In the eighties I bought my first underwarter camera - a Nikonos IVa. This 35mm film camera was a a great additon to my diving kit, but it was a steep learning curve, and it took quite a while before I started producing reasonable photos. Some of these appear in the earliest log entries on this site. Since I started diving again I've used a GoPro video camera to record each dive, initially a GoPro Hero 4 (with a BackScatter red filter), and more recently a GoPro Hero 7 (using a PolarPro SwitchBlade Filter and macro lense kit). Being able to leave the camera running for the entire dive is very handy, and it is small enough that I find that it doesn't get between me and what I am seeing on the dive.

After the dive, the footage is edited, stills are captured (if there are any suitable frames available), and then added to my log. The main texts we use when working out what it is that we have seen on a dive are listed below. We find that knowing more about the life we see on a dive greatly enhances our appreciation and enjoyment of the dive sites we visit. I've found that this lets me give much more detailed information about what was seen on the dive, and watching the videos and photos again later refreshes my memories of that dive...

References

Coleman, Neville. (1980). Australian sea fishes South of 30º S. Sydney: Doubleday Australia.

Coleman, Neville, (1975). What shell is that?. Sydney. Landsdowne Press.

Dakin, W. J., Bennett, I., and Pope, E. (1980). Australian Seashores. Sydney: Angus & Robertson Publishers.

Edgar, Graham J. (2012). Australian Marine Life: the plants and animals of temperate waters. Second edition. Sydney: New Holland Publications.

Fuhrer, B., Christianson, I. G., Clayton, M. N., and Allender, B. M. (1981). Seaweeds of Australia. Sydney: W Reed.

Kuiter, Rudie H, and Kuiter, Steven L. (2022). Fish Watchers Guide to Coastal Sea-Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Second Edition. Melbourne: Aquatic Photographics.

Kuiter, Rudie H. (2016). Guide to sea fishes of Australia. Sydney: Reed New Holland Publishers.

Kuiter, Rudie H, and Kuiter, Steven L. (2022). Marine Fauna of Port Phillip bay. Identification Guide. First Edition. Melbourne: Aquatic Photographics.

Marine Care Ricketts Point. Fish Identification Chart. Retrieved from http://marinecare.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Fish_Identification_Chart.pdf.

Reeves, Jessica, and Buckeridge, John. (2012). The Urban Sanctuary: Algae and Marine Invertebrates of Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. Melbourne: Greypath Productions. Retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-409055596/view.

Shepard, Scoresby A., and Edgar, Graham J. (Eds). (2013).Ecology of Australian temperate reefs: the unique South. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.