On the 17th of November we had David Keep speaking to us. David is based in Chesterfield and is an award winning photographer in several genres. David was speaking to us on underwater photography. Astonishingly, although David had been a keen diver for over 25 years, he only took up underwater photography about 5 years ago. David got into underwater photography when he finally decided to buy a professional system of underwater lights.
David started by showing us images taken on his first trip, from Thailand, and showed the difference that the professional lights made, turning strangely green/blue sand into vibrant seabed. From that he moved to two further trips to the Philippines, this time using buddies to aid his diving, enabling David to concentrate on lighting and composition. The advances in the quality of image were immediately apparent. These images concentrated on the smaller fishes which were restricted to a small area of water due to current conditions. The third trip was specifically to photograph Turtles and there were fantastic images of these majestic creatures.
The second part of the show was dedicated to sharks, mainly the very large Tiger and Hammerhead sharks which were photographed off the east coast of the USA. These were professionally organised trips where the organisers effectively hand fed the sharks to encourage them to come towards the photographers. David showed us two videos where Tiger sharks approached him from behind and came within a metre of him. He said he had to remain very calm, but my adrenalin was pumping just watching it. Following this David showed a series of images taken in a swimming pool where a triathlete friend modelled underwater in a long gown endeavouring to create a series of pictures displaying “Serenity”. David also showed how the images were made, using underwater lights and background black material to create reflections.
Davis is an extremely engaging speaker and the evening flew over with an extended session afterwards where members questioned David on every aspect of his work.