Nature nominee

Underwater photography, especially super macro is only for the very patient few and can be quite frustrating to get the right focus and picture as it can be 2-3-4 times life size. On a single dive one may come up with only 1 great image or even none. I always wanted to get images with blurred backgrounds and very shallow depth of field. By using a canon 100 mm macro lens plus added diopters (between +15 to +25) i managed to get shots that i had visualised for a long time. None were easy to get and were painstakingly difficult.

Canon 7D - Nauticam Housing - Twin Strobes at different powers - Canon 100 mm Macro lens + added diopters up to +25.

I have been involved with Scuba Diving since the past 7 years. My passion is underwater photography. To pursue this passion, i have logged over 1400++ dives and have a vast database of marine pictures from all over South East Asia, Egypt, Maldives, South Africa, Andamans, Lakshadweep among others. Having won some international awards, i was also part of the team (as the main photographer) for the National Institute of Oceanography for Assessing and Mapping the Bio-Diversity of Angria Bank Coral Reef. Bombay Natural History Society has also given me assignments and some more are in the pipeline. I recently won an award in the ocean art competition. Other than this i have been chosen as one of the top 30 photographers in India in the Tamron India Challenge this year. This was not just for underwater images but any/all kinds of images by photographers in India. Along with my partners, who are pioneers in setting up one of the first dive training companies in India, we have also formed a company that specializes in Group dive trips around the world:
http://www.scubacentric.com/
Regular articles have been "penned" for Jetwings Domestic in-flight magazine - Saevus - http://www.saevus.in/ , Sanctuary - http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/ , Ocean Geographic - http://www.ogsociety.org/ among others.