After the live aboard trip, Jamie and I had another four days staying with Debbie Metcalfe at her Blue Eye FX underwater video studio/house. Debbie has been a strong supporter of the scholarship for many years, assisting scholars with the use of our cameras, and all aspects of underwater videography; filming techniques, scripting, editing and media management.

The best way to improve yourself  with video is to practice and review, so for the next three days, another of the Blue Eye FX team, Sam Campbell took Jamie and I diving at Ras Mohammad. Shark Reef at Ras Mohammed is rated as one of the top ten dive sites in the world and sees hundreds to thousands of divers every day. However we had a different approach and travelled to the site by Jeep through the spectacular Ras Mohammad national park. Diving from shore with only three of us was much better than a crowded dive vessel! The two single dives we did here were the best shore dives I have ever done. The reef rises steeply from 800m and the wall is covered in coral and huge schools of Bohar snapper, trevally and many other fish float out in the blue next to the wall. The site normally has a decent current running along the reef, but we were lucky and had an easy swim around the pinnacle and made it over Yolanda reef where there are some toilets remaining from the ship that sunk off the dropoff in 1981. It was a spectacular dive with an endless abundance of marine life to film.

The last day diving we returned  to the National Park and dived another nearby site, the eel gardens and canyon. This involved a swim out into the blue over deep water for 5-10 minutes to arrive at a pinnacle in the reef at 25 m depth, the pinnacle has a deep crevice that runs through the middle, going down to depths of over 50 m, it was awesome to swim through and look up into the crystal clear waters. Joining us on this dive was another English diver that now calls Egypt home, Mark Doherty. He recently bought his new Nikon D200 in Hugyfoot housing for his underwater photography business and able to get some to get some photos of Jamie and I playing with our scholarship flag. See the images here and check out his website www.2gobelow.com.

It was a short time for Jamie and I to learn underwater video and over the three days we collected lots of knowledge and footage from three different cameras. This will allow us to edit using different angles and included some footage of us doing the filming. However I just need to find some time to put the video together! Video is one of those things that takes many years to master and all the help and practice we get slowly increases our skills. I have always liked underwater photography and dabbled in underwater video, but now I am very keen to improve and collect some quality video footage to make my documentary of my scholarship year. So thanks to Debbie, Paul, Rachael and Sam from Blue Eye FX that made for a very enjoyable stay in Sharm El Sheikh.