GIVE US MORE LOBE, NAOMI!
Sharks are exquisitely proportioned predators best photographed in toto. Many of the photographs in Shark! - an eye (damaged by the point-blank firing of the strobe?)/mouth/fin spine - are isolated close-ups that present a very different viewpoint.
For me, this would be like photographing a supermodel and concentrating on her earlobes. In fact, many of the photographs in this book are so impossibly close up and from such unlikely angles that I did find myself wondering how they were obtained.
Where Jeffrey Rotman photographs the whole animal, he provides images of standard (for well-travelled shark photographers) shark subjects: Caribbean reef sharks swirling around in the Bahamas, great whites clunking into cages in South Australia.
There are, however, some unusual species captured - several deepwater species from the Gulf of Aqaba, for instance, as well as several species of ray.
To me, the best images in the book are the great primeval head of a manta ray and the classic image of a sand tiger shark's head. Given the crisis facing shark populations worldwide as a result of commercial over-fishing, it is helpful that Rotman has included images of this damaging activity.
There is very little text, and the brief captions to the photographs are only superficially informative. Photographically it all boils down to style, and I hope readers will be sufficiently interested to judge for themselves whether Rotman's work "does it" for sharks. Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch
Shark! by Jeffrey L Rotman, Ipso Facto (020 7733 9268). Hardback, 224pp, £24.95
Forget the green lady and develop your own rules
A sentiment common among the acknowledged masters of photography is that the only rule is that there are no rules. Another piece of advice, one I frequently heard from my producer in the days when I directed TV commercials, is: "Never mix with amateurs." In the field of underwater photography that is impossible advice to follow - it is dominated by amateurs.
Such are the economics and value of the business that few can afford to be full-time professionals; David Doubilet is almost alone.
Yes, there are a few rules. The main one is to try to reduce the amount of water between you and your subject, and there are ways of achieving this objective. This and related issues will make a magazine article but are not enough to fill a book, which is why authors inevitably drift off into areas probably better left alone.
Photographs are formed in an instant and usually judged in the first instant of viewing. Look at the images on advertising posters or glimpsed in TV commercials - they do their job and you move on. They are produced by the most highly thought-of (and paid) photographers and cameramen in the world.
Once you start intellectualising photographs from the point of view of composition and content, you risk roaming off into the land of Pseud's Corner. Alas Martin Edge, among the most competent of amateur underwater photographers, does tend to do this.
The Underwater Photographer, now in its second edition, is a useful reference book with added sections that have made an improvement. It contains clear demonstrations of technique, illustrates the equipment and takes us through examples of how to achieve results similar to the author's.
As such, it is full of rules, and while a few simple rules are useful when you are starting out in anything, they also produce stereotypes and destroy the chance of experimentation and discovery.
No artist got anywhere painting by numbers, but anyone who has one of those prints of a green lady on their wall might not understand that. So read the useful parts that will help you get your photographs to come out in focus, nicely exposed and colourfully lit, and don't get taken in by the waffle.
You might think I am harsh. Martin Edge has won many underwater photography competitions, whereas I have won none. He is also a high-ranking police officer.
Don't you hate amateur policemen, Martin? John Bantin
The Underwater Photographer by Martin Edge, Focal Press (01865 314571). Softback, 234pp, £22.99.
PALE REFLECTION
Eugenie Clark is one of the world's foremost divers, among the first of the few women to become internationally famous. She has variously been called the American Jacques Cousteau, the Lady with the Spear (after the title of her first book) and the Shark Lady, because of her later exploits with those creatures.
Early in her career after earning a zoology degree, "Genie" found jobs in the South Seas and the Red Sea. She went on to create a marine laboratory in Florida, where she established her reputation as a shark expert.
Her later research into marine life, both above and below water, took her to more than 20 countries , including Japan, Mexico, Australia and the Caribbean, but she fell in love with the Red Sea, describing it as the most extraordinary place on Earth.
She became the first ichthyologist to study Red Sea fish in 70 years but it was sharks that became her enduring passion, both in those waters and elsewhere, a passion that won her greater fame.
Genie is now 75 and can look back on an amazing and outstanding life. That's why Eugenie Clark, Adventures of a Shark Scientist comes as something of a disappointment.
The authors have done a workmanlike job, but the biography deserved more than 108 pages and is sadly short on accounts of Genie's great adventures. And where are the colour photographs of the lady at work, thousands of which must have been shot?
