Stephen Frink is the world's most widely published underwater photographer. Not surprisingly, he has a deep, color-rich library of underwater photos that most divers would kill for. In addition to being an "artsy" photographer, he's also quite articulate: he's written books, housing reviews, and loads of articles for Scuba Diving Magazine. He provides personal photo instruction as well as escorted photo tours. He's also an inventor. In other words, if it has to do with cameras in or near water, he's your go-to man. Pretty amazing for someone who grew up in Illinois.

For this installment of 10 Questions for..., Stephen gets comfortable, removes his sunglasses, and opens up about his work, including how barnacles helped shape his future, why HD video is so compelling, and what, exactly, "predictive previsualization" is.

Divester: How did you get interested in underwater photography?

Stephen Frink: It was a circuitous route for sure, but a few of significant forks in the road took me there. First, I suppose it was because I was a competitive swimmer as a kid. Did that for 13 years, all the way through college. So, I was always intrigued by water sports, but living in land-locked Illinois made scuba diving a bit more of a challenge. Second, I ended up in graduate school in California, so at least there was an ocean nearby and diving was an easier possibility. Third, I was working on my thesis in experimental psychology and had some spare time to take elective classes. I enrolled in Photo 101 and the magic alchemy of that first black-and-white print evolving in a tray of Dektol was instantly addictive. Fourth, I needed a part-time job while in graduate school and there was a marina in my neighborhood with a yacht hull cleaning service. I went in to ask if they needed any help, and they said I could have a job cleaning boats, but I had to be a certified scuba diver. So, even though I was already interested in photography, the underwater hook didn't happen until I finally got certified. All for 25 cents a linear foot to scrape the barnacles off of boat hulls.

Divester: What was your first rig? What do you shoot with now?

SF: Like many of us, my first rig was a Nikonos, and I shot it available light only. Since it was back in 1971, mine was the original Nikonos, bought used from a surfer in Seal Beach. I still had that camera when I moved to Kona after graduate school. I added a Vivitar 283 flash in an Ikelite housing and took roll after roll of spectacularly run-of-the-mill photos, but the water and reef was a lot more beautiful than the beach dives in Southern California, so I was having fun. Today I shoot a Canon EOS1DsMKII (16.7 MP digital) in a Seacam housing. I find a combination of 17-40mm zoom, 50mm macro, 15mm fisheye, and 100mm macro will cover most of the things I need to shoot just about anywhere. For strobes I use a combination of Ikelite DS125 and Inon Z220s. If I need more punch for wide angle or distant subjects, I'll use my Ikelite 200. Just this week I tested the new Seacam Seaflash 250 for Canon. It provides TTL (which isn't all that important in digital photography, truthfully, but is nice to have), and also strobe synchronization in rear curtain synch (which is an important feature previously unavailable except with housed Canon strobes). So, I'll buy one of those and add it to my travel kit.

Divester: What are the 3 best dive sites in the Florida Keys?

SF: The Duane shipwreck for sure. That may be the best shipwreck in this hemisphere for color and concentration of marine life. Once the much larger and more notorious Spiegel Grove was sunk as an artificial reef in Key Largo, visitation to the Duane dropped off. But, the Duane is a far more mature wreck, with more marine life. Plus, it is small enough (327-feet) so you can feel like you did it on a single dive, whereas the Spiegel Grove is so massive you have to decide which vignette of the ship you want to experience. For reef life, I like a site called Fire Coral Caves at the south end of Molasses Reef. Always great pelagic action, and the resident Goliath groupers and Atlantic spadefish are of interest. For sheer masses of marine life, I like Snapper Ledge, part of the Pickles Reef complex in the Upper Keys. I realize you asked in the context of the entire Florida Keys, but Key Largo is my home and I tend to do most of my local diving there. However, once my friends in Key West put the Vandenberg wreck on the bottom, no doubt that will edge right up there as one of the top dives in the Florida Keys. I am very optimistic they are going to do something very meaningful with that ship.

Divester: A lot of underwater photographers seem to be branching into video. Do you see yourself moving in this direction, too?

