February
2004
Featured Photographer
Roeland Papen
Roeland studied Marine Biology at the University of Ghent, Belgium and was certified in 1978. Initially, he focused on dive training and building his dive club GUD (Ghent University Divers).
As a student in 1982, he organized expeditions to the Red Sea where he became stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh for six months, existing in the dessert on pita, French spread-cheese and dove Ras Mohamed before the tourists came. He's been back many times.
In 1985 he bought a second hand Canon Marine Capsule A modifying it to hold the Nikon N2020 --the first Nikon auto-focus SLR. He still likes to tinker with and modify underwater photo equipment to better fit his needs. Today he uses a Nikonos RS and a N90S in an Aquatica housing.
Roeland is an all-round underwater photographer with a preference for extreme macro and abstracts.
His favorite dive sites include: The Red Sea, Spain and The North Sea. In the Caribbean waters he frequently visits Grand Turk and Bonaire and for cold water diving, he prefers the colors of British Columbia.
On his Palmares he has many medals won in local dive competitions. In 1997, he placed 6th in the Monterey Nikonos Shootout and in 1998 was among the twelve selected in the Turks&Caicos World Open. His latest victories include the 2002 "Bob Commer" award in NCUPS own SEA2002 and Best of Wide-Angle in the 2003 NCUPS Beach Dive Competition.
