Further reading
UKDIVING
Prawning , or catching prawns , has long been a part of the Helford Estuary ’ s soul . Silver Steps , Pendennis Headland
In her own words : Shannon Moran
“ Like many , I grew up obsessed with the ocean , but sadly Leeds doesn ’ t have much of that ! I didn ’ t learn to dive until I was 19 , when I moved to Cornwall to pursue a degree in Marine & Natural History Photography ( BSc at Falmouth University , Penryn ). After graduating in 2020 , I qualified as a scuba instructor and bought a camera . I still have the same Olympus EM1 Mark II in a Nauticam housing , and a pair of Inon Z240 strobes . A bit of a downgrade from the delights of the university camera stores , but it has served me well so far . I now find myself working at Fourth Element and still as obsessed with the ocean as ever , spending every spare moment photographing the wonderful Cornish marine life .”
The UK ’ s largest marine snail , Buccinum undatum , lays thousands of eggs in a bundle
As with so many advocates of UK scenic diving , Tara and Shannon seek to push against the perception that UK diving is defined by bad viz and sparse wildlife . “ That ’ s just a state of mind ,” says Tara . “ Although we still love to moan about the weather , I think we ’ re lucky to have year-round diving here in Cornwall . I ’ m probably a little biased , but we definitely have some of the best visibility , and the conditions are good enough to use wide angle for most of the year .”
“ We just have a bit of everything . I ’ m a
great believer of exploring what ’ s on your doorstep , and Cornwall is a particularly good doorstep to explore .”
Trebah : Under the Surface was hosted at Trebah Gardens in Cornwall , where the concept for the project germinated . It was the debut exhibition for The Underwater Gardens of the Helford and ran throughout August . The same venue is likely to host the exhibition again , in winter 2024 and spring 2025 . On top of this , the project will culminate in a photobook next year . �
Further reading
! shannonmoranphoto . com / underwater-gardens-of-the-helford ITJ @ tarracuda _ and @ shannonmoranphoto on Instagram and Twitter / X . I # UnderwaterGardensoftheHelford on Instagram
44