Just after going back to France after that trip to Bahamas, I quickly became a ** CMAS diver and joined a diver association in Paris, called "AS Diderot12". After a few dives more, I was so frustated by knowing nothing about submarine life, that I decided to pass the first degree of the french scuba federation (ffessm) submarime biology course. It was a great year, learning so much about marine life and beginning understanding what I was seeing underwater... A few more dives later (in south of France and Red sea), while I was studying to get my fourth diver level (something like a dive master), I joined some friends of mine to leave for a 2 weeks dive cruise in Maldivia. I immediately thought it was a wonderful occasion to buy my first compact camera (Nikon P5100) and to try to make some pictures of all these submarine beauties which I was almost familiar with... I think that excepting training dives (as student or trainer), I didn't have made a dive without a camera anymore after that cruise in Maldivia, and I don't plan to do it... After one year and a half learning all about submarine photography by myself - and about photography in general - with the help of the french submarine photography forum, I was quite a bit frustrated by the limitations of my compact camera....it was the time to go to the next level and to buy a reflex camera! It was two years and a half before.

Now, I'm still using the same Nikon D90 into an Aquatica housing with two ikelite strobes. One of my lastest trip was a biology course in Cerbere (south of France), near the spanish frontier, that was dedicated to nudibranchs and called "Des Limaces de rÍve", what could be translated to something like "Dreaming Nudibranchs". This course was organized by Robert Oms , a well known french submarine biologist, assisted by Pirjo Pellet, another nudibranch specialist. It was the occasion to learn a lot of new things about these amazing marine citters and to simply observe some species we never have seen before.

Taking underwater pictures is definitively a great passion, and I try to share it by making all my pictures available on my own web site (http://www.davidphotosub.com), hopping to bring and share the same emotion I feel when I am underwater...

WEBMASTER'S NOTES : David can be quite proud of the image above. It entails all the qualities that can make an otherwise mundane image quite extraordinary in all respects! David's use of his strobes in achieving the subdued lightening effect was either very lucky or the result of a pains taking effort to capture the true essence of the subject! I suspect the latter! Our hats are off to you David! In closing, I would like to thank both David and Pirjo Pellet for making it possible for David's work to appear on this site!

Send David email at david.guillemet@noos.fr