BSoUP in focus magazine issue 120

in focus Spring/Summer 2022 no 120 Inspiring and informing underwater photographers since 1967

Editorial by Joss Woolf - Editor Spring/Summer 2022 Dear BSoUP member, i quiam sus eture plat eatur, volupta tiatibus. Iduciis aut a consedic to eicipsae nullaborpori omnimustior sed qui re re, inulliqui occum doluptate qui alias eos dendestium voloreic te nam rem idiant arionsequi aut alias modignatem fugita endis doloreicimos es accuptat alia volor autem. Aribus imus, torum exceaqui qui dusciis torpore sseria dolorep editibea aut rem reptus. Rae simus ma ius. Andebis et perit rem rectur, earunt am quia cusa corae volut volum arciam adipictem rehendundi coreperemos aliqui dolorenimus adit dolupta temped magnisi conecti quaes doluptat. Ecersperum con nulpa della verspide id ut volestiandae magnatur, od eum aut eaquis doluptat la quam nonsequam re dolupta culparciti ad quae. Et eatur, corepra que nossed que omnime planditaquat re eic tem ipsam, omnihicti dis voloria delestiur? Qui dis ma dolor repra dolor molo mod quid qui remposa pisquias doluptibus abore eum as aut moluptu rescid quisit a expere volectia sunt eictotatium sit ut la dolupit ionsedis di veraectem fugit ariant placim ad quasimenis nonsect atquiae restis milit as assinumqui diciis que vid quis aut harumquam ilibusdae. Ut dolupidel inum quasperum volorit, nus dolores simus aut rerovid ut estrum et, consequas sanihil litioritium quid ut que velicae mo qui quoditatam rem quo quist vel ma core autempos exerfer ferciis qui consector andaestibus, quae natume nemporest volut essi consentur, cus delit, ut alignia nonseceserem faci doluptat reium quas el idella ex elis maio. Lum quibus auditae. Mi, sit earume pedi dolupta suntios reprovit latur? Udis estions edigent. Ectat. Your In focus team: Joss Chris, Mike, Paul

in focus Spring/Summer 2022 Contents 2 Editorial 4 Through Snell's Window - Mark Kirkland 24 Celebrating 20 years of compact cameras - Maria Munn 38 SV Royal Adelaide, Chesil Beach - Jon Bunker 52 Focus On Competition Results 66 St Lucia, a macro haven - Wendy Biscette 74 Mike Maloney 82 Bonaire revisited - Joss Woolf 98 Life After Bleaching - Dr Jo Gan Cover image: BSoUP in focus • 3 by Nur Tucker Joss Woolf, Editor, [email protected] Chris McTernan, Design/Production, [email protected] Mike Russell, Images/Distribution, [email protected] Paul Morgan, Layout and editorial assistance, [email protected] www.bsoup.org.uk Spring / Summer 2022

Through Snell’s Window in focus editor Joss Woolf interviews Mark Kirkland Mark is a successful Scottish underwater photogra- pher who, amongst other achievements, won the British category of Underwater Photographer of the Year in 2021. Tell me about your diving history and how it led to underwater photography. I’m sure my journey to underwater photography started over twenty years before I even picked up a camera or donned a drysuit. When I was a child, we always holidayed around the coast of Scotland so my earliest and fondest memories are of the rugged and rural coast of Dumfries and Galloway in the southwest of the country. We visited sealife centres and local marine research facilities and I was enchanted by the alien-like life. I’m certain the seeds for a lifelong fascination with the sea were planted back then. It wasn’t until I was twenty-five that Curled Octopus - (Eledone cirrhosa). Eilean that nostalgia led me to a scuba nan Ròn island, Cape Wrath. Scotland. qualification - PADI advanced open water, gained on a particularly cold 4 • BSoUP in focus

