Most challenging subject doing what you love comes in , rather than photographing in a style you think will please a judge . Enjoy creativity and push boundaries ; I have a lot of epic fails too , but that ’ s the fun .
UKDIVING
PHOTO : RS
Polycera gliding across a blade of eelgrass . Portland Harbour
Now we ’ re Stalking
With both Ryan and Sandra achieving competition success over the past year , we have to ask , what ’ s their secret ? For Ryan , it ’ s all down to practice , which means learning from failures . “ A lot of it is down to being in the right place at the right time to take an image ,” he adds .
Sandra ’ s philosophy is naturalistic . “ Do what you love and enjoy yourself ,” she says . “ Remember that all competitions are completely subjective , that ’ s where
Most challenging subject doing what you love comes in , rather than photographing in a style you think will please a judge . Enjoy creativity and push boundaries ; I have a lot of epic fails too , but that ’ s the fun .
“ Although we are also both very supportive and bounce ideas for shots off one another , we have a book where we write down ideas for shots we would like to try . We are very lucky as we have both had a great year so far . It helps that we both have very different styles of photography with a bit of overlap .”
Sandra : “ Ooh , that ’ s a hard question . Probably anything big , as I find wide-angle to be like witchcraft . I tried to photograph puffins in less than 1m viz ; it was really hard and resulted in lots of vaguely puffin-shaped shadows in the murk .” Ryan : “ I have to go for skeleton shrimps . I ’ m still after that perfect shot , but they ’ re just so small and often in poor areas or positions to photograph . I still have the picture in my head that I want to take .”
Ryan echoes the sentiment . “ We are both ultra-competitive with everything . Underwater photography has taken that to a new level with kit and ideas . I think it keeps us both on our toes to keep learning and developing .”
So , we find ourselves midway through a new season , and the Stalkers are pushing ever forward . “ We ’ re desperate to get up to Scotland ,” Ryan says . “ It looks amazing and hopefully we will get chance to get up there this year . We ’ ve also booked a blue shark trip . A first time for us , and we ’ re looking forward to seeing the sharks .”
What tips do they have for aspiring underwater shooters ? Ryan gets straight to the point , advising to “ learn your subject ’ s behaviour and keep it fun ”, advice again echoed by Sandra . “ Do what you love and find your own voice and style ,” she offers . “ Use your camera in manual mode , explore and play with settings until they become second nature .” �
Heron half-and-half
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PHOTO : RS