News
Scubaverse Underwater Photographer Interview: Martyn Guess
In an ongoing series, Scubaverse’s Underwater Photography Editors Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown talk to underwater photographers from around the world that they admire. In this blog: Martyn Guess…
My diving career started in the late 1970’s when a family friend took me underwater in southern Spain. An interesting experience given that he managed to knock my mask off with his fins on the first dive! I was amazed by the colours and fish life and very keen to pursue the sport, although it wasn’t until quite a few years later that I went through the formal training process, together with my eldest son, and we both qualified on his 12th Birthday at Stoney Cove in the UK.
Since then, and over the last 22 years, I have dived all over the world and visited some amazing places and seen some wonderful things.
I have travelled extensively through Indonesia and the Philippines and have managed to build up an extensive portfolio of weird and wonderful creatures which I primarily post on Instagram.
I have had a fair amount of success with national and international competitions and I am now passing on some of my knowledge as I teach underwater photography, primarily by running photographic workshops with Scuba Travel, but I also do some one to one courses in the UK. We are going to the Azores in September with a group following a research trip there last summer and also Anilao, Philippines in May and Bali in October. I am keen to take photographers to the best places and some new destinations. I have recently become Chairman of Photosub – the Surrey based group of underwater photographers started by the late Len Deely; we have some very talented people in the club.
N&C: How did your underwater photography start?
MG: A couple of years after I qualified in 1995 I went on holiday to Grand Cayman and found myself diving with Cathy Church, who with her husband Jim wrote the definitive book on the Nikonas V film camera for underwater use. I had been a keen land photographer since college days and was fascinated by some of the images in her shop, so it only took a day or two before I signed up for a course with her. I have to say I was immediately smitten and on the slippery slope!
When I got back home I went to see Alan James in Bristol and bought the same camera. For those that don’t know the Nikonas it was a great little camera but focus was achieved by guesswork and setting the F stop to an open aperture giving you infinity, or little prongs that stuck out from the lens for macro and close up use when a smaller aperture was selected. The idea being to get the subject between the prongs – no mean feat! You were also limited to 36 exposures with no real idea of how the images would look until the film had been processed. However, despite all of this I was hooked and used the Nikonas for quite a few years until digital cameras started to come onto the market.
N&C: What is your favourite u/w camera equipment (past & present) & why?
MG: I currently use a Nikon D5 which is a truly amazing camera. One of my favourite tools to use with the camera is the Retra LED Snoot which only allows a small amount of light from the strobe to hit the subject. You can isolate subjects from the background and where the subject is on a mucky bottom or distracting background this can be really useful in creating images that leap off the page. They are easier to use than people think and I teach the techniques on my workshops. It is always rewarding to see people reap the benefits of this type of lighting.
The Retra is so much better and easier to use than the old snoots that I had to make from plumbing parts, as the strobe modelling light shines through the snoot and is magnified so that it can be easily aimed. When I first started snoot lighting most of my images were totally black as it was pure guesswork where the light would land and often I had to nab my wife Sue to hold the bits of pipes over the subject!
N&C: What would be your advice to anyone new to underwater photography?
MG: I recommend going on a one to one course with an expert if you can afford it. This will cut out a lot of wasted time trying to work it out on your own. There is a lot to take on board such as equipment choice, lighting, angle of view, getting in the best position, camera settings etc and a course will put you on the right path. It’s exactly what I did years ago and my photography came on leaps and bounds as a result.
Get to know your camera and other equipment. Try and understand the settings and what they do. If this becomes second nature on land it will be so much easier underwater. Many people come to underwater photography without any knowledge of what the various camera settings really do and how they work together. Any good course will normally start with making sure that there is a good understanding of the basics of using the various settings together to achieve a good result.
Read the books written by the experts such as Alex Mustard or Martin Edge. Take your time and make sure you understand what you are reading. These guys take great images and in their books, they tell how they do it! Join a regional underwater photography club and BSOUP. There is a fountain of knowledge out there and in my experience members are very happy to help and offer advice to people starting out. All have regular meetings where there are useful presentations and the opportunity to enter competitions so that you can gauge how you are doing.
Consider going on a specific photography dive trip. There are quite a few of us leading these trips now. You will learn so much in the field and with help on hand above and under the water. I get students who can’t believe how much they learn in a week or two. They come home with portfolios of images that they never thought they would achieve.
Make sure that your diving skills are up to scratch. You are a diver first and a photographer second! Excellent buoyancy is a prerequisite if you are going to manoeuvre yourself into a good position to take a photograph without crashing into the reef or the bottom.
Above all else don’t get disheartened. Practice, Practice and Practice and the results will start to get better.
N&C: What, or who, has been your single biggest inspiration for your underwater photography?
MG: I would say without a doubt my friends Martin Edge and Alex Mustard. I have been on so many trips with both of them that sooner or later something had to rub off on me! I would look at their images and then determine that I was going to somehow take them myself. Nowadays, their inspiration and the many excellent photographers there are around the world drives me to try new techniques and to constantly perfect my image making.
N&C: What image are you most proud of and why?
MG: There is no specific image but I am proud of my recent back lit and snooted macro subjects such as Thorny Sea horses and Weedy Rhinopias. They are tough to light but the results can be spectacular. Also I have been into shark photography for the last couple of years and am very pleased with some dusk shots with Great Hammerheads and also open ocean Blue Sharks in the Azores. Sharks are amazing but you have to put yourself in the right position at the right time to get good images and be prepared to get very close!
N&C: Where is your favourite dive location, and is it for the photography?
MG: I would have to say Raja Ampat and definitely for photography. This is primarily due to the health of the corals and sea life. There is such a huge amount to photograph and if you are there when the bait fish shoals are around, the sight of them and all of the predators circling combined with the coral and the colours is simply breathtaking.