SF: I've always said "no way", assuming it was too hard to serve two masters. Plus, all the post-production tedium of video editing intimidated me. But now High Definition video shows such compelling promise, I can't ignore the possibility. Plus, the web and other media venues will continue to demand more and more video content. And finally, there are some subjects that are just more interesting when shown in motion, rather than that frozen moment in time we capture as still shooters. I don't see video as being an all-consuming passion, like stills have always been. But as HD cameras and housings get smaller, I can see where one might fit in the travel case. My biggest issue though is that there is a finite amount of time that one can spend in the water. Will I want to share even a moment of that with video as opposed to stills? I don't know, but until HD I never even considered it.

Divester: You're a master at photographing sharks. What are some things photographers should keep in mind when shooting sharks?

SF: Thanks for the kind words. I suppose the first and most obvious is "Don't get your butt bit". Actually, there's a lot you can do to avoid getting hurt, and the dive operators and shark wranglers out there today are a very savvy and safety conscious bunch (for the most part). If it is helpful, perhaps you could point your readers to this link http://stephenfrink.com/sf-tips/200603-shark-shot/ as it does provide some good hints specific to shark photography.
Different sharks require different techniques; but a wide angle lens that focuses very quickly, a fast strobe recycle, quick reactions, and good peripheral vision are all important complements to effective shark imaging. We just finished doing the Shark Shootout at Stuart Cove's by the way, and really had some stellar photo ops. I think we really pushed the envelope in terms of access this year, and perhaps more than anything, that's what good shark photography is all about ... Getting close safely. I call it "Predictive Previsualization". Seeing in your mind's eye how the shot should look, setting all camera and strobe controls for what they should be when the shark gets close enough, and having the presence of mind to trip the shutter once the shark enters the shoot zone.

Divester: You've started blogging at Scuba Diving's Underwater Insider. How do you like that?

SF: Actually, I do like the "stream of consciousness" format of a blog. However, I know I don't contribute often enough. To be really effective I should do it semi-daily, or at least weekly. Maybe that should be my New Year's Resolution? But, in general, blogging has been a huge asset to the global Internet community. Scubadiving.com is just getting ready to launch a pretty major redesign, and I'm sure the Underwater Insider will get bigger/better as a result of the overall upgrades to the site.

Divester: What's the toughest marine creature to shoot and why?

SF: I suppose the absurdly skittish creatures like the garden eel are the hardest. Telephoto work isn't effective in a medium 600 times more dense than air, and even a 200mm macro doesn't get you close enough for most species of garden eels. Of course some of the bigger and bolder Pacific species of garden eels allow a closer access, and are easier to fill the frame. I know how I should do it though. I'd put my Seacam on an underwater tripod pointing at the hole of a garden eel. Then, I'd get two powerful strobes so I could work at F-22 for great depth of field. Then I would prefocus manually on where the eel would come out of the hole. Finally, I would use a 20-foot remote shutter release to trigger the camera when the garden eel came back out of it's hole, and I would devote a whole dive to nothing but that so that I'd nail it during the random happenstance when the eel bobbed into focus. Why haven't I done that? A headshot of a garden eel doesn't mean that much to me, beyond the challenge. Maybe one day.

Divester: What is Frink's SOS?

SF: To understand the product you probably need to understand the motivation. I was off Peleliu (near Palau), and we had the combination of very rough seas and a strong offshore current. Once I was swept away from the protection of the rock I had the choice of coming to the surface too quickly and risking the bends, or to do a 5-minute subsurface offgass at the mercy of the current. When I finally surfaced, the dive dinghy was a distant spot on the far horizon. Just the year before a group of Japanese tourists had died at this very spot in a similar situation. Their dive boat had an engine malfunction, and they got swept farther and farther away. Then it got dark and the situation spiraled out of control. Anyway, there I was bobbing at the surface in 6-foot seas, juggling two camera systems that would be lost to the deep abyss if I let go. Now, I had to reach in the pocket of my BC and find a little safety sausage, unroll it, take my regulator out of my mouth, blow it up through a pea-shooter valve, tuck one camera under my arm, and hold the safety sausage upright so the boat could see me. Right then I decided there had to be a better, safer way.

