Tuason is fascinated by different ways of using light
	Photo: Scott Tuason

	Shooting reef scenes is one of Tuason's favourite subjects
	Photo: Scott Tuason

Scott Tuason was born in Sydney in 1968 but spent most of his childhood in the Philippines where he started diving at an early age. At university in Tampa, Florida he began to get more involved in photography. Returning to the Philippines, he has become one of the country's most respected photographers. His work was exhibited at last year's World Expo in Lisbon and he is a keen supporter of the WWF.

How did you start taking photographs?

I have always been interested in photographs. When I was eight I had an Instamatic camera which I took to the zoo to take pictures. I didn't want my picture taken with the chimp, I wanted to be the one to take the chimp's picture. What fascinated me about photography was that the pictures looked better than real-life.

What drew you to underwater photography?

I was already taking pictures topside, so when I began diving in 1979 it was only natural for me to take underwater photos too. My father was taking pictures at the time and I would finish the last few frames before the end of the dive. As I became an incessant pest, bothering him on every dive, he figured it was time to buy me a camera. I got my first Nikonos 5 in 1985 and have never gone underwater without a camera since.

How did your photography develop?

At university I took every photo class available and became good friends with my professor, Lou Harris. He told me he wasn't going to teach me all the crap I could read in the text book, rather he would teach me how to see. How to get a new perspective on something as simple as a chair in the studio.

Who and what were your early inspirations?

My inspirations when I first started were Chris Newbert and David Doubilet. The macros in Newbert's book Within a Rainbowed Sea still inspire me today. For me they are the standard by which I judge my photos.

What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your photography? Is there anything specific you try to communicate?

I want to use my photos to show what we need to protect. But first and foremost I love the sea and all the animals in it, being there and observing them gives me the greatest satisfaction of all.

Are there particular subjects that you like to take shots of and why?

I like to shoot reef-scapes without divers in the picture, and big stuff like whale sharks, dolphins, sharks and large schools of fish -- again without divers. For macros I like to shoot coral details to bring out unusual patterns and textures. Lately I have really been concentrating on trying to take rare subjects in very unusual ways. I go through stages where for example, I'll shoot mostly shrimp for a few weeks then concentrate on gobies for another few weeks. As far as topside goes I like taking landscapes and whenever possible with emphasis on cloud formation.

Are there particular places you like to photograph?

There are many places that interest me to take pictures. I particularly like photographing in Southeast Asia; the waters are warm and the diversity of species is like no other on the planet. I also like the clear water. Being in the Philippines influences my work a lot. It's where I dive most of the time and is one of the reasons why I like living here.

One of the places that inspires me is Anilao. I like to 'hunt' for critters I haven't got on film, and places like the Sulu Sea with clear water and big reefs always make me grab my wide-angle lens and just shoot rolls and rolls of reef scenes.

How did you evolve your distinctive semi-abstract style, with it's unusual use of light?

I started playing around with exposure, underexposure in particular. I also try to frame the shot in ways I have never seen before.

In both underwater and land-based photography you often combine natural and artificial light. Can you explain your approach and what resu lts you're looking for?

Light and time are the two key elements in a photograph. For my topside shots I like to use long exposures using natural light. From there I may add artificial light whether from a single flash, or sometimes use a flashlight and paint light on to any part of the picture. Using the same principals as a painter would -- my canvas is the film and my paint is my flashlight.

Underwater wide-angle, I try to balance ambient (available light) with my artificial light (underwater strobe) to create a natural looking shot. Again I like to use slow exposures with very little fill flash. Some of my older work used fast shutter speeds which gave it a very dark blue background, I'm working now more on balancing the shot.

Macro photography is pretty basic as far as set-up for the shot. I use fast shutter speeds, small camera openings and TTL on my strobe. Lately, I have started to use the same technique that I apply to wide-angles. The results have been pretty mixed so far. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more experimentation with this technique.

For topside I like working in early morning or late afternoon and full moon light. I usually shoot macro early morning then switch to wide-angle during the day and back to macro for late afternoon and night dives. I never use wide-angle at night. I also like to use wide-angle during late afternoon, the sun burst usually becomes yellow instead of the white you get at mid-day.

You do a lot of macro work. Do you study creatures and their hab itats, go back to find the same creatures once you know where they are, o r just shoot what comes along on a dive?