N&C: What are you views on marine life manipulation, moving subjects?
MG: Quite simply – dive and look, but don’t touch or harass anything! I teach on my workshops that if a subject is in the wrong place or facing the wrong way then move on. There will be another better opportunity as the dive progresses. From my experience people get blinkered by the guide spotting something maybe quite rare and in their eagerness to get a shot of this rare critter they snap away and don’t really think whether it is in a good position or whether the image they create will be a keeper. When they review their images in camera, and realise that perhaps the subject is not in a good position, some people can perhaps be tempted to try and get a better image by moving the critter. Maybe they have seen, as we all have, a guide (who is only seeking to please his client) move a subject and think this is quite acceptable behaviour. It might have been more prevalent in the past but is definitely a no-go area now. Sea life and the marine environment is so fragile that we all have to do what we can to help protect it and ensure that there is something left for future generations.
N&C: What do you look for when you are making your images?
MG: I am always trying to create an image which is not simply a record shot of the subject and often a different perspective, be it lighting, camera blur, lens bokeh or angle of view. There are so many great photographers out there that I am always striving to not only come up with something different but to perfect the shot as best I can. I am a stickler for the detail and getting the composition, lighting and focus right. I go through phases with a specific technique and will hammer this until I get what I want. The subject doesn’t need to be something exotic, it can be a common subject but maybe photographed in a different way, so I concentrate on looking for something which is in a good position and which will enable me to do what I want to do creatively.
N&C: What motivates you to take u/w photos?
MG: It’s my ability to record the underwater world that drives me. I am fascinated by the fact that new species are being discovered in the World’s oceans every year. I remember seeing a coffee table book years ago with a pygmy seahorse on the cover. I had never seen one and didn’t even know they existed. Without that photograph, I wouldn’t have been driven to find out where it was taken and to go there myself and then to be able to show other people what fascinating creatures live under the surface.
N&C: If you could photograph any one thing/place what or where would that be?
MG: I have quite a few things on my bucket list. Top of this is any of the great Whales. One day I hope to get to somewhere I can do that. I also want to photograph Great Whites!
To find out more about Martyn’s underwater photography trips with Scuba Travel click here.
Blogs
TRAVEL BLOG: Jeff Goodman Dives SOMABAY, Part 2
Day three of my trip to Somabay and we were spending the day on the Lady Christina and diving on the wreck of the Salem Express.
Diving wrecks for me is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of diving a wreck is more than often tempered by the thought of loss of life when she sank. The Salem Express was a passenger ship and a roll-on/roll-off ferry travelling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. Most passengers were of poor class travelling home from their holidays while around 150 people were returning home from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The ship struck a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Passengers were trapped below deck and the ship was filled with fear and panic.
The wreck area is strewn with personal belongings from the crew and passengers such as a transistor radio and a flat iron for clothes. A diver at sometime has put them in a prominent place to be seen.
Tragically only one life boat was launched while the others went down with the ship. More than 600 men, women and children lost their lives here.
It’s a stark reminder that the sea can be unforgiving and so when we dive on such wrecks we should do so with humble regard.
Returning to the surface, shoals of fish are gathered under our boat and seem to be welcoming us back into the light.
Back at the Breakers I sat in the dining area with a beer and a very good meal while my thoughts still remained with the day’s dive on the Salem Express.
Check in for part 3 tomorrow for Jeff’s last day of diving with Somabay on the off-shore reefs looking for turtles.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
Blogs
TRAVEL BLOG: Jeff Goodman Dives SOMABAY, Part 1
For a week at the end of February I was invited to sample the diving with Orca Dive Club based at the Breakers Diving and Surfing Lodge by courtesy of SOMABAY.
Somabay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds. Somabay caters for scuba diving as well as many other sports, including windsurfing, golf, sailing, go-carting, horse riding and many other activities.
All the activities are of a world-class standard and any or all of these can be booked directly from The Breakers.
I took Easyjet from Bristol (UK) to Hurghada. Easyjet are not by any means my favourite airline but the flight was cheap and direct (except for the surprise extra £48 I was charged at the gate for my carry-on bag).
I was met at Hurghada airport by a driver and car and taken to the Breakers 28 miles (45Kilomaters) south along the coast. Once at the hotel I was too late for an evening meal and so a basic meal was delivered to my room. That and a beer from the fridge and I was fast asleep.
Early the next morning after breakfast I arrived for my rep meeting at the Orca Dive Center for 8.00am. I was immediately made to feel welcome, and after brief introductions I got some dive gear from the store, had a chat with my dive guide Mohamed and got ready to try the house reef situated at the end of a very long wooded pier where all diving gear and divers are taken out by buggies.
Once at the end of the pier, a helping hand from staff makes sure your gear is set and then it’s a short walk to the very end where you can either climb down a ladder of simply jump in the water next to the reef. The house reef extends both north and south giving a very easy and safe dive with plenty to see. At this time of the year the water temperature was a constant 22 degrees Centigrade and there was little or no current, so there were no issues in swimming back to the pier.
Quite a few divers were in dry or semi-dry suits, but being from the UK and used to the cold I found a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm neoprene vest quite comfortable. Even after 50 years of diving I still find that first dive of a trip slightly nerving until I am actually underwater and then all becomes relaxed and I ease into auto diving mode. There was plenty to see with many of the Red Sea favourites along the way.
After the dive and a buggy ride back to the hotel for a very good buffet lunch I was back in the water, once again on the house reef for an afternoon dive.
Check in for part 2 tomorrow when Jeff gets on a day boat and dives a few of the off-shore reefs.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
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