My name is Silke and I am from Austria, but I have never dived in cold water in Europe. What I like is tropical seas, therefore I travel a lot. My favorite countries for diving are Egypt and Indonesia, but I have been diving in many more countries around the globe.

I did my SSI-Open Water in Sharm El Sheikh in 2001 and my PADI Dive Master with the same Dive Center (Anthias Divers) in 2005. I started photographing underwater in 2003 in Columbia where I bought a really simple Sealife analog camera on the island of San Andrés. I am not into the SLR-camera-thing, I still take pictures with my Canon Powershot G 9 with an Ikelite housing and a Sea&Sea external strobe.

All this gear is a lot to carry around, that’s why I will stay on this level of photography I guess! Sometimes I use a macro lens because what I like much more than sharks or other big fish is the very small stuff – the smaller the better! If I cannot go diving I like to take macro pictures of flowers, insects and spiders.

In my normal life I am an audio and light engineer and have a company together with my partner Peter. As soon as my calendar gives me a free week I am hopping onto an airplane to Egypt to go diving for it is my favorite hobby and the best relaxation for me.

Websites:
www.flickr.com/photos/silkebaron
www.myspace.com/prilfish

Silke’s photos:

Award winning photo journalist Andre Crone started diving when he was 24 years old. He bought his first underwater camera as soon as he got his first diving license. He started his production company Elysia Productions four years ago together with his wife Eveline. This combination proved to be successful. Andre creates the images and Eveline writes the articles that are published in many of the big diving magazines all over the world. Andre’s images have been published in Fathoms Magazine, Unterwasser and BBC Wildlife Magazine just to name a few.

He has a slight preference for cold water diving. Just because he believes pictures made in cold waters are more special and more bizarre. You can see this in his productions about Antarctica, Svalbard and Tasmania. But, as most photo journalists he will not hesitate to travel to the tropics to produce his articles.

Andre won Celebrate the Sea in the wide angle prints category and was second in the prints portfolio category in the same contest. He has also won prices on other contests in many countries.

Andre has currently started a new online wildlife magazine called www.earthillustrated.com. You can find more about Andre Crone and his photography here on this website or on his personal home page at www.elysia.nl.

Andre’s photos:

Picking up photography as a hobby as a teenager, Csaba took the long transition period turning into a professional underwater photographer.

It was only in the mid of 2006 when he bought his first underwater setup (an ikelite housing and strobes) for his Nikon D200.

However, international acknowledgement did not take long to follow.

His current setup includes Nikon D200 and D300s bodies in Subal housing with Ikelite DS-125 strobes.

Over/under shots are on the top of his diet but macro subjects are also cherished.

Working as an art director at an advertising agency, balancing his photography between fine-art, applied art and sometimes reportage is a daily task.

Nowadays Csaba is expanding his horizon by starting up (land based) wildlife photography.

Follow him at www.flickr.com/csabatokolyi or www.csabatokolyi.com

Csaba’s photos:

Daniel Selmeczi coming from a country with no seasides, the love of diving captured him at a later age but from there on there was no stopping until reaching the Naui and TDI Instructor levels.

Photography was family tradition, so extending it underwater was a natural choice. These days he uses a Nikon D300 in Subal housing and Subtronic strobes.

His work which include writing as well appears regularly in diving publications, travel & lifestyle and photography magazines both in Hungary (Submarine, National Geographic Hungary) and worldwide (Unterwasser, Tauchen and various others in Italy, Poland and the Czech republic).

He is always looking for new destinations, he has led several expeditions to some of the world’s most exotic places including Cocos islands, Guadeloupe and Raja Ampat.

Beside diving he extended his list of topics with wildlife and bird photography and more recently underwater fashion and nudes.

Both his underwater and wildlife photography has earned him prices at home and on international level. He is member of the Photographers’ Association of Hungary since 2008.

Daniel’s photos:

For more of Daniel Selmeczi’s photographs please visit: www.selmeczidaniel.com