Brendiver's World

7 years and 48 weeks to go...

until our daughter can start her PADI Bubblemaker course.

Hence the reason I haven't been posting much recently.

Once our little princess is settled into a routine I'll start posting more diving photojournalism stuff.

Keep writing...

from a very tired, bleary eyed and baby happy

Brendan

About me Pt II and a Bonus Top Tip

Now, where were we?

I remember, March 1992 in Roatan and some "super-geek" moments with my good friends Steve and Renee from San Diego plus my other 'dive buddy' - a hired Nikonos V.

I returned to Bermuda from this holiday with a renewed enthusiasm for underwater photography. The Canadian Armed Forces base at Daniel's Head, Somerset, had a dive club I was a member of and as well as organising great dives, they also had a Nikonos V I could loan - I had it for the period March to June that year!

In June 1992 I moved back to the UK via a mega holiday in Grand Cayman. I flew via New York where I bought my own Nikonos V, 35 mm lens and some close up / macro odds and ends. Every day on this wonderful island was spent diving and taking pictures, mostly awful ones, but a few were pretty good, they eventually got published and some still grace the walls at home. After two weeks of superb diving I returned to the UK for good.

Several weeks of what must have been a mild form of depression set in following the 'reality' moment as the plane was landing at Manchester Airport. I can remember looking out of the window and seeing grey clouds, rain and the same old houses and buildings that were there when I had left three years previously.

I had a great new job to go to, loads of superb prospects and a 'solid' future, but it still felt like something was lacking.

What was missing was my diving and underwater photography, so I did something about it and joined the Macclesfield branch of the British Sub Aqua Club. The trips weren't quite the same as in Bermuda (unsurprisingly) and the club had a completely different feel to it, but it was very welcoming and I had some great days and weekends diving with them.

Now - here's a top tip for you, as someone who travels a lot, I soon found that no-one wants to hear about your adventures. And if you have lived abroad on an island like Bermuda, if you even mention the name, you can see people wanting to punch your lights out.

I don't know if its jealousy or a deep feeling within of, "why didn't I do that?" but the truth is, no-one is really interested. Each exciting chapter of your life was probably matched by what might have been quite an 'ordinary' one in their lives. When I return from assignments to my regular job I don't tell anyone where I have been or what I have done - trust me, if you do they'll hate you for it.

So - how does this impact on your life as a travel writer or diving journalist? Well, if your loved ones and friends aren't keen on hearing your stories, how can tens of thousands of readers at your target magazine be expected to be interested?

The answer? 'Your story,' the article you write, shouldn't be about you. It's not meant to be a diary of, 'And then we got off the plane, and then we did this, and then we got to the hotel....' Nor is it about, "I then, ... I dived...., I saw...."

Somehow you need to find an angle, something that will grab the reader and take them to the end of the article leaving them inspired, or asking questions, or just putting the magazine down and thinking, 'that was interesting.' This is your challenge - how to make your article all about the reader not you.

More "About Me" in Pt III (I suspect this could go on for a few 'chapters,' but in each one I promise I'll include a top tip)

Keep writing...

Brendan

About Me - Part I

I've had some feedback on my blog:

"You should do an in depth 'About Me' - if someone is reading your advice, how can they judge your credibility?"

Good point. So, despite this seeming a tad indulgent I'll go ahead with this. Actually, it may even inspire others, after all, if I can do it?

Edit: OK - this is quite a long entry, I've just realised that a lot of 'stuff' happened to get me where I am today. So if you think this may bore you, I'd skip this post and the Part II.

But if you're interested? Read on.

There are a few questions I like to ask at the start of my seminars:

Who has had any training in journalism? (Not me)

Who among you is a professionally taught photographer? (Ditto)

How many of you only just passed their English language qualification age 16? (That'll be me)

I've been contributing to diving (and a few other niche titles) magazines since 1996 - the result? Over 300 articles, columns, news pieces, reviews and features. I've been paid to visit some spectacular locations, conduct interviews with celebrities, cover competitions, review equipment, books, DVDs, hotels, restaurants and even apres dive bars (all of this on someone else's budget and I was paid to do it!).

It's been an incredible journey - which all started off when I was seven years old, with a cheap mask and flippers in Abersoch, North Wales. In 1974 (aged 11) I joined the Hazel Grove and Bramhall BSAC who had a snorkeling club for children. We joined the 'grown ups' on their diving adventures, normally in quarries, lakes and the North Wales coast where we were taught snorkeling skills. The rest of the time we battled with each other in the pool playing octopush - a form of underwater hockey (how I inherited my only sporting scar). At 15, in the 'Blue Pool,' (quarry in North Wales - not very blue) I had the chance to don a tank and do my first dive. Back then you had to be 16 to dive, so this was all a big secret, but that's where the fascination started.

At Dundee University I learnt how to dive properly. Some outstanding memories, most of them associated with being cold and the standing order of, 'pee in your wetsuit as soon as you get in' (we had no dry suits back then).

A few non diving years later (embarked on a career - very serious young man putting all of his time into what was 'important') I ended up working in Bermuda where I rediscovered diving and how a career isn't all that - it's just a way of enabling you to do other 'stuff.'

The diving and the social life that came with the Bermuda BSAC are memories I'll treasure forever - especially the parties and Wednesday evenings at the club house. In 1991 I was at the club bar when one of my regular buddies got me drunk and talked me into joining him for an underwater photography intro course. I had to be drunk as I thought all the club's photographers were super geeks - on my organised dives I always buddied them with each other so they wouldn't spoil everyone else's enjoyment.

But that's when I caught the bug. I didn't learn too much about technique on the weekend course, in the main it was how the Nikonos V worked and how to put it together so it wouldn't flood. But on that weekend I was introduced to Howard Hall's guide to underwater photography - a superb book, full of, 'if you do this - you'll get these results...' type guidance. I dreamt of diving in the locations featured in the book's pages, especially the cove at La Jolla, San Diego.

In 1992, in Roatan, I met Steve and Renee, a newly married couple from San Diego. Steve was at about the same stage in his fascination with underwater photography, and together, the three of us embarked on some 'super-geek' photography dives. I remembered thinking how I'd love to write an article for DIVER magazine (I'd been reading it for years) on this place. I had some reasonable pictures so why not?

I answered that question myself with the wrong answers: because you're not a journalist, because you're pictures aren't good enough and you can't write (my teachers told me this and they're always right apparantly).

In 1997 I returned to Roatan with my wife on an assignment for DIVER. Coincidentally, Steve and Renee joined us and I did get to write the article on diving in Roatan.  

More in part II (when I get round to it) - how I broke into the world of travel and diving photojournalism. How I discovered how easy it was and how anyone who can put two sentences together can do it.

Keep writing...

Brendan