Dean started diving while still in high school and quickly decided that this was something he wanted to make a large part of his life. He changed his school subjects to suit him becoming a marine scientist and spent most of his spare in the water. In university his interest in diving continued and he spent most of his weekends and holidays diving around coastal Australia, as well as trips further afield to various parts of the Pacific to see animals in warmer climes.
By the time he finished his undergraduate degree in marine biology and launched into a PhD, the allure of reef diving began to wane, in the face of too much time spent underwater working. A chance opportunity to begin cave diving under the tutelage of John Dalla-Zuana began Dean's journey into technical diving. He quickly progressed through to both cave diving and deeper ocean diving, fascinated by shipwrecks as well as the abundant marine life they gathered.
Searching for another way to enjoy his time underwater Dean picked up a camera for the first time in 2004 and was soon obsessed. Not long after he bought his first CCR and started combining the two, taking photos of the deep wrecks around the east coast of Australia. He become one of the few people in Australia who was able to bring back publishable photos from 100m and beyond. In 2007, he was lucky enough to be part of the team who traveled to New Zealand and raised the bell off the Niagara.
Playing around in the temperate waters of Victoria was fun but the gin clear waters of the caves Mt Gambier were a bigger draw card for someone more interested in wide panoramas than macro life, and cave diving photography has become his forte.
It was with cave diving in mind that he bought an O2ptima CCR, and a trip to Florida to train with Jill Heinerth gave him the chance to take his camera into a variety of caves. A photo from Jackson Blue won him “Best of Show” at the OZTek’09 Conference. His focus is on both finding places that people have never seen before, and bringing back pictures to show people why he goes there.
Now equally dividing his time between wrecks, reefs and caves, all that matters is the time he spends underwater, preferably with a camera in hand.
