My first setup was a used Nikonos film camera.... the kind with manual focus and a viewfinder that never really showed quite what you were taking a picture of. Here's an early photo I made with the Nikonos using Kodak Ektachrome film. (20mm lens and a single ikelite strobe)
I loved the color that you get from film, but the practicality of using the Nikonos, developing each roll of film and manually scanning each slide eventually came to an end.
My first digital setup was a simple Canon S80 point and shoot digital camera using a dive light as a light source.
It was amazing because I could show folks on the shore 'what was down there'. I was hooked on digital.
My next move was to a Nikon D80 DSLR with a couple of strobes. This allowed me the lens flexibility of the old Nikonos but with all the advantage of digital. Here's a photo of my buddy at the Titlow Pilings, taken with a fisheye wide-angle setup.
Nudibranchs have always been interesting subjects for me. Here's one of my first shots of a Frosted Dirona albolineata with my Canon S80 point and shoot, taken at the Victoria Harbor Jetty in June 2006.
Here's a more recent one taken last year with a Nikon D800 DSLR and 60mm micro lens. (If you read Sport Diver magazine you may have seen it on page 57 of the June 2014 issue, in the article about diving in Hood Canal.)
On the anniversary of my tenth year I was out at Keystone Jetty where I got some pretty cool shots of Longhorns (Hermissenda crassicornis).
There was also a medium sized GPO hanging out on the pilings as well.
I'm looking forward to at least another ten years being in the water and taking pictures
Dan
