Friday was sooo exciting and basically another Christmas morning for me. Cameras Underwater sent me 2 giant pelican cases of underwater camera housing equipment. This consisted of an amazing Aquatica Housing for the Canon 5D MKIII, a 9.25″ and a 8″ dome port, a macro port and all extensions needed. This equipment is precision stuff and some incredible technology. They also sent me a couple of Ikelite strobes….everything packed to perfection with exact instuctions. Take a bow Jenny and Co, you have really looked after me so well.

So I spent a few hours figuring it all out before heading west for diving on Sunday.  After judging the annual Dublin Camera Club photo competition I picked Matthew Boyd up, who is coming to Greenland to document ‘Into the Blue’.  We got ourselves to Scubadive West with the promise of snow and high winds. On route we visited the poor auld Killary Flyer which is still currently up on the dry dock with just over 3 weeks to go…..!!!!

The weather turned out to be not so bad and Ciaran Lennon(my dive buddy) and I got 3 dives in with the new camera housing. Amazing piece of kit but difficult to shoot as macro is way more challenging underwater than above. I have such respect for underwater photographers who put so much time and effort into perfecting their craft…..it really is difficult to get right….so many variables…..like surging swells, particles in the water, buoyancy control, length of dive, understanding the gear……. My learning curve needs to continue on it’s steep run!

Wide angle lenses and 9.25″ ports are next up.

Here are a few images I got on the few dives with the macro lens and port. A long way to go but hopefully I’m starting to get the idea……

Plumose Anemone

Perewinkle with afro on some kelp

The dark holdfast of a piece of kelp