Muck diving is now a recognized broad term for (generally) close up photography, usually in terrible visibility and a dark muddy bottom resulting primarily in low light conditions, which may or may not be polluted, too! As the name implies, you are searching in a ‘muddy’, ‘mucky’ or ‘murky’ environment, moving slowly with additional lights to try and spot all of the weird and wonderful creatures that we used to miss in the search for larger weird and wonderful creatures!

Close-up or macro photography is a specialized form of underwater photography where the camera lens is positioned very close to a subject, or is able to zoom into the subject, to record a relatively large image in high magnification of the original subject.

Once or twice in a rare Blue Moon, opportunity sometimes comes along and hits you on the head—or in my case, I was hit on the head—by a juvenile sperm whale.

So, where do we start? And what type of camera do we buy? Should we go for the DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex)—basically a digital version of the old single lens reflex (SLR) camera where you compose your photograph through the lens of the camera—or should we go for a compact point-and-shoot camera, which has live-view screening.

Now, we have our camera and all of its ancillary added on bits. We have checked that everything works. We have our chosen format decided. We have our laptop and portable hard drive all packed up and ready to go on location, but where are we going and why go there in the first place?

Before we get into the picture-taking business, let us look at some of the jargon and explain what everyone else gets so excited about. Yep! Which format should I use to take my underwater photograph?

Underwater photography has been around well over 150 years and has accompanied humans as they have ventured beneath the seas to chronicle the water wilderness in all its glory, with the earliest underwater photographs being taken on large plate cameras in underwater housings of some sort or another.

Situated 25 km (15 miles) north of the Scottish mainland, the Orkney Islands are located on the same latitude as southern Greenland, Alaska and Leningrad, however Orkney is bathed in the warm waters of the North Atlantic Drift that first started out as the Gulf Stream in the Caribbean. Hence, a profusion of marine life, water that rarely gets too cold and mild winters, whilst the islands are inevitable windy, the almost landlocked bay of Scapa Flow is sheltered for diving all year round. The Orkney Islands are created by submergence and give the impression of tipping westwards into the sea. There are great sea stacks, arches, caves and caverns all around the coast, some of which are world famous such as the Old Man of Hoy, and they have a total land mass of around 971.25km2 (375 square miles).

Books & Media |  The St.Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Nature Reserve off the south east coast of the Scottish Mainland was founded by the author Lawson Wood.

Books & Media |  Sea Fishes and Invertebrates of the North Sea reveals the profusion of marine life that exists in this diverse but little-documented region.