All in all, this is an unambitious book that provides a mere sketch of a fascinating life. Bernard Eaton
Eugenie Clark, Adventures of a Shark Scientist by Ellen R Butts and Joyce R Schwartz, Gazelle (01524 68765). Hardback, 96pp, £13.99
Fine for starters
Produced primarily for the US market, this large, soft-backed book does an excellent job in covering the basics of diving comprehensively. Sensibly, the Americans still work in psi, ats, lb and feet, though metric equivalents are provided in most cases.
My only gripe with the content is minor - there are a few too many unnecessary and simplistic illustrations. Pictures of neoprene gloves and boots, for instance, have zero value in my view.
However, the copious, multi-coloured diagrams and charts, together with a clear, jargon-free text, do explain the more complex areas in unambiguous terms. The anatomical diagrams of the respiratory system and ears are particularly good.
I cannot agree with reviews on the back cover stating that the book will be very useful to advanced divers. To be fair, this is not a claim made by the author in the introduction, but those reviews could mislead potential purchasers. After all, areas such as wreck- and night-diving, rebreathers and nitrox are not touched on. Even drift-diving is referred to as "a speciality activity" and considered too hazardous within the scope of the book!
Ninety per cent of the content should have been absorbed to gain the first open-water qualification of any training organisation, so I cannot see Scuba Diving being referred to much beyond this point, except by the newly certified or very infrequent diver.
However, for anybody just taking up the sport and wanting a back-up to the training manual provided, or perhaps for an instructor wanting fresh ideas on how to put things across, it is well worth considering.
Jim Greenfield
Scuba Diving by Dennis K Graver, Human Kinetics (0113 378 1708). Softback, 204pp, £16.95
DULLING-DOWN THE KYARRA
I never thought the day would come when diving the Kyarra - "the ship that was made of brass" as one diver described her - could be described as boring, but that is the impression I was left with after viewing the video The Fate of the Luxury Liner ss Kyarra.
I am really sad to pass this verdict on a product which contains, despite the strong tides on the site, much excellent underwater footage. It also has some nice touches, such as the simulated torpedoing of the 6953 ton Australian steamer, which was used in World War One as a casualty-clearing ship before being torpedoed by Johann Lohs from UB-57 off Anvil Point, Dorset.
What torpedoes the video is its terrible script and the plummy-voiced narrator, a man who never allows the slightest emotion to escape into open water.
The dreary impression he gives is not helped by a large brown object which is used as a background guide to the points diver Mark Carter has reached in the film of his dives on the wreck. Apparently this brown thing is the wreck itself, which makes you wonder why the Kyarra should be one of Dorset's most popular underwater attractions.
In fact the Kyarra attracts hundreds of divers every week in season, and is one of Britain's most exciting wreck dives. That is why it's a shame there are no thrills in this video, and little sign of all those wonderful brass and other objects which were, and still are, recovered from her.
However, all is not lost. Writing a new commentary (with a new voice to read it) and putting it onto the existing material would do wonders and might even make this a video all Kyarra divers would like to own.
Kendall McDonald
The Fate of the Luxury Liner ss Kyarra, produced by Colin Froud, Divercol (Meadow View, Wigbeth, Horton, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 7JH). VHS, 35 minutes, £13.95 including p&p
Surprise package
Got children? Get them The Ultimate Ocean Book. My three-year-old finds this complex and colourful pop-up book fascinating. She will bring it to me and ask to see the lobster which pops up to order. She is visibly startled and runs from the room, before returning and demanding that I do it again.
The pop-ups offer dazzling detailed close-ups. There are things to touch and feel or scratch and sniff. Pulling tabs sees other creatures and fish "come to life"; lifting flaps reveals more.
But it's not just for kids. Each page has other operating features and the copy is instructive about marine life to a level that would suit an adult. It is full of useful references that I have called upon when writing for these pages and the information comes in layers. I am still not sure that I have discovered everything yet.
The text has been checked by experts from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Genoa Aquarium, and the Ring of Fire Aquarium in Osaka. The book is visual, it's tactile, it has kinetics designed into it. I recommend it to everyone.
No kids? Pretend you're buying it for a nephew or niece. John Bantin
The Ultimate Ocean Book by Maria Mudd-Ruth, illustrated by Virge Kask and Beverley E Benner, Golden Books (001 414 633 2431) . Hardback US $20.
All in a good cause
Aimed mainly at the cruising fraternity, Ports of Call has been produced as a fund-raising venture to mark the 175th anniversary of the RNLI. Covering every harbour around the UK and Ireland, it gives a brief synopsis of moorings, shore facilities, local history and attractions. Each location is then graded on ease of access, availability of restaurants and pubs and so on.
