I always adore this thread each year. So I shan't rise to Drew's bait for several reasons. First, I am keen to prove I have thick skin, despite thin hair. Also I always use my middle finger for taking UW pictures. And finally, he has much worse pictures of me...
I have had a very busy year underwater with many highlights. And if you'll forgive the indulgence, I'd enjoy looking back.
2011 kicked off in Cayman Islands, shooting the brand new Kittiwake: images that did really well for me, being published in many newspapers and many diving magazines around the world (plus at least 2 magazine covers of the wreck taken by guys on my workshop). Then up to Florida, which after a run in with a Portugese-man-o-war on my birthday, I shot the manatees, which have also done the rounds in the newspapers and wildlife publications. Then some diving in Italy, a highlight of which was diving Capodacqua (google it) in Abruzzo and place I'd always wanted to dive (although I have had no luck at all selling any of my photos!). Then Scotland for some early season sealochs, including Loch Carron, which was beautiful and has yielded shots that have been published on both sides of the pond (I always like seeing my UK diving shots used in the States) as well as comp winners (BWPA) and opened my 2020V account (more in a minute). Then Iceland, which surpassed expectations and provided my photographic highlight (see below) and a set of images that were published very widely (many, many newspapers, general interest magazines and dive magazines etc). After that to Egypt for my Red Sea workshop - this year we focused on the Thistlegorm, which was enjoyable and inspiring for all on board (again images published on both sides of Atlantic).
Then a series of shoots in the UK for a conservation photography project called
2020VISION taking me all over the UK from off Lands End to the north tip of the Shetland Islands, shooting everything from basking sharks to puffins underwater (and much more). Most of these images are under wraps for now, so can't provide a favourite from them! Before a late summer/autumn of photography in the Maldives, Canada, Bali, Komodo and finally Italy - a series of shoots where I felt I was on particularly good form with the camera. Although I keep most of the galleries on my website password protected, the Canada gallery is not (
link at the bottom of this page).
So to Iceland. This was the best underwater experience of my year. With amazing dives, but also very diverse underwater experiences in both fresh and salt water. Almost every dive of the trip provided a completely new diving experience for me. I am going back in 2012, hopefully to launch an exhibition of some of the images from the 2011 trip, but also to fill in a few of the diving gaps! I dived 4 different underwater canyons on this trip, but have chosen an image from Silfra for several reasons. Silfra is Iceland's famous "dive between the continental plates" and is an easy place to take photos because the water is super-super clear - and many have been taken before. But many images have technical faults, lacking sharpness, for example because of camera shake or because of lack of depth of field (it is easier to shoot at f/6.7 than f/16, when it is dark), which can be a problem in amazing viz. Also most shots are taken with fisheye, so I was keen to shoot the canyon with rectilinear so I could keep the ragged vertical walls, vertical and not bendy, despite the increased technical challenge of getting good corner sharpness (thanks Ryan and Zen UW) and chose a image stabilised wide angle for the job. So this is not just a pleasing shot visually, but a pleasing shot technically.
Alex