PATRICIA SINCLAIR

I grew up mainly in Germany and the family rotated back to the states and were assigned to Ft Hood Texas. Landlocked totally. I was fascinated by the ocean, thanks to Jacques Cousteau (who wasn’t?) and wanted to do as he did and swim with the fishes…but there was nowhere near Ft Hood to learn how to swim, much less dive. So, I moved to Dallas, TX to work in banking (later Programming and Systems) and raised my son. During that time, I continued to watch and drool over underwater images and video footage.

In the very late 1990’s after my son left my house and college to begin his own life, I had my first real vacation and went to Florida. There I went snorkeling for the first time in the Keys. I determined that being up above the animals was not what I wanted, so I decided to find a way to get scuba certified. I returned to the Keys the next year and took a week long class to get certified and the deed was done! My sister had a camera, so my job was to spot for her. I got fairly good at that, but decided I wanted to take images as well. So I bought a small point and shoot camera. I documented what I saw for my mother and other family members.

Thus it went until I went to the Philippines in 2013 for the first time. There I managed to take several (by my standards at the time) good images and I decided I need to learn how to do this better. So, I invested in a interchangeable lens camera (Olympus) and then got a class to explain what a f-stop was. After a couple of days with Cathy Church and her explanations I was off. Since I only get to go diving once or twice a year, my progress has been quite slow. Once I retire from work (in 2021), I plan to move to a place closer to diving, or do a road trip to such a place once a month. Currently I reside in the New Orleans area.

My current setup is an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II in a Nauticam housing with a variety of lenses, diopters and Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobes. I shoot mostly macro and closeup with a little wide angle thrown in here and there. If 2020 ever ends and we can travel again, I am off to the Philippines to continue to learn this craft!