SOME BEGINNERS!
Brian Pitkin reports on the annual beginners' portfolio contest organised by the British Society of Underwater Photographers
Persistence pays! BSAC First Class Diver Malcolm Hey, from Romsey, in Hampshire, stormed home in the British Society of Underwater Photographers' Diver Trophy at the end of last year. It was the second time Malcolm had entered the competition for the Best Beginners Portfolio. The previous year he was squeezed into second place by the narrowest of margins.
Malcolm, who equips himself with a Nikon F801 in a Subal housing and a Nikon SB24 in a Cullimore housing, produced a varied and interesting set of images to waltz off with the trophy and a cash prize of £100, donated by Bernard Eaton, Editor of Diver magazine.
His portfolio comprised a balanced light shot of a red soft coral, a turtle, and a macro shot of a long-nosed hawkfish - all taken on Fuji Velvia in Sipadan; a macro of a clam taken on Kodak Elite in the Gulf of Suez; a diver with a torch on a reef wall, also on Kodak Elite at Jackson Reef in the Gulf of Aqaba; and a close-up of a clownfish in an anemone taken at Anemone City, Ras Mohammed.
Malcolm has been diving for 15 years. A former BSAC Area Coach, he took up photography almost a decade ago. His first efforts involved "playing around" with an Olympus Trip in a Birchley housing - "with appalling results". He then bought a Nikonos V and a Morris F3 Aquaflash, but was disappointed to find that the new system "didn't do much to improve my photography".
Keen to learn, Malcolm embarked on a series of photographic courses with Martin Edge both at home and abroad. He has since travelled a good deal, taking underwater photographs as far afield as Canada, the Maldives, the Red Sea, the Philippines, Sipadan, Cozumel and various locations in the Caribbean.
Second place in the competition was taken by Bob Allen, Chairman of Stevenage SAA, for a portfolio of pictures taken in the Red Sea. Brendan O'Brien, from Cheshire, and Hilary Driscoll, from Hertfordshire, came third and fourth.
If you would like details about the British Society of Underwater Photographers and its activities, please send an A5 s.a.e. to BSoUP, c/o Brian Pitkin, 12 Conningsby Road, South Croydon, Surrey, CR2 6QP.
Appeared in DIVER - March 1996
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