Cherie-Anne Henderson -Dam is a South African living and working in Bermuda in financial services, however, she spends all her spare time planning for and going on her next dive trip across the world with her husband. Cherie obtained her dive certification one month before she left for Bermuda. Very shortly after arriving in Bermuda her and her husband took a Western Caribbean Cruise and used it as an opportunity to dive at each stop over. At that point in time she only had a dipac cover for her point and shoot. They enjoyed one of their stop offs in Roatan so much so that they went the next year to dive at Anthony's Key for a week. By then Cherie had bought a casing for her basic shoot. "I was very happy with my photos until I saw someone else's DSLR photos. I felt like I was a pre-schooler who had taken her first photo compared to the quality of a photo with a good camera and lighting. I effectively tore up my photos in my mind and thought time to upgrade!". In 2010 she invested in a Canon 7-D (well actually it was supposed to be a birthday present for her husband ;) )and an Ikelite housing for herself and some strobes. A few years ago she bought a book called "Diving the World" which her husband still insists is the most expensive book ever as one night he went to sleep and when he woke up they were booked to dive Fiji for Christmas. To date, Cherie's dive vacations have taken her to: Cozumel, Grand and Little Cayman, Belize, Roatan, South Africa, Antigua,Bahamas, Barbados, Tobago, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysian Borneo, Fiji and USA.
Cherie loves macro photography ("even when I have my wide angle lens on, I still find myself trying to take macro photos") and especially muck-diving in Indonesia. Cherie comments that she considers herself a complete amateur and since she only knows how to work a few functions in Lightroom, but nothing about Photoshop, she really has to think about taking a good photo the first time round. Cherie loves critters and the related behaviours and enjoys sharing this knowledge with others. Her photos have been printed in the local newspaper and she has been part of a panel of Citizen Scientists that shared their stories at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI). Cherie has just recently published a website to share all her dive photos - www.cheriedam.smugmug.com, but considers it to be in its infancy stages, so keep checking back for new photos.
