Tuesday 10 March 2009

Blue O2 HEPCA dives & Sara Campbell

The day after returning from Q-School, I was packing my bags for Egypt. I was off to Hurgharda for diving photography with a twist. The main reason for the trip was to take part in the reef clean-up dives organised by HEPCA. This involved taking some dives out of the usual schedule and instead diving shallower, well used areas, picking up glass, plates, plastic bags, fishing line, basically anything that should not have been in the sea. There was also some fantastic diving to be had with warm clear water and some great wrecks. There was the obligatory visit to the SS Thistlegorm, as well as the Carnatic, Dunraven and Ghiannis D. We also had world record holding free diver Sara Campbell on board so we had a great photo shoot with her underwater at the Ghiannis D for her website and sponsors (left). To watch her gracefully glide through the water on one breath was fantastic, she looked so unencumbered compared to me in all my diving gear.
Live-aboard diving is always great due to the diversity of people that are on board. Luckily, I had a great bunch with me that week, with several budding photographers on board who spent a fair few hours quizzing me on all things photographic.
For most of the wreck images I used a Canon 5D with a 15mm Fish Eye lens and a magic filter cut to fit the rear filter holder. No strobes were used, just natural light, so shooting with the light and white balancing every few metres is a must.
More photos of the wrecks can be seen here.

Sadly, all too soon, it was time to head back to England and the slightly cooler waters of the South Coast.

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