Anybody starting out in Underwater Photography or Video will know that for the most part, you take shots for your family and friends – capturing a moment in time for all to share. Quite often, the footage is similar to other Divers, dancing coral, curious Clown fish, troublesome Lion fish, there may occasionally be an angry looking Moray or even a skittish Blue Spotted stingray! For the lucky few there is a slight chance of a Shark!
Well for Richard and I last year, we were extremely lucky as we ventured out to the Southern Red Sea on a Liveaboard itinerary that was all about Sharks! The Blue Seas was a lovely boat, with all the mod cons and a great crew! Nina the dive guide was especially wise, offering all the best sites to see the creatures we so longed for. A budding videographer, Richard was keen to capture all the shots he could, so bravely got up close to the Sharks at every opportunity. Oceanic White Tips, Hammerheads, Silkys – it really was an amazing trip for us Shark enthusiasts. Once we were home, the editing commenced and believe me this is a slow process! Richard sits for hours and hours putting together his films, paying careful attention to all aspects. Whilst his previous videos have all been music based, this time he decided to try his hand at narration (it just so happened we had finished watching David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef – would you believe?!). Whilst he was nervous about trying this, he did his research and rehearsed what he was going to say for each of the Sharks he saw and I can honestly say it is a fab video!
You don’t expect to get much recognition as a novice, you’re just happy to share the content and get some likes on Facebook or YouTube, however, this month, whilst at work, I got a message from Rich saying “Something amazing has happened call me ASAP!” Immediately my head went to a lottery win – alas it was not. I called him up to an ecstatic tone at the other end, “I’ve won, I’ve won!” (as you can imagine I’m going crazy thinking we are millionaires!). “What have you won baby?” (yes come on… dive trip to Truk is definitely on the cards!), “I’ve won the video of the month for January on Scubaverse!”
Despite it not being a lottery win, I was genuinely thrilled and so so proud of him, he loves making his videos and the feedback from Jeff Goodman at Scubaverse was really amazing. We recently went to the London International Dive Show and ran into Dave Alexander from Scubaverse who literally called Richard out from the crowd – having never met this man, we were overwhelmed by the recognition. Such a great guy, he was full of praise about the video and discussed further opportunity for the future!
Keep filming divers – you never know what will come of it!
Click to see Richard’s winning video on Scubaverse
blackmantaphotography.com 