Kel Bradley has owned and run St George Underwater Centre since April 2003. Anyone that has met him will know he’s a real character and usually speaks his mind.
Here’s a mini interview with Kel that hopefully tells you some things you may not know about Kel.
Where and when did you learn to dive?
First diving was commercial diving in Persian Gulf in 1975. I completed Padi open Water in 1990s.
Approximately how many dives have you done?
4,000.
How often do you dive?
In Sydney every month, overseas as much as possible.
What’s your favourite dive location (anywhere in the world)?
Sipadan, Malaysia, due to the fish life and the remoteness.
What’s your favourite dive location around Sydney?
Oak Park for the ease of diving and the different type of diving that is there.
What do you enjoy most about diving?
The ease and access to great dive sites.
What do you enjoy least about diving?
The cold without my dry suit.
What do you enjoy most about teaching others to dive?
Seeing new students dive for the first time.
What do you enjoy least?
Having to dive places that are dirty.
What’s your favourite TV show?
NCIS.
What’s your favourite movie?
Sanctum 3D.
What’s your favourite food?
Any roast that Sue (Kel’s wife) cooks.
What’s your favourite drink?
If you have been away with me you would know it is beer. 
As part of our end of year Hideaway Island mega trip at the end of the year, Kel’s asked me to run a series of underwater 
photography workshops aimed at both getting people started and fostering existing talent. The question I have is what to cover, particularly on the intermediate to advanced side?
We’ll be in the tropics, so the bleeding obvious to me is macro and reefscape techniques. That said though, a few other, possibly more interesting ideas come to mind:
- Strobe Photography – to me this is quite key, as it’s often the single biggest difference between good and bad shots underwater. Point and shoot cameras do a poor job at lighting subjects, so I’d like to bring a few strobes and set them up on your point and shoot cameras – the difference will amaze you!
- Wreck Photography – there are two small wrecks at Hideway, as well as the Star of Russia, Semle Federesen and Konanda wrecks in Port Villa. All provide a great platform to run a structured wreck photography workshop on.
- Digital SLR Shooting – everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask; benefits, pitfalls, cost, technique, buying used equipment, etc
As we’re still in the planning stage, I’d like to hear from you! Please email me directly (damien “at” siviero.com.au) or comment on the blog. Tell us what would interest you and what you want to learn.
This trip is going to be awesome, so we’d better make the photos just as good.
