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V.i.S.d.M.

Mein Name ist Jan Waßmann. Ich bin 68 Jahre alt, von Beruf Pflegedienstleitung - nun in Rente.
Seit meinem 14. Lebensjahr schnorchle ich. 1979 begann ich mit dem Gerätetauchen. Bei der DLRG machte ich 1979 die Ausbildung zum Rettungstaucher. Seit dem habe ich bei über 2500 Tauchgängen mehr als 2400 Stunden unter Wasser zugebracht - meistens mit der Kamera. Meine Ehefrau Christine ist 71 Jahre alt, auch Krankenschwester von Beruf gewesen und seit 1982 auch meine Tauchpartnerin. Sie taucht seit 2014 nicht mehr.

 Jahr 

Reisen/Tauchausbildung 

Foto-/ Videoequipment

My Diving and underwater Photography History 

 I started scuba diving in 1979 with the german lifeguard (DLRG). During the ten years before that, I had been snorkeling - never thinking about scuba diving. It was also a question of money, but with the lifeguard I got an excellent diving education at a reasonable price. In 1980 I was certified as a rescue diver. We had to under go recertification every three years, but after two years, my attention turned more toward the private sector and the excitement of underwater photography. Now i'm retired from working.

Throughout all these years, I have been photographing underwater. My first camera was a Konica t3 in a flexible housing. It was hard to adjust the distance when the lens was too long and the pressure outside was increasing. The results were not so very professional. Next camera was a small Konica c-35 with a 38mm lens in a plexi-housing with a bulb flash. The first experience using this camera was in Yugoslavia in 1974 and the housing was poorly constructed and flooded totally on the first dive! The manufacturer gave me a new one, which proved to be watertight. Now the first unbelievable pictures from the monsters of the Mediterranean had been done.

My first open ocean dives were made 1979 off Lanzarote Island (Canary Islands-Atlantic). There my little camera saw its' first corals in a depth of 40 Meters and the use of this bulb flash was very necessary!

1982 I sold the Konica in 1982 and bought a used Nikonos IVa. By this time, scuba diving had become our obsession, as my wife Christine had also become addicted to breathing compressed air underwater! The next investment was a strobe for the Nikonos - a Sea&Sea YS-50 computer strobe. When I look back over the pictures taken with the 35mm Nikkor, I'm quite proud, as the depth of field was not great. I think the best shots made (again in the Atlantic-Fuerteventura Island) were lucky snapshots! The next investment for the Nikonos system was a 20mm Sea&Sea lens. Now it was much easier to get some good wide angle shots with sharp images!

I began thinking about making underwater movies in 1983 and bought an Eumig Nautica underwater super 8 camera. The following year I alternated between the two formats; one dive with super 8 camera - one dive with the Nikonos. The Nautica was also poorly constructed and the first one flooded in 1984 off Menorca Island (Balear Islands/Spain). After this disaster, I tried it again with another Nautica, but this one also flooded soon in freshwater. After our first trip to the red sea (Egypt), I was decided to get out of the movie business and concentrate on still photography.

The next step of camera evolution came over me in 1986 with the purchase of a used Nikonos V from a friend. This camera needed another strobe and I sold my YS-50 for a Subtronic SF2000 strobe. I was also doing land photography with a Mamiya 645 roll film camera and made all kinds of enlargements and film processing in my home lab with self made developers and chemicals.

The arrival of our first home computer left no more time or space for the photolab or big Mamiya (it was also too heavy to carry on holidays). It was an easy decision to sell all this equipment and buy a 20mm Nikkor lens and a 28mm Nikkor for the Nikonos V. A Nikon F3 HP was purchased to take the place of the Mamiya for land photography.

On our first trip to Maldives in 1987, I had the opportunity to try a housing for the F3 from a friend. That was great! After he changed his equipment , I purchased the housing (Subal) from him. Now I had the equipment for Macro photography - the strobe works very good together with this camera, with an external sensor. For macro I had the 55mm micro Nikkor and a 90mm Kiron lens (for 1:1). With this camera I made some quite good shots but it was not easy to handle because the motordrive and big image finder made the camera quite heavy. On our last dive in Flores/Indonesia in 1991, there was a little water in the housing! Reason was a little frailure i made when assembling the camera and a piece of wire from the sensor was squeezed between the two parts of the housing. Fortunately only the batteries of the motordrive became wet. It was easy to repair!

A Sea&Sea 15mm wide angle lens was added for the Nikonos in 1991. Now it was easy to do wide-angle shots as well! In 1992 I purchased a second Nikonos V with a new macro outfit. Now with 3 cameras it was possible to do a whole day trip with three dives without opening the cameras for a film change! The only weak part was the strobe, which was sometimes unable to shoot the third roll of film depending on the local charging power. There were often problems with the cords and much work was required on two holidays to keep them working.

The next big investment came in 1994 with the purchase of a new Nikon f90x with a Subal housing and Subtronic sf3000 strobe. Now auto focus has come to underwater photography and shots which were never possible before could be done with ease! I bought a second camera body in 1996, a n90x. The idea was to have enough back up equipment so nothing could spoil my trip. Photography was always guaranteed. Murphy is always with you, however, and on a liveaboard trip with the Serenade, my two week old N90x flooded when I made a mistake assembling the camera housing. The o-ring supplied with the housing was a little bit too large and must have gone out of the track. After this shock and drying out the housing, I set in a new o-ring that fitted perfectly and the photography went on with the old N90. The dead N90x was replaced with a new one shortly after that trip.

I sold the nikonos system 1999 when i purchased the 20mm wideangle af lens and the nessecary domeport. Now i'm using 2 n90x and 2 subtronic strobes the alpha pro macro and the gamma plus - specially for wideangle.

After so many years of underwater photography it was time for a change. My friends and divebuddies Phil and Jean Slosberg showed me how nice underwater video can be! In december 2002 i purchased a 3 chip video camcorder (PANASONIC NVMX 350). In summer i got the housing from Sealux. First video was made on the trip in december 2003 in Manado and Lembeh! Now DVDs are available from all trips since 2003.

In 2005 i changed totally to digital photo and video. Now i have the little IXUS 800 with the underwaterhousing - look at that great shots i made from the mantas of Sangalaki! The Nikon D50 i use for land photography. The second video cam is a Panasonic NV GS 250 for land shots.

2011 i changed the video equipment for HD. A SONY HDR-CX550VE handycam in a SEALUX housing. First use was again Sulawesi. 2014 in Dominique the housing unfortunately flooded - m fault! Parts of the handstrap got between the housing parts.
The housing is now repaired and works perfect with the replaced camera.
Better video light was needed. We now using only LED light. We are very happy with 3 SOLA 1200 LED lamps from LIGHT&Motion The new CANON Powershot S100 is the replacement for the IXUS 800. With an uw-housing it works as a backup for the camcorders and good for video and photo on the boat. 2014 i changed my DSLR from D90 to D750.

After more then 35 years of diving I've made more than 2500 dives – mostly with a camera.