I grew up in the north-west of England in an industrial town called Runcorn, about 15 miles from Liverpool. Bitten by the travel bug early I have been on the move since shortly after my 21st birthday when the first opportunity to work “away from home” came my way. Thirty odd years later I am still on the move, having made my way to Australia in 1991, after spending 14 years working in the Middle East.

My day job is in sales for the US Corporation General Electric and my role takes me all over Asia, an exciting area with many opportunities to dive in much sought after locations

I started diving back in 1978 whilst on holiday in Malta - without any formal training, something that seemed quite OK back then, but looks incredibly stupid now! In the mid 1980’s I decided that maybe some proper instruction many not be a bad idea after all and eventually ended up as a BSAC Advanced Instructor and PADI Divemaster.

These days I dive to take photographs, something that I drifted into over 20 years ago but seems to dominate my life now (obsessive-compulsive underwater photography disorder?) and I am never happier than at the end of a good day’s liveaboard diving, reviewing my images whilst drinking a cold beer!

In early 2004 I changed over from film to digital when Nikon released the D100 DSLR, not quite realizing the full extent of the “investment” this would require due to the various lenses required to compensate for the 1.5x crop factor. I ended up with two D100's and Subal housings (one for macro and the other for wide-angle) and used those through to the end of 2005 - learning a great deal about digital photography in the process. Then with Nikon about to release the second generation prosumer technology D200 I decided to sell the two rigs and upgrade.

I decided that I could not afford dual D200's & housings and opted for one housing and two bodies, so if the worst ever did happen whilst I was on a trip I had a spare camera to continue shooting with once whatever had caused the leak had been rectified of course.

I did not actually recieve the Subal D20 housing until May 2006 and promptly left for a trip to PNG to learn how to use it! The D200 really is a quantum leap on from the D100 and I have been very pleased with my images both above and below water, but at the end of the day it is the photographer that takes the image - the camera is just the recording media. So don't let camera envy stop you from getting out there and getting the most from whatever you are using at the time.

Check out the Articles and Equipment pages on this site for stuff I have written about choosing & using camera underwater.

I have used Subal housings since 1994 and thoroughly recommend them, they are superbly designed and made plus Sea Optics provide great support in Australia. I use Ikelite SS200 stobes for both macro and wide angle as I find their light, power and quick recycle time excellent. I have a pair of Sea & Sea YS90 strobes as back-ups and I'm currently experimenting with an Athena ring flash from Japan for close up macro work.