Speaker – Chris Rickard – Wednesday 13th October 2021

The speaker at the weekly meeting of the Society this week was Chris Rickard on the subject of underwater photography in Scotland.

Chris is a keen diver who has completed some 1500 dives mainly in Scottish waters and at the McDuff Marine Aquarium where he works on a part time basis. Members were introduced to the diving and photographic equipment used by Chris in his hobby prior to being shown a number of brief videos to explain the underwater environment in which he carries out his photographic work.

Chris has a particular interest in the tiny soft bodied marine gastropod molluscs known as nudibranch which are a form of sea slug. These tiny creatures some only millimetres long means that much of our speakers photography is in the area of extreme macro photography which is not easy.

Chris showed members photographs from his databank of 60000 images. The quality of these macro images reflected both the detail and the brilliant colours observed in these tiny creatures, in their surrounding habitat in addition to the mating and feeding habits of the subjects photographed. This most interesting of evenings finished with members questions and appreciative thanks to Chris for his very interesting talk.

John Peacock