About me

Hi to all divers, snorchelers and also to nondivers. My name is Martina, I came from spa city Teplice and I am a PhD student of Zoology at the University of South Bohemia in Ceské Budejovice. I recently finished my masters degrees from Zoology, specialty Ecology of Animals, and from Biology teaching. My main research area is studying and observing etology and ecology of anemone shrimps. Besides this I have other hobbies like travelling, diving, taking photographs and filming :o) My dream of becoming a marine biologist is just steps away, I am actively researching marine life and I am a part of exciting project as Turtle Watch (turtle research) and Coral reef check (coral reef monitoring programe).

I started diving when I was 12, I took the course on Cyprus with an English instructor, who showed me the beautiful underwater world (1999). After a few years diving changed from a hobby to a life objective. There are many diving certifications and specialities which go to a professional way. As a recreational diver I have the highest non professional certification ,,Master Scuba Diver”. If you want to get this certification you have to show the highest diving knowledge and skills, you must have a first aid course and the course Rescue diver. I also have the first professional certification ,,Divemaster”. I’m a specialist in deep diving, diving in dry suit, night diving, wreck diving and mainly I’m an underwater videographer and photographer. Frequently I send my photos and articles to magazines to share my experience with other people. Among divers I met lots of interesting people, I have many friends at home as well as abroad.

I started to take photographs in 2001. First photographs originated in Sardegna, major photographs of lobsters, crayfish, naked slugs and mysterious caves. When I was in the Red Sea for the first time I couldn’t believe to all colours, to the animals and to limpid water. The first big animal which I met was a turtle, I will never forget how it turned up in dark blue water and swam just a few centimetres far from me. It was a great feeling like any time when I see something new or rare. In 2004, after five years of diving, I met sharks and dolphins underwater for the first time. It’s unreal to be face to face with the master of sea depth, the heart beats and when the shark is leaving you recall that you have a camera and you have to take a photo. So I have only two photos. Most of my photos originated by chance, fish, light, diver...everything is in the right place and than it’s enough to press release and the photograph is in the light of the world. Not always you make a good photo, so I always hope to have only one good photo of ,, that twenty”. Often I appear that my photographic object do intentionally: it looks perfect, I want to press… and suddenly the fish turns back, closes its jaws (principally that it had the jaws open all the time) or it runs away. Some animals like turtles, napoleon fish, eagle rays (related to Manta ray), big rays swim around you very fast, so if you want a good photo, you must be fast and accurate.

I like taking photos of animals, lately lionfish. It’s hard to take photos of them, because they always turn back to you. And more you must be careful, because they have poisonous prickles. But sometimes you can take a very nice photo, especially if you find a very model lionfish. I like to do macro photographs, it’s a photo of small animals or of their details. So I like to taking photos of blenny and partner gobies, that live in symbiosis with shrimps. Often I lie on a sandy bottom all dive if I want to take a photo of both, one move and the partner goby with shrimp disappear in their hole.

Sometimes I met hurt animals, especially murenas and big fish, which cling to a net or on hook. Many times they hard escape and consequence with man they have for rest of their life: hurt fins, fish hooks in their bodies… Some survive only for some days but some can survive for some years, it depends on their injury. It’s really a sad view, but on the other hand the will to life is admirable. Then the man appreciates that he always destroys everything and he must protect the nature and animals.

I started to take photo because of identification and look for the animals which I met underwater. Now I can’t imagine my diving without a camera. I always try to take the best photo, I invent new views and composition… It’s amusement and also art. A really good photographer must know and work perfectly with his camera but also have sensibility for a unique moment. Catch something which will never repeat, take something different. The same animal is different in every photo, one is nervous, dangerous next time understanding and joy from contact with man…you can’t plan it, you must onlyl try and understand animals whose photo you want to take.



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