Mark was born in Hong Kong where he took to the sea at a young age. He started diving at 15, although it would not be until he started drawing a salary that he would explore some of the best tropical dive sites in the world.
Very early travels - including treks through parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India by the age of nine - gave him his first real photographic experience. He went on to learn photographic and darkroom techniques as a schoolboy in England, but only in the 1990s did his keen interests in both diving and photography converge.
Mark first snapped underwater photographs with an amphibious Sea & Sea MotorMarine II camera, and was otherwise armed only with the first edition of Martin Edge's book "The Underwater Photographer". He subsequently met and learned from Martin Edge who became a mentor and friend. Trips with Martin include photographic expeditions to Lembeh Straits (Sulawesi), Sipadan (Borneo), Truk Lagoon (Chuuk, Micronesia) and Raja Ampat (Indonesia).
Having long ago dumped his MotorMarine II, Mark has shot with housed SLR systems comprising Nikon F100, D200 and D500 cameras with fisheye, wide-angle and macro lenses in Subal housings with Subtronic and Inon strobes. He made the switch from film to digital in 2006.
Professionally, Mark works for a leading ship owning and operating group in Hong Kong which has again been his home since 2002.
He is a PADI-qualified scuba instructor and a PADI specialty instructor in underwater photography and enriched air (Nitrox) diving.
When time and children permit, Mark travels and dives with his wife, Eugenie, who shows tremendous patience and understanding towards Mark and his interest in underwater photography (and boats, motorbikes and other toys!)
Eugenie grew up in Greece where, naturally, she too spent much of her time in or on the water. She met Mark while studying in London, and was introduced to scuba diving in 1997.
Having overcome the ordeal of her Open Water dive training in Weymouth, England, she went on to become an avid sports diver with a passion for world-class diving (in tropical waters only please!).
Eugenie was also much involved in the shipping industry, but is now rather more occupied raising three boys and running OliveTreeHK.
Eugenie took to travel and diving like a fish to water, and is always supportive of Mark's underwater photography... as long as it continues to bring world-class diving!
Since her trip to Raja Ampat, Eugenie has dabbled with underwater video - armed with a GoPro.
