New Member Fred aka divegypsy

[divegypsy]

Hi,  My name is Fred and I use "divegypsy" as my title here because I used to spend almost half of each year traveling and diving.  I'm 78 now and have slowed down a bit.  Usually one long trip to Bali each year and sometimes a second long trip to southern Australia.  I have made my living selling my underwater pictures to magazines and through photo agencies for the last thirty-five years.  My favorite topics are animal behavior and relationships and my favorite underwater critters are the cephalopods. I've never met an octopus I didn't like.  My best stories have sold widely in major magazines around the world which include National Geographic, National Wildlife, Geo Germany, and Geo France.  My primary photo agency is Minden Pictures in the US and recently, Nature Picture Library in Great Britain.  I currently shoot with Nikon D850s in Nauticam housings.  The lens I use most is the Nikon 70-180mm micro-nikkor zoom.  I've been using Ikelite DS161 strobes for the last 8-10 years and shoot almost everything using Ikelite's iTTL system which works beautifully with Nikon DSLRs.  Maybe I'll run into one or another of the waterpixel crowd on my next trip to Bali. Happy to share information on the gear I shoot with.  Fred

[Chris Ross]

Welcome onboard Fred.  Whereabouts in Southern Australia do you go?

[divegypsy]

Hi Chris,

 

Where I go in southern Australia depends a lot on how much time I have in Australia and how much money I have to spend.  If I have a lot of both I can range as far east as New South Wales where I have had some very nice macro dives in Nelson Bay and especially like to dive with the guys at Southwest Rocks Dive Center who run trips to Fish Rock which is a great place to get shots of Gray Nurse Sharks and lots of other fish. Sometimes I make it to Blairgowrie jetty and other jetties in Victoria. But on many trips I spend all of my time diving the jetties of the South Yorke Peninsula, especially the Edithburgh jetty.  Haven't made it to Oz since the pandemic. Was intending to go in 2022 but a minor disaster at home forced me to cancel Oz.  Maybe next year.

[Chris Ross]

2 hours ago, divegypsy said:

Hi Chris,

 

Where I go in southern Australia depends a lot on how much time I have in Australia and how much money I have to spend.  If I have a lot of both I can range as far east as New South Wales where I have had some very nice macro dives in Nelson Bay and especially like to dive with the guys at Southwest Rocks Dive Center who run trips to Fish Rock which is a great place to get shots of Gray Nurse Sharks and lots of other fish. Sometimes I make it to Blairgowrie jetty and other jetties in Victoria. But on many trips I spend all of my time diving the jetties of the South Yorke Peninsula, especially the Edithburgh jetty.  Haven't made it to Oz since the pandemic. Was intending to go in 2022 but a minor disaster at home forced me to cancel Oz.  Maybe next year.

I mostly dive in Sydney has some great diving, I've dived some of those locations you mention but not all.