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winter in Loch Long. I spent the next Right: Split shot of a large barrel jellyfish few years pottering around Scotland (Rhizostoma pulmo) with the wreck and took a few trips to the Red Sea. As of the small steam ship Kaffir in the for the photography, I’ve always had a background. A moody cloudy sky with creative impulse. I studied illustration textured clouds is above. Ayr, Scotland. for a few years and I’ve always got something on the go. Whether it’s mini-strobe. When I upgraded to the painting, life-drawing, writing music, Nikon last year, I treated myself to the I love to create, so it was a natural Nauticam NA-D500 housing which is progression that after a few years’ a work of art. diving I took a camera into the sea. As for lenses, my ‘go-to’ is wide Where are you from? and close - I absolutely loved the I’ve lived in central Scotland my whole Panasonic 8mm fisheye when I was life, originally from South Lanarkshire shooting Olympus and now I mostly and now living in Glasgow where I use the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye. A work a mental health officer; basically lot of subjects in Scotland are fairly a social worker with a specialism in small so I’ve always preferred small mental health law. domes to take advantage of the close focus capabilities of these lenses. Just How long have you been taking now I’m using the Zen 100mm. I’ve pictures? also got a 19 inch dome I had custom I first took a camera underwater in made to take basking shark shots - 2011, so just over ten years now! I that was for my Olympus setup and started with a barely functioning Sea I’m currently trying to convert it to the and Sea DX-2G. Nauticam housing. I’ve made a few expensive errors so far! What cameras have you had since Macro photography is a rarity for me, and what do you use now? I just don’t seem to be very good at It’s such an expensive hobby so I’ve it but when I do get brave, I use the always had to be careful about my Nikon 60mm along with the CMC-2 upgrades, only changing when I feel diopter. the camera is starting to limit me. Over the years I’ve had the Olympus You seem to be on a winning EPL-5, Olympus OMD EM5 MKii and streak; what do you attribute that my current set up is the Nikon D500. to? If you went through my SD Card after For lighting I use the Sea and Sea a dive you would see it’s anything but YS-D1, YS-D2J and the backscatter consistent! My ‘hit rate’ for useable 6 • BSoUP in focus

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Spring / Summer 2022 Split shot of a Basking Shark (Cetorinus maximus) in Gunna Sound, Isle of Colll, Scotland. It's mouth is gaping as it feeds. Clouds are lit with the setting sun in the background. BSoUP in focus •99

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Purple sunsta, Loch leven, Scotland BSoUP in focus • 11 Spring / Summer 2022

photos is actually fairly low - I’ve just great, but my heart is really in cold started using an angled viewfinder waters. I haven’t dived abroad in and that seems to have made a huge about 8 years. difference. All that said, I do tend to Has BSoUP helped you along your get one or two shots I’m happy with photographic journey? and I think that’s down to planning Definitely. It’s been great for central - I almost always dive with a specific point for connecting with other photograph in mind. That involves photographers, sharing ideas and picking the right lens, location, sea finding both inspiration and practical conditions, thinking about how I’ll advice. light it, ambient light etc. and usually that leads to some success. What advice would you give to people starting out at the present Which other photographers’ work time and also to people who have inspires you? already been taking photographs Angel Fitor is one of my favourite for a while? photographers. His use of light is To people starting out I’d emphasise almost poetic and he manages to the need for planning your shots. Are capture something profound in even you diving and just happen have a the simplest of scenes. I also love camera, or are you diving to take Viktor Lyagushkin who shoots in the photos? If it’s the latter, then choose White Sea. He’s got a distinctive style your subject, think about the location, and manages to capture temperate think about the position of the sun sea life in all its creepy and bizarre in the sky, think about how you’ll glory. approach the subject and how you’ll light it. It’s all in the planning. What type of marine life attracts you the most? If you’ve already been taking photos I could count on one hand how for a while, I’d say try and keep many Octopus I’ve seen so those connected to the things that inspire encounters are always to be treasured. you. I go through phases where I As photography subjects go, they’re a feel like my photography stagnates dream! - I don’t have any fresh ideas and can’t think of a worthwhile project. Where have you been diving Then I find something that excites around the world and what did me - not necessarily underwater you like best about them? photography - it could be a book, The only place outside the UK I’ve film or documentary or a place. been diving is the Red Sea. It was Excitement about the world stokes my 12 • BSoUP in focus

