This month's Feature Artist

	Udo van Dongen Place of birth: Goirle, The Netherlands Current place of residence: Delft, The Netherlands Current occupation: Research Technician, Underwater Photographer Years underwater photo experience: 5 years digital and still learning Artist’s personal gallery: udovandongen.com
Why I use INON equipment	"Since I started doing underwater photography I have been charmed by INON equipment. Initially I started with a compact camera with a ‘good old’ D-180 and later my set was expanded with an extra D-180S and all possible wet lenses. Later when I decided to get a SLR (mainly for Wide Angle reasons) I decided to stick to INON and get myself a pair of Z-240s. They provide plenty of power for both Wide Angle and Macro photography, and yet they’re still as compact as my first D-180. I’ve never considered getting myself another type of strobe since the Z-240s always work well, whether it’s in the tropics or in the nearly frozen waters of the north west Atlantic Ocean, they just do the job."
	Location: Trail Blazer, Wakatobi Dive Resort, South East Sulawesi, Indonesia Subject: Trail Blazer Reef Inon Equipment used: Nikon D200, Nikkor 10.5 mm Fisheye Lens, Hugyfot HFN D200 housing, Dual Z-240 strobes with Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter "Trail Blazer is one of my favorite dive spots at the Wakatobi Dive Resort, you can find basically any macro life you’d like to see here, but just the joy of the enormous diversity of corals does it all for me."
	Location: Tonelunga Rock, Baltimore, Co. Cork, Ireland Subject: Dead man’s fingers and Kelp Inon Equipment used: Nikon D200, Nikkor 10.5 mm Fisheye Lens, Hugyfot HFN D200 housing, Dual Z-240 strobes with Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter "Due to bad weather conditions in the south west of Ireland we had to do our first dive at this sheltered dive spot named Tonelunga Rock, which was an unexpected rich dive spot with massive carpets of dead man’s fingers and plumose anemones right under the kelp forest."
	Location: Old Tanker Jetty, Esperance, Western Australia Subject: Coldwater corals at the Old Tanker Jetty in the Southern Ocean Inon Equipment used: Nikon D200, Tokina 10-17 mm Fisheye Lens, Hugyfot HFN D200 housing, Dual Z-240 strobes, Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter "The Esperance old tanker jetty in the Southern Ocean inhabits an unexpected diversity of colorful sponges and corals. Topside, the jetty inhabits many anglers, who clearly don’t have a clue about the beauty that’s right under their feet."
	Location: Chicken Farm, Christmas Island, Australia Subject: Clownfish in Anemone Inon Equipment used: Nikon D200, Nikkor 105 mm Macro Lens, Hugyfot HFN D200 housing, Dual Z-240 strobes, Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter "Christmas Island is often called ‘Australia’s own Galapagos’ because of its life above the surface of water and the world famous Great Red Crab migration. But many people don’t know that the Island has some of the best diving possibilities in the Indian Ocean, with its extremely steep and deep drop-offs, caves and an enormous diversity of marine life, like this ‘ordinary’ clownfish inside his anemone."
	Location: Zeelandbrug, Oosterschelde, the Netherlands Subject: Mating Cuttlefish Inon Equipment used: Canon G5 in UMIE DCH-701 housing, Inon D-180 and D-180S strobes, UWL-100 Wide conversion lens with Dome Unit "The picture was taken spring 2005 in the Oosterschelde National Park, the Netherlands. What you see is a couple of mating cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). This is quite a unique happening since these animals come every spring in large numbers from the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea to the Oosterschelde estuary to mate. I had dives where I counted more then 50 of them. During mating and putting eggs they're absolutely not shy, as a diver you can even touch them if you would like to. After mating all females die (they became 2 years old) and a few males manage to get back to the open ocean and can probably live for another year. But like with most spectacular nature events there is also a negative aspect: Dutch fishermen are nowadays catching cuttlefish for consumption and they are aware of the fact that they show up in large numbers in spring. Because of their lack of patience they do not wait until the mating has happened and (too) many sepias end up in a pan before they could perform their reproduction duty... Probably this is one of the reasons why the cuttlefish didn't show up in the large numbers like we were used to the last few Springs... Fortunately, in some of the very few protected areas in the Oosterschelde Estuary some divers put branches underwater that provide shelter and a place to put eggs on."
	Location: Alondra Wreck, Baltimore Co. Cork, Ireland Subject: Sea urchin on a part of the Alondra Wreck Inon Equipment used: Nikon D200, Nikkor 10.5 mm Fisheye Lens, Hugyfot HFN D200 housing, Dual Z-240 strobes with Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter "The Alondra was a steamer that was built in 1899 and sank in December 1916 when it hit Kedge Island in the South-West of Ireland. The wreck is well broken up but some parts like the boilers and a massive crank shaft are still intact. It’s an easy wreck dive and some large congers are living in it."