The SOS (Surface Observation Signal) was my solution to that problem. I decided that the pneumatics of a buoyancy compensator should be able to deploy a safety sausage so a diver did not have to manually blow it up, or even hold it in their hands. I researched my options, went through an expensive and arduous process to have the concept patented, and licensed it initially to Aqua Lung. Actually, Aqua Lung/Seaquest was a wonderful collaborator on the project. BCs are their specialty, and together we came up with a way the SOS would mount in a pouch attached to the lower right dump valve. Inflating the BC and pulling a rip cord would allow the safety sausage to deploy, and a one-way valve would keep the SOS inflated even if the BC had leaks elsewhere, or was trimmed to personal comfort while waiting on the surface. This year Innovative Scuba will launch a similarly licensed product at the DEMA show called SMART (See Me And Rescue Tube). The SMART will adapt to other BCs other than just the Aqua Lung and Seaquest brands previously served. In the near future you'll also see the SOS/SMART concept directly integrated into high end BCs rather than an add-on accessory.

The things about the SOS that I find most compelling is that:

1. It is always there when needed.
2. It is so easy to deploy that a diver will be inclined to do so at the first hint of trouble, not too late when they are potentially out of sight.
3. It is hands-free, and doesn't require a regulator to be removed from the mouth to inflate.
4. It can be deployed by a buddy for a diver that might be in trouble at the surface.
5. When seen by the dive boat, it means "here I am and I need you to pick me up". It removes the ambiguity of seeing a diver on the surface, maybe waving an arm, and maybe being in distress. The message is instantly clear.

Of course I could be biased, but I think the SOS should be standard equipment for any diver on any live-aboard. We trust our lives to guys we don't know, driving dive skiffs we can only assume are in good repair. The least we can do is put the odds in our favor by helping them see us when we come up somewhere they aren't.

Divester: I'm sure everyone thinks you have the world's best job. What would most people be surprised to hear about your work?

SF: They think it is the world's best job because of the wonderful places we go for dive travel and the adventure of it all. But I think they might be surprised at all the backstage work that goes into managing a photo archive and effectively syndicating the work. To make this fit for me I've needed to multi-task, but ultimately it is all about underwater imaging. The subsets include my close relationship with Scuba Diving magazine, our dive travel business, stock photography representation, Seacam import business, and our studio/gallery in Key Largo. Collectively, it works. But, if the only part of the formula was traveling and taking underwater photos, I'd probably have had to get a real job years ago.

Divester: What do you wish someone had told you when you were starting out in this business?

SF: I wish they'd told me (and more importantly, I'd listened), that a picture of a clownfish or a goby isn't worth getting bent over. When I was younger I was way too aggressive with the limits of the dive computer. Plus, the early dive computers were pretty aggressive as well. I can't blame the equipment though. I was too greedy about the photo-ops. I wanted more images, more chances to shoot, always. I spent too many hours in chambers as a result.

Gratefully, not lately. Nitrox availability most places reduces much of the risk, especially when dived on air tables. And modern computers are more conservative than the first ones we dived. There is no doubt sport divers can still spend plenty of time in the water very safely pursuing their UW photo ambitions. A dose of common sense regarding safe bottom time may be an important companion to an 8GB card in a digital camera.

Across from my desk, I have a poster of a great white leaping from the water. Bought the day after I went cage diving in South Africa, the iconic image was captured by Chris Fallows. Any time I have to deal with someone annoying, I look at the massive teeth in the photo, and I'm instantly bolstered. "Grrr..." I think. "Don't fool with me!" Consequently, it should come as no surprise that Chris Fallows is something of a hero to me.

Equal parts wildlife photographer, conservationist, researcher, and superhero, Chris Fallows is most famous for photographing South Africa's great white sharks breaching. Shooting sharks since 1998, Fallows and his wife Monique are active shark conservationists and recognized authorities on great white shark behavior. Recently, I caught up with Chris and asked him about his work with great whites and other sharks. Not surprisingly, he has some very pointed opinions about these important fish and people's ambivalent attitude toward them. Check out this installment of 10 Questions for... and see what he has to say! (As an aside, in my excitement, I forgot to ask him about his involvement with the Mountain Dew commercial. I'll have to cover that in a follow-up.)