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'While you sleep'. UPY Wimmer 2021, British Waters Wide Angle. Common frog. Malls Mire, Glasgow 14 • BSoUP in focus

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imagination and inevitably leads to on innovation and fresh ideas. For more interesting photographs. me they’ve given my photography a platform and an audience I couldn’t What do you think about otherwise achieve and while I still think competitions? there’s something really weird about Competitions are undoubtedly a art being competitive, I can’t deny good thing for any photographer it’s a nice feeling when your images and for showcasing marine life to are liked by a panel of judges whom the general public. I also think they you admire and respect. I also think can be a source of inspiration as they’re simply fun - maybe the trick the best competitions place value is to not see any success or failure a measure of whether a photo is good Above: Curled Octopus -Eledone cirrhosa or not. Eye of the beholder and all - Sutherland that…. Left: A bouquet of plumose anemones (metridium senile) in the phytoplankton Cont'd on Pg 24 rich waters of western Scotland with subtle sunlight breaking through the surface Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 17

Short Spined Scorpionfish - (Myoxocaphalus scorpius) sitting on a bed of Brittlestars (Ophiothrix fragilis) in the depths of Loch Leven, Scotland 18 • BSoUP in focus

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Common Starfish (Asterias rubens) on dark kelp with the sun penetrating phytoplankton rich green water. Loch Etive, Scotland. 20 • BSoUP in focus

Moon Jellyfsh (Aurelia aurita) with reflection on the water line and a background of trees and cloudy sky. Loch Sween, Scotland. Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 21

Two beadlet anemones (Actinia equina), one a brilliant red colour, in a rockpool with the water line visible and sunset in the background. Competition successes: I’ve had images placed in quite a few national and international competitions. However, the biggest competition successes were winning the Portrait Category of the British Nature Photography Awards in 2019 with my shot of a Sea Scorpion in Loch Leven, and winning 2021 British Underwater Photographer of the Year with my shot of a common frog. That image was a real labour of love and while I was just delighted to have that image for myself (proof that I could achieve such a technically challenging shot), I was also delighted it could reach a wider audience. Website www.markkirklandphotography.com www.instagram.com/markunderwater 22 • BSoUP in focus

A large common sunstar sitting on a temperate reef surrounded by dead mens fingers, byrozoans and fish. Orkney Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 23

Celebrating 20 years of Compact Cameras by Maria Munn Maria is a multi-award winning underwater photographer and author. She pioneered and wrote the first ever book “Underwater Photography for Compact Camera Users” which was dedicated to help beginners master their settings and shoot with colour and confidence. Many of her course guests have won prizes both in the UK and overseas. She runs courses both online and at her newly designed underwater photography studio in Swanage, Dorset, where she is based. It genuinely feels like just a few years relying on nothing more than ago when I failed miserably trying to a red push-on filter, with my use a Motormarine film camera hired boat companions telling me from Alan James to join me on my that I needed something far, far ocean research expedition to Brazil larger to be able to capture our back in 2001. Coming back with a underwater world at its best. heap of black rectangular prints I took a giant leap of faith into the unknown Far larger, I definitely wasn’t sure with a 3 Megapixel Sony Cybershot. about, but an upgrade to my new- Snorkelling around the Blue Hole, to-be best friend, an Olympus 5050 24 • BSoUP in focus

Spring / Summer 2022 Turtle at Sipidan Island, Malaysia - Canon S95, Canon Housing with INON UFL-165 AD Fisheye Lens and two x S-2000 strobes BSoUP in focus • 25

