This story began in November 1961 in the village of Rodnaya Pristan’...
I was very lucky with my place of birth. I was born in the village of Rodnaya Pristan’ on the shore of the Sea of Japan - the same sea that has always attracted the attention of divers and underwater photographers from all over the USSR.
During my school years, my hobbies were spearfishing and scuba diving at the «Gorgon» club. At the same time, I was involved in a photography club at the House of Culture. I didn’t think about underwater photography at all, since I got much more pleasure from sea hunting.
During my school years, my hobbies were spearfishing and scuba diving at the «Gorgon» club. At the same time, I was involved in a photography club at the House of Culture. I didn’t think about underwater photography at all, since I got much more pleasure from sea hunting.
In those distant times, laboratories of the PIG (Pacific Institute of Geography) and MSU (Moscow State University) were located in the Rodnaya Pristan area. There I met many, now very famous, underwater photographers - V. Gudzev, D. Solovyov and others. We dived together, I was for the guide. I remember walking along the seashore with full equipment - scuba gear, equipment, cargo, plus a «Salyut-S» in a box with a flash. It was necessary to walk about 5 km along the coast in order to get into the water once...
Then I studied to become a navigator at the Far Eastern Higher Marine Engineering School in Vladivostok. My passion for photography has moved to a new level - weekly meetings in the photo club, participation in the first regional photo exhibitions...
After graduating from FEHMES in the autumn of 1984, I went to work as an assistant captain at the Far Eastern Shipping Company. Flights around the world - the romance of the sea. After ten years, I got tired of walking far and long on the seas...
I got a job at JSC «» in my hometown of Dalnegorsk. Specifically to it that a small steamer with the original name «Bor» was assigned - a conversion of a seiner into a dry cargo ship. We transported chemical products to Japan and brought back Japanese used cars. Since the ship was very small, and there were a lot of cars, our little boat resembled a Christmas tree - cars were hanging from all sides. This continued until 1998. Then the ship was sold, and I went on a long voyage on large ships. From 1999 to 2004 I worked as a senior assistant on timber carriers of the shipping company ArkMP (now successfully dead). In 2003, I received a diploma as a sea captain, but no luck - I never became a captain. Since then I've been mostly on the shore.
After graduating from FEHMES in the autumn of 1984, I went to work as an assistant captain at the Far Eastern Shipping Company. Flights around the world - the romance of the sea. After ten years, I got tired of walking far and long on the seas...
I got a job at JSC «» in my hometown of Dalnegorsk. Specifically to it that a small steamer with the original name «Bor» was assigned - a conversion of a seiner into a dry cargo ship. We transported chemical products to Japan and brought back Japanese used cars. Since the ship was very small, and there were a lot of cars, our little boat resembled a Christmas tree - cars were hanging from all sides. This continued until 1998. Then the ship was sold, and I went on a long voyage on large ships. From 1999 to 2004 I worked as a senior assistant on timber carriers of the shipping company ArkMP (now successfully dead). In 2003, I received a diploma as a sea captain, but no luck - I never became a captain. Since then I've been mostly on the shore.
Underwater photography began for me in 1998 with the simplest underwater film «soap cameras» such as «Canon» and «Epic». At first there was euphoria from the first successful «pictures» - «I did THIS myself». The euphoria ended after the words of one highly respected “master” who appreciated my work: “Sell one of your cars and buy yourself a normal camera.”
A rethink has begun...
The advice was heard.
The advice was heard.
Soon I became the owner of «Nikonos-5» complete with wide-angle and macro attachments. The first successful shots... The first trip to the Red Sea, to the famous “fish soup”, the bright colors of the fish there... The first attempts to shoot macro and the realization that this is not for «Nikonos» - you need a reflex camera in the box to see what and how you are shooting. And such a camera appeared.
Another push for a more thoughtful look at the world of the native Sea of Japan was the photo album of the famous Japanese underwater photographer Ikuo Nakamura “Kamui of Ohotsk”, given to me by his friend, Japanese diver and underwater photographer Yoshikazu Kanesaka from the city of Akita. This album allowed us to look at the ordinary inhabitants of our Far Eastern seas in a special way and outlined milestones to strive for.
Taking underwater macro photography allowed me to look at the underwater world in 1:1 size and discover so many unknowns. It’s simply amazing that all this is here, despite the fact that I’ve been diving in these places for more than twenty years. There are nudibranchs, shrimp, varieties of chanterelles, king and hairy crabs and a great variety of fish, the existence of which I had never imagined before meeting. It turned out that you just need to be able to see the colors, wait for the sea to show them to you. And there are still so many places around where no one has ever dived, and no one knows what awaits us there...
Another push for a more thoughtful look at the world of the native Sea of Japan was the photo album of the famous Japanese underwater photographer Ikuo Nakamura “Kamui of Ohotsk”, given to me by his friend, Japanese diver and underwater photographer Yoshikazu Kanesaka from the city of Akita. This album allowed us to look at the ordinary inhabitants of our Far Eastern seas in a special way and outlined milestones to strive for.
Taking underwater macro photography allowed me to look at the underwater world in 1:1 size and discover so many unknowns. It’s simply amazing that all this is here, despite the fact that I’ve been diving in these places for more than twenty years. There are nudibranchs, shrimp, varieties of chanterelles, king and hairy crabs and a great variety of fish, the existence of which I had never imagined before meeting. It turned out that you just need to be able to see the colors, wait for the sea to show them to you. And there are still so many places around where no one has ever dived, and no one knows what awaits us there...