Without further ado...

Divester: How did you become interested in sharks?

Chris Fallows: I have been involved with nature since the age of 2 when my father would take me to many of Africa's great game parks. When we moved closer to the coast, my interest naturally turned to the sea and I started working with local net fishermen who at that time were killing sharks. We began a programme with them whereby we started taking the sharks out of the nets and releasing them alive into the ocean. In early 1992 we caught a young great white in the nets. I took the data from this tagged shark to a group working with white sharks and they asked me if I wished to go on a few volunteer trips with them. I obviously accepted and then worked with white sharks at Dyer Island for 4 years before the area became overcommercialised. In 95/96 we started doing exploratory trips to seal island and quickly realised it was a very special place with amazing behaviour and are still happily working there today. Although most of our work is known to be with white sharks, we do in fact love all sharks and get the same amount of pleasure working with many of the species we have along our coastline. We also travel whenever we can to go see other sharks around the world.

Divester: Have you noticed that certain sharks have certain "personalities"?

CF: Undoubtedly, the white shark has a very distinctive personality and it is one of the greatest things about working with these animals to be able to see just how different one shark is from the next. You also therefore have favourites and we have over the last 11 years at Seal Island seen certain sharks for over a decade.

Divester: Have you noticed any change in shark behavior over the course of your career?

CF: No, not the change in behaviour but definitely the change in numbers. Many people are saying the white shark population in South Africa is growing; we strongly disagree and base this on having kept data since day 1 when we first started working with these sharks. In the last two years we have seen a more westerly distribution of white sharks during our spring months in false bay and believe this to be related to the scarcity of other species of sharks which formerly used to be abundant in other areas of the bay and which the white sharks are known to feed off during these months.

Divester: Have you noticed any change in people's attitudes toward sharks over the course of your career?

CF: Yes, there are definitely many more people pro-sharks now. That said, though, the main role-players and decision makers, the governments of Africa, are still not interested in protecting sharks and in South Africa there is a lot of talk but no action. Many highly threatened sharks are still fished without any regulation. We still have permitted and dedicated shark longlineres along our coast and absolutely no restrictions are placed on their activities. They catch at least a thousand sharks per trip of many species. For a country portraying itself as being eco-friendly we have a long way to go to achieve what we say.

Divester: Anyone who has seen Air Jaws has seen the incredible power of a great white. Describe the first time you saw a great white breach.

CF: It was from a 3.5 m inflatable dinghy in 1996 whilst towing a life jacket behind my boat. A small white shark took to the air, which I missed. 5 minutes later a bigger shark breached in all it's magnificence and ever since that day I have been spell bound by the majesty of this amazing animal.

Divester: How often do you see great whites breach?

CF: During the months May-Sept almost on a daily basis particularly during the heavy predation months where up to 20 natural breaches can be seen in a day.

Divester: I went shark cage diving in Gansbaai in 2001. The tour operator chummed the water to attract sharks, which was effective, but many people think chumming causes sharks to associate humans with food. What do you think?

CF: For the last three years we have not chummed for white sharks and have had at least the same amount of sharks as the commercial or research boats chumming next to us. Around large seal colonies chumming is not necessary as the seals' waste is a huge natural attractant anyhow. With regards to causing sharks to attack human this is absolute nonsense. It is a big jump in cognitive association for a shark to make to link a trail of minced up fish with humans and then go and attack them. Fishing boats have been chumming for centuries with no great increase in shark attacks. What may influence shark attack is our continual degradation of the eco-system and wiping out the white sharks natural food sources causing these animals to have to cover far greater areas to find food and obviously with ever increasing numbers of people using the water the chances of an interaction are greater, this is not rocket science.

Divester: You run tours to see blue, mako, and great sharks. How do these trips differ from each other?

