GARY PEART
In 2007 Gary and his partner Patricia quit their jobs in London to fulfill a burning passion to travel and explore the planet, in particular to experience the wonders of the natural world. This passion soon took them into the oceans, and they travelled and dived their way across south and central America and then Australia before heading to Asia where they became diving professionals and found a base managing a dive operation in Indonesia.
It was in Indonesia, exploring the incredibly diverse coral reefs, that Gary developed his passion for underwater photography. Heading out onto the house-reef first with a small point-and-shoot camera he spent months discovering the multitude of weird and wonderful critters that lived there. Soon a strobe was added, then a macro wet-lens, and a relatively nomadic lifestyle of travel and underwater photography began, one which continues 6 years later.
As is inevitable when exploring the oceans, the more you see, so the list of must-sees, and must-photographs, continues to grow. Through contacts they continued to develop in Asia, Gary and Patricia found themselves on trips to see manta ray feeding vortexes in the Maldives and an expedition to Papua to see whale sharks with Ocean Geographic magazine, and their fascination with encounters with ocean giants grew.
A better camera setup was needed, and Gary is now shooting with a Nikon D7000 in a Nauticam housing, with a 60mm macro lens and a Tokina 10-17 for the ever-challenging wide angle shots, and of course a pair of trusty Inon Z240s.
To encounter marine life in its natural environment, and very often the local people that exist alongside it, remains the focus and inspiration for Gary’s photography. Taking trips to remote islands of Eastern Indonesia with local fishermen to dive untouched sandy macro sites, whilst kids wearing hand made wooden goggles duck dived around him was, he feels, a truly unique experience. Recent visits to Tonga to swim with and shoot humpback whales, Fiji to photograph bull sharks, and the Cocos islands to see huge schools of hammerheads have been humbling and inspiring.
Gary continues to educate himself whilst diving, and this year has become both a certified ice and cave diver. These are new and exciting environments, which demand more experience before really trying to capture them with a camera… watch this space
Please check out Gary and Patricia’s travel blog at
http://www.getjealous.com//gaztrish
And more images at
https://www.facebook.com/GaryPeartPhotography
http://www.garypeartphotography.com/
