The Red Sea, the Maldives, the Cayman Islands, Bonaire, Curaçao, Cozumel - these are just some of the places where underwater photographer and professional Scuba diving instructor Alan Marquardt has trained his lens on the beautiful world beneath the sea

Now residents will have an opportunity to enjoy an impressive glimpse of that world, thanks to his first solo exhibition in a decade, which opens to the public on Monday, January 21

Entitled 'Out of the Blue', the 23 digital underwater images were shot in the Red Sea, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, and cover a broad spectrum, including 16th and 17th century wrecks, vertical reef columns, and a variety marine life, including brilliantly coloured fish, lobster, turtles, and rays.

Although Mr. Marquardt enjoys shooting abstract images, he has deliberately steered away from them this time around, concentrating instead on blue backgrounds, single images and portraits of fish

."Each one is a moment in time," he says.

What the viewer sees, of course, is the one 'perfect' image out of many, and as any photographer will tell you 'many' is a loose term for what may have been dozens of shots of the same subject.

Having started out in underwater photography with rolls of 35mm, 36-image film in several cameras slung around his neck, Mr. Marquardt is delighted with the flexibility which modern technology and digital photography affords. Today, one card in a camera can record up to 350 images, with the results being seen instantly, and reshot if necessary.

That this Bermudian photographer has a very skilled eye for 'the moment' is very obvious in his work, and comes after count-less hours and many years of honing his art, for there is nothing he likes more than being in the sea and capturing what is beyond the imagination of most landlubbers. In fact, that is precisely what motivated him to take up underwater photography in the first place.

From the time he learned to Scuba dive in 1972, and made his first post-training dive to 60 feet at age 12 - "Quite an experience" - Mr. Marquardt was hooked, so after completing his education here, he went abroad and became a certified Scuba instructor.

Returning to the Island, he worked first at Loews hotel, and then Sonesta Beach, teaching visitors to dive. There were many, however, who either did not know how to, or did not want to dive, and it for them that Mr. Marquardt wanted to really convey the true beauty of Bermuda's underwater world.

Fortunately, his flatmate Lawrence Gould, one of Bermuda's most respected underwater photographers, loaned him camera equipment and gave him invaluable advice which ultimately led to slide shows in the hotels.

During the wintertime, Mr. Marquardt took "busman's holidays"abroad, diving and photographing in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, the Maldives and elsewhere - something he continues to do because of the different diving experiences they offer. In some places, vertical reefs dropping 1,000 feet make 'wall diving' possible, although he considers zero to 30 feet the best band for photography. Contrasting terrain between the Caribbean and the Red Sea is stark. Whereas the former offers lush vegetation above water and teeming sea life below it, in the latter the land is just rocks and sand, yet from one foot beneath the surface the sea is also filled with the most incredibly colourful marine life.

Now a new adventure looms: joining fellow photographers on 'big fish dive' in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean - "Mexico's equivalent of the Galápagos Islands" - where they will live aboard.

For all of his travelling, however, the man who has spent so much of his life on and under the sea says his favourite location is the waters of his own backyard, not least because he does not need to lug cameras and diving gear around the world, and pay air fares, hotel bills and allied expenses, to find fascinating subject matter.

"I have my own boat and I can go diving pretty well 365 days of the year in Bermuda, whereas you can only get a feel for somewhere else. I have been diving here for 30 years so I am very familiar with the environment, and I know where to find certain things on the reefs," he says. "You can compare apples with oranges: they are both round, but have different colours and tastes. Bermuda is a great place. We have lots of wrecks, and it is shallow diving, so you can spend all day at it. Also, we have not been affected by the coral bleaching like other places in the world with elevated water temperatures, so our reefs are really healthy."

Sea creatures, and particularly fish, are ever-moving, of course, so in order to get that stunning shot, Mr. Marquardt sets out with a particular focus in mind ¿ unlike the classic tourist who tries to fit everything into one trip

"It is not about swimming around a reef to capture everything. Many factors come into play," he says. "I prefer to choose one view, and take multiple images of that. There are so many variables ¿ fish are moving all the time, so the angle changes, and if you touch the bottom it stirs it up and you have to wait for it to settle. Humans become noisy and clumsy to fish, so they have to become acclimated to you before they go about their business again, and then you can capture them in their natural state. Underwater photography is not easy."

Yet the spectacular content of Mr. Marquardt's exhibition, in the Atrium of Terceira Quarterly Associates' offices on the upper level of the Walker Arcade in Hamilton, makes it look deceptively so. 'Out of the Blue' continues through February 19, and viewing hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. Limited editions of the works on display will be available for sale.