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in 2003 with full manual controls, blocks to zero blocks in milliseconds was definitely going to take me on with no warning, just when your a rollercoaster of an adventure that dream photo had appeared. Memory I’ll never forget. Add on the Ikelite cards with 1 MB of memory seemed housing and an Ikelite DS-125 like a godsend with a whopping strobe, it definitely seemed as far from 12,000 image capacity compared compact as you could get, and the to just 36 on a roll of film and now strobe absolutely terrified the o-rings today’s incredible 512 GB card can off me! potentially keep 192,000. Then came wireless connection to your phone Fast forward to today and I’m still to transfer your images instead of pinching myself to believe that by hunting for a cable. pioneering the first ever dedicated underwater photography courses for Whatever the differences, and compact cameras here in the UK, my whatever the extras that the camera journey has encompassed pretty much manufacturers have added over the every kind of compact camera and years, the principles are still absolutely accessory that you can imagine. the same. Whether I was using a Sealife, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Canon, Yes, I really did get ever so addicted Nikon or a Go Pro, the secrets of a and super-inspired by every single one great image have never changed; get that I met during my 15 year teaching close, fill the frame, be patient, stay career and so I thought I’d share some still and shoot. Except now, instead of the stories and images from that of waiting almost a whole second for journey. Those eye-striking images the shutter button to work, it’s a mere which pack a whole heap of punch nano-second. are completely achievable, even if your camera doesn’t have full manual The proof of how much these cameras control. have evolved was definitely proven to Who else remembers those days of me swimming with both blue sharks serious shutter lag, where you’d be last year and in Puffin Paradise off desperately trying to press the shutter Pembrokeshire recently. The shutter button as fast as you could when you button was capable of firing at 20 saw your perfect subject, only to be frames per second, compared to left with a pretty sad looking empty around 1.7 fps with my old Olympus rock instead? Then there was the 5050 and worked incredibly well battery life which would go from two providing sharp images, performing well in low light conditions and the Left: Tompot blenny Swanage Pier - battery powered on through the colder Olympus TG4 - Microscope Mode - INON S-2000 strobe Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 27

Puffin, Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire - Olympus TG6 with Olympus Housing water for over an hour. One of my favourite modes starting out was SuperMacro with my Olympus 5050 and SP-350 and I definitely had the biggest smile on my face seeing this mode reappear in the TG range as Microscope Mode. The details really are spectacular and I’m so pleased for anyone starting out in underwater photography that they can achieve such great results much more easily these days to keep their passion for this addictive hobby. Naturally there are still discussions Blue Shark, Cornwall taken with Olympus TG6 and as to whether the underwater mode Backscatter M52 Wide Angle Air Lens actually works. Is it all about the white balance? Can you really achieve great wide angle shots with just one strobe and are black water backgrounds only achievable if you have full manual 28 • BSoUP in focus

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Durdle Door, Dorset UK taken with Olympus TG-4, INON UWL-H100 Wide Angle Lens & Sea Frogs Housing 30 • BSoUP in focus

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Fuji Finepix F31 with INON UFL-165AD and one INON D-2000 strobe Right: Kimmeridge Sunset Over/Under Shot - Highly Commended British & Irish Championship 2018. Olympus TG4, Seafrogs Housing, INON UWL-H100 Lens, INON S-2000 Strobe 32 • BSoUP in focus

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Mimic Octopus, Lembeh Straits, Indonesia - Canon S95 Powershot with Canon Housing 34 • BSoUP in focus

