Kwinana Rockingham Mandurah Branch, 15 APRIL 2024

The speaker for our March meeting was Andrew Marriot, who delivered a presentation entitled “Rockingham Underwater”. The level of interest in this topic was evident because 24 people attended the meeting, our best-attended meeting for many a year. Andrew has produced many e-books and presentations centred on diving and underwater photography at numerous locations around the world. Andrew became interested in diving and photography relatively late, getting the bug while at Flying Fish Cove on Christmas Island.

He commenced his presentation by discussing the type of clothing (wet suits, etc.) and gear—the gear required for snorkelling and free diving through SCUBA equipment, including the dive computer. On the photography side, Andrew explained that it is possible to take photographs underwater without breaking the bank using waterproof point-and-shoot cameras such as that produced by OM Systems or action cameras such as the GoPro models. For serious underwater photography, a DSLR or Mirrorless camera inside a watertight housing plus strobe lighting is used and Andrew brought with him his impressive set up. He explained that techniques such as Focus Stacking are now being used underwater to capture images with greater depth of field.

Andrew then discussed several accessible dive sites around Rockingham, which were illustrated with images of the species to be found there. He started with the Palm Beach Jetty, where seahorses may be found on the pylons (though SCUBA is required due to the depth at which they are found). Also to be found there are Scorpion Fish, octopus and Transparent Shrimps. One can find many colourful nudibranch species at Point Peron, plus Leafy Sea Dragons. Rockingham Jetty also has many species of nudibranchs, including the Rice Bubble Nudibranch, puffer fish and blowfish, Dragonette, Pipe Fish and seahorses. He finished with a discussion of the Rockingham Dive Trail, where he photographed Crocodile Fish.

There were many questions and comments from the audience. It was a great presentation, and the audience showed their appreciation with a round of applause. Andrew mentioned that anyone interested in learning more can find the talks that he has presented, mainly to Camera Clubs, via Presentations. Most of these presentations are derived from the free PDF eBooks that he produces, which can be found at Photo Journey Gallery.

Colin Prickett