THE DIVEQUEST TEAM

? divers who will make your dreams come true

Gavin Anderson has dived all over the world and his work as an underwater photo-journalist is increasingly in demand. Since winning a British Society of Underwater Photographers 'Beginners Award' he has never looked back. His work, some of which has appeared in national newspapers, includes studies of Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Thailand, and he was one of the first journalists to write the story of the Thistlegorm. Gavin still enjoys diving nearer home, particularly in his own Scottish waters and in Ireland, but his recent travels have taken him to Corsica, Southern Africa, The Far East and the Solomon Islands.

Mark Beaman is the Managing Director of Birdquest Ltd. After graduating from Cambridge University he spent some time in ornithological research before becoming involved in birdwatching and wildlife tourism in 1978, going on to found his own company in 1981. His love of the natural world led him to take up scuba diving and, following on from his many years of experience in the the field of environmental travel, it was a natural progression to create the Divequest programme of diving holidays in combination with Hilary Lee.

Gary Clarke lives in Bedfordshire and is a senior manager with Tesco. He holds a PADI Divemaster qualification. Gary's passion for underwater photography began in 1996 when he met his 'photo guru' Martin Edge. He is a member of the British Society of Underwater Photographers and won their 'Best Beginners Portfolio' competition in 1998. Gary is addicted to warm water diving and has travelled and taken photographs in the Caribbean, The Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Solomons.

Linda Dunk lives in London and is a scientist running her own business contributing technical information to a large pharmaceutical company. She has won the British Society of Underwater Photographers 'Open Portfolio' competitions many times. She has had much success in Sport Diver magazine's 'Underwater Photographer of the Year' competitions and has been featured in their 'Portfolio Series'. Amateur Photographer published a selection of her pictures in their 'Gallery' feature and Linda was the subject of a 'Chroniclers of the Deep' interview in Dive International. 1998 saw Linda voted Diver magazine's 'Photographer of the Year'. Linda has travelled and dived extensively in the the Galapagos, the Caribbean, the Red Sea, Maldives and the Far East. She also kindly designed this year's 'Divequest Gallery'.

Martin Edge lives in Dorset and has been diving for almost 20 years and taking photographs for almost as long. He is widely acknowledged as one of Britain's leading underwater photographers and is also one of the finest teachers of underwater photography skills in Britain today. He has won or been placed in almost every national UK underwater photography competition held in the last ten years. Over 300 of his photographs have been published in magazines, books and journals and his recently published book The Underwater Photographer is a best seller in its field. Martin has travelled and dived extensively, including the Red Sea, the Caribbean and South-East Asia.

Malcolm Hey lives in North Yorkshire and is an experienced tour leader, photographer and writer. He is a regular contributor to British and international magazines and well over 500 of his images have been published in books and magazines. A British Gas Wildlife Photographer of the Year prizewinner on several occasions, he has won many national and international awards with his underwater images, some of which were selected for a 16-page feature portfolio in the 2003 edition of the prestigious Photography Yearbook. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a British Sub-Aqua Club First Class Diver and has been diving for over 20 years. An experienced traveller, he has visited over 55 countries and dived in 35. He has dived extensively around the British coast and in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, Southeast Asia, the western Pacific and the Caribbean.

Andy Hirst lives in Lancashire and is a BSAC Advanced Diver. His work in the engineering industry gave him the skills he uses to design and produce underwater photography equipment. A keen diver for many years, Andy has dived extensively in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. More recently he has concentrated his photographic work in the waters of Malaysia and Indonesia, where he finds the variety and abundance of marine life provides the greatest opportunities to indulge his passion.

Charles Hood lives in Wimbledon and caught the underwater 'bug' in the mid-seventies whilst living and diving in the Middle East and using his mother's Minolta Weathermatic camera! After returning to the UK in 1979 he qualified with BSAC to Advanced Instructor and also with the RYA as a diver coxswain and coastal skipper. Much of the eighties saw Charles leading expeditions to far flung corners of the world. He can remember Sipadan when there was a maximum of 12 divers allowed on the whole island. Charles then went on to lead expeditions to the Southern Red Sea, The Galapagos, The Maldives and California. During the last few years Charles has concentrated more on his underwater photography, winning several domestic and international prizes, the most recent being Dive's Underwater Photographer of the Year 2001. Charles currently works part time for Dive magazine and also as a free lance journalist and underwater photographer.

Hilary Lee is co-founder and Managing Director of Divequest. After a successful career in science teaching, she changed direction to work in the environmental travel business. Hilary now combines her passions for long-distance travel, the natural world and scuba diving in the administration, research and planning of the Divequest programme. She even manages to get away from her desk occasionally to explore the reefs of the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch is a photographer and author who has been diving since he was 13. His work spans a variety of subjects and he is especially interested in photographing challenging material, from the inaccessible flora and fauna of mangrove swamps to the more rarely encountered species of sharks. A founder and trustee of The Shark Trust, he is passionately concerned with educating both the diving and the general public about these endangered and misrepresented animals. He has published 5 natural history books on marine subjects and is presently working on a series of shark identification books.

Mark Walker lives in Lancashire, is a registered pharmacist and runs his own pharmacy business. He has been diving since 1989 and taking underwater photographs for almost as long. Mark's passion for diving and underwater photography has led him to travel and dive all over the world on both liveaboards and from resorts, including Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and the Caribbean. Mark cut his teeth with group trips when he assisted Martin Edge on his photography courses and loves meeting new people and helping them to travel and take photographs. Mark works actively within the Northern Underwater Photography Group.