Kodak’s Korner

Growing up in Malaysia, I had always been close to   the water, frequenting the beach and snorkeling whenever I had the chance. However, it wasn’t until 2004 when I decided by a process of elimination to study marine biology at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville did I get scuba certified. My first diving experience was in 1 meter visibility in the marine reserve off Pulau Payar. I had a mask which hurt my nose and barely saw anything aside from my instructor’s back end. This made me contemplate whether this wacky activity was actually for me (it didn’t help that diving was considered an extremely dangerous sport in Malaysia then) but I decided that as a soon to be marine biologist living on the Great Barrier Reef, giving up diving was just not an option.

4 years later, I graduated with from JCU with Honours in marine biology (specializing in ecological modelling) and somehow found myself certified as a dive instructor, working at a local dive shop – how things change In my 4 years at JCU, I discovered a true passion for the underwater realm, cumulating in a love for underwater photography  and sharing what I had learnt with those less fortunate to never have stepped into our beautiful underwater world.

In 2009, I found myself back at JCU pursuing a PhD, this time using ecological models and experiments to try and map distributions of corals on a reef based on temperature, light, flow dynamics and aragonite saturation state. I hope to use this to further our understanding of how our reefs are going to respond to increasing global warming and ocean acidification.

My kit

I began taking underwater photos in 2004 with a brandless digital camera in a housing so dodgy that the only function available was the shutter. You couldn’t even turn it on/off during a dive!

In late 2006, I upgraded to an Olympus SP-350 in an Olympus Pt-030 housing. Unfortunately, I did not get to do much diving with that kit and it was soon replaced in 2007 with the Sea & Sea DX-1G/YS-27 strobe package. I added at YS-110 strobe to my kit in mid 2007 and am currently still using this setup (it has taken most of the photos on this site). I have to say that I am very happy with the 1G as it offers me the same creative freedoms as a DSLR (albeit slower writing to RAW and smaller colour space) at a much lower price. That being said, I am waiting eagerly to house my Nikon D300

Contact details

E-mail address

neil@neilchan.com

Postal address

PO Box 34

James Cook University QLD 4811