CF: With the white sharks, we work around seal colonies and don't offer any dives from the sanctuary of a cage. We work with mako and blue sharks far offshore in warm, blue water that is over 1000m deep. Here we free dive with them using only blunt ended shark prodders should the sharks become too frisky. These trips take out only small groups of people so that we can always safely control any interaction. We also see huge tuna and many other species on these trips and it is truly a great natural adventure. Each year we also do some extreme exploratory trips to remote parts of Africa looking just for sharks, this often takes us 5 days sail from land into completely unspoilt environments and where shark numbers are still relatively abundant.

Divester: Recently, Jean-Michel Cousteau left the safety of a cage and hung onto the dorsal fin of a great white. Do you think this so-called "shark riding" is the future of human interactions with great white sharks? Is swimming with great whites a good idea? Do you think the sharks are bothered by this?

CF: I really hope not. I think it is courting disaster really and also showing complete disrespect for the animal. Why do you need to hold onto the shark, is it not enough to simply be able to just share a special moment with such a magnificent animal and watch it gracefully just cruise by rather than doing circus tricks with it?

If the individual is experienced with free diving with sharks and understands some of the many mannerisms of white sharks then I don't really have a problem with it. When however inexperienced people get in the water with the white shark to make films or because they have enough money to pay an operator to allow them to do this then i believe it is wrong and is courting disaster. If that person gets bit, the press will have a field day and once again demonise the animal not the human.

No shark likes having its tail grabbed and many react negatively to being touched, I can't see why sharks would enjoy having a un-streamlined extra 80kg to carry round with them?

Divester: Is it possible for humans and sharks to share the ocean?

CF: Yes, it certainly is, anyone who has seen a white shark or any shark for that matter can only be left in awe of their majesty and grace and yearn for another interaction. We brave huge seas, gale force winds and over 120 days at sea each year hoping to just get a glimpse of these creatures as they are simply so awesome to encounter.

What we need to stop is people who simply don't give a damn about their actions and will continue to eat shark fin soup simply because of the elevation in social status it offers. No matter how many people love sharks they will still disappear off our planet whilst there still is a mentality out there that thinks it is fine to kill huge sharks & dump their still living carcasses back into the ocean simply so that they can be counted socially. Governments need to wake up quickly and conserve natural resources as wiping out apex predators will have dire consequences. Imagine the Serengeti without lions, leopards, cheetah and the implications of rampant overgrazing, then soil erosion and so on. Well if we continue as we are, without doubt similar issues are coming our way, perhaps a way of the shark really biting back!

For this installment of 10 Questions for..., we decided to interview Idaho's youngest master scuba diver, 12-year-old Cody Brown. In addition to receiving his master diver certification, being oxygen provider certified, and starting his own HD video company with his dad, Cody somehow managed to find the time to write Scuba For Kids, a book for kids about diving that discusses his certification experience. Despite these pressures, Cody is amazingly grounded. How does a 12-year-old manage to do all this and remain reasonably -- even uncommonly -- sane? Read the interview and find out. Who knows: maybe Cody is the next Jacques Cousteau. Let's meet back here in a decade and discuss.

Divester: How long have you been diving, and how many dives have you logged?

Cody Brown: I have been diving for about three years now, and have logged over 70 dives. I plan to get to 100 dives by the end of the year by diving with my dad. Most of the dives that we have done are specialty dives.

Divester: What excites you about scuba diving?

CB: Going on exotic trips really makes me siked about diving, but I enjoy diving pretty much anywhere. Just the feeling of weightlessness is what I enjoy. It feels like you're in zero gravity space - just floating around and taking pictures of the scenery. I also like identifying all of the underwater life and looking inside nooks and crannies for interesting creatures that you don't see every day. I enjoy taking
video of the scenery and creatures while diving, too.

Divester: As a 12-year-old, you completed your Junior Master Scuba Diving
certification. Describe that experience.

CB: It feels really good to accomplish a deed like that and to have the notoriety. Plus, it allows me to dive deeper and explore more area that I couldn't go near with just open water certification.

Divester: In terms of the specialties you had to complete, which was the most
difficult? Which was the most fun?

CB: Probably the most difficult specialty for me would be the Rescue Diver course because of all of the scenarios that you have to remember and that you have to do procedures exactly like the book or the person you're saving could get into a worse condition. The most fun course would probably be photography or videography because it's always a thrill to take media of a dive and to see how the footage turns out.

