SHOOTER ON TOUR
TELLING A VISUAL STORY WITH
Michele Westmorland
Professional underwater, travel and lifestyle
photographer describes her life on the move
Interview by GILL MCDONALD
Sustainable oceans are not just for our
privileged benefit, they are also vital
to the health of the village communities
that line the shores that we visit
WE ARE DELIGHTED to welcome Michele as
our professional ‘Shooter on Tour’. Michele has
many skills as a freelance underwater, travel
and lifestyle photographer. She is in the Women
Divers Hall of Fame, is a member of the Explorers
Club, a Senior Fellow of the International League
of Conservation Photographers and has credits in
many media and publications around the world.
Her years of diving have also evolved her into a
very active marine conservationist and she is
also passionate about the culture of Melanesia
as portrayed in her Papua New Guinea project
www.headhuntrevisited.org.
SDOP
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When you are commissioned to do a shoot do
you usually have plenty of time to prepare or can
it be short notice?
I rarely have a short notice trip, thank goodness,
as that can be stressful. I try to plan my tours
and assignments several months ahead. Having
said that, right now I am preparing for an
assignment to Cuba which starts just two weeks
after my recent return from a month in Papua
New Guinea (PNG).
My notebook, which is always with me, has
a page constantly updated with ‘repairs and
replacements’ and its currently full of things I
need to get done before leaving for Cuba. For
example, my laptop needs a new screen, I must
order lost strobe diffusers, replace a broken
strobe sync. cord and a faulty strobe battery.
My focus light charger needs renewing, I am
missing spare screws for mounting lights and
dome ports and I need a few more tubes of o-ring
grease. Such is the world of underwater camera
equipment maintenance.
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