Inspired by experiences overseas in Hawaii, New Zealand and the South Pacific, Shane wanted to recreate some of that magic back home. Of course temeperate water provides some additional environmental challenges but our marine life is just as interesting and varied.

Having experiemented with different setups then we finally invested in a large system a few years ago. Although battery powered lights are flexible and small, the burn time is really limiting. So we put together an umbilical orca light system.

We use a generator for surface power, this goes to a junction box where we control the lights from. Then running from this box is three lamp heads which have 15-25m long umbilicals and provide ~100k lumens of light over a beam of 60-120deg angle. 

It means we have unlimited burn time and a very flexible system for depth and rigging. 

Inspired from overseas, we have deep water and whole range of temperate species here for blackwater diving. Blackwater is when we dive above deep water, drifting with the tide using the lights to attract deep or nocturnal species out of darkness! 

If you've ever seen the movie, The Abyss, then it has a familiar feeling of not knowing what's out there and photographing all these weird and wonderful creatures. We always hope for some larger marine life coming through too! 

It's a shallow dive staying near the boat and using lines for safety but also challenge to try and capture some of things that appear in front of us. (see above for a juvenile langoustine from Shane).

This is a firm favourite that we started doing a couple years back! We chose some specific sites around the area that provide shelter, lesser current and shallow depths. These make perfect night diving spots where we can get near a reef/sand interface. For photography it makes a very chilled site where you can settle on subjects and spend some quality time making images. Having lights on attracts the marine life in and also provides that ambience. We find it very cool to swim off and have the lights in the distance whilst you play in the dark. 

We are very lucky to have the wreck of the S.S. Breda only a few minutes away from the marina. This wreck is ~120m long, intact and sits upright with the deck in 12-18m depth. Although the structure provides a lot of atmosphere (and challenge for those who may want to try out remote lights and tripods). Wrecks are also well know as artificial reefs and are a perfect playground for watching nocturnal marine life. Fish life is very abundant on the wreck, pollack and wrasse especially seem to be very common around the lights. There is also lots of macro life to concentrate on too. 

On this dive, the boat is attached by a line to the wreck and the lights hover above the deck so there is always a good reference point. We have options to dive at the bow and stern which has different structure, depth and marine life. 

Our afternoon diving will be some of our sites around Oban and will be dictated by the weather of course. We'll choose some that are photograohy orientated, or perhaps around specific species. Some may require slack and variable travel times so it will change day to day. 

We'll use the best weather day to travel down to the Garvellach islands, around an hour away from the marina. On this day we'll be out for two dives during the day, then back with enough time for fills, food and a break before the night dive.