Divester: Do people think it's weird that you're so young and yet you love to
dive so much?

CB: It seems a little strange that I'm usually the only kid on the dive boat, but all the divers we have been with have never treated me as less of a person because of my age. In fact, being a kid when diving is beneficial in some ways because I don't require as much air as an adult body, so I can dive much longer than other people.

Divester: After receiving your certification, you wrote Scuba For Kids, a book for kids about scuba diving. What made you decide to write a book?

CB: I have found out that some people think that kids shouldn't be allowed to dive because they feel kids lack the ability both mentally and physically. The book shows that some kids do have the capacity to dive if they are passionate for it. This book hopefully promotes their passion for diving by having a kid talk to a kid. The book mainly talks about me and my adventures in diving. It also covers some criteria mentioned in some courses and specialties.

Divester: What was it like to write a book?

CB: It was a lot of hard work, but I managed to get it done in about a year. It feels really good -- and weird -- to be holding the published, finished product in my hands. We are currently selling the book at local dive shops to promote diving there. We are going to DEMA in November to hold a book signing at a book store. If you would like to purchase the book, you can buy it on my website (www.scubaforkids.com).

Divester: What is Scuba Cody Productions, and what do you hope to do with it?

CB: Scuba Cody Productions is a diving video company that videotapes dives
and sells them. Both my dad and I hope to start a video series of hot dive locations around the world. This company is also another way to promote diving for kids by showing how fun and safe it can be.

Divester: What is your next scuba diving adventure?

CB: Next year, my parents are planning to go to Fiji again. This time, however, we plan to stay for two weeks rather than one. We are also planning to go to ABC islands and Key Largo.

Divester: Your website says you want a degree in Marine Biology. What would
you like to do with that?

CB: Being a marine biologist would probably allow me to work in a lab and
observe many different kinds of aquatic life, along with doing commercial field research dives. Doing those things as a paying occupation sounds really cool! I can't wait for what the future holds for me!

A few weeks ago, we reviewed Below Freezing: The Antarctic Dive Guide. This colorful, excellent Guide -- really, the only Guide of its kind -- is written by Lisa Eareckson Trotter, the first person to learn to dive in the Antarctic and a long-time crew member aboard Lindblad Expeditions' Endeavour. After reading the book, it became clear to me that she has a deep respect and appreciation for diving in Antarctica's icy waters. As a confirmed warm-water diver, I had lots of questions for her. How did she get involved in Antarctic diving? What was so compelling about this bitter environment? Rather than wonder what motivated her to keep coming back, year after year, I decided to ask her.

To that end, Lisa Trotter is the first person to be profiled on Divester's new feature, "10 Questions for...". From what brought her to Antarctica in the first place, to what it's like being a female in (arguably) a male-dominated activity, Lisa provided some great insight to our questions.

Divester: What brought you to Antarctica?

Lisa Trotter: I was supposed to be taking a year off from University, preparing to apply for medical school. My grandparents (who raised me) brought me on a family trip with them, boarding the National Geographic Endeavour in Portsmouth England continuing to Lisbon, Portugal. I had never been at sea before, but from the moment I stepped onboard the ship, feeling it rock gently beneath me, it was like being home. I had never been more comfortable in a space in my life. The travel bug had bitten me many years before this trip, so I thought the combination of the two would be a great way to spend my year off. I innocently inquired to the crew as to how they got into this line of work, and lo and behold, they said they had a position open as gift shop manager in Antarctica, if I would like to apply. I applied, and my gap year has extended to 7 years long.

Divester: What were your initial impressions of Antarctica and how have they changed?

LT: My first thoughts about Antarctica . . . Actually a tough one for me. When I first learned that I got the job and was heading to Antarctica, I ran out and got Caroline Alexander's Endurance. This book created such vibrant images in my mind, that even before I saw the continent, I was absolutely hooked. When I finally stepped foot on Antarctica, once again it was like coming home (and this is not just because I am originally from Buffalo, NY where snow is a synonym). I have tried many times to put it into words, but there are so many aspects that have profoundly touched me, and given me "polar fever," as we call it. The pristine beauty, the profound silence (away from the penguin colonies), the majestic icebergs, the feel of the chilled wind in my face when driving Zodiacs, and of course, the underwater realm which has become deeply ingrained in and shaped me as a person. I said then, and I still say now, that I would spend the entire year there if I could, exploring, diving, and taking it all in.

