Team efforts

“Learning to work with one of Wakatobi’s dive guides is an often-overlooked technique. They are a team of professionals and are meant to be deployed as such. Providing them with a wish list of subject matter is just the first step. They’ll certainly go off and work hard to fill that list, but they bring a lot more than that to the table. Once we’re actively diving, I shamelessly plumb the depths of their local knowledge. They’re logging hundreds of dives a year in the area, so they are always going to know far more about any of the dive sites and the marine life on them than I ever will. They will always find more creatures than I will, but what they teach me helps me discover and interpret some of my own.

…showing them what seems to have worked, and what clearly did not, helps them develop strategies for our future dives.

“I’m equally uninhibited in sharing with them my photographic failures and successes from each dive. Helping them understand what I’m trying to achieve, showing them what seems to have worked, and what clearly did not, helps them develop strategies for our future dives. Bouncing ideas around with them also frequently generates welcome suggestions and hints for improvements in my own technique. Subsequent dives then become part-workshop as we test and refine those ideas.

One of the joys of underwater photography is that, while there are many tried and proven techniques that will consistently deliver predictable results, there is also limitless room for adaptation. That’s one of the reasons I rank Wakatobi Resort so highly. It’s not only the shots we miss that keep us going back into the water. It’s the endless possibilities that life on the reef puts in front of us. Spending time with the photo dive guides at Wakatobi Resort—even when they stretch my aging eyes to the limit—is one of the most enjoyable ways of exploring those possibilities.”

About Wade and Robyn Hughes: Wade Hughes is a Member of the Explorers Club and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He has dived in some 30 countries and territories around the world, and has logged more than 250 dives at Wakatobi Resort. He and his wife Robyn make their photographs freely available to individuals and organizations involved in education, research, and not-for-profit promotion of sustainable conservation. Requests can be sent to wadeandrobynhughes@gmail.com.

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