Telephone numbers and addresses of harbourmasters, lifeboat secretaries and chandlers are also provided. Some of these that I checked are already out of date which, of course, is inevitable with this type of publication. No mention is made of facilities for trailed boats such as slipways or launching and mooring fees so, regrettably, the book is of limited practical use to most divers.
However, it is beautifully produced and contains many superb colour reproductions of paintings by well-known marine artists, so I can recommend it as a worthwhile coffee-table purchase. As royalties go to the RNLI - a great charity in which I'm sure we all take an interest - buying a copy would be a super way of providing support. Jim Greenfield
Ports of Call, edited by Chris Perring, Kensington West (01434 609933). Hardback/ Softback, 224pp, £18.99/£14.99
Hidden world
Coffee-table books full of outstanding underwater photographs appear at relatively infrequent intervals, largely because of the cost of publication and therefore the cover price. Critters, by Swiss-born, Germany-based Monique Walker, is no exception when it comes to price, but two things distinguish Critters from most other books of its kind.
The first is that many of the pictures are shot, not in the crystal-clear waters of coral reefs but in seas with poorer visibility - over seagrass beds, sandy and even muddy bottoms.
A growing number of photographers have discovered that some remarkable and little-known marine animals are to be found, often well-camouflaged, in such habitats, and Walker has a talent for finding and capturing them on film.
The beautiful images that result are enhanced by the second difference between this and other such books, which is the imaginative and attractive design of each spread, sometimes focusing on body parts as well as the creatures as a whole.
Critters is not yet available in Britain, and regrettably its projected price is likely to prove its drawback. Kendall McDonald
Critters: Mysterious Twilight Zone by Monique Walker, Monique Walker Dive Expeditions (00 49 069 304151, info@dive-expeditions.com). Hardback, 144pp, £49
Club know-how makes panning for Portland gold worthwhile
With its long history as a naval base, Portland has more than its fair share of military wrecks within easy reach of RIB or hardboat. Unfortunately, Weymouth is possibly the most heavily dived part of Britain and some of these sites, such as the submarine war grave M2, can get very crowded at weekends.
That's why it's important to know how to get the best from the wrecks and also what the alternatives are, and for non-wreckies there is plenty of scenic diving a short way along the coast at Purbeck.
The Diver's Guide to the Weymouth and Portland Area might be randomly organised and poorly presented, but somewhere within its 52 pages this booklet contains everything a diver needs, short of tide tables.
A yellow highlighting pen is essential equipment where advertisers and scallop recipes take priority over Coastguard and hyperbaric chamber information, and important details are buried in text. A list of vital local emergency phone numbers, for example, is tucked away in the middle of page four with little thought for instant access.
But the gold is there for those who persevere. The excellent section on launch sites is comprehensive and supported by practical advice on ease of entry and exit, local features to look out for and facilities. The tidal stream atlas for Portland is also reproduced, with a table of the best diving periods for different areas off the Dorset coast.
There's a good summary of what's on offer inside Portland harbour itself and whether dive permits are needed for the various wrecks. Even better, a list of more than 70 offshore wrecks is included, with GPS co-ordinates generously provided. Colin Wilde
The Diver's Guide to the Weymouth and Portland Area by Weymouth & Portland BSAC (Weymouth Angling Society, Commercial Road, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8NF). Softback, 52pp, £5
UNDERWATER COLOURS
Helen Buttfield is a brilliant watercolourist. Well known as a photographer and illustrator worldwide, she has many postage-stamp designs to her credit.
Her book The Secret Life of Fishes is a vehicle for displaying her work, softly illustrating the creatures of the coral reef in a very careful and feminine way. At first glance one could be forgiven for thinking the book was aimed at children, because its style is one that is used in many upmarket children's volumes. Get into the text and you soon realise that this volume is very much for grown-ups.
Ms Buttfield's text reveals behavioural details of the animals she paints so well. The book aims to fascinate and inform the public about creatures they might see only desiccated in a curio shop or imprisoned in an aquarium.
The author has drawn on only the best scientific sources for her information-packed book. The fact that I read in it little I hadn't read before did not detract from my enjoyment. This is the sort of book one picks up idly in a bookshop and instantly decides to purchase. For those with little prior knowledge of coral-reef life, and anybody who appreciates good illustration, it's a good buy. John Bantin
The Secret Life of Fishes by Helen Buttfield, Abrams (020 7845 5032). Hardback, 70pp, £12.95
Appeared in DIVER - June 2000