Divester: What made you decide to learn to dive in Antarctica?

LT: I have been a water baby since I was born, swimming competitively through my teen years, as well as working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. However, I also had another passion and that was soccer. I played from the time I was 6 years old until I was 22, all year around. I had always wanted to take SCUBA courses, and actually signed up at one point during university, but found that my soccer practice schedule interfered, so had to drop it. When I embarked on Endeavour for the first time, I boarded in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We had a naturalist onboard named Dennis Cornejo, a NAUI instructor who was training a young woman to dive on the South American Coast. I heard about it, but Dennis can be a bit intimidating when you first meet him, and as a newbie I was a little nervous to approach him. However, one night the whole crew was out for dinner and drinks, and I finally plucked up the courage to ask if he would train me. He eyed me up and said "Fine, but you'll have to do it in Antarctica." Not knowing any better I happily agreed. My first "pool work" was done a few days later in the harbor of Punta Arenas, Chile desperately hanging onto the anchor chain in 2 knots of current, while trying to figure out buoyancy. Dennis and I have been dive buddies ever since.

Divester: What made you decide to write a dive guide about Antarctica?

LT: The original project that I was/am working on was to create a full benthic guide to Antarctica. You see, the most amazing aspect of Underwater Antarctica, is that you never know what you will find. Most of the National base work is situated in only a 5 mile radius, leaving rather large areas unexplored. With Endeavour, we get access to the entire Antarctic Peninsula (located below South America) for diving, and are able to gather a lot of information during the four months we are there. Expedition Ships are really the only ones who have liberties like this. Originally the book started as a categorization of the species we found at each site, but one afternoon about two and half years ago I was talking with some friends in the business about different dive sites; they said why don't I write a guide with all this information? It didn't take much to convince me to write, it seemed like a natural progression.

Divester: Describe the work involved in writing Below Freezing.

LT: For last six years (coming up on seven) I have been diving every austral summer in Antarctica, sometimes for the entire four months Endeavour operates down there. For the most part, I work with Dennis while I am there. Dennis is one of the Undersea Specialists onboard the Endeavour, which means he (and I) get to use the underwater equipment, including a small ROV, to bring back images to the guests onboard (the guests we work with love being able to experience this harsh environment, watching in the comfort of the lounge sipping a satisfying beverage). Dennis and I used to split the video filming, until two and a half years ago I moved over to still images. Throughout the time we collected countless hours of film, which was also edited down and put on DVD. You will see a lot of the images in the book are actually video stills, ones I captured from our DVD's. Each dive that I have made over the years, I have written down what I saw at each specific site. The diving and recollection was the easy part for the book. Then came the writing....

I had a lot of information to impart, one I felt it was important for the divers to know the significance of the spot they were diving: Was Shackleton there? Was it an environmental disaster site? These are all things that help your mind work while diving, and give you a better feel for the site. The next step was to try and describe the site and how it will look to the diver. You see in the book I have a quick picture guide for each site, this was a very late edition (much to my publishers chagrin) as I didn't feel the text was giving enough, and for those who are running dive trips down there they just want a quick look to see if they can offer it is as a check-out dive or if it is more advanced. The writing started as something very basic, and then evolved into what you are seeing now.

The pictures that are in the book come from a choice of 450, mostly done by us onboard, either à la video or camera stills, or there are also some contributions by some of my friends who are in the business. The editing process was difficult, especially as each site has its own special creatures. But in the end and after some back and forth, we edited it all down and got the right creatures in the right sites. I would love to give a shout to my friend Martin Enckell who has the cover shot. At the time we had never met each other, but when he heard I was putting together this guide, he sent me all of his brother's and his pictures, pro bono, without batting an eye.

