My Point of View

Festival de l’image sous-marine Antibes

My Point of View, PhotoCompetitons

Last week took place the 35th Festival de l’Image sous-marine in Antibes, southern France. This was a great opportunity to get away from the freezing temperatures around here in Luxembourg and to drive south 1000km.

Festival mondial de limage sous-marine

Festival mondial de l'image sous-marine

I had also organised to meet an online buddy from Digidiver.net there, Thomas Vignaud aka Autopsea. It’s always interesting and funny to meet people you only know from the net for real. Concerning Thomas it was a great day to meet as he won the first prize in the photo competition as well as the prize of young photographer with his great turtle shot.

the winning shot!

the winning shot!

I believe he needs some time to completely realise what happened to him. And this is only the beginning, I’m sure!

Thomas with his Oscar

Thomas with his "Oscar"

The day after you could even find his turtle on the front page of the newspapers.

interesting reading

interesting reading

You can check out more of Thomas’ beautiful work on his flickr account and find him as well as moderator on www.digidiver.net

Pamping’s treasures

diving, My Point of View, Travels

I heard quite a lot of different opinions on dive guides. Some people don’t want them around, seeing them as policemen watching them. Others don’t care about them or worse ignore them. Others again want them around to show them the way back to the boat. Sometimes people are surprised when I tell them that the guide makes the dive. Of course it depends on the person. How can you define a dive guide? The answer is simple : Pamping! He dives in Bohol (Philippines). When you meet him at the shop he seems a bit shy, but he is always smiling. You discover his real personality once you’re underwater. He loves diving and he loves people. It’s as simple as that. What a feeling to dive with someone who knows every single feather star, sponge or elephant ear! No, never you get the feeling he’s bored . He’s searching for treasures which he offers you as a present. I don’t know how many critters I encountered, watched for a while and photographed only because he “offered” them to me with his smiling eyes as if it was the first time ever he encountered that special creature!

hairs squat lobster

hairy squat lobster on sponge

imperator shrimp

imperator shrimp on sea cucumber

But that’s not all. I’ve seen many guides on my trips who want to please especially photographers by “presenting” them critters by all means. Digging out on octopus, pulling a lobster, replacing a nudibranch, teasing a peacock mantis shrimp or feeding a muray… who hasn’t already seen that?

Pamping did none of all the above. I always watched him when he spread delicately a feather star’s arms, checking a gorgonian fan, without touching it in search of pygmy seahorses.

shrimp

nudi

Would I ever have found this wonderful nudibranch and all other critters above all by myself? I have some doubts.

Now some of you might think that this perfect dive guide only exists in my dreams. No, he’s real and you’ll find him on Bohol, Alona beach. My stay in Alona would never have been so rewarding without his presence.

Thank you, Pamping 🙂

Pamping

Pamping, me and Chris

all photos HERE

www.sea-explorers.com

The Call of the Wild

My Point of View

Why are you diving? How is it?

These may be the questions most of the people ask after having watched one of my slide-shows. How do you explain this feeling? Are we looking for something? It’s not easy to put words on this special sensation.

In some way we are like gold seekers in the old times. They travelled the whole country to the unknown lands and felt like adventurers. They scanned every single river, they dreamt all night to find the precious metal. They looked below every stone, examining every sand-corn until their eyes got blurred. Even on their way back home in the evenings, their minds were filled with golden sparks. And finally when they held a tiny precious piece in their hands, the world around them stopped. Nothing had any importance anymore. Their eyes were fixed by a magic glimpse of gold.

I often travel through unknown lands before I get to a dive spot. My eyes and mind are filled with sparks. I open up to all these new sounds, lights and smells. But the underwater world is the largest unknown place on earth. And it depends on us.

“La bibliothèque de la vie brûle et nous ne connaissons même pas les titres des livres” (Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norwegian politician)

Life’s library is burning and we don’t even know the titles of the books .

Most people don’t care about things they don’t know. That’s why I always take my time to answer questions. We as divers are very privileged people. Everyday new species are discovered. We get face to face to some of the most awesome creatures. We also see the damages done to the reef, the shrinking number of some species like sharks. And sometimes we even see fellow divers damaging the reef. Is an underwater picture worth damaging the reef or harassing the wildlife? Never! As underwater photographers we are examples for the people close to us or even on a wider board. We should use this to protect our seas. To raise awareness.

“Il ne sert à rien à l’homme de gagner la lune, s’il venait de perdre la terre.” (Francois Mauriac)

It doesn’t help to gain the moon if we would loose earth

semuc