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controls? Fortunately, and for which Studio in Swanage, Dorset to help I’ll forever be eternally grateful, both inspire them to fall in love with and mine and my course guests’ awards help protect our seas too. can prove that all of the above are absolutely possible. Compact Cameras have truly come into their own in recent years, One question I still see so often asked looking shinier, slicker and lighter is what equipment is needed to get than ever before making underwater started in underwater photography photography absolutely possible and with a compact camera. Granted, affordable for so many more ocean there are so many different options lovers. and choices, it is simply mind- boggling with the number of lenses, D-SLR users can now downsize, safe in video lights and strobes that can be the knowledge that they can produce added. Focus on the trip which you saleable, high quality printable images have planned, the subjects which at a much lower cost and also feel you will encounter and invest in a safer not having to transport so much set-up to which you can add as your kit around on locations. skills develop. If you love seascapes, wrecks, cave scenes or, like me, big What’s one thing that you love most animals, then the widest angle lens about them these days? I’d love to possible may be more important than hear your stories too. a strobe. Finally, video: There are no words to sum up just how blow-me-away blissful it is to shoot High Definition footage with a Go Pro or an Olympus TG6 by pressing just one button and to then be able to edit it on my phone. Gone are the days of lugging around an Amphibico Phenom Housing on one wrist and a compact camera on another. These days I have decent footage to share with visitors to my Ocean 36 • BSoUP in focus

The Passage - Raja Ampat - Canon S95 with INON UFL-165AD Fisheye Lens Left: Olympus C-5050, Epoque Wide Angle Lens, Ikelite Housing with DS-125 Ikelite Strobe Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 37

SV Royal Adelaide, Chesil Beach by John Bunker The Royal Adelaide, an iron sailing vessel of 1,400 tons, was on her way from London to Sydney when she ran aground on Chesil Beach in 1872, not far from where the present visitor centre stands today. As an obvious part of its modern a dearth of deep-water anchorages, appeal to divers, the area including have always made Lyme Bay an and around Chesil Cove is now strewn unforgiving place to get caught in a - as then - with a great many wrecks, gale. Worse still, the 18-mile sickle of some even piled on top of each other. Chesil Beach presents a formidable Indeed, as the locals will delightedly obstacle to the unwary mariner; point out to you over your Quiddles the ancient barrier beach sweeps coffee, the whole place was once round to the Isle of Portland in the known by Hardy as ‘Dead Man’s Bay’. English Channel in a magnificent arc, projecting surprisingly far out The prevailing south westerlies, and into the sea. With the wind blowing 38 • BSoUP in focus

fiercely toward land a sailing vessel being informed of the beached ship, reliant on capricious winds or indeed and set about gathering volunteers any vessel out of power and luck for a rescue attempt. Indeed, many can find themselves face to face with residents had already begun to gather what another poet, William Falconer, on the beach, a matter of yards away described as ‘the impervious horrors from the passengers and crew of the of a leeward shore!’ -impossibly Royal Adelaide as the ship underneath embayed with little steerage room to them was thrown violently and get you off the beach or rocks. repeatedly side-on to the bank, those aboard imprisoned by the raging surf. Such was the position the master of the Royal Adelaide found himself in Locals had already risked their lives when, getting caught up in a gale entering the edge of the water to in the channel shortly after dusk on throw lines toward the ship and once the 25th of November 1872, the on the scene, the local coastguard beleaguered vessel was cast into Lyme fired a rocket line to the vessel, but Bay and then onto the beach at Chesil the crew were unable to secure it. when her anchors dragged. The first mate’s brave effort to swim a line ashore ended with him being James Robertson, the Mayor of swept away and drowned in the surf, Weymouth, hastily abandoned the along with another man. Once a dinner he had been hosting upon line was established between the Spring / Summer 2022 BBSSooUUPPiinn ffooccuuss••3399