Half of underwater macro photography is hunting. Finding your subject. I do a lot of reading and study other photos of certain animal to know where they live and what time to look for them. I have also been diving for 20 years, so I have also observed many of the animals before. In places like Anilao where I go every week-end, I know where to find certain animals and I usually go back to the same place and re-shoot if I have to. For the Anilao book I usually had a plan before every dive and would prepare by choosing a lens for that particular animal. If something else came along it was a bonus.

What equipment and film do you use and why?

For topside photography I use 35mm Nikon SLR cameras. I have an FE2 'no-frills' camera body and a F100 'do-it-all' camera. For lenses I use a 16mm fisheye, 20mm and 24mm for landscapes, and for telephoto I use a 200mm manual focus and a 70-240mm autofocus zoom. My workhorse lenses are the 20mm and the zoom. My FE2 body was my first SLR which Dad gave me in 1983 -- I still use it today. I use Nikon because it's what I started out with. I'm able to use all my lenses with all my camera bodies.

For underwater macro I use a Nikon F4 body in a Nexus F4 Pro housing. My workhorse lenses are a 60mm and a 105mm lens. The 60mm is good for large macro subjects while the 105mm is good for small subjects that don't let you get too close. I like the Nexus housing because it is mechanical and lightweight. I chose the F4 body because of the ability to change viewfinders. I use the DA-20 Action Finder, it's big and bright.

For underwater wide angle I sometimes use my Nexus F4 Housing with a 16mm and 20mm lens, but most of the time I use a Nikonos 5 with a Sea & Sea 12mm fisheye. My all time favourite for wide angle is my Nikonos RS with a 13mm fisheye. The problem is my RS is broken and I'm having a hard time getting it fixed.

The only special equipment I use is a diopter for my 105mm lens which gives two to one reproduction for macro photography.

My lighting system is pretty much standard. I use two Ikelite 100 strobes for macro set at 95 degrees of coverage. I normally shot on TTL. For wide-angle I use Ikelite 200 strobes, both set on manual. I like Ikelite because they are 'warm' strobes -- the temperature of light is not as high so they give a more natural light.

For both topside and underwater I use Fujichrome Velvia film ASA 50. It has the best colour saturation of any film and the slow ASA makes it good for enlarging the photo. As far as manipulating the processing, I sometimes push the film one stop.

Has any of your photography been published in book form?

Yes, my first book entitled Philippine Coral Reefs was a collaboration with a painter of underwater scenes. Anilao is a collaboration with photographer Eduardo Cu Unjieng.

Is there any advice you'd give to photographers who are just starting out?

Get a Nikonos 5, you will always use it no matter what level of photography you get to. Get as close to your subject as possible, even if you think you are close enough, you can always get closer. Be patient and usually the animal will be curious and approach you instead. One thing I notice also is don't look the animal in the eye, they will come close if they don't feel threatened.

Always bring your camera on every dive, you never know what's going to show up, and try to take a roll of film per dive, it's the cheapest part of underwater photography. You will be surprised by what comes out sometimes.

Diving isn't all about big stuff, there are many small creatures all over the reef that are far more interesting than the big guys.

What are some of the more memorable and amusing things that have happened to you in your career as a photographer?

One of the most memorable and amusing incidents happened in Anilao. I had my back to the wall shooting a tiny shrimp on a sea anemone when a whale shark went past me without me noticing it. When I turned around all my buddies were gone and I was left wondering what the hell happened to everybody. I did however get a really good shot of the shrimp (which is in the Anilao book).

Another time in the Sulu Sea, I was diving on a live-aboard. We were split up into two groups and the other group kept seeing hammerhead sharks. I decided to commandeer the chase boat to a remote part of the reef and try our luck there. The first five minutes of the dive was a complete disaster, no fish and the place looked like it had been dynamited.

Just as I was about to abort the dive and try somewhere else, a 4m long tiger shark came into sight. Of all my years of diving I had never seen an animal with such presence in the water. Its faded stripes, broad snout and dark cold eyes had me in a trance for the 20 seconds or so it took to swim by. I had the right lens, a 28mm (allowing me to shoot it without getting too close for comfort) and at the end of it all, I forgot to take a f&#*^"g picture!!