

Spike Milligan - the godfather of Modern British Comedy (despite being technically Irish) - "Let's get out of the woods, before the trees arrive!" - Pure Class!

Peter Cook - not seen as much of his work, as I would like, but everything I've seen/heard so far has been awesome!

Lee Evans

Eddie Izzard

Billy Connolly

Laurel and Hardy

The Chuckle Brothers [sic] - they *are* the modern Laurel and Hardy

Simon Pegg / Spaced!