The most recent leg of my scholarship journey had me out of the water for a while as I explored a different side of the marine science and diving industry.
I reluctantly left the Faroe Islands after an amazing few weeks learning about seaweed farming and headed to Oslo, the capital of Norway, for a very exciting conference. I joined the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Youth Summit where 100 young ocean leaders gathered to discuss solutions for issues such as pollution, climate change, and species extinction. This conference was a fantastic opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and Norway was an amazing setting to use my Panasonic Lumix GX9 on land again, photographing the amazing Fjords of Western Norway.
From Norway, I then headed to Florida to attend 
DEMA Show 2019. DEMA is a trade show that brings together diving industry professionals from all over the world for a week of business, product demonstrations and education. One of the highlights for me was finally meeting members of the Reef Photo and Video team in person and thanking them for their amazing support throughout the year!
I then headed back to the other side of the word where I recently joined the University of Western Australia in Perth to assist in some research on the Great Southern Reef. I have so far been able to take my camera on a number of snorkels and dives, having some great interactions with sea lions, octopus and nudibranchs. The Great Southern Reef has so much to offer in terms of photography, and a particularly useful aspect of my camera set up has been being able to change from my Wet Wide Lens 1 (WWL-1) to my Compact Macro Converter 1 (CMC-1). The reefs have provided such a range of subjects to photograph from nudibranchs to large reef scapes and having the ability to switch from wide-angle to macro on the go has allowed me to make the most of all the subjects available. This is just the beginning of my days in Western Australia, I’m here for another few weeks and can’t wait to explore some more!
