I took this photo about a year ago while on a trip to Curacao (Dutch Caribbean). It’s a photo of my sister in law doing a refresher scuba course after not having dived for about ten years.

I really wanted to capture the “learning” atmosphere as well as the holiday setting with blue sky and something exotic. The swimming pool of our diving hotel (Habitat, I recommend it if you like to be in the nature part of the island) turned out to be perfect.

Took quite a few clicks to get a good half-shot with all elements in it. The parasol just gives it a nice touch.

Taken with my 5D and a 15mm fisheye, at f10 and 1/200 sec. There was more than enough light to work without flashes and set ISO at 100.

An invitation to attend the Fotosub in El Hierro last year sounded almost too good to be true. But in fact it wasn’t only true, it was alos even better than expected. Great thing about attending as a photographer/journalist is that you don’t have competition stress but do get to dive almost as much as you want with big shots like Alex Mustard or Kurt Amsler. For an inexperienced underwater photographer like me that is certainly a treat!

The lavafields outside our hotel in La Restinga

So one chilly October morning I started out a long day of travel from Amsterdam to Madrid, then off to Tenerife before finally boarding a small prop plane for the 30-minute flight from one Volcano island to the other. For those who have never heard of El Hierro (or Ferro as it’s also called), I can’t blame you. I had never heard from it either but I feel lucky to have changed since last year. It’s the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands, an island group near the coast of Marocco. Back in the days (say, about 2000 years ago), it was thought to be the end of the world and it hosted the meridian for a long time before it was finally noticed there was a bit more to this planet than previously thought.

The famous Juniperus phoenicea trees at El Sabinar

Small part of the rain forests

The island hosts several volcanic outcrops and is exceptionally spectacular in nature: huge volcanic fields compete with Pine forests, rain forest or dry stretches of land depending on what square kilometer you happen to be at. I don’t think I have ever seen such huge variety in landscapes in such a small place, no wonder it’s now protected as a Unesco Biosphere.

El Hierro is not only a fascinating place, it completely lacks any form of mass tourism. As it doesn’t host a single stretch of decent beach (at least all year round) 99% of people don’t even bother to come here. Which is perfectly fine to everyone that lives there or to anyone who does happen to visit.

Photographer at work!

Grouper & Trumpetfish combo, standard for El Hierro diving

Sea Breams at the El Bajon dive site

Basically, one could write endlessly about the beauty of the place but we did go there to go diving. The Photosub is big event for the Island group and is a quite popular contest for photographers from abroad. Very well organized with a lot of attention to safety and the well being of attending journalist/photographers I might say. Add a very easy-going atmosphere and some superb diving and you kind of get the idea: there are worse places to be. Everywhere.

Kurt Amsler at work photographing Black Corals at 45 meters (145 feet)

Arrow Crab (La Restinga harbour night dive)

Diving hotspot and HQ for the contest week is the southern village of La Restinga, a quiet place with a good harbor and plenty of excellent diving opportunities. With a RIB it’s usually not more than ten to fifteen minutes to any great divespot in the clear waters. From huge stone pillars that take ages to swim around with nice big schools of fish to deserted place where large Groupers loom. Any of the divesites host fantastic underwater views and scenery. No, one doesn’t come here for coral formations but the rest of the wildlife more than makes up for it. So if you ever have the opportunity to visit: have no doubts about it, the place will blow you away. Under, as well as above water!

Safety stop with a view at Punta Miradero

You can see the full image gallery (including larger sizes) here.
And click here to see the article that was made for Duikmagazine (Dutch diving magazine).

Client: Duikmagazine
© Fotograferen.net

Report on scuba-diving with the Cayman Aggressor in November 2009, published in the Dutch diving publication “Divemagazine”.
A feature about the Aggressor liveaboard in one of the top diving spots in the Caribbean.

Report on scuba-diving El Hierro, the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands. Until the 15th century people thought this place was the end of the world so the meridian even went through it.

Nowadays it’s an amazing and peaceful island untouched by the claws of mass-tourism. A perfect place for diving and an incredible place to view topside nature. It holds rainforests, pine forests, endless lava fields, rocky cliffs and some nice and small harbours. A perfect place to be honest, no wonder it’s a Unesco Biosphere Reserve!

Click here for PDF.

Publication: Duikmagazine
© 2010 Fotograferen net

For a change a small photo series on just one particular dive: the famous Blue Hole. No, not the one in Dahab (Egypt) which is literally a killerdive (dozens of people have died there while trying to outsmart common sense while scuba-diving) but a actually much nicer one located on the island Korčula. Located roughly three hours by ferry from Split this very nice island hosts some of the best diving of the region. With over twenty dive-sites to choose from we just barely scratched the surface with our three days of diving but one site really stood out: the hole…

It’s actually not just the hole itself with it’s cathedral-like lighting but also the massive and highly untouched soft gorgonians that are to be found around the hole at 35+ meters of depth. Massive pink giants that are most photographers favorites!

Well, just enjoy the photo’s and make sure to get in contact with Croatia Divers when doing some bubble-blowing over there!

By the way, the Dahab Blue Hole is amazing in this incredible William Trubridge freediving video. And thanks Eric for the modelling!

Click here full the full set of scuba wallpapers or click one of these (widescreen) images below. Just remember, they are also available in a normal (non-widescreen) XL hi-res size!

Port Ghalib is a newly constructed resort and marina very close to the airport of Marsa Alam in the South of the Egyption Red Sea. In 2007 and 2008 I had the opportunity to stay and photograph the immense project as it just opened its doors. Incredible to imagine that before these buildings there was only sand and rocks. The Palace Hotel has the largest manmade saltwater pool area in the world.

Click on “full screen” for the high-res slideshow: