Easter Special : Cornish Underwater Photography

Cornish Underwater Photography

This blog is a bit of a 'Blast from the Past'  I am often asked about my underwater photography by Photographers and other people I meet while out and about in Cornwall so I thought I would dig out a few Cornish underwater images all of which were taken before 2010 at various locations around the coast,   So lets start with the big boys! This Basking shark was encountered feeding within the surface waters off of the Manacles while diving with boat skipper Gary Fox of Dive Action out of Porthoustock,  It was taken using a 10.5 fisheye lens at a distance of one foot to reduce the blurring effect of Plankton suspended in the water column between the lens and the subject,

I worked with mating Cuttlefish at several locations in Cornwall and this particular group of four males were all competing to mate with a smaller female being protected by the bottom right male,  This  memorable encounter was recorded at Sennon Cove

These Cuttlefish can be very aggressive and as can be seen in the image below the Male's have a very powerful beak located to the centre of their tentacles which can inflict serious damage on contact

 This amazing rainbow eye detail belongs to a three foot long Anglerfish located on the seabed at the Manacles,  The eye detail was captured using a housed Nikon D200 in a housing with a 60 mm macro lens and a pair of remote flashguns

This Candy Stripped Flatworm was taken free swimming at Prussia Cove on a shore dive using the same camera system as the eye above

This magnificent Compass Jellyfish was encountered during a Night Dive out from Lamorna  Cove while looking for previously seen Red Gurnard

This somewhat fearless Hermit Crab housed within a whelk shell was also out foraging during the same night dive, It eventually fell victim to my camera,

Mounts Bay came up with this distorted Plaice face which occurs when one eye migrates to the opposite side of the fishes head as it becomes bottom dwelling

And another more commonly bottom feeding Candy Stripped Flatworm grazes its way over a Boring Sponge at the same location

Jewel Anemones  of rainbow colours thrive in the high energy areas around the Cornish coast, These bright red and lime green ones were located on rocks off of the headland at Logan's Rock

This colourful male Cockoo Wrasse and the fine Lobster below it were taken on one of many magical dives on the wreck of The City of Westminster at the Runnel stone while diving with boat skipper Bill Bowen.

This male Lumpsucker was found protecting and cleaning its egg mass in the shallow water kelp beds off of Pemberth Cove

And the final image is one of one of my daughters 'Anna' taking wide angle scenic shots on the colourful Manacles reef out from the Lizard,

Well I hope that you find some of this old work interesting,  It has certainly brought back some fine memories of what used to be a daily way of life for me, 

But hey I really enjoy what I do now as well !!