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stricken vessel and the shore, the in the London gazettes, men and rescue via breeches buoy (imagine a boys broke open the casks then and ring on a zipwire) met a rocky start. there, drank to excess and passed out The passenger stewardess, Catherine inebriated on the beach. As a result Irons, accidentally clasped hold of the of this, four men and a fifteen-year ships main brace instead of the rescue old boy were found to have died from line, tipping her out of the buoy as the exposure the next day. Another was third casualty of the heaving sea. arrested attempting to carry a pig up the hill at Fortuneswell, and for many After this terrifying turn of events the days after the incident local school passengers were understandably registers reported numerous absences reluctant to try the buoy, even though as pupils helped themselves to the crew member Samuel Gibbs then flotsam that continued to appear on demonstrated the device worked the beach. You couldn’t make it up. when pressed to do so. The bulk of - the passengers still did not attempt Despite the tragic story of the wreck the buoy until the captain took a child and its aftermath, The Royal Adelaide ashore to prove its safety, and then today represents an opportunity too the rescuers soon established a steady good to pass up for divers with an rhythm, with all but seven safe ashore interest in marine life, photography before the line finally broke. Efforts to or the aforementioned remarkable reach those remaining aboard were history. unsuccessful. There are several guides that will The heroic rescue of the majority of help you enter the water at more or passengers in horrendous conditions less the right point across from the should be the end to this tale, were it visitor centre, and as Anita Sherwood not for what happened when the 235ft mentions in her superlative ‘British ship began to break up. Nor was it to Shore Dives’ please be extremely prove the end of the night’s fatalities. careful during both the walk over the bank and at entry; this is really When her diverse cargo of soap, only to be attempted with optimum coffee, sugar, boots, textiles, as well conditions- certainly don’t go in with as casks of brandy, gin and rum any waves breaking on the beach washed ashore, ‘wrecker’s fever’ and whilst it’s a shallow site I’d avoid is said to have descended on the taking novice divers. less-Godfearing members of the assembled crowd. In scenes that As helpful as the guides are, be caused a moral panic when publicised prepared for a bit of a mooch about Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 43

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Spring / Summer 2022 for what’s left as the uncovered and upright portion of wreck is only bow and chain locker section, pointing westward out to sea. Depth is the crucial thing here, as visibility can sometimes be much poorer than the comparatively close Chesil Cove, depending on season and tide. You want to search variously south down the beach or north (up) between 12-14m, depending on tide. Whilst there are some judicious bits of plate scattered at 15m, the general rule of thumb is by that point you’ve gone too far for the interesting bow section. In which case, turn around and search a bit further up the shingle slope, remembering plate is a good sign the wreck ‘proper’ is nearby. Once on the wreck I heartily recommend parking yourself and your buddy just inside the bow and out of current, for even on the neapiest of neaps there is still likely to be some water movement. Once you have your rhythm back, begin your circuit around the wreck, perhaps starting with the large anchor on the north face of the plate, and working your way round the outside BBSSooUUPPininfofoccuuss••4455

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then back in. Obviously, watch out for individuals with the best hidey-holes sharp rusty edges and any dangling and you’ll probably see a female gauges, and (I’m afraid) potential nearby. Shoals of pollock, bib and snagged fishing line as you’re still clumps of bass appear in summer, within range of the more determined and a lucky few might be treated to Chesil anglers. the sight of a grey triggerfish (Balistes capriscus). Whilst I can’t count myself Whilst it can seem more sparse in amongst that number, it does give early spring the wreck is never truly me an incentive, if needed, to keep devoid of life; the prominent deck coming back to this remarkable place. winch being a home to beautiful clusters of jewel anemones, and Photographers, leave yourself a bit within the boarded holds you’ll of gas though, because you’re not often see plaice, lobster, brown and done yet. If you turn about facing velvet crabs, congers with attendant immediately back up the slope toward shrimp, wrasse and, famously, the the beach and take a diagonal Royal Adelaide’s numerous warring bearing more or less 40m SE you Tompots. The latter are extremely will find the prop of the Nor waving inquisitive, even by Tompot standards, at you from the seabed in 9m. A yet shockingly violent towards each Norwegien cargo ship with a load other during their spring and summer of salt from Cadiz, she was bound mating season. Look for the scarred for Bergen until, on January 18th Spring / Summer 2022 BSoUP in focus • 47

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