ANN DONAHUE

I am a retired teacher with a passion for scuba diving and coral reefs. I discovered diving about 20 years ago due to a back injury. My husband (Ken Sutherland) and I used to go on a ski holiday every winter. In 1999, due to my injury, we opted for a dive holiday instead. We never took another skiing holiday after that and have since traveled the world looking for new dive adventures.

In 2008, Ken surprised me by giving me a camera for my birthday (a Canon G10 with a FIX housing). I had never expressed interest in photgraphy before but one trip with a camera and I was hooked! I have been shooting ever since graduating from the Canon to a Sony RX-100 and moving on to Olympus TGs. I now shoot a TG 6 in an Isotta housing equipped with 2 Inon strobes. After all these years, I still prefer shooting a compact camera because of size, weight and maneuverability underwater. It has its limitations and my challenge is to maximize the potential of the rig I have.

In my macro photography, I like exploring different angles of common subjects. For WA, I like integrating in my images the water surface, the sun and lightrays as much as possible. It can be quite tricky with a compact camera! i also dabbled a bit with video and have produced a few short movies using both a Go Pro and my TG 6.

I have recently published 2 children’s book on coral reefs. Writing children’s books is a great way for me to meld my experience as an educator with my passion for diving using the photos that Ken and I have collected over the years. As a bonus, I get to visit schools and community groups to connect directly with children and share the beauty of the underwater world that I am so fortunate to experience!

Please visit anndonahue.ca to learn more about my books and my school activities.