However the book would never exist without WILDGuides. As you know they are a publishing company in the UK that is dedicated to environmental conservation. They had already published two of my colleagues in the Falkland Islands (Debbie Summers), and South Georgia (Kim Crosbie and Sally Ponce). When I first made contact with WILDGuides it didn't take long to see that we were a good match, especially as they already had a vested interest in the Southern Ocean, albeit they had never published a dive guide. Kudos to them for taking a new journey with me.

Divester: Diving in Antarctica seems very "macho." Do you ever have people dismiss you because you're a woman?

LT: Funny you should ask this, because it is a running joke amongst my closest piers that I am "more like man than woman." I suppose I had better explain this, lest you think that I have a mustache. A couple of years ago I was working on a Russian Icebreaker. Russian sailors particularly like women who are a bit princess-y, meaning they do not drive Zodiacs, and they do not stay at helicopter base stations lifting gear for 12 hours at a time. It was New Year's Eve (a night when I was actually princess-ed out) when the second engineer came up to me and said "Lisa you more like man than woman, but I'll dance with you anyway." Not the first time I have been accused of being a Tom Boy, and in light of where I was working I took it as a compliment.

Antarctica is such a harsh place to begin with, so most woman are on the same level as the men who work there (I still wouldn't call it macho though). I would say in general we woman are definitely a strong bunch, as we are dealing with logistically difficult and possible life and death scenarios (mainly due to the harsh conditions of the continent), while being congenial to guests 18 hours of the day. As far as Antarctic divers go, there are not many women who dive there, but then again there are not many men who dive there either. We are a special crowd, and each of us respects each other regardless of gender.

Divester: What is your favorite aspect of diving in Antarctica?

LT: My favorite part about diving in Antarctica is that you never know what you will find. It happens more often with the ROV (remotely operated vehicle), as this little machine can go to 500 feet, and record creatures that have only previously been dredged - usually arriving at the surface in mushy pieces. However, even in diving, we come across a new sponge or anemone that is not identified or categorized in any of the current "benthic guides." Matter of fact I am still awaiting comments on a many armed anemone from 3 years ago, and a sponge from this last season

Divester: What would surprise most people about Antarctic diving?

LT: When I talk about Antarctic diving, or show pictures, I think what surprises people most are the colors and diversity of creatures. A common misconception about the Antarctic benthic community is that because the water is so cold, it is void of life. Nothing could be further from the truth; the Southern Ocean is some of the richest water on the planet, holding one of the highest levels of nutrients on the planet, therefore supplying a vast number of creatures with food. Yes there are some areas that are scraped clean weekly by large icebergs, but in most areas you have bright orange, yellow, and red anemones, purple sea cucumbers, red and yellow sea spiders, and crinoids by the thousands.

Divester: What's your next project?

LT: My next project is the continuation of the original project, the reason Below Freezing began in the first place, a complete benthic guide for the Continent of Antarctica. In order to do this, the different National Diving Programs and Research Organizations have to be contacted and brought together, which can be a bit of a daunting task, but I believe it is a worthwhile and productive project for all benthic researchers worldwide.

Divester: You've just won an all-expenses paid dive trip to anywhere on the planet. Where do you go and why?

LT: If I had an all expense paid diving trip, I would go to the most remote areas of Antarctica, specifically the Phantom Coast and the outskirts of the Ross Sea. I have been through this area by Russian Icebreaker, but not able to dive. However, seeing what the coastline and visibility looked like from the Zodiacs and helicopters, I often pine for the chance.

Whoopee! Tomorrow, we're kicking off a new feature here on Divester, which involves asking a dive personality 10 questions and letting them respond. Ingeniously, we've decided to name the feature "10 Questions for...". (Don't ask us how we came up with that name. Divine inspiration, I guess.)

Is there a dive personality that you'd like to learn more about? Have you been itching to ask so-and-so a certain question? Now's your chance. We've got several people lined up already, but we'd like to hear from you. If you'd like to know more about a certain dive personality, contact us, and let us know who you'd like to hear from. If you have specific questions, let us know those, too. We'll do our best to flex our mighty Divester muscles to make it happen.