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THE STORY BEHIND THE DVD.....
DVD Release Date - 14th December - Limited copies - Click here and Place Your Order Now Many people ask me how I managed to find myself in this amazing world of underwater photography. Believe me, from the start and even today, being an underwater photographer is not an important thought that crosses my mind, but someone who simply loves helping people achieve confidence with their own compact cameras underwater. This year had been a particularly tough year with dealing with my family's late estate and having to say goodbye to my family home. I took some much needed time out in August of this year and wanted to go somewhere completely different - for those who know me well, my passion has always been Latin America, but for some reason Malaysia, a country which I travelled to some 7 years ago seemed to be calling me. I booked a week's break with Borneo Divers and as soon as I stuck my head underwater was blown away by the array of life, both macro and wide-angle sized that it had to offer me … and seeing 7 turtles on my first ever dive there certainly had something to do with me falling in love with the place. I stayed on an extra week and the staff of Borneo Divers started to seem like an adopted family, helping me with every need and always being there with a smile. It was during early September that I had the idea of turning my book into a DVD - something which had never been done before as there are no DVDs on Underwater Photography. Was this a crazy idea or would it be possible to make it happen in time for the Birmingham Dive Show in October, DEMA in Orlando in November with filming commencing at the end of September and just 2 weeks to write a script? Well, the script was started on the plane back from Kuala Lumpur to Manchester at the start of September and landing at 6.30 am at London Heathrow, I'd already made a good dent to the idea …. Less than 2 weeks later after successive late nights at 2 am and beyond it was finished, read over by another good friend of mine, Bryan from H20 films and time to pass it over to Scubazoo to help make the project happen. Borneo Divers also played a huge part in this and a special thank you from the heart goes to Clement Lee, Theresa Tham, Nora and all the staff there for their enthusiasm about the project from when the idea was born. The speed at which they all worked as well and creative ideas definitely made this happen at lightning speed. So far so good, now all I needed to do was to get there! Tuesday 27th September will always be remembered, meeting my lovely friend Jenny and my cameraman for the week, Chris Tan from Scubazoo. It was time to head back to my new home and see Borneo Divers again! Three days of relentless filming on land, three more late nights with 10 cups of coffee a day after an arduous journey started to take it's toll and nerves started to kick in on a scale of 20 out of 1 to 10 …. and sadly the camera equipment started to fail on me - first my new Canon housing fogged up so it was impossible to take any pictures for the shoot and then later that same day I lost my beloved newly purchased wide angle lens on just the second day and my modelling light underwater … if you are diving at 50 metres at Drop Off at Sipidan you are sure to find it, probably along with another camera as I've since heard it is a famous place for people to lose their cameras too! Even a manicure that my friends had surprised me with went wrong and one hand ended up with pink nails instead of white ones! There was no way of getting another lens that fitted my Canon housing, and a new one had to be ordered in from Japan and off I went to Singapore on an 18 hour journey to get it. A special thank you goes to Ivan Choong from Oceanic Focus for the dedication and speedy replies he took to help me out of such a sticky hole. I got back on Sunday morning and speedily went diving with Chris trying to make up for lost time! Even more sadly, this time my camera flooded within 5 minutes of the dive and no hair dyer could save it this time round …. Did I have a spare? I sure did, but I lent it to my friends who were going on holiday to visit their families. I booked a flight to try and get it back, but just before the plane was supposed to take off, it developed a technical fault! And I forgot to mention that I developed a bad bug as well and wasn't able to eat any food for 6 days …. I struggled to drink enough water and for the 2 days I was shooting with Chris underwater everyone was seriously worried as to whether I was strong enough to go through with it. Even the rehydration salts weren't enough and the medicine wasn't working. First no lens, now no camera and I was now incredibly sick …. the staff at Borneo Divers and Stan from "The School of Hope" as well as Walter and Susanne from Treasure Images all kindly offered to lend me their cameras and Scubazoo managed to get hold of one in KK and sent it on the overnight bus to arrive …. I did borrow another camera but this too fogged up on me …. Was there a reason why all of this was happening? Positive as I am, I really was starting to think about giving up and I felt emotionally and physically exhausted …. Chris had to go back to KK before me to hand over the project to Simon Enderby who endeavoured to work all weekend to try and get the DVD ready for the Birmingham Dive Show with me working through the nights up to 2 am still sending images via the internet for him to use. Chris wanted to work the 3 weeks straight with consistent 18 hour days like me, but fortunately he saw sense and had some well deserved time off … I only had 2 days to finish off the project with my compact camera. Was a miracle going to happen? I can only say that I believe mum and dad are still looking out for me …. All the little and big animals in the Celebes Sea played ball for both Chris when he was filming those 2 days and for my 2 days afterwards. The visibility at Sipidan and the weather was amazing for the one day we were there, the turtles seemed to sense that we needed their help and even the jacks, bump heads and barracudas pulled out their special magic tricks for the day that I was there after Chris left … Enough said, but I actually found the bump heads nestled in the school of jacks circling around - about 50 of them - as if they were schooling barracudas … It was a moment that will stay in my heart forever and was so pleased that I shared it with my lovely friends Lianah and Jonathan. Clement Lee, the owner of Borneo Divers and pioneer of diving here arrived and he even introduced me to the Minster of Tourism, Dato Sri Dr Ng Yen Yen. It was an incredibly humbling moment for me to dive with him, and on our first dive we found 3 cuttlefish all together in the same dive spot! There were schooling squid by the hundreds laying eggs just by the jetty and Eric found us another flamboyant cuttlefish …. Phew - 6 hours i spent in the water that day trying to get the photos needed for the project and it finally looked like it really was going to happen. All i had to do was to find the black frogfish at Kapalai and the Ornate Ghost Pipefish hiding in the feather star the following day. Again, under Lianah's expert guidance, she confidently helped me to find those subjects and the project was finished. Believe it or not, I actually cried just before the last shoot - it was a very emotional moment for me to finish what had been an incredible project and one with which I shared so many special moments in such a special location. But seeing the finished project has been the icing on a very testing cake and all credit goes to Chris and Simon from Scubazoo for their belief in my ideas and for helping to make a dream possible to help compact camera users worldwide to realise their potential with their own cameras, whatever make or model they have. Meeting Stanley and May who help run "The School of Hope" a charity helping to give stateless kids an education really inspired me with their work to help to contribute in some way and therefore 5% of the DVD sales will go towards benefitting this very special cause. Another 5% will go to help the SEAS project which has been set up to help create a marine sanctuary to protect the unique marine life around Sipidan Island. More information on this will be coming soon. For me, none of this would have been possible without the support of the incredible team of Borneo Divers, Clement Lee, Theresa Tham, Nora, Jeanie, Lou, Ameen, Eljer, Lorenzo, Tonny, Lianah, Emily, Jonathan, Eric, Barry and Ewan … And to my best friend Mel back home who was working through the nights with me to create some amazing designs …. You all touched my heart and meeting more compact camera owners whilst I was out there filming reminded me just how much I love helping you all …. Wishing you and your cameras lots of love and special times together xxxx |
